Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

knowledge of Mitchell Bondurant’s financial or investment situation.”
    “If that’s the case, Judge, Nathan Bondurant can say so and I’ll move on.”
    “Very well, overruled. Ask your question, Mr. Haller.”
    Back at the lectern I asked the witness the question again.
    “He spoke very briefly and without going into detail about it,” the witness replied.
    “What exactly did he say?”
    “He just said that he was upside-down on his investment properties. He didn’t say how many that was or how much was involved. That was all he said.”
    “What did that mean to you when he said he was upside-down?”
    “That he owed more on his properties than they were worth.”
    “Did he say he was trying to sell them?”
    “He said he couldn’t sell them without taking a bath.”
    “Thank you, Mr. Bondurant. I have no further questions.”
    Freeman completed her tour of minor players by calling a witness named Gladys Pickett, who identified herself on the stand as the head teller at WestLand National’s main branch in Sherman Oaks. After eliciting from Pickett what her duties were at the bank Freeman got right down to the salient testimony.
    “As the person in charge of the tellers at the bank, you have how many people reporting to you, Mrs. Pickett?”
    “About forty altogether.”
    “Is one of those people a teller named Margo Schafer?”
    “Yes, Margo is one of my tellers.”
    “I would like to draw your attention back to the morning of Mitchell Bondurant’s murder. Did Margo Schafer come to you with a particular concern?”
    “Yes, she did.”
    “Can you please tell the jury what Ms. Schafer was concerned about?”
    “She came to me and reported that she had seen Lisa Trammel just a half block from the bank, walking down the sidewalk and moving in a direction away from the bank.”
    “Why was this a concern?”
    “Well, we have Lisa Trammel’s photograph up in the employees’ lounge and inside our vault and we have been instructed to report any sighting of Lisa Trammel to our supervisors.”
    “Do you know why this instruction was put in place?”
    “Yes, the bank has a restraining order keeping her away from the property.”
    “Can you tell the jury what time it was when Margo Schafer told you about seeing Ms. Trammel near the bank?”
    “Yes, it was as soon as she came into work that day. It was the first thing she did.”
    “Now do you keep a record of when tellers arrive at work?”
    “I keep a checkout list in the vault on which the time is posted.”
    “This is when tellers come into the vault and get their money boxes to take to their stations?”
    “Yes, that’s right.”
    “On the day in question, at what time do you show Margo Schafer’s name being checked off?”
    “It was nine oh-nine. She was the last one checked in. She was late.”
    “And would that have been when she told you about seeing Lisa Trammel?”
    “Yes, precisely.”
    “Now, at that time, did you know that Mitchell Bondurant had been murdered in the bank’s garage?”
    “No, no one knew that yet because Riki Sanchez had stayed in the garage until the police came and then they kept her there for questioning. We didn’t know what was going on.”
    “So the idea that Margo Schafer would have concocted the story about seeing Lisa Trammel after hearing about Mr. Bondurant’s murder is not possible, correct?”
    “Correct. She told me about seeing her before she or I or anybody in the bank knew about Mr. Bondurant.”
    “So at what point did you learn of Mr. Bondurant’s murder in the garage and offer the information you had received from Margo Schafer?”
    “That was about a half hour later. That’s when we heard and I obviously thought the police needed to know that this woman had been seen nearby.”
    “Thank you, Mrs. Pickett. I have no further questions.”
    It was Freeman’s biggest hit so far. Pickett had successfully undone much of what I had been able to accomplish with Schafer on the stand. Now I had to decide whether to leave it alone or risk making things worse.
    I decided to cut my losses and move on. They say never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to. The rule applied here. Pickett had refused to talk to my investigator. Freeman could be setting a trap, leaving her up there with one more piece of information I might stumble into with an ill-advised question.
    “I have no questions for this witness,” I said from my place at the defense table.
    Judge Perry excused