Michael Connelly (142 page)

“Yeah. The book. What was she reading?”

“The book?”

“Yeah.”

“It was called
The Big Sleep
. And that’s what she got, man.”

“You can do me a favor, Hanks.”

“What’s that?”

“If you talk to any reporters about this, leave the part about the book out.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just leave it out.”

Bosch hung up. He sat at the desk and felt ashamed that when Sylvia had first talked of the girl, he had been suspicious of
her fine school work.

After a few minutes thinking about that, he picked the phone up again and called Irving’s office. The phone was picked up
on half a ring.

“Hello, this is Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Irvin Irving’s office, Lieutenant Hans Rollenberger speaking,
how can I help you?”

Bosch figured Hans Off must be expecting Irving himself to call in and therefore trotted out the full-count official telephone
greeting that was in the officer’s manual but was roundly ignored by most of the people who answered phones in the department.

Bosch hung up without saying anything and redialed so the lieutenant could go through the whole spiel again.

“It’s Bosch. I’m just checking in.”

“Bosch, did you just call a few moments ago?”

“No, why?”

“Nothing. I’m here with Nixon and Johnson. They just came in and Sheehan and Opelt are with Mora now.”

Bosch noticed how Rollenberger didn’t dare call them the presidents when they were in the same room with him.

“Anything happen today?”

“No. The subject spent the morning at home, then a little while ago he went up to the Valley, visited a few more warehouses.
Nothing suspicious.”

“Where is he now?”

“At home.”

“What about Edgar?”

“Edgar was here. He went over to Sybil to interview the survivor. He found her last night but she apparently was too dopey
to talk to. He’s giving it another try, now.”

Then in a lower voice, he said, “If she confirms an ID of Mora, do we move?”

“I don’t think it would be a good idea. It’s not enough. And we’d tip our hand.”

“My thoughts exactly,” he said louder now, so the presidents would know he was clearly in command here. “We stick to him like
glue and we’ll be there when he makes his move.”

“Hopefully. How’re you working this with the surveillance teams? They giving you blow by blow?”

“Absolutely. They’re on rovers and I’m listening here. I know every move the subject makes. I’m staying on late tonight. I
have a feeling.”

“About what?”

“I think t’night’s the night, Bosch.”

• • •

Bosch woke Sylvia at five but then sat on the bed and rubbed her back and neck for a half hour. After that, she got up and
took a shower. Her eyes still looked sleepy when she came out to the living room. She wore her gray cotton T-shirt dress.
Her blonde hair was tied in a tail behind her head.

“When do you have to go?”

“A little while.”

She didn’t ask where he was going or what for. He didn’t offer to tell her.

“You want me to make you some soup or something?” he asked.

“No, I’m fine. I don’t think I’m going to be hungry tonight.”

The phone rang and Harry answered it in the kitchen. It was a reporter from the
Times
who had gotten the number from Mrs. Fontenot. The reporter wanted to speak with Sylvia about Beatrice.

“About what?” Bosch asked.

“Well, Mrs. Fontenot said Mrs. Moore said several nice things about her daughter. We are doing a major story on this because
Beatrice was such a good kid. I thought Mrs. Moore would want to say something.”

Bosch told her to hold on and went to find Sylvia. He told her about the reporter and Sylvia quickly said she wanted to talk
about the girl.

She stayed on the phone fifteen minutes. While she was talking, Bosch went out to his car, turned on the rover and switched
it to Symplex five, the DWP frequency. He heard nothing.

He pressed the transmit button and said, “Team One?”

A few seconds passed and he was about to try again when Sheehan’s voice came back on the rover.

“Who’s that?”

“Bosch.”

“What it be?”

“How’s our subject?”

The next voice was Rollenberger’s coming in over Sheehan.

“This is Team Leader, please use your code designations when on the air.”

Bosch smirked. The guy was an ass.

“Leader of the team, what’s my designation?”

“You are Team Six, this is Team Leader, out.”

“Rrrrrogaaahhhh that, dream leader.”

“Say again?”

“Say again?”

“Your last transmission, Team Five, what was that?”

Rollenberger’s voice had a frustrated quality to it. Bosch was smiling. He could hear a clicking sound over the radio and
he knew it was Sheehan punching his transmit button, showing his approval.

“I asked who was on my team.”

“Team Six, you are solo at this time.”

“Then should I have another code, Team Leader? Perhaps, Solo Six?”

“Bo — uh, Team Six, please keep off the air unless you need or are giving information.”

“Rrrogaahhh!”

Bosch put the radio down for a moment and laughed. He had tears in his eyes and he realized he was laughing too hard at something
that was mildly humorous at best. He figured it was the release of some of the tension of the day. He picked up the radio
again and called Sheehan back.

“Team One, is the subject moving?”

“That’s affirmative, Solo — I mean, Team Six.”

“Where is he?”

“He is code seven at the Ling’s Wings at Hollywood and Cherokee.”

Mora was eating at a fast-food restaurant. Bosch knew that would not give him enough time to do what he planned, especially
since he was a half hour’s drive from Hollywood.

“Team One, how’s he look? Is he staying out tonight?”

“Looking good. Looks like he is going cruising.”

“Talk to you later.”

“Rrrrrogah!”

• • •

He could tell Sylvia had been crying again when he came inside but her spirits seemed improved. Maybe it was past her, he
thought, the initial pain and anger. She was sitting in the kitchen drinking a cup of hot tea.

“Do you want a cup, Harry?”

“No, I’m fine. I’m going to have to go.”

“Okay.”

“What’d you tell her, the reporter?”

“I told her everything I could think of. I hope she does a good story.”

“They usually do.”

It appeared that Hanks hadn’t told the reporter about the book the girl had been reading. If he had, the reporter would definitely
have told Sylvia to get her reaction. He realized that Sylvia’s returning strength was due to her having talked about the
girl. He had always marveled about how women wanted to talk, to maybe set the record straight about someone they knew or loved
who had died. It had happened to him countless times while making next-of-kin notifications. The women were hurt, yes, but
they wanted to talk. Standing in Sylvia’s kitchen, he realized that the first time he had met her was on such a mission. He
had told her about her husband’s death and they had stood in the same room they were in now, and she had talked. Almost from
the start, Bosch had been hooked deeply in the heart by her.

“You going to be all right while I’m gone?”

“I’ll be fine, Harry. I’m feeling better.”

“I’ll try to get back as soon as I can, but I can’t be sure when that will be. Get something to eat.”

“Okay.”

At the door, they hugged and kissed and Bosch had an overwhelming urge not to go, to stay with her and hold her. He finally
broke away.

“You are a good woman, Sylvia. Better than I deserve.”

She reached up and put her hand on his mouth.

“Don’t say that, Harry.”

Mora’s house was on Sierra Linda, near Sunset. Bosch pulled to the curb a half block away and watched the house as it grew
dark outside. The street was mostly lined with Craftsman bungalows with full porches and dormer windows projecting from the
sloping roofs. Bosch guessed it had been at least a decade since the street was as pretty as its name sounded. Many of the
houses on the block were in disrepair. The one next to Mora’s was abandoned and boarded. On other properties it was clear
the owners had opted for chain-link fences instead of paint the last time they had the money to make a choice. Almost all
had bars over their windows, even the dormers up top. There was a car sitting on cinderblocks in one of the driveways. It
was the kind of neighborhood where you could find at least one yard sale every weekend.

Bosch had the rover on low on the seat next to him. The last report he had heard was that Mora was in a bar near the Boulevard
called the Bullet. Bosch had been there before and pictured it in his mind, with Mora sitting at the bar. It was a dark place
with a couple of neon beer signs, two pool tables, and a TV bolted to the ceiling over the bar. It wasn’t a place to go for
a quick one. There was no such thing as one drink at the Bullet. Bosch figured Mora was digging in for the evening.

As the sky turned deep purple, he watched the windows of Mora’s house but no light came on behind any of them. Bosch knew
Mora was divorced but he didn’t know if he now had a roommate. Looking at the dark place from the Caprice, he doubted it.

“Team One?” Bosch said into the rover.

“Team One.”

“This is Six, how’s our boy?”

“Still bending the elbow. What are you up to tonight, Six?”

“Just hanging around the house. Let me know if you need anything, or if he starts to move.”

“Will do.”

He wondered if Sheehan and Opelt understood what he was saying and he hoped Rollenberger did not. He leaned over to the glove
compartment and got his bag of picks out. He reached inside his blue plastic raid jacket and put them in the left pocket.
Then he turned the rover’s volume control knob to its lowest setting and put it inside the windbreaker in the other pocket.
Because it said LAPD in bright yellow letters across the back of the jacket, he wore it inside out.

He got out, locked the car and was ready to cross the street when he heard a transmission from the radio. He got his keys
back out, unlocked the car and got back in. He turned the radio up.

“What’s that, One? I missed it.”

“Subject is moving. Westbound on Hollywood.”

“On foot?”

“Negative.”

Shit, Bosch thought. He sat in the car for another forty-five minutes while Sheehan radioed reports of Mora’s seemingly aimless
cruising up and down Hollywood Boulevard. He wondered what Mora was doing. The cruising was not part of the profile of the
second killer. The Follower, as far as they knew, worked exclusively out of hotels. That’s where he lured his victims. The
cruising didn’t fit.

The radio was quiet for ten minutes and then Sheehan came up on the air again.

“He’s dropping down to the strip.”

The Sunset Strip was another problem altogether. The strip was in L.A. but directly south of it was West Hollywood, sheriff’s
department jurisdiction. If Mora dropped down south and started to make some kind of move, it could result in jurisdictional
problems. A guy like Hans Off was completely frightened of jurisdictional problems.

“He’s down to Santa Monica Boulevard now.”

That was West Hollywood. Bosch expected Rollenberger to come up soon on the radio. He wasn’t wrong.

“Team One, this is Team Leader. What is the subject doing?”

“If I didn’t know what this guy was into, I’d say he was cruising Boys-town.”

“All right, Team One, keep an eye on him but we don’t want any contact. We’re out of bounds here. I’ll contact the sheriff’s
watch office and inform.”

“We’re not planning any contact.”

Five minutes passed. Bosch watched a man walking his guard dog down Sierra Linda. He stopped to let the animal relieve itself
on the burned-out lawn in front of the abandoned house.

“We’re cool,” Sheehan’s voice said. “We’re back in the country.”

Meaning back inside the boundaries of Los Angeles.

“One, what’s your twenty?” Bosch asked.

“Still Santa Monica, going east. Past La Brea — no, he’s northbound now on La Brea. He might be going home.”

Bosch slid low in his seat in case Mora came down the street. He listened as Sheehan reported that the vice cop was now eastbound
on Sunset.

“Just passed Sierra Linda.”

Mora was staying out. Bosch sat back up. He listened to five minutes of silence.

“He’s going to the Dome,” Sheehan finally said.

“The Dome?” Bosch responded.

“Movie theater on Sunset just past Wilcox. He’s parked. He’s paying for a ticket and is going in. Musta just been driving
around till showtime.”

Bosch tried to picture the area in his mind. The huge geodesic dome was one of Hollywood’s landmark theaters.

“Team One, this is Team Leader. I want to split you up here. One of you goes in with the subject, one stays on the car, out.”

“Roger that. Team One, out.”

The Dome was ten minutes away from Sierra Linda. Bosch figured that meant that at maximum he had an hour and a half inside
the house unless Mora left the movie early.