Майкл Коннелли - Two Kinds of Truth

“Well, that’s where I need you, broheim. Cisco is at large — I hope he hasn’t slipped up — and I need an investigator. I want to locate—”

“Just so you know, Cisco’s been working for me. Since yesterday afternoon. Not on this. On a personal matter.”

Haller laughed, thinking it was a joke.

“I’m serious,” Bosch said.

“A personal matter,” Haller said. “What personal matter?”

“He’s helping a friend of mine and it’s confidential. It’s got nothing to do with this.”

“It has everything to do with this if I don’t have my investigator. What the fuck is going on?”

“Look, it was an emergency and I needed him. He’ll be clear later on and I’ll be able to tell you all about it then. But you’ve got me. You said you want to locate something or somebody. What? Who?”

Haller stared at him for a long moment before answering.

“It’s a who,” he finally said. “I pulled the court file on the original trial and have been reading the transcription. I want to locate Dina Skyler.”

Bosch didn’t need long to place the name. Dina was Danielle Skyler’s younger sister. She was the one who had been scheduled to visit Danielle through the holidays.

The visit never happened but Dina did come out from Hollywood, Florida, during the trial to testify about the plans the sisters had for living together and taking Hollywood, California, by storm. Dina was eighteen months younger and Danielle had been protective of her. While testifying, she spoke of their loving the movie White Christmas because it was a show business story about two sisters. She told the jury that every holiday season, they would put on a rendition of the song “Sisters” for their parents.

Dina was a powerful witness during the penalty stage of the trial. Bosch had always felt that her hour of tearful testimony was what swayed both the jury and then the judge toward the death penalty.

“I’m thinking we might need her for the emotional pull,” Haller said. “I want the judge to know the family still cares, that the victim’s sister is right there in the courtroom, and he had better get this thing right.”

“She was a strong presence at the trial.”

“Did she ever move out here, like she and her sister planned?”

“Yeah, she did. I stayed in touch with her at the beginning and then it kind of tapered off. I think I was a reminder of what had happened to Dani. I got the message and stopped checking on her.”

“Dani?”

“Danielle. People who knew her called her Dani.”

“If you are allowed to testify Wednesday — and I will go apeshit crazy if you’re not — make sure you call her that.”

Bosch didn’t respond. These kind of subtle manipulations were part of Haller’s daily life but they always bothered Bosch, even if they were done in his favor. He felt that if he didn’t condone them from attorneys working against him, he shouldn’t accept them from one working for him.

Haller moved on.

“So, did she make it?” he asked. “I looked her up on IMDB and there was nothing. Did she change her name or something?”

“Uh, I didn’t really track that. I don’t know whether she stayed in the business.”

“Do you think you can find her?”

“If she’s alive, I’ll find her. But if she’s not in L.A., I don’t know about getting her here by Wednesday morning.”

“Right. Just see what you can do. Maybe we get lucky.”

“Maybe. What else?”

“For you, that’s it. I’m going to work here this morning and figure out a case path.”

“What’s that?”

“The one thing we can count on is that our request to intervene on the motion to vacate will draw heavy fire from both the D.A. and Borders. I’ll make an argument and I’ll offer a proffer to the judge — sort of an unofficial look at what we’ll present if granted standing. I’ll run down our witness list and say what each of them is willing to testify to. If we convince the judge, then we’re in and then we kick their asses.”

“Got it. Do you mind if I split? I gotta go in for some follow-up stuff this morning and I want to go to work on finding Dina.”

“No problem, Harry. Go get ’em. But between now and Wednesday get some sleep. I don’t want you coming into that courtroom looking like you’re guilty.”

Taking a last gulp of coffee, Bosch pointed a finger at Haller like a gun and then slid out of the booth. Haller spoke again before he could walk away.

“Hey, Harry, one last thing? You are a damn fine detective, brother, but I want my man Cisco back.”

“Right. I’ll tell him.”

Bosch saw a TV truck from one of the Spanish-language stations parked in front of the SFPD headquarters when he drove in. He assumed it was there because of the farmacia murders, but he didn’t think that what had happened over the weekend could be contained for very long, and the Spanish-language media was often ahead of the game when it came to the news in San Fernando.

Before going to his office in the jail across the street, Bosch went in the side door of the station to get more coffee and check on things in the detective bureau. It was a full house this time, with all three detectives in their work pods and even Captain Trevino visible behind his desk through the open door of his office.

Only Bella Lourdes looked up at Bosch’s entrance, and she immediately signaled him over to her cubicle.

He held up a finger, telling her to hold a moment. He turned to the nearby coffee station and quickly poured his second jolt of the day into a cup. He then worked his way around the three-desk module to get to Bella’s spot in the back.

“Morning, Harry.”

“Morning, Bella. What’s up?”

She pointed to her computer screen, where a video was playing. It was obviously taken from a helicopter and shot downward at a water recovery of a body. Two divers were wrestling with the body of a man floating facedown. He was clothed but the T-shirt he wore was torn off and held to his body by the collar only. The rest of it waved in the water like a white flag of surrender. The divers were struggling as they tried to roll the body onto a rescue stretcher attached to a cable extending down from the chopper.

“Salton Sea,” Lourdes said. “This was two hours ago. They spotted the body on a flyover at dawn.”

Bosch leaned down, careful not to spill his coffee, to look more closely at the screen and the body.

“That the second Russian?” Lourdes asked.

Before Bosch could answer, he noticed that they had been joined by Sisto, who was looking over Bella’s other shoulder.

“Clothes look the same,” Bosch said. “From what I can remember. Gotta be him.”

“I asked them to send us a close-up of the face once they have the body at the coroner’s,” Lourdes said.

“That would wrap things up nice,” Sisto said. “On our case at least.”

“Sure would,” Lourdes added. “Why don’t we all go into the war room for updates and to figure out who’s doing what on this today?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sisto said.

Lourdes got up and called to Trevino and Luzon.

Bosch could still smell the breakfast he had missed lingering in the air of the war room. The four detectives took seats around the table and Trevino joined as well. Bosch spoke first.

“Uh, before we start divvying up paperwork and stuff, I’m here to do what I need to do and be available for any follow-ups with other agencies. But as you all know, I have a thing in court Wednesday morning with my reputation and possible future with this department on the line. So I need some prep time for that today. There are some things I have to do, and they can’t wait.”