The Reversal

going to try to put the blame for your sister’s death on your stepfather.”
    Sarah raised her hands as if warding off a blow.
    “That’s crazy. I was there. I saw that man take her!”
    “We know that, Sarah. But it’s a matter of what is conveyed to the jury and what and who the jurors believe. Now, Detective Bosch has a list of the defense’s witnesses. I want you to take a look at it and tell us what the names mean to you.”
    Bosch pulled the list from his briefcase. He handed it to McPherson, who handed it to Sarah.
    “Sorry, all those notes are things I added,” Bosch said, “when I was trying to track them down. Just look at the names.”
    Bosch watched her lips move slightly as she started to read. Then they stopped moving and she just stared at the paper. He saw tears in her eyes.
    “Sarah?” McPherson prompted.
    “These people,” Gleason said in a whisper. “I thought I’d never see them again.”
    “You may never see them again,” McPherson said. “Just because they’re on that list, it doesn’t mean they’ll be called. They pull names out of the records and load up the list to confuse us, Sarah. It’s called haystacking . They hide the real witnesses, and our investigator—Detective Bosch—wastes his time checking out the wrong people. But there’s got to be at least one name on there that counts. Who is it, Sarah? Help us.”
    She stared at the list without responding.
    “Someone who will be able to say you two were close. Who you spent time with and told secrets to.”
    “I thought a husband couldn’t testify against a wife.”
    “One spouse can’t be forced to testify against the other. But what are you talking about, Sarah?”
    “This one.”
    She pointed to a name on the list. Bosch leaned over to read it. Edward Roman. Bosch had traced him to a lockdown rehab center in North Hollywood where Sarah had spent nine months after her last incarceration. The only thing Bosch had guessed was that they’d had contact in group therapy. The last known address provided by Royce was a motel in Van Nuys but Roman was long gone from there. Bosch had gotten no further with it and had dismissed the name as part of Royce’s haystack.
    “Roman,” he said. “You were with him in rehab, right?”
    “Yes,” Gleason said. “Then we got married.”
    “When?” McPherson said. “We have no record of that marriage.”
    “After we got out. He knew a minister. We got married on the beach. But it didn’t last very long.”
    “Did you get divorced?” McPherson asked.
    “No… I never really cared. Then when I got straight I just didn’t want to go back there. It was one of those things you block out. Like it didn’t happen.”
    McPherson looked at Bosch.
    “It might not have been a legal marriage,” he said. “There’s nothing in the county records.”
    “Doesn’t matter if it was a legal marriage or not,” she said. “He is obviously a volunteer witness, so he can testify against her. What matters is what his testimony is going to be. What’s he going to say, Sarah?”
    Sarah slowly shook her head.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Well, what did you tell him about your sister and your stepfather?”
    “I don’t know. Those years… I can hardly remember anything from back then.”
    There was a silence and then McPherson asked Sarah to look at the rest of the names on the list. She did and shook her head.
    “I don’t know who some of these people are. Some people in the life, I just knew them by street names.”
    “But Edward Roman you know?”
    “Yes. We were together.”
    “How long?”
    Gleason shook her head in embarrassment.
    “Not long. Inside rehab we thought we were made for each other. Once we were out, it didn’t work. It lasted maybe three months. I got arrested again and when I got out of jail, he was gone.”
    “Is it possible that it wasn’t a legitimate marriage?”
    Gleason thought for a moment and halfheartedly shrugged.
    “Anything is possible, I guess.”
    “Okay, Sarah, I’m going to step out with Detective Bosch again for a few minutes. I want you to think about Edward Roman. Anything you can remember will be helpful. I’ll be right back.”
    McPherson took the witness list from her and handed it back to Bosch. They left the room but just took a few paces down the hallway before stopping and talking in whispers.
    “I guess you’d better find him,” she said.
    “It won’t matter,” Bosch said. “If he’s Royce’s star witness he