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Due most likely to the judge’s urging in chambers, Garland jumped two decades forward in the case and started round two by asking about the cemetery caper.

“Mr. Bosch, let me refer you to February eighth of this year,” he began. “Can you tell the court what brought you to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and about the confrontation you had with Mr. Talbot?”

“It was the twenty-fifth anniversary of his wife’s murder,” Bosch said. “She is buried there at Hollywood Forever and over the years I had visited her grave a few times, and last — ”

“Let me stop you there, Mr. Bosch. Why did you, as you say, visit her grave a few times over the years?”

“Because she was a murder victim and it was my case and there had never been any justice for Jennifer Talbot. Sometimes it felt as though I was the only one who cared.”

“You never knew this woman, correct?”

“Not in life, no.”

“Can you explain what that means?”

“Just that I knew her in death. When you investigate a murder, you come to know a lot about a victim. Their dreams, their hopes, all the things left undone when they were killed. It creates a bond.”

“And so your obsession with this case was the only — ”

Winston objected to Garland’s use of the word obsession.

“The defense has presented no evidence that Mr. Bosch was obsessed with the case,” she said. “They have proven only that he was a diligent investigator who cared about the victims of murder. A bond is not an obsession.”

“Sustained,” Leibowitz said. “Move on, Mr. Garland.”

“Gladly,” he said. “Mr. Bosch, you followed Mr. Talbot to the cemetery, did you not?”

“No, I didn’t,” Bosch said. “He was followed by members of the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit. I was sitting in my car near the cemetery.”

Garland referred to notes on a yellow legal pad and asked the next question without looking up from them.

“So are you saying that you had prior knowledge that he was going there?” he asked.

“No, we had a hunch that he might go there,” Bosch said.

“And where did that come from? This hunch.”

“I was contacted a year before by an employee of the cemetery, a gravedigger who was preparing a grave near where Jennifer Talbot is buried. It was on the same day — February eighth, the anniversary — and he said he overheard a man who was standing at her grave talking to her. The gravedigger said the man was boasting about getting away with killing her, saying things like ‘I told you I’d never get caught.’ So after I was put in touch with this man, the gravedigger, I contacted Detective Ballard at the cold-case unit and we decided to follow Talbot and be ready at the cemetery if he went there.”

“And you brought flowers with you?”

“I did, yes.”

“And there was a recording device in the flowers?”

“Yes.”

“And your job was to confront Mr. Talbot and get him to talk about the murder of his wife?”

“Because I was the original lead on the case and Talbot and I had a history, Detective Ballard and I thought that my presence might provoke some sort of outburst. And it did.”

“When did this outburst take place?”

“Talbot took the flower vase and the tulips back to his car and drove home. He called his wife and they discussed the murder. It was recorded.”

“Did you or anyone with the LAPD prepare a search warrant that, if signed by a judge, would have allowed you to invade Mr. Talbot’s private vehicle with a listening device?”

They were now finally at the crux of the matter, and Bosch leaned slightly forward in the witness box; he knew to be very careful with his answers to these important questions.