“It’s a possibility,” Bosch said.
More silence followed as both detectives contemplated the angles on this part of the case. Bosch knew there were always unanswered questions in every murder, every investigation. Those who were naive called them loose ends, but they were never loose. They stuck with him, clinging to him as he moved on, sometimes waking him up in the night. But they were never loose and he could never get free of them.
“Okay, I’m gonna go,” Bosch finally said. “My kid’s only free till seven and I want to get down there.”
“Okay, Harry,” Ballard said. “I forgot to ask. Did you go down there Saturday night?”
“I did. It was all clear.”
“Well, I guess that’s good.”
“Yeah. So let me know how it goes tomorrow with Kidd. Think he’ll talk?”
“I don’t know. You?”
“I think he’s one of those guys who will waive but then won’t say a thing of value and will try to work you to see what you’ve got on him.”
“Probably. I’ll be ready for that.”
“And don’t forget his wife. She either knows everything or doesn’t know anything, and either way you might be able to work some good stuff out of her.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“I had this case once. Arrested the guy on an old one-eighty-seven and at the preliminary the judge held him over but said the evidence was so thin he was going to set a low bail till the trial. So the guy makes bail and proceeds to do everything he can to delay the triaclass="underline" he fires lawyers right and left, and every new guy asks the judge for more prep time. It goes on and on like that.”
“Enjoy your freedom as long as you can.”
“Right. I mean, why not if you’re out and about on bail? So enjoying his freedom includes meeting this woman and marrying her, apparently never telling her, ‘Oh by the way, baby, someday, eventually, I have to go on trial for murder.’ So—”
“No! You’re kidding?”
“No, this is what he did. I found out after. And so finally, four years into all of these delays, the judge has had enough, says no more delays, and the guy finally goes to trial. But he’s still out on bail and he had a shirt-and-tie job — he was like a Realtor or something. So every day he put on his suit and tie at home and told his wife he was going to work, but he was really going to his own murder trial and keeping it a secret from her. He was hoping he’d get a Not Guilty and she would never know.”
“What happened?”
“Guilty. Bail revoked on the spot and he’s taken away to jail. Can you imagine that? You get a collect call from your husband at the county jail and he says, ‘Honey, I won’t be home for dinner — I just got convicted of murder.’”
Ballard started laughing.
“Men are devious,” Bosch said.
“No,” Ballard said. “Everybody’s devious.”
“But I always wish I’d known the wife had been kept in the dark. Because I think I could have used that. You know — talked to her, enlightened her, maybe gotten her on my side, and who knows what would’ve come out. It’s a funny story but I always thought I should’ve known.”
“Okay, Harry, I’ll remember that. Safe travels and tell your daughter hello.”
“Will do. Happy hunting tomorrow.”
Bosch got back over to the 5 freeway and continued south. The amusement of the story he had told Ballard wore off and soon he was thinking about John Jack Thompson, what he had done, and his possible motives. It felt like such a betrayal to Bosch. The man who mentored him — who instilled in him the belief that every case deserved his best, that everybody counted or nobody counted — that man had submarined a case involving his own blood.
The only saving grace of the moment was that he was going to see his own daughter. Whether he got five minutes with her or fifty, he knew that she would pull him out of darkness, and he would be renewed and able to move on.
Bosch got to Old Towne in the city of Orange at 4:15 p.m. and drove around the Circle twice before finding a parking spot. He went into the Urth Café and ordered a coffee. He texted Maddie his location and said they could meet there or anywhere else she wanted. She texted back that she would let him know as soon as she was free from the meeting she was having with other students regarding a joint psychology project.
Bosch had brought his laptop in with him, as well as a file containing all the reports from the Montgomery murder book that referenced the short-lived Clayton Manley tangent. He tried to escape thoughts of John Jack Thompson by piggybacking on the coffee shop’s Wi-Fi and calling up stories on the case involving Dominick Butino. He found three stories that had run in the Times and he read them now to refresh his memory.
The first story was about Butino’s arrest in Hollywood for assault and mayhem after an attack on a man in the back of a catering truck parked outside an independent studio on Lillian Street. Police at the time said the man who operated the truck, which provided meals for film and TV crews, owed Butino money because he had financed the purchase of the truck. The story said that the man was attacked with a baseball bat and that Butino also went on a rampage inside the catering truck, using the bat to destroy several pieces of food-prep equipment. The victim, who was identified in the story as Angel Hopkins, was listed in critical-but-stable condition at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, with a fractured skull, a ruptured eardrum, and a broken arm.
According to the story, Butino was arrested when an off-duty police officer providing security at the studio on Lillian walked to the truck to purchase coffee and found the suspect standing outside the back door of the truck, wiping blood off a baseball bat with a kitchen apron. Hopkins was then found unconscious on the floor of the truck’s kitchen.
The second story was a follow-up published the next day that identified Butino, of Las Vegas, as a suspected member of a Chicago-based organized-crime family known simply as the Outfit. It also said he was known as “Batman” in organized-crime circles because of his prowess with the black baseball bat he was known to carry when collecting money as part of the Outfit’s loan-sharking operations.
The third story came three months later and it was about the District Attorney’s Office dropping all charges against Butino during the trial, when Angel Hopkins refused to testify against him. The prosecutor explained to reporters that despite the officer who happened on the scene being willing to tell his part of the story, the case could not move forward without the victim telling jurors what happened, who did it, and why. Butino’s attorney, William Michaelson, was quoted in the story as saying the whole thing was a misunderstanding and misidentification of his client. Michaelson praised the justice system for a just result in a case that had brought his client undue publicity and stress.
It was obvious to Bosch that Hopkins had been intimidated or paid off by Batman or his associates, maybe even his lawyers.
Bosch saw a few other mentions on Google of Butino being involved in activities in Las Vegas. One story was about a campaign donation he had made to a mayoral candidate being returned by the candidate because of Butino’s background. The story quoted the candidate as saying, “I don’t want any money from Batman.”
Another story was simply a name check in which the mobster was mentioned as being in front-row attendance at a boxing match at the MGM Grand.
A third story was the most recent and was about a federal RICO investigation into the corrupt practices of a Las Vegas company that provided linens for several casino resorts on the Strip. Butino was mentioned as a minority owner of the linen and laundry company.