Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

taken?”
    “Not that they’re taking credit for. Just these.”
    “You’ve got nothing about shoe prints at the crime scene, right?”
    “I’ve got nothing on that.”
    “Okay.”
    I was sure the reason for the seizure of the shoes would become apparent soon enough. On a search warrant police throw as wide a net as the court allows. It’s better to seize as much as possible than leave anything behind. Sometimes that means seizing items that ultimately have nothing to do with the case.
    “By the way,” Cisco said, “if you get the chance, the application makes interesting reading if you can get past the misspellings and grammar issues. They used her interview extensively but we already saw all of that on the disc Kurlen gave you.”
    “Yes, her so-called admissions and his exaggerations.”
    I stood up and started pacing in the middle of the room. Lorna also got up and took the search warrant from Cisco so she could make a copy. She disappeared into a nearby den where she had her office and where there was a copier.
    I waited for her to come back and hand a copy of the documents to Aronson before I began.
    “Okay, this is how we are going to do this. First thing is we need to get moving on getting a real office. Some place close to the Van Nuys courthouse where we can set up our command post.”
    “You want me on that, Mick?” Lorna asked.
    “Yes, I do.”
    “I’ll make sure there’s parking and good food nearby.”
    “It would be nice to be able to just walk to court.”
    “You got it. Short-term lease?”
    I paused. I liked working out of the backseat of the Lincoln. It had a freedom to it that was conducive to my thought processes.
    “We’ll take it for a year. See what happens.”
    I looked at Aronson next. She had her head down and was writing notes on a legal pad.
    “Bullocks, I need you to hand-hold our current clients and respond with the basics to new callers. The radio ads run through the month so we can expect no downturn in business. I also need you to help out on Trammel.”
    She looked up at me and her eyes brightened at the prospect of being on a murder case less than a year after being admitted to the bar.
    “Don’t get too excited,” I said. “I’m not giving you second chair just yet. You’ll be doing a lot of the grunt work. How were you on probable cause back at the department-store school?”
    “I was the best in my class.”
    “Of course you were. Well, you see that document in your hand? I want you to take that search warrant and break it down and tear it apart. We’re looking for omissions and misrepresentations, anything that can be used in a motion to suppress. I want all evidence taken from Lisa Trammel’s house thrown out.”
    Aronson visibly gulped. This was because I was issuing a tall order. And it was more than grunt work because the task would probably mean a lot of effort for little return. It was rare that evidence was kicked wholesale from a case. I was simply covering all the bases and using Aronson on one of them. She was smart enough to see that and it was one reason I had hired her.
    “Remember, you’re working on a murder case,” I said. “How many of your classmates can say they’ve done that yet?”
    “Probably none.”
    “Damn right. So next I want you to take the disc of Lisa’s police interview and do the same thing. Look for any false move by the cops, anything we can use to get that knocked out as well. I think there might be something here in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling last year. Are you familiar with it?”
    “Uh… this is my first criminal case.”
    “Then get familiar with it. Kurlen went out of his way to make it look like she came in for a voluntary interview. But if we can show he had her in his control, cuffs or not, we can make a case for her being under arrest from the start. We do that and everything she said before Miranda goes bye-bye.”
    “Okay.”
    Aronson didn’t look up from her writing.
    “Do you understand your assignments?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good, then go to it, but don’t forget about the rest of the clients. They’re paying the bills around here. For now.”
    I turned back to Lorna.
    “Which reminds me, Lorna, I need you to make contact with Joel Gotler and get something rolling on this story. This whole thing might go away if there’s a plea agreement, so let’s try to get a deal now. Tell him we’re willing to go low on the back end for some decent up-front cash. We need to fund