The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connelly [56]
“Most likely.”
“You have that the supposed victim is a prostitute who had solicited my client in here, right? And that she has continued that line of work since the alleged incident, right?”
Minton’s mouth opened maybe a half inch and then closed, but it was a good tell. I had hit him with another solid shot. But then he recovered quickly.
“As a matter of fact,” he said, “I am aware of her occupation. But what surprises me is that you know this already. I hope you aren’t sniffing around my victim, Mr. Haller?”
“Call me Mickey. And what I am doing is the least of your problems. You better take a good look at this case, Ted. I know you’re new to felony trials and you don’t want to come out of the box with a loser like this. Especially after the Blake fiasco. But this one’s a dog and it’s going to bite you on the ass.”
“Really? How so?”
I looked past his shoulder at the computer on his desk.
“Does that thing play DVDs?”
Minton looked back at the computer. It looked ancient.
“It should. What have you got?”
I realized that showing him the surveillance video from the bar at Morgan’s would be giving an early reveal of the biggest ace that I held, but I was confident that once he saw it, there would be no arraignment Monday and no case. My job was to neutralize the case and get my client out from under the government’s weight. This was the way to do it.
“I don’t have all my discovery together but I do have this,” I said.
I handed Minton the DVD I had gotten earlier from Levin. The prosecutor put it into his computer.
“This is from the bar at Morgan’s,” I told him as he tried to get it playing. “Your guys never went there but my guy did. This is the Sunday night of the supposed attack.”
“And this could have been doctored.”
“It could have been but it wasn’t. You can have it checked. My investigator has the original and I will tell him to make it available after the arraignment.”
After a short struggle Minton got the DVD to play. He watched silently as I pointed out the time code and all the same details Levin had pointed out to me, including Mr. X and his left-handedness. Minton fast-forwarded as I instructed and then slowed it to watch the moment when Reggie Campo approached my client at the bar. He had a frown of concentration on his face. When it was over he ejected the disc and held it up.
“Can I keep this until I get the original?”
“Be my guest.”
Minton put the disc back in its case and placed it on top of a stack of files on his desk.
“Okay, what else?” he asked.
Now my mouth let some light in.
“What do you mean, what else? Isn’t that enough?”
“Enough for what?”
“Look, Ted, why don’t we cut the bullshit?”
“Please do.”
“What are we talking about here? That disc blows this case out of the water. Let’s forget about arraignment and trial and talk about going into court next week with a joint motion to dismiss. I want this shit-canned with prejudice, Ted. No coming back at my guy if somebody in here decides to change their mind.”
Minton smiled and shook his head.
“Can’t do that, Mickey. This woman was injured quite badly. She was victimized by an animal and I’m not going to dismiss anything against—”
“Quite badly? She’s been turning tricks again all week. You—”
“How do you know that?”
I shook my head.
“Man, I am trying to help you here, save you some embarrassment, and all you’re worried about is whether I’ve crossed some line with the victim. Well, I’ve got news for you. She ain’t the victim. Don’t you see what you have here? If this thing gets to a jury and they see that disc, all the plates fall, Ted. Your case is over and you have to come back in here and explain to your boss Smithson why you didn’t see it coming. I don’t know Smithson all that well, but I do know one thing about him. He doesn’t like to lose. And after what happened yesterday, I would say that he feels a little more urgent about that.”
“Prostitutes can be victims, too. Even amateurs.”
I shook my head. I decided to show my whole hand.
“She set him up,” I said. “She knew he had money