Until Proven Innocent (18 page)

Unlike those guys with patches over one eye and a peg leg, motion picture pirates don’t jump from one boat to another with swords drawn, but I wouldn’t put it past one of them to whack someone who got in the way of their profitable operation.

At this point I don’t really know much about how movies are shuttled around, so I take a short trip over to the multiplex in our neighborhood and pick the theater manager’s brain. She tells me that the films are usually delivered at least a day or so before they’re to be shown. This lead time is for the projectionist to take the several reels that the film is on and splice them together, so that they can run through the projector continuously. They call this ‘building the film,’ and it eliminates the old practice that required ‘changing reels’ every fifteen or twenty minutes. I learn that an experienced projectionist can splice the reels together on a specially designed table in less than fifteen minutes - and that includes adding in the trailers for upcoming films.

A film might stay at a theater for a full week or more. When it’s not being projected it stays on the table, all in one continuous piece, in between showings. After the theater is done with it, the projectionist breaks down the ‘build’ and puts the numerous reels back into their original containers. They’re then brought down to the manager’s office to be ready for pickup by Airborne, UPS, or a studio messenger service. The manager thinks that each reel contains about two thousand feet of film. My conversation with people at the Venice Soundstage educated me to the fact that 35 millimeter film goes through a projector at about ninety feet a minute, so two thousand feet of film should provide about eighteen safe, useable minutes. This would make the average film at least a five or six-reel movie.

The containers that the manager showed me contain three reels each, so most movies probably fit into two or three containers, which would give an average film a running time of up to about two hours.

I also know that the Venice Soundstage’s manager Renaldo has another job: he’s a projectionist. This means that he has access to film prints and also knows how to ‘build’ a film by splicing the reels together. And he also must know how to ‘unsplice’ the reels, to remove one for some homework.

If Renaldo can unsplice the built film and take one reel out each evening, he can conceivably copy it and then bring it back and re-splice it in the next day. Now that I’ve got the mechanical part of the operation together in my mind, I think I may have the rest of the puzzle too. Joe Caulfield must have accidentally discovered Renaldo’s sideline career of piracy. He probably stumbled onto a stash of counterfeit DVD’s, called Renaldo on it, and threatened to expose the whole operation. There was no other choice: Joe had to be eliminated before he could go to the cops. This means that Renaldo is the killer. I still don’t know how he could have gotten that empty casing into Tony’s gun, but I’m working on it. The dog is now lying down, so I better wrap this presentation up while his eyes are still open.

Unfortunately, Renaldo was working at the theater when Joe was shot, so he’s got a good alibi. Someone else must have done the killing for him. I still don’t know who that someone is, but I’m positive that it wasn’t Tony. All I’ve got to do now is get Tony’s gang to do an around-the-clock surveillance of Joe’s movements, and we’ll find out who he’s working with - and probably who killed Joe. The dog is now snoring.

This has been a productive day. Not only have I solved Snell’s piracy case for him, but I’ve also found out why Joe Caulfield was killed, and I’m now on the way to proving who did it and then framed Tony.

* * * * * *

Chapter 11

Tony’s preliminary hearing is being handled by one of Myra’s deputy prosecutors. This means that she must think this case is going to be an easy winner and her presence isn’t required. Unfortunately, she’s right. All I’ve got now is some unproven theories with absolutely nothing to support them.

Tony’s case is called and the deputy D.A. goes through the case right by the numbers. First, the coroner establishes that a crime has been committed by bringing in his autopsy report, showing that the victim died as the result of being shot by a large caliber weapon. About the only thing I can do to this witness is get him to admit that the wound might have possibly been made by a .357 or .44 magnum bullet. This slightly distracts from the concentration on .50 caliber ammunition, but probably not too much.

Next to the witness stand is the first responding officer. He testifies to the fact that Tony was there, and after identifying himself, peacefully surrendered his weapon. Their lab tech testifies to the fact that Tony’s gun had recently been fired, and it contained one spent round in the cylinder that had Tony’s fingerprints on it. They also show that the breech mark on the spent round matches breech marks on other test rounds fired from Tony’s gun.

An embarrassed witness who worked with the film company testifies to the fact that Tony had numerous arguments with the victim. This witness is obviously having a rough time doing this, because I notice that he can’t look Tony in the eye.

Having established enough Means, Opportunity and Motive, the judge has no other choice but the binding of Tony over for arraignment and trial. A date is set for his next appearance up in the Superior Court, and we now have less than a month to find the real killer.

I explain my piracy theory to Tony and suggest that at trial we nail Renaldo for his bootlegging of movies, and arrange to have Special Agent Snell arrest Renaldo right there in court, in front of the jury. Then, when my cross examination and arguments turn to the theory of Joe being killed because he stumbled onto Renaldo’s illegal activities, maybe we can create some reasonable doubt in the minds of at least one juror… and that’s all it takes. As usual, he doesn’t show any emotion.

*****

Back at the boat, we discuss some of the results his investigators have already come up with. I’m particularly interested in whatever they’ve found about Joe Caulfield and Renaldo Zeti, the projectionist pirate, and my main suspect.

Nothing stands out in Joe Caulfield’s folder. He’s a hard working guy who graduated with a degree in film production and worked his way up from production assistant to producer in less than ten years. He’s never been in the system, and if it wasn’t for the fact that we had his fingerprints as a victim and applicant for the bonded courier service he wanted to start, we never would have been able to tie him into the piracy gang.

His love life consisted of two or three relationships with morbidly obese white women, which may explain how he wound up with April. His hobbies included screenwriting, playing guitar, and shooting. This is no surprise because Tony mentioned that he and one of the people in the film company were on the target range together. I was hoping that it was Renaldo, because that may have been where the empty casing was planted in Tony’s gun. Unfortunately, that part of my theory is now down the toilet. The folder also says that Joe had his own apartment, but spent several nights a week over at April’s place.

Not one of the other members of the stage’s film company had anything in their files that would cast any suspicion on them. Not all of them were angels, but a bust for possession of funny cigarettes or drunk driving doesn’t necessarily lead to piracy and murder. Each one of them were also asked about alibis for the period of time when they wrapped on the day of the murder, to the time that Tony discovered Joe’s body, and every one of them had an alibi that checked out. Renaldo didn’t do it. Nobody did it. Tony says this isn’t unusual in a murder investigation, but it certainly seems unusual to me.

While we’re going through the files, I happen to notice the one on Evelyn’s daughter. She’s in her early twenties, so she really hasn’t had any time to get into trouble. Her file is almost empty. Certainly no criminal past, not even a speeding ticket. Her only problem had been getting thrown out of acting classes for non-payment of tuition. A check of the civil cases in our jurisdiction showed that several acting schools had sued her, but that ultimately, they were all paid in full and the cases were dismissed during the past year. And, as her mother told me, the investigation confirms that her father died in an accident five years ago.

My main suspect is still Renaldo Zeti, so I ask Tony to go over that file with me. I know that Suzi has all these folders in her computer, but my piracy theory is something that she doesn’t know about yet, unless the dog told her, which is highly unlikely because he was nodding off through most of my presentation.

*****

Ren lives upstairs of the soundstage. He also went to film school, and because it’s the same school that Joe attended, that’s probably where they met. Unlike Joe, Ren didn’t have the drive that it takes to advance in the entertainment industry. Maybe he didn’t have the talent either. Ren’s family owns the building where the Venice Soundstage is, and when they passed away he inherited it.

The property is a valuable asset because soundstage rental can be many thousands of dollars a month, so Ren probably just wasn’t hungry enough to work his way up the production ladder. His outside job of projectionist, along with some steady rental income from the soundstage, and a built-in job as production assistant must have been enough to satisfy him for a while… until he got greedy and decided to become a pirate.

Tony’s surveillance team also liked Ren for Joe’s murder, so they had him covered starting the day after the murder. There was no lead to any co-conspirators. Ren worked on the stage all day every day, and left early a couple of nights each week to go to the multiplex theater, where he performed his projectionist duties and came right back home.

The reports didn’t mention anything about whether Ren was carrying a package when he left for the theater or returned home, so Tony changed their instructions and added the requirement that he be photographed if he’s seen carrying anything. The stakeout team agreed, and got their camera equipment ready, complete with night vision lenses.

Without further reports from Tony’s investigators, there’s not much I can do on the case. Since I’ve probably got it all figured out, I might as well turn everything over to the kid. I prepare a written report containing my evidence and theories and tuck it into the dog’s collar. This is the most direct means of communication we’ve got on our boat.

*****

There’s a lull in the action on Tony’s case until his investigation team reports, so I call April to see how she’s doing. She tells me that time will heal everything, and that she’s started to religiously follow a weight loss program that has completely changed her lifestyle. She has become a vegetarian, eats a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, and has started on a moderate walking program, all with her doctor’s approval. During the past few weeks, she’s already lost almost twenty pounds, and plans to continue eating healthy and exercising for the rest of her life. I’m really glad to hear this.

As for business, April has resigned from the phone sex operation and is now a model. Hershel Belsky got tired of waiting for me to get back to him. He was getting so many requests for April from the viewers of his commercials, that he went around me to contact her directly. When he offered her a nice salary just to occasionally drive a car past Hershel while he was on camera making a commercial, she decided to accept. I make a mental note to set my TIVO to record a late night movie, just to see April in one of Hershel’s commercials.

After I hang up the phone, there’s a knock on the hull. It’s the messenger service delivering some paperwork from Myra’s office. I see that it contains copies of all the witness statements they took. By law, the defense is entitled to see them. Also enclosed is a copy of their witness list for the trial. Nothing out of the ordinary except for one name at the bottom of the list: Suzi Braunstien.

I know that Suzi and Myra talk on the phone at least once every day, but can’t believe that the kid would ever reveal to Myra any details about our defense. I call Myra’s office. She answers her private line.

“
You got my package, huh?”

“
Yes, I got your package and I want to know what you’re doing.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
You know exactly what I mean. I saw her name at the bottom of the list. You can’t be serious. You don’t want her testifying in a murder case. She’s only a kid.”

“
Peter, she may only be a kid, but let’s face it, she’s got more brainpower than you and me combined and besides, I have no other choice.”

“
How can you have no other choice? She’s a member of the defense team. You know what she does here. She’s the computer expert for all our evidence. She puts the whole case together. You can’t possibly expect the judge to allow you to ask her about privileged communications she’s had with me, or our investigators, or our client. What can you possibly expect to learn from her?”

“
Calm down, Peter. The reason I had no choice other than to subpoena her is because there was more than one set of prints on that empty shell casing we found in Tony’s gun. The second set of prints matched Suzi’s.”

The thing that really surprises me here is that Myra had something to compare Suzi’s prints to.

“
Myra, I’m going to ask you only one question, and I pray to God that your answer isn’t what I’m afraid it might be. How did you know that those prints belonged to Suzi?”

“
Oh Peter, wake up. Are you afraid that I got her prints off of my computer at the house? Is that what’s bothering you? That I snuck around to try and nail her for something? Don’t be silly. Her prints were in the system for a whole bunch of reasons. Let’s see now, one time was when she immigrated to this country. Another time was when she tried to apply for volunteer work with the L.A.P.D. as an Eagle Scout, and then again when she became a home-schooled student. And another time was when she sent in her application for early admission to Harvard Law School, and those results were just on our first search. Need I continue? She’s been fingerprinted more times than you have, and she’s never been arrested.