Michael Connelly: The Brass Verdict

I could see it strike fear in her eyes.

“Guess you haven’t heard from him, have you? Yeah, I don’t think they’re letting him make any calls while they debrief him. You better hope he doesn’t have any of that evidence. Because if he puts you in that triangle, then you’ll be trading your black robe for an orange jumpsuit.”

“Get out or I will call courthouse security and have you arrested!”

She pointed toward the door. I calmly and slowly stood up.

“Sure, I’ll go. And you know something? I may never practice law again in this courthouse. But I promise you that I’ll come back to watch you prosecuted. You and your husband. Count on it.”

The judge stared at me, her arm still extended toward the door, and I saw the anger in her eyes slowly change to fear. Her arm drooped a little and then she let it drop all the way. I left her standing there.

I took the stairs all the way down because I didn’t want to get on a crowded elevator. Eleven flights down. At the bottom I pushed through the glass doors and left the courthouse. I pulled my phone and called Patrick and told him to pull the car around. Then I called Bosch.

“I decided to light a fire under you and the bureau,” I told him.

“What do you mean? What did you do?”

“I didn’t want to wait around while the bureau took its usual year and a half to make a case. Sometimes justice can’t wait, Detective.”

“What did you do, Haller?”

“I just had a conversation with Judge Holder – yes, I figured it out without McSweeney’s help. I told her the feds had McSweeney and he was cooperating. If I were you and the bureau, I’d hurry the fuck up with your case and in the meantime keep tabs on her. She doesn’t seem like a runner to me, but you never know. Have a good day.”

I closed the phone before he could protest my actions. I didn’t care. He had used me the whole time. It felt good to turn the tables on him, make him and the FBI do the dancing at the end of the string.

Bosch knocked on my door early Thursday morning. I hadn’t combed my hair yet but I was dressed. He, on the other hand, looked like he had pulled an all-nighter.

“I wake you?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“I have to get my kid ready for school.”

“That’s right. Wednesday nights and every other weekend.”

“What’s up, Detective?”

“I’ve got a couple of questions and I thought you might be interested in knowing where things stand on everything.”

“Sure. Let’s sit out here. I don’t want her hearing this.”

I patted down my hair as I walked toward the table.

“I don’t want to sit,” Bosch said. “I don’t have a lot of time.”

He turned to the railing and leaned his elbows down on it. I changed directions and did the same thing right next to him.

“I don’t like to sit when I’m out here either.”

“I have the same sort of view at my place,” he said. “Only it’s on the other side.”

“I guess that makes us flip sides of the same mountain.”

He turned his eyes from the view to me for a moment.

“Something like that,” he said.

“So, what’s happening? I thought you’d be too angry with me to ever tell me what was going on.”

“Truth is, I think the bureau moves too slowly myself. They didn’t like what you did very much but I didn’t mind. It got things rolling.”

Bosch straightened up and leaned back on the railing, the view of the city behind him.

“So then, what’s happening?” I asked.

“The grand jury came back with indictments last night. Holder, Lester, Carlin, McSweeney, and a woman who’s a supervisor in the jury office and was the one who gave them access to the computers. We’re taking them all down simultaneously this morning. So keep it under your hat until we have everybody hooked up.”

It was nice that he trusted me enough to tell me before the arrests. I thought it might be even nicer to go down to the CCB and watch them take Holder out of there in handcuffs.

“Is it solid?” I asked. “Holder is a judge, you know. You better have it nailed down.”

“It’s solid. McSweeney gave it all up. We’ve got phone records, money transfers. He even taped her husband during some of the conversations.”

I nodded. It sounded like the typical federal package. One reason I never took on federal cases when I was practicing was that when the Big G made a case, it usually stayed made. Victories for the defense were rare. Most times you just got flattened like roadkill.

“I didn’t know Carlin was hooked up in this,” I said.

“He’s right at the center. He goes way back with the judge and she used him to approach Vincent in the first place. Vincent used him to deliver the money. Then when Vincent started getting cold feet because the FBI was sniffing around, Carlin got wind of it and told the judge. She thought the best thing to do was get rid of the weak link. She and her husband sent McSweeney to take care of Vincent.”

“Got wind of it how? Wren Williams?”

“Yeah, we think. He got close to her to keep tabs on Vincent. We don’t think she knew what was going on. She’s not smart enough.”

I nodded and thought about how all the pieces fit together.

“What about McSweeney? He just did what he was told? The judge tells him to hit a guy and he just does it?”

“First of all, McSweeney was a con man before he was a killer. So I don’t for a minute think we’re getting the whole truth out of him. But he says the judge can be very persuasive. The way she explained it to him, either Vincent went down or they all went down. There was no choice. Besides, she also promised to increase his cut after he went through with the trial and tipped the case.”

I nodded.

“So what are the indictments?”

“Conspiracy to commit murder, corruption. This is only the first wave. There will be more down the road. This wasn’t the first time. McSweeney told us he’d been on four juries in the last seven years. Two acquittals and two hangers. Three different courthouses.”

I whistled as I thought of some of the big cases that had ended in shocking acquittals or hung juries in recent years.

“Robert Blake?”

Bosch smiled and shook his head.

“I wish,” he said. “O.J., too. But they weren’t in business back then for that one. We just lost those cases on our own.”

“Doesn’t matter. This is going to be huge.”

“Biggest one I’ve ever had.”

He folded his arms and glanced over his shoulder at the view.

“You’ve got the Sunset Strip and I’ve got Universal,” he said.

I heard the door open and looked back to see Hayley peeking out.

“Dad?”

“What’s up, Hay?”

“Is everything all right?”

“Everything’s fine. Hayley, this is Detective Bosch. He’s a policeman.”

“Hello, Hayley,” Bosch said.

I think it was the only time I had ever seen him put a real smile on his face.

“Hi,” my daughter said.

“Hayley, did you eat your cereal?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay, then you can watch TV until it’s time to go.”

She disappeared inside and closed the door. I checked my watch. She still had ten minutes before we had to leave.

“She’s a cute kid,” Bosch said.

I nodded.

“I gotta ask you a question,” he said. “You started this whole thing tumbling, didn’t you? You sent that anonymous letter to the judge.”

I thought for a moment before answering.

“If I say yes, am I going to become a witness?”

I had not been called to the federal grand jury after all. With McSweeney giving everything up, they apparently didn’t need me. And I didn’t want to change that now.