Court of Killers, page 21
“Was that the only video on his page?”
“No.”
“But that was the only one you showed the jury.”
“That was the only one that shows the mayor screaming like a maniac.”
“Is it possible she had a good reason?”
“I’m sure she thought so.”
“Is it possible the man did something so horrible anyone would’ve been upset?”
Kakazu considered. “Most people are better able to keep their heads together, even in negative circumstances.”
“Have you ever lost your temper?”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you, the detective with fifteen years on the force. Ever lost your cool?”
“Once or twice.”
“Does that prove you're a cold-blooded killer?”
“Obviously not.”
“In fact, it’s impossible to judge whether someone’s reaction is reasonable without knowing what instigated the situation, wouldn’t you say?”
“That reaction was over the top, no matter what explanation she trots out.”
“What if the man threatened your daughter?”
Kakazu stopped short. He knew Kakazu had two daughters and like most daddies, he loved them dearly. “Your client doesn’t have a daughter.”
“She has people she cares about. Answer the question. If someone threatened your daughter, would you calmly attempt to reason with them? Or would you bite their head off?”
Kakazu thought a long time before answering. “In that situation, I might be prone to overreact.”
“Thank you for your honesty. One more thing—why didn’t you show the jury the entire video?”
Kakazu stiffened. “What?”
“Is there something you didn’t want the jury to see?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Do you know what metadata is?”
“Vaguely...”
“Well, iPhones store metadata with every photo or video they take. I’m told you can turn that off, but almost no one does. This is why iPhones can tag people and add locations and such.” He paused. “It also stores the length of the video. And your video was originally one minute and twelve seconds longer than the video you showed. I can put our expert on the stand if there’s any dispute about this.”
He could see Kakazu glancing at Jazlyn, begging for answers. “I’m sorry. I don’t know anything about this.”
“Did you extract the video from the phone?”
“No. CSI tech-heads do stuff like that.”
“Do you dispute that the video was edited?”
“I know I didn’t edit it.”
“Is there anyone in the courtroom who can explain how this video was doctored before you played it to the jury?”
Another glance at Jazlyn. “I don’t think so.”
“Do you know what editing tools were used?”
“No.”
“Can you establish the chain of custody regarding the iPhone or the video copied from it?”
“I didn’t know we’d be getting into this.”
He addressed the judge. “Your honor, at this time I renew my motion to exclude the video as evidence. I’ll submit a brief detailing our findings, but bottom line, something was cut and I rather doubt that was done accidentally. Since the jury has already seen the video, we’ll ask that they be instructed to disregard it.”
In fact, he could’ve turned this into a terrific motion for mistrial, but Camila forbid it. She wanted this business over with. He could blow all the smoke he wanted, but anything that kept her out of office one day longer than necessary, she opposed.
Judge Hayes blew out his cheeks. He clearly didn’t like this—but he couldn’t overlook possible evidence tampering. “I’ll ask for briefs from both parties. If the video has been tampered with...I’ll take it from there.”
“Thank you, your honor. I have no more questions.”
The judge glanced at his watch. “We’ve had a long day. Let’s shut ‘er down. That will give you time to submit your expert’s information to the prosecution and give them a chance to respond. I want your briefs first thing tomorrow morning. I’ll rule as soon as possible. Court dismissed.”
Back at counsel table, Maria flashed him a “thumbs up.”
Camila waited till he sat down. “This is good for us, right?”
“It’s not as good as if Kakazu had broken down in tears and confessed that he turned on the oven. But yes, I think this was our best play.”
“I watched the jury while Jazlyn played that video. They didn’t like what they saw.”
“They don’t understand the context.”
“They understand that it shows me being exactly what the entire internet currently says I am.” She placed her head in her hands. “Combine memes and sneaky-cam videos, and you get the death penalty.”
He laid his hand on her shoulder. “That’s going to change. Right now, we’re doing damage control. Picking at the prosecution case. When we put on our case—” He smiled. “They’re going to meet a very different Camila Pérez.”
Chapter 37
Jazlyn stopped him in the hallway outside the courtroom. He wasn’t surprised.
“What the hell was that?” Her voice wasn’t loud enough to attract attention, but for her, this was practically shouting.
“That was me doing my job.”
“By suggesting that I doctored evidence.”
“I never said that.”
“Practically. Why didn’t you tell me about this before? I would’ve gotten to the bottom of it before the trial began.”
He smiled but did not reply. He considered telling her, but ultimately, he didn’t think giving her advance notice was best for the defense. The suggestion of evidence tampering buttressed their theory that this case was politically motivated.
“Don’t you understand that when you make these insinuations, it impugns my reputation?”
“I’m on record acknowledging that you’re a fine prosecutor.”
“But a crooked one?”
“I’ve never said anything like that.”
She took a step closer. “I know we’re on opposite sides of the courtroom. And I know you’re obligated to defend your client.” Her voice dropped. “But I also thought we were friends.”
“I hope we will—”
“And friends don’t pull crap like this on one another. This is beyond the pale.”
“Jazlyn, please. Let’s—”
She turned her back on him. “Excuse me. I have a brief to write.”
She walked away wordlessly, cold as ice.
* * *
Dan took Camila home and spent some time with her, making sure she felt as strong as anyone could possibly be when their life was on the line. As he left, she hesitated, standing close, peering into his eyes.
Was he misreading the signals? Imagining them? Flattering himself?
Didn’t matter. She was his client, and as long as this case was active, nothing remotely romantic could take place.
Afterward....
Back at the office, Maria and Jimmy buzzed about the kitchen assembling some kind of frozen something while Garrett noodled at the keyboard. But he wasn’t playing his usual Brubeckesque jazz riffs. This piece was slower and had more sustained notes. Somber. Almost mournful.
“Is that a dirge?” he mumbled to Maria as she passed by. “Are we having a funeral for the case?”
“Don’t be silly. He’s just in a mood. We all need a vacay.”
Jimmy passed by stirring a pot, head bobbing from side to side. “This has definitely not been a good day.”
“Because you’re stirring your sauce with a metal spoon?”
Jimmy glared. “No, Gordon Ramsey. Because our client looks guilty.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. The jurors think so too. They may not have made up their minds yet. But that video, plus that business with the ‘C’ sketched in blood, didn’t help at all.”
“That could be anything.”
Maria raised her hands. “Dan, stop already. It’s a ‘C.’ It’s clearly a ‘C.’ Everyone thinks it’s a ‘C.’ And every time you suggest it might be a twitch or a crescent moon or something, you sound desperate. Better to come up with an alternate explanation for the ‘C.’”
“Like what?”
Silence permeated the kitchen.
“I thought the video was the worst,” Maria said. “She looked like a banshee about to take her next victim.”
“Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad.”
“It was bad. It made an impact. They’d never seen their mayor behave like that.”
“Ok, so she has a temper. Everyone does.”
“Not like that.”
“Having a temper doesn’t mean she’d be crazy enough to bake four men in an oven.”
“And yet,” Jimmy said, “someone was crazy enough to do it. I’m guessing it wasn’t a calm, even-tempered soul.”
“I don’t buy it. Camila is too smart. Too career-oriented.”
Maria tapped him on the chest with a spatula. “You’re not seeing clearly, Dan. Because you’re sweet on our client.”
“I’m sweet on all our clients.”
“Not like this.”
“We’ve never had a case like this. No one has.”
“You’re changing the subject.” She grinned. “Our cool aloof warrior-king has a crush on the mayor!”
“I do not.”
Jimmy gave him a stern look. “No sex till after the case.”
“I know that! I mean, I’m not saying—I don’t—”
“Uh huh.” Jimmy continued stirring. “Would it be presumptuous of me to suggest that it’s unwise to develop an attachment to someone who may well be living behind bars in a few days?”
“Yes, actually, it would.” He changed the subject. “Has anyone figured out how Sweeney found out about the motion in limine?”
“That man gives me the creeps. He’s a Lex Luthor clone—”
A mechanical female voice cut in. “I don’t have a response for that.”
Jimmy looked puzzled. “What? Why?” He stopped. “Oh, I get it. She thought she heard her name when I said ‘a Lex—”
The blue ring appeared atop the black box. “Would you like to hear a song from your playlist?”
They answered in unison. “No!”
He tried to steer them back to the case. “Do we have a leak?”
Garrett stopped playing and cleared his throat. “We do.”
All eyes in the kitchen moved to their senior partner.
“I’m not saying it was one of us,” Garrett continued. “I’d stake my career that it wasn’t, in fact. Even if one of you disliked Camila or thought she was guilty”—he paused—“which would not be an impossible assumption, you still wouldn’t betray the team. But the fact remains. Word got out.”
“Any idea how?”
“We’ve had this problem before. Remember during the Gabriella Valdez case? Someone leaked info from a confidential client conference.”
He remembered all too well. “And?”
“And now a leak from an in camera motion we filed. What do the two have in common?”
He thought a moment. “The courthouse.”
“Someone there could easily plant a listening device in a client consultation room.”
Jimmy leaned in. “I don’t believe it.”
“And there’s another possibility.” Garrett turned toward the cylindrical black box on the countertop. “Alexa, are you listening to our conversation?”
The blue ring accompanied the female voice. “I only listen after I hear the wake word.”
Garrett smiled. “But how could she hear the wake word unless she’s listening? You see what I’m saying, Dan?”
“Are you suggesting that our leak...is Maria’s Amazon Echo?”
“It’s not impossible. Amazon has admitted that they have thousands of employees working on improving their digital assistants, in part by listening to voice recordings captured in the homes and offices of Echo owners. Those recordings are transcribed and stored on a computer, analyzed to improve Alexa’s responses. Any computer record can be hacked. You may have heard about the Oregon couple who discovered that hours of their conversations had been recorded, stored, and sent to a friend. It was supposedly an accident.”
“You don’t believe it?”
“I have no idea. The point is, Alexa is not only listening, she’s retaining records of conversations she hears. We need stronger privacy laws. Europe has the General Data Protection Regulation, but in the US we have nothing. Privacy activists have filed a complaint with the FTC arguing that these voice-activated devices violate the Federal Wiretap Act.”
“That seems extreme.”
“The reality is, we’ve voluntarily put millions of live mics in our homes, and we don’t have the final say on when they’re active or who gets to listen. The mic can record your daily activities and location history. Your preferences and routines. We’re giving artificial intelligence enormous amounts of information that could be used against us.”
Maria reached toward the wall. “Okay, I’m unplugging Alexa.”
“And while you’re at it, take off that Fitbit.”
Her eyes widened like balloons. “No!”
“It makes records too. About your location and activities. That’s how it knows whether you’ve hit your walking goals. That data is stored on a cloud and could be hacked.”
Maria sounded as if she might burst into tears. “But I love my Fitbit.”
“For that matter,” Garrett continued, “we’re all carrying little computers in our pockets that we call phones, even though people rarely use them to make calls anymore. It’s well known that the FBI can activate them and use them as listening devices. Even if they aren’t turned on. Ditto for your laptops. The Feebs can peer right through that camera lens.”
Maria lowered herself into a chair. “Okay, you’re making me very paranoid.”
“So now you know why I’m playing dirges. It’s an elegy to our personal privacy. Which we have largely given up in exchange for high-tech convenience.”
Maria looked as if her life were over. “But I can’t give up my cell phone...”
“No, you can’t. We need to be able to contact you, text you, send you documents instantaneously. And that’s the point. The only reason our phones can perform these miracles...is because they know where you are and what you’re doing. They’re listening. They’re watching. They’re keeping tabs on you.” He paused. “And storing information that could be used against you.”
Chapter 38
Dan wondered if the trial gods were conspiring with Garrett to creep everyone out, because the first prosecution witness of the morning fanned the flames he’d stoked the evening before.
Bret McCoy was a telecommunications data-mining expert, which was apparently a fancy way of saying he hacked cell phones and knew everything there was to know about them. He had helped the prosecutors draft the search warrants they used to obtain information, not only from Camila’s phone, but also from the phones of others who were in the pedestrian shopping area at the approximate time the oven was activated.
“It’s called a geofence warrant,” McCoy explained. Big man, former wrestler. Curly hair. Hipster threads. “A tool we use to collect information about people suspected of crimes. We specified an area and a time period and sent the warrant to Google.”
“Did Google reply?”
“Yes. Fortunately, the defendant used an Android phone. Apple claims it doesn’t collect this kind of information. But Google does. In Sensorvault.”
The jury looked mystified but intrigued. Many probably had Android phones. “What is Sensorvault?”
“That’s a Google database. Huge thing. Connected to their Location History service. Started in 2009.”
“Is this on all Android phones?”
“It is, but it’s not on by default. Google prompts users when they set up their phones. They can choose whether they want it activated.”
“Do most people use Location Services?”
“Almost everyone. Because they want Google Maps. They want real-time traffic alerts and such. And that means Google has to know where they are. Google can collect that data any time the phone is on, even if you’re not currently using an app that requires location services. They use it for commercial purposes. For instance, to target ads. They know when you’ve been in an advertiser’s store—or a competitor’s.”
“And Google will provide this information to law enforcement?”
“Yes. Sensorvault turns all those cellphone user locations into a digital dragnet that law enforcement can access. Federal agents were the first to use this, back in 2016, but since then, many local and state departments have also used it. Last year, Google was getting 180 requests a week.”
“Did your warrant produce any useful information?”
“Yes. I collected the data in a spreadsheet to help everyone see the bottom line.” After admitting his spreadsheet into evidence, Jazlyn put it up on the screen so the jurors could view it. “I realize not everyone here is a techie like me, so staring at numbers may not be your idea of a great time. I highlighted the most important parts.”
“What conclusions did you reach?”
“This data provides information on all devices recorded at or near the bakery at the time the murders took place. We can say with absolute certainty that Camila Pérez was in the area at the time the murders took place. She was there when the last victim was lured onto the premises. She was there when the sex act took place in the lobby.” He paused. “And she was there when the oven was turned on.”
He checked the faces in the gallery. Their sober expressions were not difficult to read. Even if they didn’t understand the document, they understood what he was saying.
“Were there any witnesses who saw her there? I mean, human witnesses?”
“Absolutely. At least fourteen people spotted the mayor in the shopping area and took pictures. Several uploaded photos to Instagram.”
“How far is the pedestrian mall from the bakery?”
“Less than a block.”
“Did the defendant ever come any closer to the bakery?”
“No.”
“But that was the only one you showed the jury.”
“That was the only one that shows the mayor screaming like a maniac.”
“Is it possible she had a good reason?”
“I’m sure she thought so.”
“Is it possible the man did something so horrible anyone would’ve been upset?”
Kakazu considered. “Most people are better able to keep their heads together, even in negative circumstances.”
“Have you ever lost your temper?”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you, the detective with fifteen years on the force. Ever lost your cool?”
“Once or twice.”
“Does that prove you're a cold-blooded killer?”
“Obviously not.”
“In fact, it’s impossible to judge whether someone’s reaction is reasonable without knowing what instigated the situation, wouldn’t you say?”
“That reaction was over the top, no matter what explanation she trots out.”
“What if the man threatened your daughter?”
Kakazu stopped short. He knew Kakazu had two daughters and like most daddies, he loved them dearly. “Your client doesn’t have a daughter.”
“She has people she cares about. Answer the question. If someone threatened your daughter, would you calmly attempt to reason with them? Or would you bite their head off?”
Kakazu thought a long time before answering. “In that situation, I might be prone to overreact.”
“Thank you for your honesty. One more thing—why didn’t you show the jury the entire video?”
Kakazu stiffened. “What?”
“Is there something you didn’t want the jury to see?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Do you know what metadata is?”
“Vaguely...”
“Well, iPhones store metadata with every photo or video they take. I’m told you can turn that off, but almost no one does. This is why iPhones can tag people and add locations and such.” He paused. “It also stores the length of the video. And your video was originally one minute and twelve seconds longer than the video you showed. I can put our expert on the stand if there’s any dispute about this.”
He could see Kakazu glancing at Jazlyn, begging for answers. “I’m sorry. I don’t know anything about this.”
“Did you extract the video from the phone?”
“No. CSI tech-heads do stuff like that.”
“Do you dispute that the video was edited?”
“I know I didn’t edit it.”
“Is there anyone in the courtroom who can explain how this video was doctored before you played it to the jury?”
Another glance at Jazlyn. “I don’t think so.”
“Do you know what editing tools were used?”
“No.”
“Can you establish the chain of custody regarding the iPhone or the video copied from it?”
“I didn’t know we’d be getting into this.”
He addressed the judge. “Your honor, at this time I renew my motion to exclude the video as evidence. I’ll submit a brief detailing our findings, but bottom line, something was cut and I rather doubt that was done accidentally. Since the jury has already seen the video, we’ll ask that they be instructed to disregard it.”
In fact, he could’ve turned this into a terrific motion for mistrial, but Camila forbid it. She wanted this business over with. He could blow all the smoke he wanted, but anything that kept her out of office one day longer than necessary, she opposed.
Judge Hayes blew out his cheeks. He clearly didn’t like this—but he couldn’t overlook possible evidence tampering. “I’ll ask for briefs from both parties. If the video has been tampered with...I’ll take it from there.”
“Thank you, your honor. I have no more questions.”
The judge glanced at his watch. “We’ve had a long day. Let’s shut ‘er down. That will give you time to submit your expert’s information to the prosecution and give them a chance to respond. I want your briefs first thing tomorrow morning. I’ll rule as soon as possible. Court dismissed.”
Back at counsel table, Maria flashed him a “thumbs up.”
Camila waited till he sat down. “This is good for us, right?”
“It’s not as good as if Kakazu had broken down in tears and confessed that he turned on the oven. But yes, I think this was our best play.”
“I watched the jury while Jazlyn played that video. They didn’t like what they saw.”
“They don’t understand the context.”
“They understand that it shows me being exactly what the entire internet currently says I am.” She placed her head in her hands. “Combine memes and sneaky-cam videos, and you get the death penalty.”
He laid his hand on her shoulder. “That’s going to change. Right now, we’re doing damage control. Picking at the prosecution case. When we put on our case—” He smiled. “They’re going to meet a very different Camila Pérez.”
Chapter 37
Jazlyn stopped him in the hallway outside the courtroom. He wasn’t surprised.
“What the hell was that?” Her voice wasn’t loud enough to attract attention, but for her, this was practically shouting.
“That was me doing my job.”
“By suggesting that I doctored evidence.”
“I never said that.”
“Practically. Why didn’t you tell me about this before? I would’ve gotten to the bottom of it before the trial began.”
He smiled but did not reply. He considered telling her, but ultimately, he didn’t think giving her advance notice was best for the defense. The suggestion of evidence tampering buttressed their theory that this case was politically motivated.
“Don’t you understand that when you make these insinuations, it impugns my reputation?”
“I’m on record acknowledging that you’re a fine prosecutor.”
“But a crooked one?”
“I’ve never said anything like that.”
She took a step closer. “I know we’re on opposite sides of the courtroom. And I know you’re obligated to defend your client.” Her voice dropped. “But I also thought we were friends.”
“I hope we will—”
“And friends don’t pull crap like this on one another. This is beyond the pale.”
“Jazlyn, please. Let’s—”
She turned her back on him. “Excuse me. I have a brief to write.”
She walked away wordlessly, cold as ice.
* * *
Dan took Camila home and spent some time with her, making sure she felt as strong as anyone could possibly be when their life was on the line. As he left, she hesitated, standing close, peering into his eyes.
Was he misreading the signals? Imagining them? Flattering himself?
Didn’t matter. She was his client, and as long as this case was active, nothing remotely romantic could take place.
Afterward....
Back at the office, Maria and Jimmy buzzed about the kitchen assembling some kind of frozen something while Garrett noodled at the keyboard. But he wasn’t playing his usual Brubeckesque jazz riffs. This piece was slower and had more sustained notes. Somber. Almost mournful.
“Is that a dirge?” he mumbled to Maria as she passed by. “Are we having a funeral for the case?”
“Don’t be silly. He’s just in a mood. We all need a vacay.”
Jimmy passed by stirring a pot, head bobbing from side to side. “This has definitely not been a good day.”
“Because you’re stirring your sauce with a metal spoon?”
Jimmy glared. “No, Gordon Ramsey. Because our client looks guilty.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. The jurors think so too. They may not have made up their minds yet. But that video, plus that business with the ‘C’ sketched in blood, didn’t help at all.”
“That could be anything.”
Maria raised her hands. “Dan, stop already. It’s a ‘C.’ It’s clearly a ‘C.’ Everyone thinks it’s a ‘C.’ And every time you suggest it might be a twitch or a crescent moon or something, you sound desperate. Better to come up with an alternate explanation for the ‘C.’”
“Like what?”
Silence permeated the kitchen.
“I thought the video was the worst,” Maria said. “She looked like a banshee about to take her next victim.”
“Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad.”
“It was bad. It made an impact. They’d never seen their mayor behave like that.”
“Ok, so she has a temper. Everyone does.”
“Not like that.”
“Having a temper doesn’t mean she’d be crazy enough to bake four men in an oven.”
“And yet,” Jimmy said, “someone was crazy enough to do it. I’m guessing it wasn’t a calm, even-tempered soul.”
“I don’t buy it. Camila is too smart. Too career-oriented.”
Maria tapped him on the chest with a spatula. “You’re not seeing clearly, Dan. Because you’re sweet on our client.”
“I’m sweet on all our clients.”
“Not like this.”
“We’ve never had a case like this. No one has.”
“You’re changing the subject.” She grinned. “Our cool aloof warrior-king has a crush on the mayor!”
“I do not.”
Jimmy gave him a stern look. “No sex till after the case.”
“I know that! I mean, I’m not saying—I don’t—”
“Uh huh.” Jimmy continued stirring. “Would it be presumptuous of me to suggest that it’s unwise to develop an attachment to someone who may well be living behind bars in a few days?”
“Yes, actually, it would.” He changed the subject. “Has anyone figured out how Sweeney found out about the motion in limine?”
“That man gives me the creeps. He’s a Lex Luthor clone—”
A mechanical female voice cut in. “I don’t have a response for that.”
Jimmy looked puzzled. “What? Why?” He stopped. “Oh, I get it. She thought she heard her name when I said ‘a Lex—”
The blue ring appeared atop the black box. “Would you like to hear a song from your playlist?”
They answered in unison. “No!”
He tried to steer them back to the case. “Do we have a leak?”
Garrett stopped playing and cleared his throat. “We do.”
All eyes in the kitchen moved to their senior partner.
“I’m not saying it was one of us,” Garrett continued. “I’d stake my career that it wasn’t, in fact. Even if one of you disliked Camila or thought she was guilty”—he paused—“which would not be an impossible assumption, you still wouldn’t betray the team. But the fact remains. Word got out.”
“Any idea how?”
“We’ve had this problem before. Remember during the Gabriella Valdez case? Someone leaked info from a confidential client conference.”
He remembered all too well. “And?”
“And now a leak from an in camera motion we filed. What do the two have in common?”
He thought a moment. “The courthouse.”
“Someone there could easily plant a listening device in a client consultation room.”
Jimmy leaned in. “I don’t believe it.”
“And there’s another possibility.” Garrett turned toward the cylindrical black box on the countertop. “Alexa, are you listening to our conversation?”
The blue ring accompanied the female voice. “I only listen after I hear the wake word.”
Garrett smiled. “But how could she hear the wake word unless she’s listening? You see what I’m saying, Dan?”
“Are you suggesting that our leak...is Maria’s Amazon Echo?”
“It’s not impossible. Amazon has admitted that they have thousands of employees working on improving their digital assistants, in part by listening to voice recordings captured in the homes and offices of Echo owners. Those recordings are transcribed and stored on a computer, analyzed to improve Alexa’s responses. Any computer record can be hacked. You may have heard about the Oregon couple who discovered that hours of their conversations had been recorded, stored, and sent to a friend. It was supposedly an accident.”
“You don’t believe it?”
“I have no idea. The point is, Alexa is not only listening, she’s retaining records of conversations she hears. We need stronger privacy laws. Europe has the General Data Protection Regulation, but in the US we have nothing. Privacy activists have filed a complaint with the FTC arguing that these voice-activated devices violate the Federal Wiretap Act.”
“That seems extreme.”
“The reality is, we’ve voluntarily put millions of live mics in our homes, and we don’t have the final say on when they’re active or who gets to listen. The mic can record your daily activities and location history. Your preferences and routines. We’re giving artificial intelligence enormous amounts of information that could be used against us.”
Maria reached toward the wall. “Okay, I’m unplugging Alexa.”
“And while you’re at it, take off that Fitbit.”
Her eyes widened like balloons. “No!”
“It makes records too. About your location and activities. That’s how it knows whether you’ve hit your walking goals. That data is stored on a cloud and could be hacked.”
Maria sounded as if she might burst into tears. “But I love my Fitbit.”
“For that matter,” Garrett continued, “we’re all carrying little computers in our pockets that we call phones, even though people rarely use them to make calls anymore. It’s well known that the FBI can activate them and use them as listening devices. Even if they aren’t turned on. Ditto for your laptops. The Feebs can peer right through that camera lens.”
Maria lowered herself into a chair. “Okay, you’re making me very paranoid.”
“So now you know why I’m playing dirges. It’s an elegy to our personal privacy. Which we have largely given up in exchange for high-tech convenience.”
Maria looked as if her life were over. “But I can’t give up my cell phone...”
“No, you can’t. We need to be able to contact you, text you, send you documents instantaneously. And that’s the point. The only reason our phones can perform these miracles...is because they know where you are and what you’re doing. They’re listening. They’re watching. They’re keeping tabs on you.” He paused. “And storing information that could be used against you.”
Chapter 38
Dan wondered if the trial gods were conspiring with Garrett to creep everyone out, because the first prosecution witness of the morning fanned the flames he’d stoked the evening before.
Bret McCoy was a telecommunications data-mining expert, which was apparently a fancy way of saying he hacked cell phones and knew everything there was to know about them. He had helped the prosecutors draft the search warrants they used to obtain information, not only from Camila’s phone, but also from the phones of others who were in the pedestrian shopping area at the approximate time the oven was activated.
“It’s called a geofence warrant,” McCoy explained. Big man, former wrestler. Curly hair. Hipster threads. “A tool we use to collect information about people suspected of crimes. We specified an area and a time period and sent the warrant to Google.”
“Did Google reply?”
“Yes. Fortunately, the defendant used an Android phone. Apple claims it doesn’t collect this kind of information. But Google does. In Sensorvault.”
The jury looked mystified but intrigued. Many probably had Android phones. “What is Sensorvault?”
“That’s a Google database. Huge thing. Connected to their Location History service. Started in 2009.”
“Is this on all Android phones?”
“It is, but it’s not on by default. Google prompts users when they set up their phones. They can choose whether they want it activated.”
“Do most people use Location Services?”
“Almost everyone. Because they want Google Maps. They want real-time traffic alerts and such. And that means Google has to know where they are. Google can collect that data any time the phone is on, even if you’re not currently using an app that requires location services. They use it for commercial purposes. For instance, to target ads. They know when you’ve been in an advertiser’s store—or a competitor’s.”
“And Google will provide this information to law enforcement?”
“Yes. Sensorvault turns all those cellphone user locations into a digital dragnet that law enforcement can access. Federal agents were the first to use this, back in 2016, but since then, many local and state departments have also used it. Last year, Google was getting 180 requests a week.”
“Did your warrant produce any useful information?”
“Yes. I collected the data in a spreadsheet to help everyone see the bottom line.” After admitting his spreadsheet into evidence, Jazlyn put it up on the screen so the jurors could view it. “I realize not everyone here is a techie like me, so staring at numbers may not be your idea of a great time. I highlighted the most important parts.”
“What conclusions did you reach?”
“This data provides information on all devices recorded at or near the bakery at the time the murders took place. We can say with absolute certainty that Camila Pérez was in the area at the time the murders took place. She was there when the last victim was lured onto the premises. She was there when the sex act took place in the lobby.” He paused. “And she was there when the oven was turned on.”
He checked the faces in the gallery. Their sober expressions were not difficult to read. Even if they didn’t understand the document, they understood what he was saying.
“Were there any witnesses who saw her there? I mean, human witnesses?”
“Absolutely. At least fourteen people spotted the mayor in the shopping area and took pictures. Several uploaded photos to Instagram.”
“How far is the pedestrian mall from the bakery?”
“Less than a block.”
“Did the defendant ever come any closer to the bakery?”
