Bosch deliberately set this scenario in motion. It was spur of the moment. He was checking out a lead. When it looked good, he should have called for backup. But he didn’t. He went in. He identified himself and Mr. Church made the furtive move. And here we are. That is not to say that the outcome would have been different had there been a backup. I mean, anybody who would disobey an order from a police officer holding a gun would probably do it with two officers holding guns.”
Chandler successfully had the last sentence of the answer struck from the record.
“To come to the conclusion that Detective Bosch did not intentionally set the situation into motion, did your investigators study all facets of the shooting?”
“Yes, indeed.”
“How about Detective Bosch, was he studied?”
“Unquestionably. He was rigorously questioned about his actions.”
“And about his motives?”
“His motives?”
“Chief, did you or any of your investigators know that Detective Bosch’s mother was slain in Hollywood about thirty years ago by a killer who was never arrested? That prior to that, she had a record for multiple arrests for loitering?”
Bosch felt his skin go hot, as if klieg lights had been turned on him, and that everyone in the courtroom was staring at him. He was sure they were. But he looked only at Irving, who stared silently ahead, a palsied look on his face, the capillaries on either side of his nose flaring. When Irving didn’t answer, Chandler prompted him.
“Did you know, Chief? It is referenced in Detective Bosch’s personnel file. When he applied to the force, he had to say if he had ever been the victim of a crime. He lost his mother, he wrote.”
Finally, Irving said, “No, I did not know.”
“I believe that loitering was a euphemism for prostitution in the 1950s, when Los Angeles was engaged in a denial of crime problems such as rampant prostitution on Hollywood Boulevard, is that correct?”
“I don’t recall that.”
Chandler asked to approach the witness and handed Irving a thin stack of papers. She gave him nearly a minute to read through them. He furrowed his brow as he read and Bosch could not see his eyes. The muscles of his cheeks bunched together below his temples.
“What is that, Chief Irving?” Chandler asked.
“It is what we call a due diligence report detailing the investigation of a homicide. It is dated November 3, 1962.”
“What is a due diligence report?”
“Every unsolved case is looked at annually-we call it due diligence-until such time that we feel the prognosis for bringing the case to a successful conclusion is hopeless.”
“What is the victim’s name and circumstances of her death?”
“Marjorie Phillips Lowe. She was raped and strangled, October 31, 1961. Her body was found in an alley behind Hollywood Boulevard between Vista and Gower.”
“What is the investigator’s conclusion, Chief Irving?”
“It says that at this time, which was a year after the crime, there are no workable leads and prognosis for successful conclusion of the case is deemed hopeless.”
“Thank you. Now, one more thing, is there a box on the cover form listing next of kin?”
“Yes, it identifies the next of kin as Hieronymus Bosch. Next to that in brackets it says ‘Harry.’ A box marked ‘son’ has been checked off.”
Chandler referred to her yellow pad for a few moments to let this information soak into the jury. It was so quiet Bosch could actually hear Chandler’s pen scratching on the pad as she made a notation.
“Now,” she said, “Chief Irving, would knowing about Detective Bosch’s mother have caused you to take a closer look at this shooting?”
After a long moment of silence, he said, “I can’t say.”
“He shot a man suspected of doing almost the exact same thing that had happened to his mother-his mother’s slaying being unsolved. Are you saying you don’t know if that would have been germane to your investigation?”
“I, yes… I don’t know at this time.”
Bosch wanted to put his head down on the table. He had noticed that even Belk had stopped scribbling notes and was just watching the interchange between Irving and Chandler. Bosch tried to shake off the anger he felt and concentrate on how Chandler had obtained the information. He realized she had probably gotten the P-file in a discovery motion. But the details of the crime and his mother’s background would not be in it. She had most likely procured the due diligence report from the archives warehouse on a Freedom of Information petition.
He realized he had missed several questions to Irving. He began watching and listening again. He wished he had a lawyer like Money Chandler.
“Chief, did you or any IAD detectives go to the scene of the shooting?”
“No, we did not.”
“So your information about what happened came from members of the shooting team, who in turn got their information from the shooter, Detective Bosch, correct?”
“Essentially, yes.”
“You have no personal knowledge of the evidentiary layout: the toupee under the pillow, the cosmetics beneath the sink in the bathroom?”
“Correct. I was not there.”
“Do you believe all of that was there as I just stated?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
“It was all there in the reports-reports from several different officers.”
“But all originating with the information from Detective Bosch, correct?”
“To a degree. There were investigators swarming that place. Bosch didn’t tell them what to write.”
“Before, as you say, they swarmed the place, how long was Bosch there alone?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is that piece of information on any report that you know of?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Isn’t it true, Chief, that you wanted to fire Bosch and refer this shooting to the district attorney’s office for the filing of criminal charges against him?”
“No, that is wrong. The DA looked at it and passed. It’s routine. They said it was within policy, too.”
Well, score one for me, Bosch thought. It was the first misstep he had seen her take with Irving.
“What happened to the woman who gave Bosch this tip? Her name was McQueen. I believe she was a prostitute.”
“She died about a year later. Hepatitis.”
“At the time of her death was she part of an ongoing investigation of Detective Bosch and this shooting?”
“Not that I am aware of and I was in charge of IAD at the time.”
“What about the two IAD detectives who investigated the shooting? Lewis and Clarke, I believe their names were. Didn’t they continue their investigation of Bosch long after the shooting had been determined officially to be within policy?”
Irving took a while to answer. He was probably leery of being led to slaughter again.
“If they conducted such an ongoing investigation it was without my knowledge or approval.”
“Where are those detectives now?”
