The Night Fire (Renée Ballard, #3)(34)

“It means exactly what it says: the subject refused any help from us and just got up and walked away. He went out the door and that was that. I don’t know why it’s so important.”

“Well, let’s try to make it clear to you. What does—”

Saldano stood up and objected.

“Your Honor, he’s badgering his own witness when the witness has legitimate concerns about what he is doing here. As do I.”

“Mr. Haller, you know better,” Falcone said.

“Yes, Your Honor,” Haller said.

“And I join the witness and the prosecutor in questioning how we are advancing the search for truth with this witness,” the judge added.

Morales looked out into the gallery and found Bosch. He gave him a fuck-you look.

“Judge,” Haller said, “I think it will become clear to all concerned very quickly if I am allowed to proceed with my witness.”

“Then please do,” Falcone said.

Haller checked his watch as if noting the time and read Bosch’s first text: Get to the gizmo.

“Mr. Morales, the summary on your incident report says ‘All vitals good. Oxygen levels good.’ What does that mean?”

“His pulse and blood pressure were measured and within acceptable levels. His blood was oxygenated. Nothing was wrong.”

“And how did you arrive at that conclusion?”

“I measured his pulse and my partner took his blood pressure. One of us put an oximeter on his finger.”

“Is all of that routine?”

“Yes.”

“What does the oximeter do?”

“It measures the oxygen content in the blood. You get a good idea about how the heart is working in terms of circulating oxygenated blood.”

“Is that why it is clipped to the finger? You want the measurement from an extremity?”

“Exactly.”

“Now I noticed today that you brought your EMT kit with you, is that correct?”

“Yes, because the subpoena told me to.”

“This oximeter you just mentioned, is it in your kit?”

“Should be.”

“Can you open your kit and show the oximeter to the jury?”

Morales reached down to the floor next to the witness stand and unsnapped the latches on his kit. He flipped the top open and grabbed a small device out of a tray. He held it up to Haller, then turned and displayed it to the jury.

“How does that work, Mr. Morales?” Haller asked.

“Simple,” Morales said. “Turn it on, clip it to the finger, and it shoots infrared light through the finger. From that it can measure the oxygen saturation of the blood.”

“And you just clip it to any finger?”

“The index finger.”

“Either hand?”

“Either hand.”

“How long did you treat Jeffrey Herstadt that day?”

“Can I look at the report?”

“You may.”

Morales looked over the report and then answered. “From beginning to end, when he walked away, it was eleven minutes.”

“Then what did you do?”

“Well, first we realized he walked away with our oximeter still on his finger. I chased him down and grabbed that. Then we packed up, bought a couple lattes, and left.”

“You returned to the station?”

“Yes.”

“Where is that station?”

“On Fremont and First.”

“Quite close to here, correct?”

“Yes.”

“In fact you walked here from the station, with your kit, to testify today, isn’t that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Did you walk through Grand Park?”

“Yes.”

“Had you ever been in Grand Park before?”

“Yes.”

“When was that?”

“Many times. It’s part of Station Three’s coverage area.”

“Going back to the day you treated Jeffrey Herstadt at Starbucks, did Rescue Three receive another emergency call soon after your return to the station that morning?”

“Yes.”

“What was the call?”

“It was a stabbing. It was this case. The judge that got stabbed.”

Bosch glanced away from Morales to Saldano. She had leaned toward the junior prosecutor, who was sitting next to her, and whispered in his ear. He then got up and went to a cardboard file box that was on a chair by the courtroom rail. He started going through documents.

“Do you remember how soon you got the call after returning from treating Mr. Herstadt and checking his vitals?” Haller asked.

“Not offhand,” Morales said.

Haller went through the same procedure of asking the judge’s permission to give Morales an incident report, this one from the Montgomery stabbing.

“Does that shed light on things, Mr. Morales?” Haller asked.

“If you say so,” Morales countered.

“If you compare it to the first incident report, does it not say that the calls were one hour and nine minutes apart?”

“Looks like it.”

“So let’s keep going with this. You said you were with Herstadt for eleven minutes, then got a latte. How long did that take?”