After a very pleasant night at Patrick’s house, where we assiduously avoided the subject of cohabitation, the defense (that’s me) began the morning in court – after a one-mile run that had become my go-to activity on the morning of an appearance before the bench – by calling Michael Armbruster, the security chief who had been working on the Griffith Park set, to the stand. After establishing his credentials as a man who had been doing such things for location filming since I was a teenager, I asked Armbruster how he kept track of the comings and goings of people and equipment on a set that had to be built up and taken down quickly in accordance with the agreement the production company had with the city. Because Los Angeles owns the park.
‘We have personnel at every entrance and security cameras elsewhere, and everyone who comes to the set is required to have a credential that can be scanned against a list of people the production company gives us of those who are allowed on set at any given time.’ Armbruster, a man with an exceptionally long and wide neck, was not the crew-cut, biceps-heavy type you might expect in the security profession (mostly based on images from popular culture and not real life). He looked like a very competent landscape architect, which as it turned out was something he’d done professionally before getting into the security business. He was not an ex-cop or a military veteran. He was a graduate of Oberlin College with a degree in botany.
He was perfect for the film business.
‘Who at the production company compiles the list of people who can be present?’ I asked.
‘The production company submits a list of necessary crew based on the needs of each department head, but they don’t send it directly to us. The studio vets everyone who is on the crew before shooting begins, but there are always requests made for guests, friends of the actors and people like that,’ Armbruster said.
‘Do people have to have their security passes scanned when they leave the set as well as when they enter?’
‘Yes.’ Good. That was going to be important.
I turned and scanned the jury just to see how bored they were; it didn’t seem too bad yet. I’d have to keep this quick to avoid overload. ‘When did you begin giving out security passes and making checks on people in regards to the incident we’re discussing here today?’ I asked.
‘Weeks before.’
‘And when was the section of Griffith Park that had been leased for the stunt closed off?’
Armbruster could have referred to notes if he wanted to, but he didn’t. ‘Two days prior,’ he said. ‘That’s a very short period of time for a shoot like this, but the city didn’t want to close off that much of the park for a long time.’
‘In the twelve hours before the stunt was attempted and James Drake died, were you monitoring the set?’ I said. ‘That would be starting the evening before, maybe even the late afternoon of the day before.’
‘Of course we were,’ he said.
‘Of course you were,’ I repeated, hopefully sounding respectful, which was my aim. ‘Do you have a list of the people who were present beginning, let’s say, twelve hours before the attempted stunt, and a list of those who left that night before returning early the next morning?’
‘I do,’ Armbruster answered. ‘May I access my tablet computer?’
I looked over at Franklin, who looked at Renfro. ‘Objection?’
‘None, Your Honor.’
Franklin nodded in my direction and I told Armbruster he could look up the list on his iPad.
‘How many people were there for those twelve hours, continuously?’ I asked.
‘For the whole night, very few,’ he said. ‘Some technical crew had to work through the night to set up the cameras and other types of equipment. The stunt coordinator was not there the whole time, but scanned in and out on four separate occasions. Other people came and went during the period.’
‘Was Robert Reeves there?’ I asked.
‘For some of the time,’ Armbruster said. ‘But after midnight he didn’t come back until five thirty.’
Just to drive the point home to the jury: ‘So there was a five-and-a-half-hour period when Mr Reeves was not present on the set at all?’
‘That’s right,’ Armbruster said.
‘Thank you.’ I walked back to my table as Renfro rose from his.
‘Has anyone ever snuck onto a movie set?’ he asked.
‘Ever?’ Armbruster seemed nonplussed by the question.
‘Let’s make it more specific,’ the DA agreed. ‘Has anyone ever snuck onto a movie set that you were in charge of securing?’
‘Once in a while.’ Armbruster’s jaw was closed pretty tightly. It was hard to know how he got the words out audibly.
‘How often?’ Renfro asked.
‘There’s really no way to know but it doesn’t happen often.’ Armbruster’s eyes, if it had been possible, would have been clenched as well.
‘So it is possible that Robert Reeves could have snuck onto the set multiple times in those five-plus hours and approached the crane?’
‘It’s highly unlikely. That was the most secure area of the set.’
Renfro folded his arms in an attempt to seem more condescending. ‘But it is possible,’ he said.
‘Yes. I suppose it is possible.’
‘That’s all, Mr Ambruster.’
I spent the rest of the morning talking to people who had been on the set when James Drake died. They all were clearly traumatized by the event, and they all reported not having seen Reeves approach the crane at the ground level or anywhere else, except when he was accompanied by Drake or Burke Henderson. He had never been spotted there alone and certainly not with a bottle of acid. Renfro had asked each one if they were watching the crane the whole time they were on set and each had to admit they were, you know, doing their jobs and therefore not in constant surveillance mode.
Just when the judge had ordered us in recess for lunch, Nate, who had not been present in court that morning, came in looking even more intense than he usually does and made a beeline for the defense table. He was actually breathing a little heavily.
‘You OK?’ I asked him when he had reached Reeves, Penny, Jon and me. (Reeves and Penny were definitely not paying him any attention.)
‘Yeah. But I’ve got something for you. I’ve done some contact tracing on our friend Margaret Houlihan and I think I’ve figured out who was distributing that doctored video of the set.’
OK, my interest level had risen considerably, to the point that I was no longer very concerned about Nate’s health. ‘Who?’ I asked.
‘I don’t think you’re gonna like it,’ he said.