think he was already kneeling.”
Bosch nodded. Mitford had passed the first test.
“Okay, good point. Now let’s talk about what you heard. You said you heard somebody yell right before the shots, right?”
“Right.”
“Okay, what did that person yell?”
The young man thought for a moment and then shook his head.
“I’m not sure.”
“Okay, that’s all right. We don’t want to say anything we’re not sure about. Let’s try an exercise and see if that helps. Close your eyes.”
“What?”
“Just close your eyes,” Bosch said. “Think about what you saw. Try to bring up the visual memory and the audio will follow. You are looking at the three cars and then a voice pulls your attention toward the overlook. What did the voice say?”
Bosch spoke calmly and soothingly. Mitford followed his instructions and closed his eyes. Bosch waited.
“I’m not sure,” the young man finally said. “I can’t get it all. I think he was saying something about Allah and then he shot the guy.”
Bosch held perfectly still for a moment before responding.
“Allah? You mean the Arabic word
“I’m not sure. I think so.”
“What else did you hear?”
“Nothing else. The shots cut it off, you know? He started yelling about Allah and then the shots drowned the rest out.”
“You mean like
“I don’t know. I just heard the
“Could you tell if he had an accent?”
“An accent? I couldn’t tell. I only heard the one thing.”
“British? Arabic?”
“I really couldn’t tell. I was too far away and I only heard the one word.”
Bosch thought about this for a few moments. He remembered what he had read about the cockpit recordings from the 9/11 attacks. The terrorists called out
Again, he knew he had to be careful and thorough. Much of the investigation could hinge on the one word Mitford thought he had heard from the overlook.
“Jesse, what did Detective Ferras tell you about this case before he put you in this room?”
The witness shrugged.
“He didn’t tell me anything, really.”
“He didn’t tell you what we think we’re looking at here or what direction the case may be going?”
“No, none of that.”
Bosch looked at him for a few moments.
“Okay, Jesse,” he finally said. “What happened next?”
“After the shots somebody ran from the clearing to the cars. There was a streetlight out there and I saw him. He got into one of the cars and he backed it up close to the Porsche. Then he popped the trunk and got out. The Porsche’s trunk was already open.”
“Where was the other man while he did this?”
Mitford looked confused.
“I guess he was dead.”
“No, I mean the second bad guy. There were two bad guys and one victim, Jesse. Three cars, remember?”
Bosch held up three fingers as a visual aid.
“I only saw one bad guy,” Mitford said. “The shooter. Somebody else stayed in the car that was behind the Porsche. But he never got out.”
“He just stayed in that other car the whole time?”
“That’s right. In fact, right after the shooting, that car made a U-turn and drove away.”
“And the driver never got out the whole time he was at the overlook.”
“Not while I was looking.”
Bosch thought about this for a moment. What Mitford had described indicated a real division of labor between the two suspects. This mirrored the description of events that Alicia Kent had given earlier; one man questioning her and then translating and giving orders to the second. Bosch assumed it was the English speaker who had remained in the car at the overlook.
“Okay,” he finally said, “go back to the story, Jesse. You said that right after the shooting one guy drives away while the other backs up closer to the Porsche and pops the trunk. Then what happened?”
“He got out and took something from the Porsche and put it in the other car’s trunk. It was really heavy and he had a hard time with it. It looked like it had handles on the sides because of the way he was holding it.”
Bosch knew that he was describing the pig used to transport radioactive materials.
“Then what?”
“He just got back in the car and drove off. He left the trunk open on the Porsche.”
“And you saw nobody else?”
“Nobody else. I swear.”
“Describe the man you did see.”
“I can’t really describe him. He was wearing a sweatshirt with the hood up. I never really saw his face or anything. I think that under the hood he was wearing a ski mask, too.”
“Why do you think that?”
Mitford shrugged again.
“I don’t know. It just seemed that way to me. I might be wrong.”
“Was he big? Was he small?”
“I think he was average. Maybe a little short.”
“What did he look like?”
Bosch had to try again. It was important. But Mitford shook his head.
“I couldn’t see him,” he insisted. “I’m pretty sure he had a mask.”
Bosch didn’t give up.
“White, black, Middle Eastern?”
“I couldn’t tell. He had the hood and the mask and I was so far away.”
“Think about the hands, Jesse. You said there were handles on the thing he transferred from one car to the other. Could you see his hands? What color were his hands?”
Mitford thought for a moment and his eyes brightened.
“No, he wore gloves. I remember the gloves because they were those real big kind like the guys wear who work on the trains back in Halifax. Heavy-duty with the big cuffs so they don’t get burned.”
Bosch nodded. He had been fishing for one thing but got something else. Protective gloves. He wondered if they were gloves specifically designed for handling radioactive material. He realized that he had forgotten to ask Alicia Kent if the men who entered her house had worn gloves. He hoped that Rachel Walling had covered all the details again when she was left with her.
Bosch paused there. Sometimes the silences are the most uneasy moments for a witness. They start to fill in the blanks.
But Mitford said nothing. After a long moment Bosch continued.
“Okay, we had two cars up there besides the Porsche. Describe the car that backed up to the Porsche.”
“I can’t, really. I know what Porsches look like, but I couldn’t tell about the other cars. Both were a lot bigger, like with four doors.”
“Let’s talk about the one in front of the Porsche. Was it a sedan?”
