Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

But if I did that I had no idea where she would go. I decided to pull back, not take the bait and move on.
    “Okay, but the real treasure—the evidence you did find—was found in the garage, right? The evidence that has been or will be brought to court in this trial.”
    “I would think so, yes.”
    “We’re talking about the shoe with the blood on it and the tool set missing the hammer, correct?”
    “That is correct.”
    “Am I missing something else?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Okay, then let me show you something here on the overhead screens.”
    I grabbed the remote, which Freeman had conveniently left on the lectern. I reversed the search video, keeping my eyes on the rewinding images. I ran it right by the images I wanted and stopped it, then moved forward to the right spot and paused.
    “Okay, can you tell the jury what is happening at this point in the video?”
    I hit the play button and the image on the screen started to move. It showed Longstreth and one of the forensic techs leaving the main house and crossing the portico to the door that led to the garage.
    “Uh, this is when we go into the garage,” Longstreth said.
    Then her voice came from the recording.
    “We might need the key from Kurlen,” she said.
    But on the video she reached a gloved hand to the doorknob and it turned.
    “Never mind, it’s open.”
    I let the video run until Longstreth and the forensic tech had entered the garage and turned on the lights. I then paused it again.
    “Was this the first time you had entered the garage, Detective?”
    “Yes.”
    “I see you turned on the lights here. Had anybody else from the search team entered the garage before you?”
    “No, they had not.”
    I slowly backed up the video to the point where she had opened the door to enter. I started the playback again and asked my questions as it played.
    “I notice you don’t use a key to enter the garage, Detective. Why is that?”
    “I tried the door, as you can see here, and it was unlocked.”
    “Do you know why?”
    “No, it was just unlocked.”
    “Was anybody at the home when the search team arrived?”
    “No, the house was empty.”
    “And the door to the house itself was locked, correct?”
    “Yes, Ms. Trammel had locked it when she agreed to accompany us to Van Nuys.”
    “Did she want to lock it or did you have to tell her?”
    “No, she wanted to lock up.”
    “So at the time that she locked the house she left the outside door that led into the garage unlocked, correct?”
    “It would appear so.”
    “It’s safe to say that it was unlocked at the time you and the others arrived with the search warrant, correct?”
    “That is correct.”
    “Meaning anyone could have entered the garage while its owner, Lisa Trammel, was in police custody, correct?”
    “I guess it’s possible, yes.”
    “By the way, when you and Detective Kurlen left the house with Ms. Trammel that morning, did you leave a police officer on post at the house to sort of watch over it, make sure nothing was disturbed or taken from inside?”
    “No, we did not.”
    “Didn’t you think that would be prudent, considering that the house might contain evidence in a murder investigation?”
    “At the time she was not a suspect. She was just someone we wanted to talk to.”
    I almost smiled and Longstreth almost smiled. She had tiptoed past a trap I had set for her. She was good.
    “Ah,” I said. “Not a suspect, that’s right. So how long, would you say, was that side door left unlocked and the garage available for anyone to enter?”
    “That would be impossible for me to tell. I don’t know when it was left unlocked in the first place. It’s possible she never locked the garage.”
    I nodded and put a pause under her answer.
    “Did you or Detective Kurlen instruct the forensics team to see if there were any fingerprints on the door leading to the garage?”
    “No, we did not.”
    “Why not, Detective?”
    “We didn’t think it was necessary. We were searching the house, not holding it as a crime scene.”
    “Let me ask you hypothetically, Detective. Do you think that someone who has carefully planned and carried out a murder would then leave a pair of bloody shoes in their unlocked garage? Especially after taking the time to get rid of the murder weapon?”
    Freeman objected, citing the compound nature of the question and arguing that it assumed facts not in evidence. I didn’t care. The question hadn’t been for Longstreth to