Dexter saw a figure in dark clothing run from the house, climb over a wall behind the pool, and drop down to Valley Circle Boulevard, which ran parallel to Califa. He told Garrity to get the patrol car while he chased the fleeing figure. Dexter climbed the wall and pursued. The chase lasted several blocks and ended when Dexter followed the suspect around a corner at Valerie Avenue. The suspect had stopped, apparently thinking he had lost his pursuer, and Dexter turned the corner and came upon him. He drew his weapon and ordered the suspect to kneel and lace his fingers behind his head. The suspect complied and Dexter radioed his location to his partner and backup officers. When he moved in to handcuff the suspect, a struggle ensued and Dexter was shot. The suspect then ran off but was quickly apprehended by the other officers who were now responding to Dexter’s officer-down call.
The suspect was arrested and identified as Anthony Marcus. He denied burglarizing the house or running from the police. He claimed he had snuck out of his nearby home and was walking to his girlfriend’s house for a secret rendezvous when he was suddenly confronted by Dexter. He also denied shooting Dexter but admitted that he ran from the scene after the shot was fired and Dexter went down because he didn’t know what was happening and who was shooting at them.
Bosch read the report twice and pulled up Google Maps on his phone. He looked at a map and then street photos of the chase route and compared them to the details contained in the report. This gave him a better understanding of the direction, terrain, and distance of the chase. He then moved on to the medical report filed by the Force Investigation Division. FID handled all officer-involved shootings, even those where an officer was the victim. The medical report stated that Dexter was wounded twice by the same bullet, which grazed the outside of his right calf at a downward angle and then passed through his shoe and foot. He was treated in the ER at the Warner Medical Center and discharged.
Bosch heard Haller in the back seat telling Lorna to turn down a prospective client charged with distributing Chinese fentanyl, even though the client was willing to pay a $100,000 retainer for the Lincoln Lawyer’s services.
“Fentanyl’s on my no-fly list,” Haller said. “Tell him no.”
“I know,” Lorna said. “I just thought you’d want to know what he was offering on the retainer.”
“Worse than blood money. Next.”
Lorna told him about another case: The potential client was charged with fraud for selling a guitar he claimed had been signed by John Lennon; the buyer found out after the deal went down that the guitar had been manufactured after Lennon died, so clearly he could not have signed it. The defendant was a dealer of online rock and roll memorabilia and the DA was reviewing other past sales of guitars allegedly signed by now-dead rock stars like Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain. The case could get more serious.
Haller told Lorna he’d take that case but would need a $25,000 retainer up front.
“Think that will be a problem?” Haller asked.
“I’ll find out and let you know,” Lorna said.
Bosch went back to reading the reports for the Marcus case. There was an investigative chronology with brief entries covering the steps the FID investigators had taken. One of the last entries noted that investigators met with a fingerprint technician at the house on Califa Street. Bosch knew from experience that this meant they were trying to tie Marcus to the break-in that had spawned the whole event. If they could put him in the house, it would block a possible defense claim that Marcus was not the burglar whom Dexter and Garrity saw fleeing. The chrono did not say what, if anything, the fingerprint tech had found.
Among the reports was an inventory of property taken from Marcus after his arrest and a description of his clothes. He had been wearing blue jeans, black Nikes, and what was described as a USC hoodie. In his pockets were a house key, a condom packet, and a roll of breath mints. There was also a lab report for a gunshot-residue test conducted on the suspect, which was positive for GSR on his hands and the right arm of his hoodie.
The last document in the package was a transcript of the radio calls Dexter and Garrity had made during the event. The first was Garrity’s initial call for backup, followed by her call saying there was a fleeing suspect and giving a description of someone in dark pants and a dark hoodie. Bosch paid close attention to the calls for help that came from Dexter moments later and noted that the transcript showed that only eight seconds elapsed between Dexter calling in his location and stating that he had the suspect in custody and his officer-down calclass="underline"
01:43:23 — Officer Dexter: Suspect code four Valerie west of Valley Circle.
01:43:31 — Officer Dexter: Officer down, officer down...
01:43:36 — Officer Dexter: He shot me. He shot me...
01:43:42 — Officer Dexter: Suspect is GOA, going west on Valerie. Maroon USC hoodie.
After Bosch reviewed everything in the file, he had some definite thoughts about what had gone down in the shooting. He checked the rearview mirror. Haller and Lorna were now talking about clients who had not yet paid for legal services rendered. It was too close a space to carry on two separate conversations.
“I’m going to step out and call Jennifer,” Bosch said.
“Thank you, Harry,” Haller said.
4
Bosch put the file containing the Marcus case reports on the hood of the Navigator and called Aronson. She answered right away.
“Harry, I’m waiting to see Anthony at the detention center. They’re going to take me back anytime now.”
“Okay, you can call me later. I looked at the records you sent on his case.”
“Thank you so much. Did you see anything?”
“Listen, I don’t want my name mixed up in this. Are we clear on that? Whatever you do with what I tell you, it doesn’t include me. Okay?”
“Of course. I already agreed to that. It goes no further than this call.”
Bosch was silent for a long moment as he decided whether to trust her.
“Are you still there?” Aronson said.
“Yes, I’m here,” Bosch said. “So, you said you were going to call the prosecutor to see if there was any update on discovery. Did you do that?”
“Uh, no, not yet.”
“Well, the chrono says they brought a print tech to the house your client supposedly broke into.”
“Which he says he didn’t do.”
“Right. But the chrono doesn’t say what the tech found. They were obviously looking for a print from your client in the house because that would tie him to the burglary and catch him in a direct lie in his initial statement. So you’ve got to get a report on what the print guy found, if anything.”
“Okay, I’ll get on that. What else?”
“I looked at the Google Maps of the area where this went down, and the house at the corner of Valley Circle and Valerie Avenue has a hedge that runs the lot lines.”
“Okay. What does that mean?”
“Well, Dexter chased the burglary suspect up Valley Circle and then he followed when the guy turned left onto Valerie. Because of the hedge, he would have lost sight of the suspect.”
“Which supports Anthony’s claim that he’s not the burglar Dexter was chasing.”
“Possibly, yeah.”