The Fifth Witness - Michael Connelly [96]
“Yes, Your Honor. Just getting my notes in order. Good afternoon, Detective Kurlen. I wonder if we could start by going back to the crime scene. Did you—”
“Whatever you want.”
“Yes, thank you. How long were you and your partner at the crime scene before you went off to chase down Lisa Trammel?”
“Well, I wouldn’t call it chasing her down. We—”
“Is that because she wasn’t a suspect?”
“That’s one of the reasons.”
“She was just a person of interest, is that what you call it?”
“That’s right.”
“So then how long were you at the crime scene before you left to find this woman who was not a suspect but only a person of interest?”
Kurlen referred to his notes.
“My partner and I arrived at the crime scene at nine twenty-seven and one or both of us were there until we left together at ten thirty-nine.”
“That’s… an hour and twelve minutes. You spent only seventy-two minutes at the crime scene before feeling the need to leave to pick up a woman who was not even a suspect. Do I have that right?”
“It’s one way to look at it.”
“How did you look at it, Detective?”
“First of all, leaving the crime scene was not an issue because the crime scene was under the control and direction of the homicide squad coordinator. Several technicians from the Scientific Investigation Division were also on hand. Our job was not the crime scene. Our job was to follow the leads wherever they took us and they led us at that point to Lisa Trammel. She wasn’t a suspect when we went to see her but she became one when she started giving inconsistent and contradictory statements during the interview.”
“You’re talking about the interview back at Van Nuys Division, yes?”
“That’s correct.”
“Okay, then what were the inconsistent and contradictory statements you just mentioned?”
“At her house she said she made no stops after dropping the kid off. At the station she suddenly remembers getting coffee and seeing the victim there. She says she wasn’t near the bank but we had a witness who put her a half a block away. That was the big one right there.”
I smiled and shook my head like I was dealing with a simpleton.
“Detective, you’re kidding us, right?”
Kurlen gave me the first look of annoyance. It was just what I wanted. If it was perceived as arrogance it would be all the better when I humiliated him.
“No, I am not kidding,” Kurlen said. “I take my job very seriously.”
I asked the judge to allow me to replay a portion of the Trammel interview. Permission granted, I fast-forwarded the playback, keeping my eye on the time code at the bottom. I slowed it to normal play just in time for the jury to watch the exchange centering on Trammel’s denial of being near WestLand National.
“Did you go by WestLand National this morning?”
“No. Is that what this is about?”
“So if someone said they saw you there, they would be lying?”
“Yes, who said that? I have not violated the order. You—”
“Do you know Mitchell Bondurant?”
“Know him? No. I know of him. I know who he is. But I don’t know him.”
“Did you see him today?”
“Yes, I saw him.”
“But you just said you didn’t go on WestLand property.”
“I didn’t. Look, I don’t know who told you they saw me at the bank. And if it was him then he’s a liar. I wasn’t there. I saw him, yes, but that was at the coffee shop, not the—”
“Why didn’t you tell us that this morning at your home?”
“Tell you what? You didn’t ask.”
I stopped the video and looked at Kurlen.
“Detective, where is it that Lisa Trammel contradicts herself?”
“She says right there that she wasn’t near the bank and we have a witness who says she was.”
“So you have a contradiction between two statements by different people, but Lisa Trammel did not contradict herself, correct?”
“You are talking semantics.”
“Can you answer the question, Detective?”
“Yes, right, a contradiction between two statements.”
Kurlen didn’t consider the distinction important but I hoped the jury would.
“Isn’t it true, Detective, that Lisa Trammel has never contradicted her statement that she was not near the bank on the day of the murder?”
“I wouldn’t know. I am not privy to