Майкл Коннелли - Law of Innocence

The bedroom TV remote was on the bed within reach, having been left there by Kendall the night before. I turned on the flat-screen and immediately muted the sound. I switched on the closed captions and started reading the news. The House was planning to send articles of impeachment to the Senate for what everybody in the country new was a nonstarter. But it was monopolizing the news feed. I watched and read captions for twenty minutes before another story broke in for a few seconds of airtime. It was a report on rising concerns in Asia after the mystery virus originating in Wuhan, China, was confirmed as having jumped borders to other countries.

I heard my phone ringing out in the living room. I checked my watch. It was now 8:45 and I believed the ankle monitor had sufficiently charged to the point where there would be no alarm beep if I disconnected it. I quickly yanked out the charging line and moved quickly to get the phone. I missed the call but saw it had come from Bosch. I called him right back.

“Mick, there’s an issue with the cellmate,” he said.

“You’re at the prison?” I asked.

“I’m here and I saw the guy. His name is Austin Neiderland, but he won’t talk to me. Says he’s got a name that will tell us all we need to know about what Sam Scales was into. But he wouldn’t give me the name.”

“What’s he want? He’s got to be through his appeals by now.”

“He wants you, Mick.”

“What’s that mean?”

“He said he would give only you the name. He knows about you. Scales must’ve told him that you were a good lawyer. Neiderland says he’ll give you the name if you just come up, sign in as his lawyer, and talk to him. See if there’s anything to be done on his case, I guess. He’s still got two years on his sentence. That means he still has to do eighteen months.”

“You mean today? Come there today?”

“Can you? I’ll set it up and wait here for you.”

“Harry, I can’t. I’ve got an ankle monitor and bail restrictions. I can’t leave the county.”

“Shit, I forgot.”

“What about a video connection? Can we set up something like that?”

“I checked and the prison only does it for court hearings. No teleconferencing interviews or attorney-client meetings.”

There was silence on the phone while I thought about this.

“So, what else did he say about this name?” I finally asked. “I mean, what if we jump through all these hoops and he says, yeah, it’s Louis Opparizio. Then we’re nowhere. We already have that name.”

“It’s not Opparizio,” Bosch said. “I tried that name on him and got a read. He didn’t know it.”

“Okay, so can this even be done today? I have court tomorrow. Even if I can convince the judge to let me go up there, I have to be back tonight—tomorrow morning at the latest. You think I can get in and out? It’s a prison, and they don’t like cooperating with defense lawyers.”

“Your call, Mick, but if you have to talk to the judge to get permission, maybe she can write you an order that gets you in.”

“Different states, Harry. She doesn’t have jurisdiction.”

“Well … what do you want to do?”

“Okay, hold tight. I’ll see what I can do. I’ll call you back as soon as I know something.”

I disconnected and thought about the best way to approach this. Then I called Lorna and asked if there was anything on my schedule.

“Your first witness list is due today,” she said. “But that’s it. And then you have the continuation of yesterday’s hearing tomorrow at one.”

“Okay, I already have a wit list ready,” I said. “I’ll send it in. I might be going to Las Vegas—if the judge lets me.”

“What’s in Vegas?”

“A prison where Sam Scales last served time. I want to talk to the guy he shared a cell with.”

“Good luck with that. Let me know.”

I next called Judge Warfield’s courtroom and got her clerk, Andrew. I said I wanted to set up a teleconference with the judge requesting that I be allowed to leave the county for the day to pursue a witness. The clerk said he would check with the judge and call me back. I reminded him that Dana Berg would need to be alerted.

While I waited, I decided to act as if I would gain the judge’s permission and I booked flights on JetSuite out of Burbank to Las Vegas. The outbound left in two hours.

Thirty minutes went by with no return call from the judge or her clerk. I called the courtroom back and pushed for an answer. Andrew said the judge was okay with a teleconference but Dana Berg had not responded to a message left for her.

“Can the judge just talk to me, then?” I asked. “This is time-sensitive. I can see this potential witness today only and need to know whether I can go. If you leave a message for Berg saying when the conference is taking place, my guess is she’ll respond and be on the call. If you just wait for her to call back, we’re going to be waiting all day.”

The clerk took what I said under advisement and said he would get back to me. Another twenty minutes went by and Andrew called, saying he was connecting me to a conference call with the judge and Deputy D.A. Dana Berg. My plane was leaving in seventy minutes.

Soon I heard the judge’s voice on the phone.

“I think we have everybody here,” she said. “Mr. Haller, you are asking for a deviation in bail restrictions?”

“Yes, Your Honor, just for one day,” I said. “I need to go to Las Vegas to see a witness.”

“Las Vegas. Really, Mr. Haller?”

“It’s not what you think, Judge. I won’t be anywhere near the Strip. Sam Scales was last incarcerated at High Desert State Prison about an hour north of Las Vegas. His cellmate is still there and I want to talk to him. The prosecution has given us nothing through discovery regarding Scales’s activities leading up to the murder. The cellmate could be an important witness for the defense. One of my investigators is at the prison as we speak. He said the inmate will only talk to me. I’ve booked an eleven forty flight to Vegas and a seven o’clock flight back.”

“That was a bit presumptuous, was it not, Mr. Haller?”

“No, Your Honor. I did not anticipate how the court would rule. I just wanted to make sure I could get there should the court allow it.”

“Ms. Berg, are you still with us? Does the prosecution object to the defense request?”

“Here, Your Honor,” Berg said. “I would first like to ask the name of the inmate he is going to see.”

“Austin Neiderland,” I said. “He’s at High Desert State Prison.”

“Your Honor,” Berg said. “The state objects to this travel outside of bail restrictions and maintains its original argument from the bail hearing. We believe Mr. Haller is a flight risk. More now than before because the closer we get to trial, the clearer it becomes to Mr. Haller that his conviction and permanent incarceration are certain.”

“Judge, the prosecution’s statement is ridiculous,” I said quickly. “I’ve now been out of custody for five weeks and I have done nothing but prepare for my defense, even with the handicap of being pitted against a prosecution that does not like to play by the rules.”

“Your Honor, there is no handicap and there is no evidence that the prosecution doesn’t play by the rules,” Berg said forcefully. “Defense counsel has been engaged since the beginning of—”

“Stop it, stop it,” Warfield shouted. “I do not intend to start my day playing referee to you two. I’m growing very weary of that. Now, as to the request, has counsel explored the possibility of teleconferencing this interview?”

“Yes, Your Honor,” I said. “Believe me, that would be the way to go, but my investigator told me the prison does not make that available for meetings besides court hearings.”