The Reversal

talking about, did you often work on Sundays?”
    “No, it was my day off usually. But if we had some special projects I would be told to come in.”
    Royce objected on the grounds that I was opening up a line of questioning that was outside the scope of his cross-examination. I promised the judge that it was within the scope and that it would become apparent soon. She indulged me and overruled the objection. I went back to Mr. Johnson. I had hoped Royce would object because in a few moments it would look like he had been trying to stop me from getting to information damaging to Jessup.
    “You mentioned that the trash bin where you found the body was at the end of an alley. Is there no parking lot behind the El Rey Theatre?”
    “There is a parking lot but it does not belong to the El Rey Theatre. We have the alley that gives us access to the back doors and the bins.”
    “Who does the parking lot belong to?”
    “A company that has lots all over the city. It’s called City Park.”
    “Is there a wall or a fence separating this parking lot from the alley?”
    Royce stood again.
    “Your Honor, this is going on and on and it has nothing to do with what I asked Mr. Johnson.”
    “Your Honor,” I said. “I will get there in two more questions.”
    “You may answer, Mr. Johnson,” Breitman said.
    “There is a fence,” Johnson said.
    “So,” I said, “from the El Rey’s alley and the location of its trash bin, you can see into the adjoining parking lot, and anyone in the adjoining parking lot could see the trash bin, correct?”
    “Yes.”
    “And prior to the day you discovered the body, did you have occasion to be at work on a Sunday and to notice that the parking lot behind the theater was being used?”
    “Yes, like a month previously, I came to work and in the back there were many cars and I saw tow trucks towing them in.”
    I couldn’t help myself. I had to glance over at Royce and Jessup to see if they were squirming yet. I was about to draw the first blood of the trial. They thought Johnson was going to be a noncritical witness, meaning he would establish the murder and its location and nothing else.
    They were wrong.
    “Did you inquire as to what was going on?” I asked.
    “Yes,” Johnson said. “I asked what they were doing and one of the drivers said that they were towing cars from the neighborhood down the street and holding them there so people could come and pay and get their cars.”
    “So it was being used like a temporary holding lot, is that what you mean?”
    “Yes.”
    “And did you know what the name of the towing company was?”
    “It was on the trucks. It was called Aardvark Towing.”
    “You said trucks. You saw more than one truck there?”
    “Yeah, there were two or three trucks when I saw them.”
    “What did you tell them after you were informed what they were doing there?”
    “I told my boss and he called City Park to see if they knew about it. He thought there could be an insurance concern, especially with people being mad about being towed and all. And it turned out Aardvark wasn’t supposed to be there. It wasn’t authorized.”
    “What happened?”
    “They had to stop using the lot and my boss told me to keep an eye out if I worked on weekends to see if they kept using it.”
    “So they stopped using the lot behind the theater?”
    “That’s right.”
    “And this was the same lot from which you could see the trash bin in which you would later find the body of Melissa Landy?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “When Mr. Royce asked you if you had ever seen the defendant before the day of the murder, you answered that you didn’t think so, correct?”
    “Correct.”
    “You don’t think so? Why are you not sure?”
    “Because I think he could’ve been one of the Aardvark drivers I saw using that lot. So I can’t be sure I didn’t see him before.”
    “Thank you, Mr. Johnson. I have no further questions.”

Twenty-six
    Monday, April 5, 10:20 A.M .
    F or the first time since he had been brought into the case Bosch felt as though Melissa Landy was in good hands. He had just watched Mickey Haller score the first points of the trial. He had taken a small piece of the puzzle Bosch had come up with and used it to land the first punch. It wasn’t a knockout by any means but it had connected solidly. It was the first step down the path of proving Jason Jessup’s familiarity with the parking lot and trash bin behind the El Rey Theatre. Before the trial would