“Nice. LAPD cold case comes to the rescue. Take that, L.A. Times.”
“Exactly.”
“How cold was the case?”
“It was late nineties down here. He then moved up to Oakland. They arrested him there.”
“Cool.”
“By the way, did you know Harry Bosch’s daughter is now working with the Open-Unsolved Unit? With Harry and Reneé Ballard, who runs it, as mentors, that girl is going to be a top-notch investigator, and she’s not even thirty.”
“Yeah, Harry told me that last time we talked. Was this thing her case?”
“She was part of it. They work everything as a team. She wrote some of the reports I looked at. They were well done. Made my job easy.”
“And the press conference was well attended?”
“We got them all. Five local stations, the Times, the Daily News, and La Opinión — one of the victims was Latina.”
“Cool. Hopefully you get all of them when you clear my guy Snow.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that.”
“As soon as this trial is over, I’m coming in with that case.”
“Bring it, we’ll sling it.”
I smiled at the old prosecutor’s line. I was happy to see that Maggie was out of the trough. But I was still down there on the low end of the wave, and my thoughts drifted back to the debacle at the end of what had been a good day. I had put an ethicist on the stand who was revealed to be unethical after just five minutes of questioning by the defense. There was nothing Maggie or anybody else could say to ameliorate the situation. Besides not knowing what I should have known about my own witness, I was guilty of underestimating Marcus Mason. He had landed the first significant blow of the trial and I had not seen it coming. In a way, that stung more than the damage he had done to my witness. I resolved not to let that happen again.
My phone buzzed and I dug it out of my pocket to look at the screen.
“It’s Cisco,” I said. “All right if I take it? He’s been working damage control tonight.”
“Of course,” Maggie said. “Take it. I need a refill.”
She got up with her glass and headed back toward the kitchen as I took the call.
“Cisco,” I said. “What have you got?”
“Well, I got Patrick May,” he said. “They’ve got him here in town, so I guess he’s going to testify. Is that kosher? His name isn’t on the witness list.”
“He’ll be a rebuttal witness. They can do that. Where did they stash him?”
“The Bad Adventure. Under Mitchell Mason’s name. I’m in the lobby now.”
The local nickname for the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown.
“But here’s the real news,” Cisco said. “Your client Bruce Colton was here too.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “He’s staying in the hotel?”
“I don’t think so. He was sitting in the lobby when I got here. Like he was waiting for someone. Then—”
“Did he see you?”
“No. This place has so many levels, I was able to keep an eye on him from a distance. Then I see the Mason brothers coming down in one of the glass elevators, and they meet up with Bruce for a while. I couldn’t get close enough to hear what was said but Bruce didn’t look happy. He ended up signing a piece of paper that Marcus took out of his briefcase. After Bruce signed it, everybody stood up, shook hands, and went their separate ways.”
“Did the Masons leave the hotel or go back up?”
“No, all three of them left. I think Patrick May is probably up there by himself if you want me to go door-knock him.”
I had to think about that for a moment. I also had to think about what Bruce Colton was doing there and what document he had signed. I had already dealt with a runaway witness. It now appeared I had a runaway client.
“No, don’t go up,” I said. “The defense won’t get the case till Friday, so he’ll be there a few days at least.”
“Whatever you say,” Cisco replied.
It struck me as odd that the Masons had brought May down days before I would rest my case and they could start presenting witnesses. It told me they believed I might shorten my presentation after Naomi Kitchens was destroyed on the stand.
“Cisco, how do you know it’s actually Patrick May they have up there?” I asked.
“His cell,” Cisco said. “I got my guy to track it to a tower, and it’s on the roof of the hotel. I can go up and confirm it’s him if you want. I’ll use a cover story. He won’t know me from Adam.”
I knew Cisco had a source who could track cell phones to whatever cell tower their signal was currently connected to. It was illegal and that was why the source was paid a thousand bucks a pop.
“No, don’t go up,” I said. “Let’s see how things play out tomorrow.”
“You’re the boss,” Cisco said. “You want me to clear?”
My phone started to buzz with an incoming call. I took it off my ear and saw that it was Marcus Mason.
“Cisco, I’ve got another call,” I said. “It’s Marcus Mason. Let me take it and you can clear.”
“Roger that,” he said. “See you mañana.”
I switched to the other call. “Marcus, what’s up?”
“I wanted to let you know that you’re down to one client, Haller. We just settled with Bruce and Trisha Colton, and being the good guy I am, I thought I’d check to see if you wanted to talk about a settlement with your remaining client. I figured after the witness implosion that occurred today, you might want to bring this thing to a quick and still profitable end.”
“Don’t gloat, Marcus. It’s not a good look on you. What did you give the Coltons to go away?”
“Well, there is a nondisclosure component to this, but since you are still the attorney of record, I can tell you that we agreed to a cash settlement of three million dollars, all in. After what happened at the end of court today, leverage has shifted. The fifty million is off the table. We gave them three; we’ll give your client five to be done with this.”
I knew that meant they would probably go to ten, but it was still a dramatic fall from the last sum Tidalwaiv had offered. My hope was that I would be able to convince Brenda Randolph to turn the money down and stay the course. Today had ended badly, but it had inspired me to do better. I was still convinced I had a winnable case.
“I have to talk to my client,” I said. “I’ll give you an answer before court begins tomorrow.”
“Perfect,” Mason said.
“And Marcus, just so you know, I’ll be advising her to forget any settlement and go the distance at trial.”
“Then, Haller, you’ll be making a bigger mistake than the one you made today.”
He disconnected and I immediately called Cisco back. He answered with the roar of his Harley in my ear and a yell to hold on. He pulled to a stop somewhere and cut the engine.
“What did Mason want?” he asked.
“To tell me he settled with the Coltons,” I said. “They took three million to go away.”
“Shit. What’s that do to us?”
“Nothing. He made a lowball offer to Brenda that I’m pretty sure she’ll give a pass to. So we go on. The one good thing is I won’t need to handle Bruce with kid gloves when I put him on the stand. First thing tomorrow I’ll get a subpoena from the judge. I want you to find him and deliver it. I’m calling him tomorrow afternoon and I want him there.”
“You got it. What else?”
“That’s it for now.”
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I heard the big Harley rumble back to life before he disconnected. I put the phone on the table next to my chair.