The Concrete Blonde (hb-3)

were found in Church’s Hyperion apartment and had then traced them to specific victims of the Dollmaker. He said he had come up with nine separate lots or groupings of makeup-mascara, blush, eyeliner, lipstick, etc. Each lot was connected through chemical analysis to samples taken from the faces of the victims. This was further corroborated by detectives who interviewed relatives and friends to determine what brands the victims were known to use. It all matched up, Amado said. And in one instance, he added, an eyelash found on a mascara brush in Church’s bathroom cabinet was identified as having come from the second victim.
    “What about the two victims no matching makeup was found for?” Chandler asked.
    “That was a mystery. We never found their makeup.”
    “In fact, with the exception of the eyelash that was allegedly found and matched to victim number two, you can’t be one hundred percent sure that the makeup police did supposedly find in the apartment came from the victims, correct?”
    “This stuff is mass produced and sold around the world. So there is a lot of it out there, but I would guess that the chances of nine different exact combinations of makeup being found like that by mere coincidence are astronomical.”
    “I didn’t ask you to guess, Mr. Amado. Please answer the question I asked.”
    After flinching at being dressed down, Amado said, “The answer is we can’t be one hundred percent sure, that is correct.”
    “Okay, now tell the jury about the DNA testing you did that connected Norman Church to the eleven killings.”
    “There wasn’t any done. There-”
    “Just answer the question, Mr. Amado. What about serology tests, connecting Mr. Church to the crimes?”
    “There were none.”
    “Then it was the makeup comparison that was the clincher-the linchpin in the determination that Mr. Church was the Dollmaker?”
    “Well, it was for me. I don’t know about the detectives. My report said-”
    “I’m sure for the detectives it was the bullet that killed him that was the clincher.”
    “Objection,” Belk yelled angrily as he stood. “Your Honor, she can’t-”
    “Ms. Chandler,” Judge Keyes boomed. “I have warned you both about exactly this sort of thing. Why would you go and say something you know full well is prejudicial and out of order?”
    “I apologize, Your Honor.”
    “Well, it’s a little late for apologies. We’ll discuss this matter after the jury goes home for the day.”
    The judge then instructed the jurors to disregard her comment. But Bosch knew it had been a carefully thought out gambit by Chandler. The jurors would now see her even more as the underdog. Even the judge was against her-which he really wasn’t. And they might be distracted, thinking about what just happened, when Belk stepped up to repair Amado’s testimony.
    “Nothing further, Your Honor,” Chandler said.
    “Mr. Belk,” the judge said.
    Don’t say just a few questions again, Bosch thought as his lawyer moved to the lectern.
    “Just a few questions, Mr. Amado,” Belk said. “Plaintiff’s counsel mentioned DNA and serology tests and you said they had not been done. Why is that?”
    “Well, because there was nothing to test. No semen was ever recovered from any of the bodies. The killer had used a condom. Without samples to attempt to match to Mr. Church’s DNA or blood, there was not much point in running tests. We would have the victims’ but nothing to compare it to.”
    Belk drew a line with his pen through a question written on his pad.
    “If there was no recovery of semen or sperm, how do you know these women were raped or even had engaged in consensual sexual activity?”
    “The autopsies of all eleven of the victims showed vaginal bruising, much more than is considered usual or even possible from consensual sex. On two of the victims there was even tearing in the vaginal wall. The victims were brutally raped, in my estimation.”
    “But these women came from walks of life where sexual activity was common and frequent, even ‘rough sex’, if you will. Two of them performed in pornographic videos. How can you be sure they were sexually assaulted against their will?”
    “The bruising was such that it would have been very painful, especially for the two with vaginal tears. Hemorrhaging was considered perimortem, meaning at the time of death. The deputy coroners who performed these autopsies unanimously concluded these women were raped.”
    Belk drew another