The Reversal

“Yeah, because he was in last place. Mr. Korish put up a tote board to keep track of the tows and he was last place.”

“And he wasn’t happy about it?”

“No, not happy. He became a real prick to work with, excuse my French.”

“Do you remember how he acted on the day of the murder?”

“A little bit. Like I told Detective Bosch, he started claiming streets. Like saying Windsor was all his. And Las Palmas and Lucerne. Like that. And me and Derek-he was the other driver-we told him there were no rules like that. And he said, ‘Fine, try hooking a car on one of those streets and see what happens.’ ”

“He threatened you.”

“Yeah, you could say that. Definitely.”

“Do you remember specifically that Windsor was one of the streets he claimed was his?”

“Yes, I do. He claimed Windsor.”

This was all good information. It would go to the state of mind of the defendant. It would be a challenge getting it on the record if there wasn’t additional corroboration from Wilbern or Korish, if either was still alive and available.

“Did he ever act on that threat in any way?” Maggie asked.

“No,” Clinton said. “But that was the same day as the girl. So he got arrested and that was that. I can’t say I was too upset about seeing him go. Turned out Mr. Korish then laid off Derek ’cause he lied about not having a record. I was the last man standing. I worked there another four years-till I saved up the money to start my place.”

A regular American success story. I waited to see if Maggie had a follow but she didn’t. I did.

“Mr. Clinton, did you ever talk about any of this with the police or prosecutors twenty-four years ago?”

Clinton shook his head.

“Not really. I mean I spoke to the detective who was in charge back then. He asked me questions. But I wasn’t ever brought to court or anything like that.”

Because they didn’t need you back then, I thought. But I’m going to need you now.

“What makes you so sure that this threat from Jessup occurred on the day of the murder?”

“I just know it was that day. I remember that day because it’s not every day that a guy you’re working with gets arrested for murder.”

He nodded as if to underscore the point.

I looked at Bosch to see if we had missed anything. Bosch took the cue and took back the lead.

“Bill, tell them what you told me about being in the police car with Jessup. On the way to Windsor.”

Clinton nodded. He could be led easily and I took that as another good sign.

“Well, what happened was they really thought that Derek was the guy. The police did. He had a criminal record and lied about it and they found out. So that made him suspect numero uno. So they put Derek in the back of one patrol car and then me and Jason in another.”

“Did they say where they were taking you?”

“They said they had additional questions, so we thought we were going to the police station. There were two officers in the car with us and we heard them talking about all of us being in a lineup. Jason asked them about it and they said it was no big thing, they just wanted guys in overalls because they wanted to see if a witness could pick out Derek.”

Clinton stopped there and looked expectantly from Bosch to me and then to Maggie.

“So what happened?” I asked.

“Well, first Jason told the two cops that they couldn’t just take us and put us in a lineup like that. They just said that they were following orders. So we go over to Windsor and pull up in front of a house. The cops got out and went and talked to the lead detective, who was standing there with some other detectives. Jason and I were watching out the windows but didn’t see any witness or anything. Then the detective in charge goes inside the house and doesn’t come back out. We don’t know what’s going on, and then Jason says to me he wants to borrow my hat.”

“Your hat?” Maggie asked.

“Yeah, my Dodgers hat. I was wearing it like I always did and Jason said he needed to borrow it because he recognizes one of the other cops that was already standing there at the house when we pulled up. He said that he got in a fight with the guy over a tow and if he sees him there’s going to be trouble. He goes on like that and says, let me have your hat.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, I didn’t think it was a big deal on account of I didn’t know what I knew later, you know what I mean? So I gave him my hat and he put it on. Then when the cops came back to get us out of the car, they didn’t seem to notice that the hat was switched. They made us get out of the car and we had to go over and stand next to Derek. We were standing there and then one of the cops gets a call on the radio-I remember that-and he turns and tells Jason to take off the hat. He did and then a few minutes later they’re all of a sudden surrounding Jason and putting the cuffs on him, and it wasn’t Derek, it was him.”

I looked from Clinton to Bosch and then to Maggie. I could see in her expression that the hat story was significant.

“You know the funny thing?” Clinton asked.

“No, what?” I said.

“I never got that hat back.”

He smiled and I smiled back.