Michael Connelly - The Last Coyote

The question at first startled Bosch into silence. Finally, he shook his head and spoke.

“What about Johnny Fox? He had his hooks into you after that night.”

“Yes, he did. He was very capable as extortionists go.”

“What happened with him?”

“I was forced to hire him as a campaign employee, paying him five hundred dollars a week for practically nothing. You see what a farce my life had become? He was killed in a hit and run before picking up his first paycheck.”

“Mittel?”

“I would assume that he was responsible, though I must admit he’s a rather convenient scapegoat for all the bad deeds I’ve been involved in.”

“You didn’t think that it was just a little too coincidental that he got killed?”

“Things are so much clearer in hindsight.” He shook his head sadly. “At the time I remember being thrilled with my luck. The one thorn in my side had been removed by serendipity. You have to remember, at the time I had no inkling that Marjorie’s death was in any way connected to me. I simply saw Fox as being a man on the make. When he was removed through the luck of an automobile mishap, I was pleased. A deal was made with a reporter to keep Fox’s background on the QT and everything was fine…But, of course, it wasn’t. It never was. Gordon, genius that he was, didn’t plan on me not being able to get over Marjorie. And I’m still not.”

“What about McCage?”

“Who?”

“McCage Incorporated. Your payoffs to the cop. Claude Eno.”

Conklin was quiet a moment while he composed an answer.

“Of course, I knew Claude Eno. I didn’t care for him. And I never paid him a dime.”

“McCage was incorporated in Nevada. It was Eno’s company. You and Mittel are both listed as corporate officers. It was a payoff scam. Eno was getting a grand a month from somewhere. You and Mittel.”

“No!” Conklin said as forcefully as he could. The word came out as little more than a cough. “I don’t know about McCage. Gordon could have set it up, even signed for me or made me sign unwittingly. As district attorney he took care of things for me. I signed when he told me to sign.”

He said it while looking directly at Bosch and Harry believed him. Conklin had admitted to far worse deeds. Why would he lie about paying off Eno?

“What did Mittel do when you folded your tent, when you told him you were through?”

“By then he was already quite powerful. Politically. His law firm represented the city’s upper tier and his political work was branching out, growing. Still, I was the centerpiece. The plan was to take the attorney general’s office and then the governor’s mansion. Who knows what after that. So Gordon…he was unhappy. I refused to see him but we talked on the phone. When he could not convince me to change my mind, he threatened me.”

“How?”

“He told me that if I ever attempted to assault his reputation, he would see to it that I was indicted for Marjorie’s death. And I had no doubt that he could have done it.”

“From best man to greatest enemy. How’d you ever get hooked up with him?”

“I guess he slipped in the door while I wasn’t looking. I never saw the real face until it was too late…I don’t think in my life I’ve come across any one as cunningly focused as Gordon. He was-is-a dangerous man. I’m sorry I ever brought your mother into his path.”

Bosch nodded. He had no more questions and didn’t know what else to say. After a few moments during which Conklin seemed to be lost in thought, the old man spoke up.

“I think, young man, that you only run into a person that is a perfect fit once in your life. When you find the one that you think fits, then grab on for dear life. And it’s no matter what she’s done in the past. None of that matters. Only the holding on matters.”

Bosch nodded again. It was all he could think of to do.

“Where did you meet her?”

“Oh…I met her at a dance. She was introduced and, of course, she was younger than me so I didn’t think there would be any interest from her. But I was wrong…We danced. We dated. And I fell in love.”

“You didn’t know about her past?”

“At the time, no. But she told me eventually. By then I didn’t care.”

“What about Fox?”

“Yes, he was the liaison. He introduced us. I didn’t know who he was, either. He said he was a business man. You see, for him, it was a business move. Introduce the girl to the prosecutor, sit back and see what happens. I never paid her and she never asked me for money. All the while we fell in love, Fox must have been weighing his options.”

Bosch wondered if he should take the photo from Monte Kim out of his case and show it to Conklin, but he decided not to tempt the old man’s memory with the reality of a photo. Conklin spoke while Bosch was still thinking about it.

“I’m very tired now and you never answered my question.”

“What question?”

“Did you come here to kill me?”

Bosch looked at his face and his useless hands and realized he felt the stirring of sympathy.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just knew I was coming.”

“You want to know about her?”

“My mother?”

“Yes.”

Bosch thought about the question. His own memories of his mother were dim and fading farther all the time. And he had few recollections about her that came from others.

“What was she like?” he said.

Conklin thought for a moment.

“She is hard for me to describe. I felt a great attraction to her…that crooked smile…I knew she had secrets. I suppose all people do. But hers ran deep. And despite all of that, she was full of life. And, you see, I didn’t think I was at the time we met. That’s what she gave to me.”

He drank from the glass of water again, emptying it. Bosch offered to get more but Conklin waved off the offer.

“I had been with other women and they wanted to show me off like a trophy,” he said. “Your mother wasn’t like that. She’d rather stay at home or take a picnic basket to Griffith Park than go to the clubs on the Sunset Strip.”

“How did you find out about…what she did?”

“She told me. The night she told me about you. She said she needed to tell me the truth because she needed my help. I have to admit…the shock was…I initially thought of myself. You know, protecting myself. But I admired her courage in telling me and I was in love by then. I couldn’t turn away.”

“How did Mittel know?”

“I told him. I regret it to this day.”

“If she…If she was as you described her, why did she do what she did? I’ve never…understood.”

“I haven’t, either. As I told you, she had her secrets. She didn’t tell me them all.”

Bosch looked away from him and out the window. The view was to the north. He could see the lights of the Hollywood Hills glimmering in the mist from the canyons.

“She used to tell me that you were a tough little egg,” Conklin said from behind him. His voice was almost hoarse now. It was probably more talking than he had done in months. “She once told me that she knew it didn’t matter what happened to her because you were tough enough to make it through.”

Bosch said nothing. He just looked through the window.

“Was she right?” the old man asked.

Bosch’s eyes followed the crestline of the hills directly north. Somewhere up there the lights glowed from Mittel’s spaceship. He was up there somewhere waiting for Bosch. He looked back at Conklin, who was still waiting for an answer.

“I think maybe the jury’s still out.”

BOSCH LEANED AGAINST the stainless steel wall of the elevator as it descended. He realized how different his feelings were from those that he held while the elevator had been carrying him up. He had ridden up with hatred pounding in his chest like a cat in a burlap bag. He didn’t even know the man he carried it for. Now he looked upon that man as a pitiful character, a half of a man who lay with his frail hands folded on the blanket, waiting, maybe hoping, for death to come and end his private misery.