The Reversal

“Yes, I heard him say, ‘You have to come with me.’ And my sister said… she said, ‘Are you sure?’ And that was it. I think he said something else but I didn’t hear it. He led her away. To the street.”

“And you stayed in hiding?”

“Yes, I couldn’t… for some reason I couldn’t move. I couldn’t call for help, I couldn’t do anything. I was very scared.”

It was one of those solemn moments in the courtroom when there was absolute silence except for the voices of the prosecutor and the witness.

“Did you see or hear anything else, Sarah?”

“I heard a door close and then I heard the truck drive away.”

I saw the tears on Sarah Gleason’s cheeks. I thought the courtroom deputy had noticed as well because he took a box of tissues from a drawer in his desk and crossed the courtroom with them. But instead of taking them to Sarah he handed the box to juror number two, who had tears on her cheeks as well. This was okay with me. I wanted the tears to stay on Sarah’s face.

“Sarah, how long was it before you came out from behind the bush where you were hiding and told your parents that your sister had been taken?”

“I think it was less than a minute but it was too late. She was gone.”

The silence that followed that statement was the kind of void that lives can disappear into. Forever.

Maggie spent the next half hour walking Gleason through her memory of what came after. Her stepfather’s desperate 9-1-1 call to the police, the interview she gave to the detectives, and then the lineup she viewed from her bedroom window and her identifying Jason Jessup as the man she saw lead her sister away.

Maggie had to be very careful here. We had used sworn testimony of witnesses from the first trial. The record of that entire trial was available to Royce as well, and I knew without a doubt that he had his assistant counsel, who was sitting on the other side of Jessup, comparing everything Sarah Gleason was saying now with the testimony she gave at the first trial. If she changed one nuance of her story, Royce would be all over her on it during his cross-examination, using the discrepancy to try to cast her as a liar.

To me the testimony came off as fresh and not rehearsed. This was a testament to the prep work of the two women. Maggie smoothly and efficiently brought her witness to the vital moment when Sarah reconfirmed her identification of Jessup.

“Was there any doubt at all in your mind when you identified Jason Jessup in nineteen eighty-six as the man who took your sister?”

“No, none at all.”

“It has been a long time, Sarah, but I ask you to look around the courtroom and tell the jury whether you see the man who abducted your sister on February sixteenth, nineteen eighty-six?”

“Yes, him.”

She spoke without hesitation and pointed her finger at Jessup.

“Would you tell us where he is seated and describe an article of clothing he is wearing?”

“He’s sitting next to Mr. Royce and he has a dark blue tie and a light blue shirt.”

I paused and looked at Judge Breitman.

“Let the record show that the witness has identified the defendant,” she said.

I went right back to Sarah.

“After all these years, do you have any doubt that he is the man who took your sister?”

“None at all.”

Maggie turned and looked at the judge.

“Your Honor, it may be a bit early but I think now would be a good time to take the afternoon break. I am going to go in a different direction with this witness at this point.”

“Very well,” Breitman said. “We will adjourn for fifteen minutes and I will expect to see everyone back here at two-thirty-five. Thank you.”

Sarah said she wanted to use the restroom and left the courtroom with Bosch running interference and making sure she would not cross paths with Jessup in the hallway. Maggie sat down at the defense table and we huddled.

“You have ’em, Maggie. This is what they’ve been waiting all week to hear and it’s better than they thought it was going to be.”

She knew I was talking about the jury. She didn’t need my approval or encouragement but I had to give it.

“Now comes the hard part,” she said. “I hope she holds up.”

“She’s doing great. And I’m sure Harry’s telling her that right now.”

Maggie didn’t respond. She started flipping through the legal pad that had her notes and the rough script of the examination. Soon she was immersed in the next hour’s work.

Thirty-four

Wednesday, April 7, 2:30 P.M.

Bosch had to shoo away the reporters when Sarah Gleason came out of the restroom. Using his body as a shield against the cameras he walked her back to the courtroom.

“Sarah, you’re doing really well,” he said. “You keep it up and this guy’s going right back to where he belongs.”

“Thanks, but that was the easy part. It’s going to get hard now.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Sarah. There is no easy part. Just keep thinking about your sister, Melissa. Somebody has to stand up for her. And right now that’s you.”

As they got to the courtroom door, he realized that she had smoked a cigarette in the restroom. He could smell it on her.