A Darkness More Than Night

him -”
    “Excuse me, Detective, we might make this easier if we show it. You said there was a videographer with you. Was he running the camera when you knocked at six in the morning?”
    “Yes, he was.”
    Langwiser then made the appropriate motions to introduce the search video. It was accepted under objection from the defense. A large television was rolled into the courtroom and placed at center in front of the jury box. Bosch was asked to identify the tape. The lights in the courtroom were dimmed and it was played.
    The tape began with a focus on Bosch and the others outside the red front door of a house. He identified himself and the address and the case number. He spoke quietly. He then turned and knocked sharply on the door. He announced it was the police and knocked sharply again. They waited. Bosch knocked on the door every fifteen seconds until it was finally opened about two minutes after the first pounding. David Storey looked out through the opening, his hair disheveled, his eyes showing exhaustion.
    “What?” he asked.
    “We have a search warrant here, Mr. Storey,” Bosch said. “It allows us to conduct a search of these premises.”
    “You have to be fucking kidding.”
    “No, we’re not, sir. Could you step back and let us in? The sooner we’re in the sooner we’re out.”
    “I’m calling my lawyer.”
    Storey closed and locked the door. Bosch immediately stepped up and put his face close to the jamb. He called out loudly.
    “Mr. Storey, you have ten minutes. If this door is not opened by six-fifteen then we’re going to take it down. We have a court-ordered search warrant and we will execute it.”
    He turned back to the camera and made the cut signal across his throat.
    The video jumped to another focus on the door. The time readout in the bottom corner now showed it was 6:13 A.M. The door opened and Storey stepped back and signaled the search team in. His hair looked as though it had been combed with his hands. He was wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt. He was in bare feet.
    “Do what you have to do and get out. My lawyer’s coming and he’s going to watch you people. You break one fucking thing in this house and I’m going to sue the shit out of you. This is a David Serrurier house. You so much as put a scratch on one of the walls and it’ll be your jobs. All of you.”
    “We’ll be careful, Mr. Storey,” Bosch said as he walked in.
    The cameraman was the last to enter the house. Storey looked into the lens as if seeing it for the first time.
    “And get that shit off of me.”
    He made a motion and the camera angle shot upward to the ceiling. It remained there while the voices of the videographer and Storey continued off camera.
    “Hey! Don’t touch the camera!”
    “Then get it out of my face!”
    “Okay. Fine. Just don’t touch the camera.”
    The screen went blank and the lights of the courtroom came back up. Langwiser continued the questioning.
    “Detective Bosch, did you or members of the search team have further… conversation with Mr. Storey after that?”
    “Not during the search. Once his lawyer got there Mr. Storey stayed in his office. When we searched his office he moved into the bedroom. When he was leaving for his appointment I questioned him briefly about that and he left. That was about it as far as it went during the search and while we were inside the house.”
    “What about at the end of the day – seven hours later – when the search was completed, did you speak to the defendant again?”
    “Yes, I spoke to him briefly at the front door. We were packed up and ready to leave. The lawyer had left. I was in my car with my partners. We were backing out when I realized I had forgotten about giving Mr. Storey a copy of the search warrant. It’s required by law. So I went back to his door and knocked on it.”
    “Did Mr. Storey answer the door himself?”
    “Yes, he answered after about four hard knocks. I gave him the receipt and told him it was required.”
    “Did he say anything to you?”
    Fowkkes stood up and objected for the record but the issue had already been disposed of in pretrial motions and rulings. The judge noted the objection for the record and overruled it for the record. Langwiser asked the question again.
    “Can I refer to my notes?”
    “Please.”
    Bosch turned to the notes he had taken in the car right after the conversation.
    “First, he said, ‘You didn’t find a goddamn thing, did you?’ And I told him he