The Fifth Witness - Michael Connelly [92]
“You went to the scene?”
“Yes, immediately. We arrived at nine thirty and took control of the scene.”
“What did that entail?”
“Well, the first priority is to preserve and collect the evidence from the crime scene. The patrol officers had already taped off the area and were keeping people away. Once we were satisfied that everything was covered there, we divvied up responsibilities. I left my partner in charge of overseeing the crime scene investigation and I would conduct preliminary interviews of the witnesses the patrol officers were holding for questioning.”
“Detective Longstreth is a less experienced detective than you, correct?”
“Yes, she has been working homicide investigations with me for three years.”
“Why did you give the junior member of your team the very important job of overseeing the crime scene investigation?”
“I did it that way because I knew that the crime scene people and the coroner’s investigator who were on scene were all veterans with many years on the job and that Cynthia would be with good experienced hands.”
Freeman then led Kurlen through a series of questions about his interviews with the gathered witnesses, starting with Riki Sanchez, who had discovered the body and called 911. Kurlen was at ease on the stand and almost folksy in his delivery. The word that came to mind was charming.
I didn’t like charming but I had to bide my time. I knew it might be the end of the day before I got the chance to go after Kurlen. In the meantime I had to hope that by then the jury hadn’t fallen completely in love with him.
Freeman was smart enough to know you can’t keep a jury’s attention with charm alone. Eventually, she moved out of the scene-setting preliminaries and started to deliver the case against Lisa Trammel.
“Detective, was there a time during the investigation when the defendant’s name became known to you?”
“Yes, there was. The bank’s head of security came to the garage and asked to see me or my partner. I spoke to him briefly and then accompanied him to his office, where we reviewed video from the cameras located at the vehicle entrance and exits to the garage and in the elevators.”
“And did the review of those videos provide you with any investigative leads?”
“Nothing initially. I saw no one carrying a weapon or acting in a suspicious way before or after the approximate time of the murder. Nobody running from the garage. There was nothing suspicious about the vehicles going in and out. Of course, we would run every license plate. But there was nothing on video upon that initial viewing that helped us and, of course, the actual murder itself was not captured by any camera. That was another detail that the perpetrator of the crime seemed to be aware of.”
I rose and objected to Kurlen’s last line and the judge struck it from the record and told the jury to ignore it.
“Detective,” Freeman prompted, “I believe you were going to tell us how Lisa Trammel’s name first came up in the investigation.”
“Yes, right. Well, Mr. Modesto, the bank security chief, also provided me with a file. What he called the threat-assessment file. He turned that over to me and it contained several names, including the name of the defendant. Then, just a short while later, Mr. Modesto called me and informed me that Lisa Trammel, one of the people listed in the file, happened to be seen that morning in close proximity to the bank.”
“The defendant. And so this was how her name came up in the investigation, correct?”
“Correct.”
“What did you do with this information, Detective?”
“I first returned to the crime scene. I then sent my partner to interview the witness who said she saw Lisa Trammel near the bank. It was important that we confirm that sighting and get the details. I then began to go through the threat-assessment file to study all of the names and the details of the perceived threats.”
“And did you draw any immediate conclusions?”
“I didn’t believe there was any individual listed who would immediately jump to the level of a person of interest based solely on what was reported in the file about them