were used during the three-nineteen and four-oh-one entries?”
Hendricks studied his paperwork before answering.
“Uh, yes. At three-nineteen the exterior transmitter was used. That means somebody was in the garage when they turned the alarm on in the house. Then at four-oh-one the same exterior transmitter was used to turn the alarm off. The door was then opened and closed, then the alarm was turned back on from the inside.”
“So someone came home at four-oh-one, is that what you are saying?”
“Yes. Right.”
“And the system computer registered this someone as David Storey, correct?”
“It identified his voice, yes.”
“And this person would have to have used Mr. Storey’s password and given the correct date as well?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Langwiser said she had no further questions. Fowkkes told the judge he had a quick cross-examination. He bounded to the lectern and looked at Hendricks.
“Mr. Hendricks, how long have you worked for Lighthouse?”
“Three years next month.”
“So you were employed by Lighthouse on January first a year ago, the so-called Y-two-K changeover?”
“Yes,” Hendricks said hesitantly.
“Can you tell us what happened to many of Lighthouse’s clients on that day?”
“Uh, we had a few problems.”
“A few problems, Mr. Hendricks?”
“We had system failures.”
“What system in particular?”
“The Millennium Twos had a program malfunction. But it was minor. We were able to -”
“How many clients with Millennium Twos were affected in the Los Angeles area?”
“All of them. But we found the bug and -”
“That’s all, sir. Thank you.”
“We got it fixed.”
“Mr. Hendricks,” the judge barked. “That’s enough. The jury will disregard the last statement.”
He looked at Langwiser.
“Redirect, Ms. Langwiser?”
Langwiser said she had a few quick questions. Bosch had known about the Y 2 K problems and reported them to the prosecutors. Their hope had been that the defense would not learn of them or raise them.
“Mr. Hendricks, did Lighthouse fix the bug that infected the systems after Y-two-K?”
“Yes, we did. It was fixed right away.”
“Would it in any way have affected data gathered from the defendant’s system a full ten months after Y-two- K?”
“Not at all. The problem was resolved. The system was repaired.”
Langwiser said that was all she had for the witness and sat down. Fowkkes then rose for re-cross.
“The bug that was fixed, Mr. Hendricks, that was the bug they knew about, correct?”
Hendricks gave a confused look.
“Yeah, that was the one that caused the problem.”
“So what you’re saying is that you only know about these ‘bugs’ when they cause a problem.”
“Uh, usually.”
“So there could be a program bug in Mr. Storey’s security system and you wouldn’t know about it until it creates a problem, correct?”
Hendricks shook his shoulders.
“Anything’s possible.”
Fowkkes sat down and the judge asked Langwiser if she had anything else. The prosecutor hesitated a moment but then said she had nothing further. Hendricks was dismissed by Houghton, who then suggested an early break for lunch.
“Our next witness will be very brief, Your Honor. I’d like to get him in before the break. We plan to concentrate on one witness during the afternoon session.”
“Very well, go on.”
“We recall Detective Bosch.”
Bosch got up and went to the witness stand, carrying the murder book. This time he did not touch the microphone. He settled in and was reminded by the judge that he was still under oath.
“Detective Bosch,” Langwiser began. “At some point during your investigation of the murder of Jody Krementz were you directed to drive from the defendant’s home to the victim’s home and then back again?”
“Yes, I was. By you.”
“And did you follow that direction?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“On November sixteenth at three-nineteen A.M. ”
“Did you time your drive?”
“Yes, I did. Both ways.”
“And can you tell us those times? You can refer to your notes, if you wish.”
Bosch opened the binder to a previously marked page. He took a moment to study the notations even though he knew them by heart.
“From Mr. Storey’s house to Jody Krementz’s house it took eleven minutes and twenty-two seconds, driving within posted speed limits. Coming back it took eleven minutes and forty-eight seconds. The round trip was twenty-three minutes, ten seconds.”
“Thank you, Detective.”
That was it. Fowkkes passed again on cross-examination, reserving the right to call Bosch back to the stand during the defense phase. Judge Houghton recessed the trial for lunch and the crowded courtroom slowly drained into the outside hallway.
Bosch was pushing and moving through the crowd of lawyers, spectators and reporters in the hallway and looking for Annabelle Crowe when a hand strongly grabbed his upper arm from behind. He swung around and looked into the face of a black man he didn’t recognize. Another man, this one white, came up to them. The two men had on almost identical gray suits. Bosch knew they were bureau men before the first man said his first word.
“Detective Bosch, I’m Special Agent Twilley with the F-B-I. This is Special Agent Friedman. Can we talk to you somewhere privately?”
Chapter 38
It took three hours to go carefully through the videotape. At the end of it McCaleb had nothing to show for his time except a parking ticket. Tafero had appeared nowhere in the video of the post office on the day the money order was purchased. Neither had Harry Bosch, for that matter. The missing forty-eight minutes of video, which had been taped over before McCaleb and Winston got there, now haunted him. If they had gone to the post office first and Hollywood station second, they might have had the killer on tape. Those forty-eight minutes might be the difference in the case, the difference in being able to clear Bosch or convict him.
McCaleb was thinking about what-if scenarios when he got to the Cherokee and found the parking ticket under the wiper. He cursed and pulled it off and looked at it. He had been so absorbed in watching the tape he had forgotten he had parked in a fifteen-minute zone in front of the post office. The ticket would cost him $ 40 and that stung. With few fishing charters in the winter months, his family had been living mostly off Graciela’s small paycheck and his monthly pension from the bureau. There wasn’t a lot of leeway with expenses for the two kids. This, coupled with Saturday’s canceled charter, would hurt.
