Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

that came to mind was charming.
    I didn’t like charming but I had to bide my time. I knew it might be the end of the day before I got the chance to go after Kurlen. In the meantime I had to hope that by then the jury hadn’t fallen completely in love with him.
    Freeman was smart enough to know you can’t keep a jury’s attention with charm alone. Eventually, she moved out of the scene-setting preliminaries and started to deliver the case against Lisa Trammel.
    “Detective, was there a time during the investigation when the defendant’s name became known to you?”
    “Yes, there was. The bank’s head of security came to the garage and asked to see me or my partner. I spoke to him briefly and then accompanied him to his office, where we reviewed video from the cameras located at the vehicle entrance and exits to the garage and in the elevators.”
    “And did the review of those videos provide you with any investigative leads?”
    “Nothing initially. I saw no one carrying a weapon or acting in a suspicious way before or after the approximate time of the murder. Nobody running from the garage. There was nothing suspicious about the vehicles going in and out. Of course, we would run every license plate. But there was nothing on video upon that initial viewing that helped us and, of course, the actual murder itself was not captured by any camera. That was another detail that the perpetrator of the crime seemed to be aware of.”
    I rose and objected to Kurlen’s last line and the judge struck it from the record and told the jury to ignore it.
    “Detective,” Freeman prompted, “I believe you were going to tell us how Lisa Trammel’s name first came up in the investigation.”
    “Yes, right. Well, Mr. Modesto, the bank security chief, also provided me with a file. What he called the threat-assessment file. He turned that over to me and it contained several names, including the name of the defendant. Then, just a short while later, Mr. Modesto called me and informed me that Lisa Trammel, one of the people listed in the file, happened to be seen that morning in close proximity to the bank.”
    “The defendant. And so this was how her name came up in the investigation, correct?”
    “Correct.”
    “What did you do with this information, Detective?”
    “I first returned to the crime scene. I then sent my partner to interview the witness who said she saw Lisa Trammel near the bank. It was important that we confirm that sighting and get the details. I then began to go through the threat-assessment file to study all of the names and the details of the perceived threats.”
    “And did you draw any immediate conclusions?”
    “I didn’t believe there was any individual listed who would immediately jump to the level of a person of interest based solely on what was reported in the file about them and their disputes with the bank. Obviously, they would all have to be looked at carefully. However, Lisa Trammel did rise to the level of being a person of interest because I knew from Mr. Modesto that she had allegedly been seen in the vicinity of the bank at the time of the murder.”
    “So Lisa Trammel’s time and geographic proximity to the murder was key to your thinking at this point?”
    “Yes, because proximity could mean access. It appeared from the crime scene that someone had been waiting for the victim. He had an assigned parking space with his name on the wall. There was a large support column next to the space. Our initial theory was that the killer had hidden behind the column and waited for Mr. Bondurant to pull in and park. It appeared that he was struck the first time from behind, just as he left his car.”
    “Thank you, Detective.”
    Freeman led her witness through a few more of the steps taken at the crime scene before bringing the focus back to Lisa Trammel.
    “Did your partner return to the crime scene at some point to report back about her interview with the bank employee who claimed to have seen Lisa Trammel near the bank?”
    “Yes, she did. My partner and I felt that the identification made by the witness was solid. We then discussed Lisa Trammel and the need for us to speak to her quickly.”
    “But, Detective, you had a crime scene investigation under way and a file full of the names of people who had made threats against the bank or its employees. Why the urgency involving Lisa Trammel?”
    Kurlen leaned back in his witness chair and adopted the pose of a wise and wily old