The Fifth Witness - Michael Connelly [42]
We also scored when footage from video cameras in the bank building and garage entrance failed to show Lisa Trammel during the time before and after the killing. The cameras did not cover the entire facility but that was beside the point. It was exculpatory evidence.
Now my cell phone started to vibrate. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at the ID. It was my agent, Joel Gotler, calling. I hesitated but then took the call.
“You’re working late,” I said by way of answering.
“Yeah, don’t you read your e-mails?” Gotler said. “I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“Sorry, my computer’s right here but I’ve been busy. What’s going on?”
“We’ve got a big problem. Do you read Deadline Hollywood?”
“No, what’s that?”
“It’s a blog. Look it up on your computer.”
“Now?”
“Yeah, now. Do it.”
I closed the blood file and slid it aside. I pulled my laptop over and opened it. I went online and navigated to the Deadline Hollywood site. I started scrolling. It looked like a list of short reports on Hollywood deals, box office estimates and studio comings and goings. Who bought and sold what, who left what agency, who was going down and who was going up, that sort of thing.
“Okay, what am I looking for here?”
“Scroll down to three forty-five this afternoon.”
The posts on the blog were time-stamped. I did as instructed and came to the late afternoon post Gotler wanted me to see. The headline alone kicked me in the nuts.
Archway Grabs Real-Life Murder Mystery
Dahl/McReynolds to produce
Sources tell me that Archway Pictures has anted up six figures against a seven-figure backend to acquire rights to the foreclosure-revenge case currently twisting its way through the justice system here in LaLaLand. The accused, Lisa Trammel, was represented by Herb Dahl in the deal and he will produce alongside Archway’s Clegg McReynolds. The multitiered deal includes TV and documentary rights. The ending of the story, however, has yet to be written as Trammel still faces trial in the murder of the banker who was trying to foreclose on her house. In a press release McReynolds said Trammel’s story will be used to put a magnifying glass on the foreclosure epidemic that has swept across the country in recent years. She is expected to go to trial in two months.
“That motherfucker,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s about right,” Gotler said. “What the hell is going on? I’m out there trying to sell this thing and was very close to a deal with Lakeshore and then I read this! Are you kidding me, Haller? You stab me in the back like this?”
“Look, I don’t know exactly what is going on here but I have a contract with Lisa Trammel and—”
“Do you know this guy Dahl? I do and he’s a complete sleaze.”
“I know, I know. He tried to make a move and I shut his ass down. He got Lisa to sign something but—”
“Ah, jeez, she signed with this guy?”
“No. I mean yes, but after she signed with me. I have a contract. I have first po—”
I stopped right there. The contracts. I remembered making copies and giving them to Dahl. I then put the originals back in the file in the trunk of the Lincoln. Dahl saw the whole thing.
“Son of a bitch!”
“What is it?”
I looked at the stack of files on the corner of my desk. They had all been generated by the Lisa Trammel case. But I had not brought in the files from the trunk of the Lincoln because I had been lazy. I figured they were all old contracts and old cases and maybe I wasn’t sure how I would ultimately like working out of a bricks-and-mortar office. The contracts file was still in the trunk.
“Joel, I’ll call you right back.”
“Hey, what is—”
I closed the phone and headed to the door.