Resurrection Walk

To say I was surprised would be an understatement. Morris was either a lot smarter than I’d given him credit for or a lot dumber. It was hard to tell because I had never seen him in court before this day. The AG usually hired the best and brightest, and for most of them, habeas hearings were a walk in the park. But based on his previous motions and his habit of contesting what he called my “lack of good-faith discovery,” he hadn’t seemed to be mailing it in. So his letting the petitioner off the stand with just two questions gave me pause. Maybe he sensed that he could not shake Lucinda’s story because she was telling the truth.

I watched attentively as Morris went to the lectern to ask his two questions.

“Ms. Sanz, you reside at the state prison for women in Chino, correct?” Morris asked.

“Uh, yes,” Lucinda said. “Correct.”

“Do you know another inmate there named Isabella Moder?”

Lucinda looked over at me, a momentary flash of What do I do? panic entering her eyes. I hoped the judge didn’t see it. I simply nodded. There was nothing else I could do.

Lucinda looked back at Morris.

“Yes,” she said. “She was in my cell. Then she got transferred to another prison.”

With that answer, I knew exactly what the State’s strategy was and how Morris planned to play it.

26

I talked to Lucinda and then came out of the courtroom like an escaped prisoner. Moving fast, looking up and down the hall, I saw Stephanie Sanger sitting on a bench against the wall opposite the courtroom entrance. She smirked when she saw me, as if she knew what Morris had just done.

I didn’t have time to throw a smirk back at her. I kept scanning the hall until I saw Bosch standing by the elevator. He looked like he was chatting with the marshal who ran the metal detector. The courtrooms on this floor were used primarily for criminal cases, thus the security scan in addition to the metal detector on the first floor of the building.

Bosch glanced over, saw me, and held up an I’ll be right back finger to the marshal. I stopped and waited for him to join me halfway down the hall so we would be out of earshot of both Sanger and the deputy Bosch had been conversing with.

“How’d she do?” Bosch whispered.

“Fine on the direct,” I said. “But it took only two questions from the assistant AG to undo everything.”

“What? What happened?”

“He’s going to sandbag us with a prison informant. I need you to find out everything you can by tomorrow morning about an inmate named Isabella Moder — I think it’s M-o-d-e-r.”

“What about handling the witnesses?”

“I’ll have to do it. I need you on Moder. Now.”

“Okay. Is she at Chino? Who is she?”

“She was Lucinda’s old cellmate. But they moved her about six months ago — about the time I filed the habeas.”

“And her name didn’t come up in discovery? Isn’t that a vi—”

“Morris didn’t need to put her in if she was going to be used for rebuttal. So no violation. A good, clean sandbagging. I should have seen it coming.”

“So what’s the hurry if Morris isn’t going to call her until after your case?”

“Because the best defense is a good offense. I need to know if we’re going to be able to neutralize her whenever they put her on the stand.”

“Got it. Did Cindi tell you what she’d told Moder?”

“She didn’t tell her anything. Moder’s a jailhouse snitch. She’s going to lie. She’s going to say Lucinda admitted to killing her husband.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“It doesn’t matter. That’s why I want you to get out of here and find out everything you can about her. Find me something I can burn her to the ground with.”

“I’m on it.”

“Call Cisco if you need help. No stone left unturned, but you’re working against the clock. I should be finished with my witnesses tomorrow. That’s when Morris will bring Moder in.”

“If I’m on this, I won’t be able to get Dr. Arslanian to court tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll deal with her. You go. Call me as soon as you have something. Court is dark this afternoon because Coelho has a judges’ conference. I’m going to put Sanger on the stand now, Arslanian and the rest tomorrow. That includes you, so get going on Moder.”

“I’ll call you. Good luck with Sanger.”

“Luck won’t have anything to do with it.”

Bosch walked off toward the elevator. I checked my watch. There were still a few minutes left in the break. I went into the restroom, cupped my hands under the cold water at a sink, then held my hands to my face. There was a heaviness growing in the center of my chest. It was the feeling of being unprepared. I hated that feeling more than anything in the world.

On my way back to the courtroom I saw Sanger still posted on the bench.

“Not going so good, is it?” she said.

I stopped and looked at her. She had that smirk again.

“It’s going great,” I said. “And you’re next.”

With that, I opened the courtroom door and went in.