Michael Connelly: The Fifth Witness

While one by one I took out the legal pad and documents with my right hand, I used the left to open the case’s secret compartment. I hit the engage button on the Paquin 2000 acoustic jammer. The device emitted a low-frequency RF signal that clogged any listening device within twenty-five feet with electronic disinformation. If Kurlen and his partner were illegally listening in, they were now hearing white noise.

The case and its hidden device were almost ten years old and as far as I knew, the original owner was still in federal prison. I’d taken it in trade at least seven years ago, back when drug cases were my bread and butter. I knew law enforcement was always trying to build a better mousetrap, and in ten years the electronic eavesdropping business must have undergone at least two revolutions. So I was not completely put at ease. I would still need to exercise caution in what I said and hoped my client would as well.

“Lisa, we’re not going to talk a whole lot here because we don’t know who may be listening. You understand?”

“I think so. But what is happening here? I don’t understand what’s happening! ”

Her voice had risen progressively through the sentence until she was screaming the last word. This was an emotional speaking pattern she had used several times on the phone with me when I was handling only her foreclosure. Now the stakes were higher and I had to draw the line.

“None of that, Lisa,” I said firmly. “You do not scream at me. You understand? If I’m going to represent you on this you do not scream at me.”

“Okay, sorry, but they’re saying I did something I didn’t do.”

“I know and we’re going to fight it. But no screaming.”

Because they had pulled her back before the booking process had begun, Lisa was still in her own clothes. She was wearing a white T-shirt with a flower pattern on the front. I saw no blood on it or anywhere else. Her face was streaked with tears and her brown curly hair was unkempt. She was a small woman and seemed even more so in the harsh light of the room.

“I need to ask you some questions,” I said. “Where were you when the police found you?”

“I was home. Why are they doing this to me? ”

“Lisa, listen to me. You have to calm down and let me ask the questions. This is very important.”

“But what’s going on? No one tells me anything. They said I was under arrest for murdering Mitchell Bondurant. When? How? I didn’t go near that man. I didn’t break the TRO.”

I realized that it would have been better if I had viewed Kurlen’s DVD before speaking with her. But it was par for the course to come into a case at a disadvantage.

“Lisa, you are indeed under arrest for the murder of Mitchell Bondurant. Detective Kurlen-he’s the older one-told me that you made admissions to them in re-”

She shrieked and brought her hands to her face. I saw that she was cuffed at the wrists. A new round of tears started.

“I didn’t admit anything! I didn’t do anything! ”

“Calm down, Lisa. That’s why I’m here. To defend you. But we don’t have a lot of time right now. They’re giving me ten minutes and then they’re going to book you. I need to-”

“I’m going to jail?”

I nodded reluctantly.

“Well, what about bail?”

“It is very hard to get bail on a murder charge. And even if I could get something set, you don’t have the-”

Another piercing wail filled the tiny room. I lost my patience.

“ Lisa! Stop doing that! Now listen, your life is at stake here, okay? You have to calm down and listen to me. I am your attorney and I will do my best to get you out of here but it’s going to take some time. Now listen to my questions and answer them without all the-”

“What about my son? What about Tyler?”

“Someone from my office is making contact with your sister and we will arrange for him to be with her until we can get you out.”

I was very careful not to introduce a hard time line for her release. Until we can get you out. As far as I was concerned, that might be days, weeks or even years. It might never happen. But I did not need to get specific.

Lisa nodded as if there was some relief in knowing her son would be with her sister.

“What about your husband? You have a contact number for him?”

“No, I don’t know where he is and I don’t want you contacting him anyway.”

“Not even for your son?”

“Especially not for my son. My sister will take care of him.”

I nodded and let it go. Now was not the time to ask about her failed marriage.

“Okay, calmly now, let’s talk about this morning. I have the disc from the detectives but I want to go over this myself. You said you were home when Detective Kurlen and his partner arrived. What were you doing?”

“I was… I was on the computer. I was sending e-mails.”

“Okay, to who?”

“To my friends. To people in FLAG. I was telling them that we were going to meet tomorrow at the courthouse at ten and to bring the placards.”

“Okay, and when the detectives showed up, what exactly did they say?”

“The man did all the talking. He-”

“Kurlen.”

“Yes. They came in and he asked me some things. Then he asked if I wouldn’t mind coming to the station to answer questions. I said about what and he said Mitch Bondurant. He didn’t say anything about him being dead or killed. So I said yes. I thought maybe they were finally investigating him. I didn’t know they were investigating me.”

“Well, did he tell you that you had certain rights not to speak to him and to contact a lawyer?”

“Yes, like on TV. He told me my rights.”

“When exactly?”

“When we were already here, when he said I was under arrest.”

“Did you ride with him here?”

“Yes.”

“And did you speak in the car?”

“No, he was on his cell phone almost the whole time. I heard him say things like ‘I have her with me’ and like that.”

“Were you handcuffed?”

“In the car? No.”

Smart Kurlen. He risked riding in the car with an uncuffed murder suspect in order to keep her suspicions down and to lull her into agreeing to speak with him. You can’t build a better mousetrap than that. It would also allow the prosecution to argue that Lisa was not under arrest yet and therefore her statements were voluntary.

“So you were brought here and you agreed to talk to him?”

“Yes. I had no idea they were going to arrest me. I thought I was helping them with a case.”

“But Kurlen didn’t say what the case was.”

“No, never. Not until he said I was under arrest and that I could make a call. And that’s when they handcuffed me, too.”

Kurlen had used some of the oldest tricks in the book but they were still in the book because they worked. I had to watch the DVD to know exactly what Lisa had admitted to, if anything. Asking her about it while she was upset was not the best use of my limited time. As if to underscore this, there was a sudden and sharp knock on the door followed by a muffled voice saying I had two minutes.

“Okay, I am going to go to work on this, Lisa. I need you to sign a couple of documents first, though. This first one is a new contract that covers criminal defense.”

I slid the one-page document over to her and put a pen on top of it. She started to scan it.

“All these fees,” she said. “A hundred fifty thousand dollars for a trial? I can’t pay you this. I don’t have it.”

“That’s a standard fee and that’s only if we go to trial. And as far as what you can pay, that’s what these other documents are for. This one gives me your power of attorney, allowing me to solicit book and movie deals, things like that, coming from the case. I have an agent I work with on this stuff. If there’s a deal out there he’ll get it. The last document puts a lien on any of those funds so that the defense gets paid first.”