The Lincoln Lawyer

my house until I’ve had a chance to completely study the warrant. I could do it on the way and save you some time. Or…”
    Lankford reached inside his jacket and pulled out the warrant. He handed it over his shoulder to me. I knew why he was hesitant. Cops usually had to lay out their whole investigation in the warrant application in order to convince a judge of probable cause. They didn’t like the target reading it, because it gave away the store.
    I glanced out the window as we were passing the car lots on Van Nuys Boulevard. I saw a new model Town Car on a pedestal in front of the Lincoln dealership. I looked back down at the warrant, opened it to the summary section and read.
    Lankford and Sobel had started out doing some good work. I had to give them that. One of them had taken a shot-I was guessing Sobel-and put my name into the state’s Automated Firearm System and hit the lotto. The AFS computer said I was the registered owner of a pistol of the same make and model as the murder weapon.
    It was a smooth move but it still wasn’t enough to make probable cause. Colt made the Woodsman for more than sixty years. That meant there were probably a million of them out there and a million suspects who owned them.
    They had the smoke. They then rubbed other sticks together to make the required fire. The application summary stated that I had hidden from the investigators the fact that I owned the gun in question. It said I had also fabricated an alibi when initially interviewed about Levin’s death, then attempted to throw detectives off the track by giving them a phony lead on the drug dealer Hector Arrande Moya.
    Though motivation was not necessarily a subject needed to obtain a search warrant, the PC summary alluded to it anyway, stating that the victim-Raul Levin-had been extorting investigative assignments from me and that I had refused to pay him upon completion of those assignments.
    The outrage of such an assertion aside, the alibi fabrication was the key point of probable cause. The statement said that I had told the detectives I was home at the time of the murder, but a message on my home phone was left just before the suspected time of death and this indicated that I was not home, thereby collapsing my alibi and proving me a liar at the same time.
    I slowly read the PC statement twice more but my anger did not subside. I tossed the warrant onto the seat next to me.
    “In some ways it’s really too bad I am not the killer,” I said.
    “Yeah, why is that?” Lankford said.
    “Because this warrant is a piece of shit and you both know it. It won’t stand up to challenge. I told you that message came in when I was already on the phone and that can be checked and proven, only you were too lazy or you didn’t want to check it because it would have made it a little difficult to get your warrant. Even with your pocket judge in Glendale. You lied by omission and commission. It’s a bad-faith warrant.”
    Because I was sitting behind Lankford I had a better angle on Sobel. I watched her for signs of doubt as I spoke.
    “And the suggestion that Raul was extorting business from me and that I wouldn’t pay is a complete joke. Extorted me with what? And what didn’t I pay him for? I paid him every time I got a bill. Man, I tell you, if this is how you work all your cases, I gotta open up an office in Glendale. I’m going to shove this warrant right up your police chief’s ass.”
    “You lied about the gun,” Lankford said. “And you owed Levin money. It’s right there in his accounts book. Four grand.”
    “I didn’t lie about anything. You never asked if I owned a gun.”
    “Lied by omission. Right back at ya.”
    “Bullshit.”
    “Four grand.”
    “Oh yeah, the four grand-I killed him because I didn’t want to pay him four grand,” I said with all the sarcasm I could muster. “You got me there, Detective. Motivation. But I guess it never occurred to you to see if he had even billed me for the four grand yet, or to see if I hadn’t just paid an invoice from him for six thousand dollars a week before he was murdered.”
    Lankford was undaunted. But I saw the doubt start to creep into Sobel’s face.
    “Doesn’t matter how much or when you paid him,” Lankford said. “A blackmailer is never satisfied. You never stop paying until you reach the point of no return. That’s what this is about. The point of no return.”
    I shook my head.
    “And what exactly was it that he had on me that