The Night Fire (Renée Ballard, #3)(35)

“I don’t remember.”

“Do you remember if there was a line?”

“It was a Starbucks. There was a line.”

“Okay, so at least a few minutes there. Did you and your partner sit down with your lattes or take them to go?”

“Took them to go.”

“And you returned directly to the station?”

“Yes, direct.”

“Is there some sort of protocol or procedure you follow after returning from a rescue call?”

“We replenish supplies, write the reports.”

“Finish your latte first?”

“I don’t remember.”

“But then you get this call, a stabbing in Grand Park, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And you roll on it.”

“Yes.”

“How long did it take you and your partner to get there?”

Morales looked at the incident report.

“Four minutes,” he said.

“Was the victim, Judge Montgomery, alive when you got there?” Haller asked.

“He was circling the drain.”

“What does that mean?”

“He was dying. He’d lost too much blood and was unresponsive. No pulse. There was nothing we could really do for him.”

“You just said ‘no pulse.’ So you checked his vitals despite the fact that, as you say, ‘he was circling the drain’?”

There it was, Bosch knew. The trial came down to this question.

“We did. It’s protocol. No matter what, you do that.”

“With the oximeter?”

Morales didn’t answer. It looked to Bosch like he had finally tumbled to the importance of his testimony and realized that everything could shift on his answer.

“With the oximeter?” Haller asked again.

“Yes,” Morales finally said. “Part of the protocol.”

“Was that the same oximeter used less than an hour earlier to check the vitals of Jeffrey Herstadt?”

“It would have been.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes.”

“A moment, Your Honor.”

Haller let that last answer hang out there in front of the jury. Bosch knew that he was trying to make a decision about the next question. He fired off a quick text: Ask the?

He saw Haller check his watch and read it.

“Mr. Haller?” Falcone prompted.

“Your Honor,” Haller said. “May I have another moment to confer with my investigator?”

“Make it fast,” Falcone said.

Bosch got up, slid his phone into his pocket, and walked up the aisle to the rail. Haller came over and they whispered.

“This is it,” Haller said. “I think I leave it here.”

“I thought you were rolling the dice,” Bosch said.

“I am. I did. But I go too far and I blow the whole thing.”

“If you don’t ask, the prosecutor will.”

“Don’t be so sure about that. Cuts both ways for her too. She might not ask him a thing.”

“It’s a search for truth. The judge said so; you said so. Ask the question. Or I’m not your investigator.”

Bosch turned to go back to where he had been sitting. For the first time he noticed Renée Ballard was in the courtroom, on the other side of the gallery. He had not seen her come in and had no idea how long she had been there.

Once seated, he turned his attention back to the front of the room. Haller was staring at Morales, still deciding whether to quit while he was ahead or ask the question that could win or lose the day—and the trial.

“Mr. Haller, do you have another question?” the judge prompted.

“Yes, Your Honor, I do,” Haller said.

“Then ask it.”

“Yes, Your Honor. Mr. Morales, between the two rescue calls you went out on, where was the oximeter?”

“In my kit.”

Bosch saw Haller ball his hand into a fist and bounce it lightly on the lectern like he was spiking a ball after a touchdown.

“You didn’t take it out?”

“No.”

“You didn’t clean or disinfect it?”

“No.”

“You didn’t sterilize it?”

“No.”

“Mr. Morales, do you know what DNA transfer is?”

Saldano jumped to her feet and objected. She argued that Morales was not a DNA expert and should not be allowed to give testimony regarding the transfer of DNA. Before the judge could respond, Haller did.

“I withdraw the question,” he said.

It was clear Haller knew the objection would come. He had just wanted to get the phrase DNA transfer into the record and the jury thinking about it. Haller’s next witness would close the deal on that.

“Then do you have another question, Mr. Haller?” the judge asked.

“No, Your Honor,” Haller said. “I have nothing further.”

Haller returned to the defense table, glancing back at Bosch and giving a nod as he went. Bosch checked the row of reporters. They seemed frozen. There was a stillness to the courtroom that underlined what Haller had just done with his questioning of Morales.

“Ms. Saldano, do you wish to cross-examine the witness or take some prep time?” the judge asked.