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Bosch got up from the table and went into the kitchen to make more coffee. He was still stinging from the rebuke Reyes had hit him with. He had no doubt about his actions regarding Jeffrey Herstadt, but it stung when a representative of the police department he had invested three decades of his life in dismissed him so harshly.
A killer walks free because of you.
Those words hurt enough for Bosch to want to take another look at his actions to see if he had taken a wrong turn somewhere.
He checked his watch. He had an hour before he needed to get on the road to meet with Ballard. She had sent a message setting a rendezvous point at a gas station before she would go into Dulan’s to spy on the meeting between Elvin Kidd and Marcel Dupree.
Bosch refilled his cup and went back to the dining room table. He decided he would do exactly what Reyes suggested: he would Google the Tampa case and get the latest update.
Before he got the chance, his cell phone buzzed. It was Mickey Haller.
“About that thing we talked about at lunch during the trial,” he said, “when do you want to do the video?”
Bosch’s mind was so deep into his review of the Montgomery investigation that he had no idea what Haller was talking about.
“What video?” he asked.
“Remember, CML?” Haller said. “Chronic myeloid leukemia? I want to take a video deposition with you and get rolling on that, send out a demand letter with the video.”
Now Bosch remembered.
“Uh, it’s gotta wait a bit,” he said.
“Why is that?” Haller said. “I mean, you came to me with it. You know, make sure Maddie is covered. Now it’s gotta wait?”
“Just a bit. I have two different cases I’m working. I don’t have time to sit for a video. Give me about a week.”
Bosch thought of something as he mentioned the cases.
“It’s your life,” Haller said. “I’m here when you’re ready.”
“Hey, listen,” Bosch said. “I don’t know if this will happen but I might end up going to see another lawyer. Not because I want to hire him but I want him to think I do. I might mention this case — the CML thing — and he might ask why I chose him. All right if I tell him you recommended him? Then if he checks with you, you cover for me and let me know.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“It’s complicated. His name is Clayton Manley. All you need to do if he calls is say yes, you recommended him to me.”
“Clayton Manley — why is that name familiar?”
“He was an early-on suspect in the Montgomery killing.”
“Oh, yeah. I knew it. You’re working that case, aren’t you? You think Manley’s the killer?”
Bosch was now regretting having brought up the half-formed idea. “I’m reviewing the murder book — at least what you got in discovery,” he said. “I may want to size up Manley with a ruse. That’s where you would come in.”
“The case is over, Harry,” he said. “We won!”
“You won, but the case isn’t over. I have it directly from the LAPD that they aren’t doing anything with it because they still say it was Herstadt. It’s case closed over there and that means nobody’s doing a damn thing to find the real killer.”
“Except you now. You’re a dog with a bone, Bosch.”
“Whatever. Are we good on the Manley thing? In case it happens?”
“We’re good. Just don’t hire him for real.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
They disconnected and Bosch got back to his Google search. He quickly found and pulled up a story from the Tampa Bay Times on the arrest of two suspects in the killing of Larry and Melanie Cassidy.
Two men were arrested Thursday in the double slaying of a California couple who were found shot to death execution-style in a car parked at the Palma Ceia Country Club last February.
At a press conference at the Tampa Police Department, Chief Richard “Red” Pittman announced the arrests of Gabriel Cardozo and Donald Fields in the slayings of Larry and Melanie Cassidy on February 18. Both men are being held without bail pending arraignment on the charges.
Pittman said the killings were motivated by money. Larry Cassidy was known to have been carrying at least $42,000 in cash that he had won earlier that day at the Hard Rock Resort & Casino. Pittman said the suspects abducted the couple in their own car and had them drive to a darkened corner of the empty parking lot of the Palma Ceia Country Club, which is closed on Mondays. They forced Larry Cassidy to turn over the cash he was carrying as well as jewelry both victims were wearing. It was believed that Cardozo then executed the couple with shots to the back of the head.
“It was cold-blooded,” Pittman said. “They got what they wanted — the money and jewelry — but then they killed them anyway. It was heartless. The indications from the crime scene are that the victims put up no resistance.”
Pittman said Cardozo was believed to have been the shooter. The police chief praised the work of Detectives Julio Muniz and George Companioni in bringing the case to closure. According to Pittman, the two detectives solved the case by painstakingly back-tracing the movements of the doomed couple throughout the days before the murders.
Muniz and Companioni learned that the Cassidy couple had arrived from Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 17, for an appearance by Melanie Cassidy on the Home Shopping Network scheduled for the following Tuesday afternoon. Melanie Cassidy regularly hosted a sales segment regarding a unique student lunch box that she and her husband had created. The two had been to Tampa on several prior occasions and routinely stayed at the Hard Rock because they enjoyed the casino. They were also regulars at Bern’s Steakhouse.
Pittman stated that the Hard Rock security team was fully cooperative with the investigation. Muniz and Companioni were able to use casino surveillance cameras to trace the couple’s movements during the day of the killings. They were seen gambling and winning a jackpot on one of the progressive play tables, meaning that a community pot continually grows in value as gamblers from all connected tables play. Certain winning hands draw a percentage of winnings from the progressive pot. Larry Cassidy won a $42,000 jackpot and cashed in the casino check he received after the win.
Pittman said they also observed two men in the casino watching the couple’s movements after the jackpot win. The two men, later identified as Cardozo and Fields, were traced by the detectives as well. It is believed, according to the investigators, that they followed the Cassidy couple when they left the casino to celebrate their winnings during a dinner at Bern’s. In an earlier report, the Times spoke with James Braswell, who served the couple. He said the couple were regulars but that Monday night they were more celebratory than usual, buying a bottle of expensive champagne and even sharing it with a couple at a nearby table.
Pittman said that after dinner the couple left the restaurant and drove toward Bayshore Boulevard on their way back to their hotel. At the red light at Howard Avenue and Bayshore, they were rear-ended by the car behind them. When Larry Cassidy got out to check for damage to his rental car, he was confronted by Cardozo, who showed he had a handgun in his belt. He ordered Cassidy back into his car and then got into the back seat behind him. The Cassidy car then proceeded to Palma Ceia on MacDill Avenue, with Fields following in the suspects’ car. The killings occurred shortly after the car was parked.