A Darkness More Than Night

Chapter 19

After putting his hand on the Bible and promising the whole truth, Harry Bosch took a seat in the witness chair and glanced up at the camera mounted on the wall above the jury box. The eye of the world was upon him, he knew. The trial was being broadcast live on Court TV and locally on Channel 9. He tried to give no appearance of nervousness. But the fact was that more than the jurors would be studying him and judging his performance and personality. It was the first time in many years of testifying in criminal trials that he did not feel totally at ease. Being on the side of the truth was not a comfort when he knew the truth had to run a treacherous obstacle course set before it by a wealthy, connected defendant and his wealthy, connected attorney.

He put the blue binder – the murder book – down on the front ledge of the witness box and pulled the microphone toward him, creating a high-pitched squeal that hurt every set of ears in the courtroom.

“Detective Bosch, please don’t touch the microphone,” Judge Houghton intoned.

“Sorry, Your Honor.”

A deputy sheriff who acted as the judge’s bailiff came over to the witness box, turned the microphone off and adjusted its location. When Bosch nodded at its new position, the bailiff turned it back on. The judge’s clerk then asked Bosch to state his full, formal name and spell it for the record.

“Very well,” the judge said after Bosch finished. “Ms. Langwiser?”

Deputy District Attorney Janis Langwiser got up from the prosecution table and went to the attorney’s lectern. She carried a yellow legal tablet with her questions on it. She was second seat at the prosecution table but had worked with the investigators since the start of the case. It had been decided that she would handle Bosch’s testimony.

Langwiser was a young up-and-coming lawyer in the DA’s office. In the span of a few short years she had risen from a position of filing cases for more experienced lawyers in the office to handle to taking them all the way to court herself. Bosch had worked with her before on a politically sensitive and treacherous case known as the Angels Flight murders. The experience resulted in his recommendation of her as second chair to Kretzler. Since working with her again, Bosch had found his earlier impressions were well founded. She had complete command and recall of the facts of the case. While most other lawyers would have to sift through evidence reports to locate a piece of information, she would have the information and its location in the reports memorized. But her skill was not confined to the minutiae of the case. She never took her eye off the big picture – the fact that all their efforts were focused on putting David Storey away for good.

“Good afternoon, Detective Bosch,” she began. “Could you please tell the jury a bit about your career as a police officer.”

Bosch cleared his throat.

“Yes. I’ve been with the Los Angeles Police Department twenty-eight years. I have spent more than half of that time investigating homicides. I am a detective three assigned to the homicide squad of the Hollywood Division.”

“What does ‘detective three’ mean?”

“It means detective third grade. It is the highest detective rank, equivalent to sergeant, but there are no detective sergeants in the LAPD. From detective three the next rank up would be detective lieutenant.”

“How many homicides would you say you have investigated in your career?”

“I don’t keep track. I would say at least a few hundred in fifteen years.”

“A few hundred.”

Langwiser looked over at the jury when she stressed the last word.

“Give or take a few.”

“And as a detective three you are currently a supervisor on the homicide squad?”

“I have some supervisory duties. I am also the lead officer on a three-person team that handles homicide investigations.”

“As such you were in charge of the team that was called to the scene of a homicide on October thirteenth of last year, correct?”

“That is correct.”

Bosch glanced over at the defense table. David Storey had his head down and was using his felt tip pen to draw on the sketch pad. He’d been doing it since jury selection began. Bosch’s eyes traveled to the defendant’s attorney and locked on those of J. Reason Fowkkes. Bosch held the stare until Langwiser asked her next question.

“This was the murder of Donatella Speers?”

Bosch looked back over at Langwiser.

“Correct. That was the name she used.”

“It was not her real name?”

“It was her stage name, I guess you would call it. She was an actress. She changed her name. Her real name was Jody Krementz.”

The judge interrupted and asked Bosch to spell the names for the court reporter, then Langwiser continued.

“Tell us the circumstances of the call out. Walk us through it, Detective Bosch. Where were you, what were you doing, how did this become your case?”

Bosch cleared his throat and had reached to the microphone to pull it closer when he remembered what happened the last time. He left the microphone where it was and leaned forward to it.

“My two partners and I were eating lunch at a restaurant called Musso and Frank’s on Hollywood Boulevard. It was Friday and we usually eat there if we have the time. At eleven forty-eight my pager went off. I recognized the number as belonging to my supervisor, Lieutenant Grace Billets. While I was calling her, the pagers of my partners, Jerry Edgar and Kizmin Rider, also went off. At that point we knew we had probably drawn a case. I got ahold of Lieutenant Billets and she directed my team to one-thousand-one Nichols Canyon Road, where patrol officers had earlier responded along with paramedics to an emergency call at that location. They reported a young woman was found dead in her bed under suspicious circumstances.”

“You then went to the address?”

“No. I had driven all three of us to Musso’s. So I drove back to the Hollywood station, which is a few blocks away, and dropped off my partners so they could get their own vehicles. Then all three of us proceeded separately to the address. You never know where you might have to go from a crime scene. It’s good procedure for each detective to have his or her own car.”

“At this time did you know who the victim was or what the suspicious circumstances of her death were?”

“No, I did not.”

“What did you find when you got there?”

“It was a small two-bedroom house overlooking the canyon. Two patrol cars were on the scene. The paramedics had already left once it was determined the victim was dead. Inside the house were two patrol officers and a patrol sergeant. In the living room there was a woman seated on the couch. She was crying. She was introduced to me as Jane Gilley. She shared the house with Ms. Krementz.”

Bosch stopped there and waited for a question. Langwiser was bent over the prosecution table whispering to her co-prosecutor, Roger Kretzler.

“Ms. Langwiser, does that conclude your questioning of Detective Bosch?” Judge Houghton asked.

Langwiser jerked upright, not having noticed that Bosch had stopped.

“No, Your Honor.”

She moved back to the lectern.

“Go on, Detective Bosch, tell us what happened after you entered the house.”

“I spoke to Sergeant Kim and he informed me that there was a young woman who was deceased in her bed in the bedroom to the right rear of the house. He introduced the woman on the couch and he said that his people had backed out of the bedroom without disturbing anything once the paramedics determined that the victim was dead. I then went down the short hallway to the bedroom and entered.”

“What did you find in there?”

“I saw the victim in the bed. She was a white female of slim build and blond hair. Her identification would later be confirmed as Jody Krementz, age twenty-three.”

Langwiser asked permission to show a set of photographs to Bosch. Houghton allowed it and Bosch identified the police evidence photos as being that of the victim in situ – as the body had been seen at first by police. The body was face up. The bedclothes were pulled to the side to reveal the body to be nude with the legs spread about two feet apart at the knees. The large breasts held their full shape despite the body being in a horizontal position, an indication of breast implants. The left arm was extended over the stomach. The palm of the left hand covered the pubic region. Two fingers of the left hand penetrated the vagina.

The victim’s eyes were closed and her head rested on a pillow but at a sharp angle to her neck. Wrapped tightly around her neck was a yellow scarf with one end looped up and over the top crossbar of the bed’s headboard. The end of the scarf came off the crossbar and extended to the victim’s right hand on the pillow above her head. The end of the silk scarf was wrapped several times around the hand.

The photographs were in color. A purplish-red bruise could be seen on the victim’s neck where the scarf had tightened against the skin. There was a rouge-like discoloration in and around the eye sockets. There was also a bluish discoloration running down the complete left side of the body, including the left arm and leg.

After Bosch identified the photographs as being that of Jody Krementz in situ, Langwiser asked that they be shown to the jury. J. Reason Fowkkes objected, stating that the photos would be highly inflammatory and prejudicial for jurors to see. The judge overruled the objection but told Langwiser to choose just one photo which would be representative of the lot. Langwiser chose the photo taken closest to the victim and it was handed to a man who sat in the first seat of the jury. While the photo was slowly passed from juror to juror and then to the alternates, Bosch watched their faces tighten with shock and horror. He pushed back on his seat and drank from a paper cup of water. After he drained it he caught the eye of the sheriff’s deputy and signaled for a refill. He then pulled himself back close to the microphone.

After the photo made its way through the jury, it was delivered to the clerk. It would be returned to the jurors, along with all other exhibits presented during the trial, during deliberation of a verdict.

Bosch watched Langwiser return to the lectern to continue the questioning. He knew she was nervous. They’d had lunch together in the basement cafeteria of the other court building and she had voiced her concerns. Though she was second seat to Kretzler, it was a big trial with potential career enhancing or destroying aspects for both of them.

She checked her legal pad before going on. “Detective Bosch, did there come a time after you had inspected the body that you declared the death to be subject to a homicide investigation?”

“Right away – before my partners even got there.”

“Why is that? Did it not appear to be an accidental death?”

“No, it -”

“Ms. Langwiser,” Judge Houghton interrupted. “One question at a time, please.”

“Sorry, Your Honor. Detective, did it not appear to you that the woman may have accidentally killed herself?”

“No, it did not. It appeared to me that someone attempted to make it look that way.”

Langwiser looked down at her pad for a long moment before going on. Bosch was pretty sure the pause was planned, now that the photograph and his testimony had secured the full attention of the jury.

“Detective, are you familiar with the term autoerotic asphyxia?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Could you please explain it to the jury?”

Fowkkes stood up and objected.

“Y’Honor, Detective Bosch may be a lot of things but there has been no proffer made to the court that he is an expert in human sexuality.”

There was a murmur of quiet laughter in the courtroom. Bosch saw a couple of the jurors suppress smiles. Houghton hit his gavel once and looked at Langwiser.

“What about that, Ms. Langwiser?”

“Your Honor, I can make a proffer.”

“Proceed.”

“Detective Bosch, you said you have worked hundreds of homicides. Have you investigated deaths that turned out not to be caused by homicide?”

“Yes, probably hundreds of those as well. Accidental deaths, suicides, even deaths by natural causes. It is routine for a homicide detective to be called out to a death scene by patrol officers to help in making a determination as to whether a death should be investigated as a homicide. This is what happened in this case. The patrol officers and their sergeant weren’t sure what they had. They called it in as suspicious and my team got the call out.”

“Have you ever been called out or investigated a death that was ruled, either by you or the medical examiner’s office, an accidental death by autoerotic asphyxia?”

“Yes.”

Fowkkes stood up again.

“Same objection, Y’Honor. This is leading to an area where Detective Bosch is not an expert.”

“Your Honor,” Langwiser said. “It has clearly been established that Detective Bosch is an expert in the investigation of death – that would include all kinds. He has seen this before. He can testify to it.”

There was a note of exasperation in her voice. Bosch thought it was intended for the jury, not Houghton. It was a subliminal way of communicating to the twelve that she wanted to get at the truth, while others wanted to block the way.

“I tend to agree, Mr. Fowkkes,” Houghton said after a slight pause. “Objections to this line of questioning are overruled. Proceed, Ms. Langwiser.”

“Thank you, Your Honor. So then, Detective Bosch, you are familiar with cases of autoerotic asphyxia?”

“Yes, I have worked on three or four. I have also studied the literature on the subject. It is referenced in books on homicide investigation techniques. I have also read summaries of in-depth studies conducted by the FBI and others.”

“Was this before this case occurred?”

“Yes, before.”

“What is autoerotic asphyxia? How does it occur?”

“Ms. Langwiser,” the judge began.

“Sorry, Your Honor. Restating. What is autoerotic asphyxia, Detective Bosch?”

Bosch took a drink of water, using the time to draw his thoughts together. They had gone over these questions during lunch.

“It is an accidental death. It occurs when the victim attempts to increase sexual sensations during masturbation by cutting off or disrupting the flow of arterial blood to the brain. This is usually done with a form of ligature around the neck. The tightening of the ligature results in hypoxia – the diminishing of oxygenation of the brain. It is believed by people who… uh, practice this that hypoxia – the light-headedness that ensues – heightens masturbatory sensations. However, it can lead to accidental death if the victim goes too far, to the point where he damages the carotid arteries and/or passes out with the ligature still tightly in place and asphyxiates.”

“You said ‘he,’ Detective. But in this case the victim is a woman.”

“This case does not involve autoerotic asphyxia. The cases I have seen and investigated involving this form of death all involved male victims.”

“Are you saying that in this case the death was made to look like autoerotic asphyxia?”

“Yes, that was my immediate conclusion. It remains so today.”

Langwiser nodded and paused. Bosch sipped some water. As he brought the cup up to his mouth he glanced at the jury. Everyone in the box seemed to be paying close attention.

“Walk us through it, Detective. What led you to that conclusion?”

“Can I refer to my reports?”

“Please.”

Bosch opened the binder in front of him. The first four pages were the OIR – the original incident report. He turned to the fourth page, which included the lead officer’s summary. The report had actually been typed out by Kiz Rider, though Bosch was the LO on the case. He quickly scanned the summary to refresh his mind, then looked up at the jury.

“Several things contradicted the death being an accident caused by autoerotic asphyxia. First off, I was immediately concerned because statistically it is rare that this occurs with female victims. It is not one hundred percent males but it is close. This knowledge made me pay very close attention to the body and the crime scene.”

“Would it be fair to say you were immediately skeptical of the crime scene?”

“Yes, that would be fair.”

“Okay, go on. What else concerned you?”

“The ligature. In almost all cases involving this that I have been aware of firsthand or through the literature on the subject, the victim uses some sort of padding around the neck to prevent bruising or breaking of the skin. Most often a piece of heavy clothing like a sweater or a towel is wrapped around the neck. The ligature is then wrapped around this padding. It prevents the ligature from making a contusion line running around the neck. In this case there was no padding.”

“And what did that mean to you?”

“Well, it didn’t make sense if you looked at it from the victim’s viewpoint. I mean, if you were to assume that she had engaged in this activity, then the scene didn’t make sense. It would mean that she didn’t use any kind of padding because she didn’t mind having the bruises on her neck. This to me was a contradiction between what we had there at the scene and common sense. Add in that she was an actress – which I knew right away because she had a stack of head shots on the bureau – and the contradiction was even greater. She relied on her physical presence and attributes while seeking acting work. That she would knowingly engage in an activity, sexual or otherwise, that would leave visible bruises on her neck – I just didn’t buy it. That and other things led me to conclude the scene was a setup.”

Bosch looked over at the defense table. Storey still had his head down and was working on the sketch pad as though he were sitting on a bench in a park somewhere. Bosch noticed Fowkkes was writing on a legal tablet. Harry wondered if he had said something in his last answer that could somehow be turned against him. He knew Fowkkes was an expert in taking phrases of testimony and giving them new meaning when taken out of context.

“What other things added to this conclusion?” Langwiser asked him.

Bosch looked at the OIR summary page again.

“The biggest single thing was the indication from postmortem lividity that the body had been moved.”

“In layman’s terms, Detective, what does postmortem lividity mean?”

“When the heart ceases to pump blood through the body, the blood then settles in the lower half of the body, depending on the position of the body. Over time it creates a bruising effect on the skin. If the body is moved, the bruising remains in the original position because the blood has coagulated. Over time the bruising becomes more apparent.”

“What happened in this case?”

“In this case there was clear indication that the blood had settled in the left side of the body, meaning the victim’s body had been lying on the left side at or shortly after the time of death.”

“However, that was not the way the body was found, correct?”

“That is correct. The body was found in the supine position – lying on the back.”

“What did you conclude from this?”

“That the body had been moved after death. That the woman had been positioned on her back as part of the setup to make her death look like an autoerotic asphyxiation.”

“What did you think was the cause of death?”

“At that point I wasn’t sure. I just didn’t think it was as presented. The bruising on the neck beneath the ligature led me to believe we were looking at a strangulation – just not at her own hands.”

“At what point did your partners arrive on the scene?”

“While I was making the initial observations of the body and crime scene.”

“Did they come to the same conclusions as you?”

Fowkkes objected, saying the question called for an answer that would be hearsay. The judge sustained the objection. Bosch knew it was a minor point. If Langwiser wanted the conclusions of Edgar and Rider on the record, she could just call them to testify.

“Did you attend the autopsy of Jody Krementz’s body?”

“Yes, I did.” He flipped through the binder until he found the autopsy protocol. “On October seventeenth. It was conducted by Dr. Teresa Corazón, chief of the medical examiner’s office.”

“Was a cause of death determined by Dr. Corazón during autopsy?”

“Yes, the cause of death was asphyxiation. She was strangled.”

“By ligature?”

“Yes.”

“Now doesn’t this contradict your theory that the death was not caused by autoerotic asphyxiation?”

“No, it confirmed it. The pose of autoerotic asphyxiation was used to cover the strangulation murder of the victim. The interior damage to both carotid arteries, to the muscular tissue of the neck and the hyoid bone, which was crushed, led Dr. Corazón to confirm that death was at the hand of another. The damage was too great to be knowingly self-inflicted.”

Bosch realized he was holding a hand to his neck as he described the injuries. He dropped it back down to his lap.

“Did the medical examiner find any independent evidence of homicide?”

He nodded.

“Yes, examination of the victim’s mouth determined that there was a deep laceration caused by biting on the tongue. Such injury is common in cases of strangulation.”

Langwiser flipped a page over on her tablet.

“Okay, Detective Bosch, let’s go back to the crime scene. Did you or your partners interview Jane Gilley?”

“Yes, I did. Along with Detective Rider.”

“From that interview were you able to ascertain where the victim had been in the twenty-four hours prior to the discovery of her death?”

“Yes, we first determined that she had met the defendant several days earlier at a coffee shop. He invited her to attend a premiere of a movie as his date on the night of October twelfth at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. He picked her up between seven and seven-thirty that night. Ms. Gilley watched from a window in the house and identified the defendant.”

“Did Ms. Gilley know when Ms. Krementz returned that night?”

“No. Ms. Gilley left the house shortly after Ms. Krementz went on her date and spent the night elsewhere. Consequently, she did not know when her roommate returned home. It was when Ms. Gilley returned to the house at eleven A.M. on October thirteenth that she discovered Ms. Krementz’s body.”

“What was the name of the movie which was premiered the night before?”

“It was called Dead Point.”

“And who directed it?”

“David Storey.”

Langwiser waited through a long pause before looking at her watch and then up at the judge.

“Your Honor,” she said, “I am going to move into a new line of questioning now with Detective Bosch. If appropriate, this might be the best time to break for the day.”

Houghton pulled back the baggy black sleeve of his robe and looked at his watch. Bosch looked at his. It was a quarter to four.

“Okay, Ms. Langwiser, we’ll adjourn until nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”

Houghton told Bosch he could step down from the witness stand. He then admonished the jurors not to read newspaper accounts or watch TV reports on the trial. Everyone stood as the jurors filed out. Bosch, who was now standing next to Langwiser at the prosecution table, glanced over at the defense side. David Storey was looking at him. His face betrayed no emotion at all. But Bosch thought he saw something in his pale blue eyes. He wasn’t sure but he thought it was mirth.

Bosch was the first to look away.