Page 58 of Resurrection Walk

“Do you believe him?”

“I do. For now.”

“Well, what did he know?”

“He said that on both the Acosta and Sanz cases he was threatened by deputies. First he had to get Acosta to take a deal, then later the same thing all over again with Lucinda. He didn’t have names. It was all on his phone. One call from a male, the second from a female. Each time, he was told that the DA would come across with an offer and his client had to take it or there would be consequences. For him.”

“Just that? Anonymous phone calls?”

“Each time the caller had inside information. Knew details about the shoot-out with Sanz. He believed the threat.”

“One caller male, the other female. Lucinda says it was a woman who did the GSR.”

“What I was thinking. For now we call her Lady X. But we need to identify everybody who was in Sanz’s unit at the time, especially any women. Between you and Cisco, run them down, full bios, and we’ll start building a witness list.”

“Got it. Where to now?”

“Hall of Justice. Time to rattle a cage over there.”

Bosch checked the mirrors and then pulled the Lincoln away from the curb on Ord Street.

“Whose cage?” Bosch asked.

“The deputy DA who handled both the Acosta and Sanz cases is Andrea Fontaine. Back then she was assigned to the Antelope Valley courthouse. Now she’s downtown in Major Crimes. I was thinking we’d pay her a visit and see what she has to say about those cases and the deals she made on them. Looks to me like she might’ve made a deal for herself.”

“You’re talking major conspiracy here. The sheriff’s departmentandthe DA’s office.”

“Hey, man, conspiracy theories are a defense lawyer’s bread and butter.”

“Great. What about the truth?”

“You don’t find that too often in the courtrooms I’ve been in.”

Bosch had no comeback for that. It took us five minutes to get to the Hall of Justice and another ten to find a parking spot. Before we got out, Bosch finally spoke.

“What you said about building a witness list. What do you expect to get from Sanz’s teammates?”

“I expect them to get on the stand and lie their asses off about this. They do and we take out the biggest piece of evidence against Lucinda.”

“The GSR.”

“Now you’re thinking like a defense attorney.”

“Never.”

“Look, do you believe that Lucinda killed her ex and is where she should be right now?”

Bosch thought a moment before answering.

“Come on,” I said. “You’re not under oath.”

“I don’t think she did it,” he finally said.

“Well, neither do I. So what we gotta do is knock down the evidence against her like dominoes. And if we can’t do that, then we have to own it and explain it. They come up with photos of her shooting at targets, then we own it and say yes, that’s her, but she was doing that because she couldn’t shoot for shit and certainly not well enough to put two bullets in her ex-husband’s back less than six inches apart. Like that. You get it?”

“I get it.”

“Good. Now, let’s go see what this prosecutor has to say.”

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