Bosch looked at the report in the binder.
“Two point three feet.”
“Exactly where on the headboard?”
“On the outside facing, between the headboard and the wall.”
“Was there a lot of space there?”
“About two inches.”
“How would someone get their fingerprints there?”
Fowkkes objected, saying it was outside Bosch’s realm of expertise to determine how a set of fingerprints got anywhere, but the judge allowed the question.
“Only two ways I can think of,” Bosch answered. “They got there when the bed was not pushed quite up to the wall. Or the person who left the prints had reached their fingers through the opening in the slats of the headboard and left them while holding onto that particular cross board.”
Langwiser introduced a photo taken by a fingerprint technician as an exhibit and it was shown to the jury.
“To accomplish the latter explanation you offered, the person would have to be lying in the bed, would he not?”
“It would seem that way.”
“Face down?”
“Yes.”
Fowkkes stood to object but the judge sustained it before the lawyer uttered a word.
“You are going too far afield with suppositions, Ms. Langwiser. Move on.”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
She referred to her pad for a moment.
“This print on the victim’s bed, didn’t that make you think the person who left it should be considered a prime suspect?”
“Not initially. It is impossible to tell how long a print has been at a specific location. Plus we had the additional factor that we knew the victim had not been killed in her bed, but rather taken to the bed after being killed elsewhere. It appeared to us that the location of the print was not a place that would have been touched by the killer when he put the body in the bed.”
“Who did these prints belong to?”
“A man named Allan Wiess, who had dated Ms. Krementz on three prior occasions, the most recent date being three weeks before her death.”
“Did you interview Allan Wiess?”
“Yes, I did. Along with Detective Edgar.”
“Did he acknowledge ever being in the victim’s bed?” “Yes, he did. He said he slept with her on that last occasion that he saw her, three weeks prior to her death.”
“Did he say he touched the bed board in the location you have shown us where the fingerprints were located?”
“He said he could have done it but he did not specifically remember doing it.”
“Did you investigate Allan Weiss’s activities on the night of Jody Krementz’s death?”
“Yes, we did. He had a solid alibi.”
“And what was that?”
“He told us he was in Hawaii at a real estate seminar. We checked airline and hotel records as well as with the seminar’s producers. We confirmed he was there.”
Langwiser looked at Judge Houghton and said that it would be a good time to take the morning break. The judge said it was a little early but granted the request and ordered the jurors back in fifteen minutes.
Bosch knew she wanted the break now because she was about to move into questions about David Storey and wanted them clearly separated from all the other testimony. As he stepped off the witness stand and went back to the prosecution table, Langwiser was flipping through some files. She spoke to him without looking up.
“What’s wrong, Harry?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re not crisp. Not like yesterday. Are you nervous about something?”
“No. Are you?”
“Yeah, the whole thing. We’ve got a lot riding on this.”
“I’ll be crisper.”
“I’m serious, Harry.”
“So am I, Janis.”
He then walked away from the prosecution table and out through the courtroom.
He decided he would get a cup of coffee at the second-floor cafeteria. But first he stepped into the restroom next to the elevators and went to one of the sinks to splash cold water on his face. He bent fully over the sink, careful not to get water on his suit. He heard a toilet flush and when he straightened up and looked in the mirror he saw Rudy Tafero pass behind him and go to the sink furthest away. Bosch bent down again and brought more water up and held it. Its chill felt good against his eyes and eased his headache.
“What’s it like, Rudy?” he asked without looking at the other man.
“What’s what like, Harry?”
“You know, doing the devil’s bidding. You get any sleep at night?”
Bosch walked over to the paper towel dispenser and tore off several sheets to dry his hands and face. Tafero came over and tore off a towel and began drying his hands.
“It’s funny,” Tafero said. “The only time in my life I had trouble sleeping was when I was a cop. I wonder why that was.”
He balled the towel in his hands and threw it into the wastebasket. He smiled at Bosch and then walked out. Bosch watched him go, still rubbing his hands on the towels.
Chapter 24
Bosch could feel the coffee working in his blood. The second wind was coming. The headache was easing. He was ready. This would be how they planned it, how they had choreographed it. He leaned forward to the microphone and waited for the question.
“Detective Bosch,” Langwiser said from the lectern, “did there come a time when the name David Storey came up in your investigation?”
“Yes, almost immediately. We received information from Jane Gilley, who was Jody Krementz’s roommate, that on the last night of Jody’s life she had a date with David Storey.”
“Did there come a time when you questioned Mr. Storey about that last night?”
“Yes. Briefly.”
“Why briefly, Detective Bosch? This was a homicide.”
“That was Mr. Storey’s choosing. We attempted several times to interview him on that Friday that the body was discovered and the next day as well. He was difficult to locate. Finally, through his attorney, he agreed to be interviewed the next day, which was Sunday, on the condition that we come to him and conduct the interview in his office at Archway Studios. We reluctantly agreed to do it that way but did so in the spirit of cooperation and because we needed to talk to this man. At that point we were two days into the case and had not been able to talk to the last person known to have seen the victim alive. When we arrived at the office, Mr. Storey’s personal attorney, Jason Fleer, was there. We began interviewing Mr. Storey but in less than five minutes his attorney terminated the interview.”
“Was this conversation tape-recorded?”
“Yes, it was.”
Langwiser made the motion to play the recording and it was approved by Judge Houghton over Fowkkes’s objection. Fowkkes had asked the judge to simply allow jurors to read his already prepared transcripts of the short interview. But Langwiser objected to that, saying that she had not had time to check the transcripts for accuracy
