Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

had found Mr. Bondurant’s parking spot and waited for him?”
    “Yes.”
    “And he said thanks?”
    “Yes.”
    “And this was all in e-mails?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did you keep a copy of the e-mail you sent Mr. Borden?”
    “Yes, I did.”
    “Why did you do that?”
    “It’s just kind of a general practice of mine, to keep copies, especially when dealing with important people.”
    “Did you happen to bring a copy of that e-mail with you today?”
    “I did.”
    Freeman objected and asked for a sidebar. At the bench she successfully argued that there was no way of legitimizing what purported to be a printout of an old e-mail. The judge wouldn’t let me introduce it, saying I would have to stick with Driscoll’s recollections.
    Returning to the lectern, I decided I had made it clear to the jury that Borden knew Trammel had previously been in the garage and that Borden was a conduit to Opparizio. The elements of a setup were right there. The prosecution would have them believe that the first time Lisa was in the garage was a dry run for the murder she would later commit. I would have them believe that whoever set Trammel up had all he needed to know, thanks to Facebook.
    I moved on.
    “Mr. Driscoll, you said that Mitchell Bondurant was one of the people you were asked to gather information on, is that correct?”
    “Yes.”
    “What information did you gather on him?”
    “Mostly about his personal real estate holdings. What properties he owned, when he bought them and for how much. Who held the mortgages. That sort of thing.”
    “So you supplied to Mr. Borden a financial snapshot.”
    “That’s right.”
    “Did you come across any liens against Mr. Bondurant or his properties?”
    “Yes, there were several. He owed money around.”
    “And all of this information went to Borden?”
    “Yes, it did.”
    I decided to leave it there on Bondurant. I didn’t want the jury straying too far from the main point of Driscoll’s testimony: that ALOFT had been watching Lisa and had all the information needed to set her up for murder. Driscoll had been effective and I would now close out his testimony with a bang.
    “Mr. Driscoll, when did you leave your position at ALOFT?”
    “February first.”
    “Was it your choice or were you fired?”
    “I told them I was quitting so they fired me.”
    “Why did you want to quit?”
    “Because Mr. Bondurant had gotten murdered in the parking garage and I didn’t know whether the lady who got arrested, Lisa Trammel, did it or if there was something else going on. I saw Mr. Opparizio in the elevator the day after it was in the news and everybody in the office knew about it. We were going up but when we got to my floor he held my arm while everybody else got off. We went up to his floor alone and he didn’t say anything until the doors opened. Then he said, ‘Keep your fucking mouth shut,’ and got off. And the doors closed.”
    “Those were his words, ‘Keep your fucking mouth shut’?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did he say anything else?”
    “No.”
    “So this led you to quit your job?”
    “Yes, about an hour later I gave two weeks’ notice. But about ten minutes after I did that Mr. Borden came to my desk and told me I was out. Fired. He had a box for my personal stuff and he had a security guard come watch me while I packed up. Then they walked me out.”
    “Did they give you a severance package?”
    “As I was leaving Mr. Borden gave me an envelope. It had a check in it for a year’s salary.”
    “That was pretty generous, giving you a year’s salary, considering you hadn’t even worked there a full year and you had said you were quitting, don’t you think?”
    Freeman objected on relevance and it was sustained.
    “I have nothing further for this witness.”
    Freeman took my place, arriving at the lectern with her trusty file, which she spread open. I had not put Driscoll on my witness list until that morning but his name had come up during Friday’s testimony. I was sure Freeman had done some prep work. I was about to find out how much.
    “Mr. Driscoll, you don’t have a college degree, do you?”
    “Uh, no.”
    “But you attended UCLA, did you not?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why didn’t you graduate?”
    I stood and objected, saying her questions were going way outside the scope of Driscoll’s direct testimony. But the judge said I opened the door when I asked the witness about his credentials and experience in IT. He told Driscoll to answer the