Michael Connelly - 9 Dragons

“Maybe I should ride with him instead.”

Bosch looked at Chu. It was one of those moments. Harry knew it would be better for Chu to make the ride with Chang because he knew both languages and he was Chinese. But it would mean Bosch would be ceding some control of his case.

It would also mean he was showing trust in Chu, just an hour after pointing the finger of blame at him.

“Okay,” Bosch finally said. “You ride with him.”

Chu nodded, seeming to understand the significance of Bosch’s decision.

“But take the long way,” Bosch said. “These guys probably work out of Pacific. Go by the division first, then call me. I’ll tell you there’s a change of plans and we’re going to book him downtown. That ought to add an extra hour to the ride.”

“Got it,” Chu said. “That’ll work.”

“You want me to drive your car in?” Bosch asked. “I don’t mind leaving mine here.”

“No, it’s okay, Harry. I’ll leave mine and come get it later. You wouldn’t want to hear what I’ve got on the stereo, anyway.”

“The musical equivalent of tofu hot dogs?”

“To you, probably, yeah.”

“Okay, then I’ll take mine.”

Bosch told the two patrol officers to put Chang in the back of the patrol car and to load the suitcase into the trunk. Harry then got serious with Chu.

“I’m going to put Ferras to work on search warrants for Chang’s property. Any admission from him will help with the PC. Him telling us he had a flight is an admission that goes to his fleeing. Try to make him slip up like that when you’re riding in the back with him.”

“But he already said he wants a lawyer.”

“Make it conversational. Not an interrogation. Try to find out where he was going. That’ll help Ignacio. And remember, stretch everything out. Take the scenic route.”

“Got it. I know what to do.”

“Okay, I’m going to wait here for the tow truck. If you get to the PAB ahead of me, just put Chang in a room and let him stew. Make sure you turn the video on-Ignacio can show you how. You never know, sometimes these guys sit for an hour in a room by themselves and they start confessing to the walls.”

“Got it.”

“Good luck.”

Chu slipped into the back of the patrol car next to Chang and closed the door. Bosch slapped his palm twice on the roof and then watched the cruiser pull away.

It was almost one by the time Bosch got back to the squad room. He had waited for the tow truck and then taken his time coming in, stopping at the In-N-Out near the airport for a hamburger on the way. He found Ignacio Ferras in place in his cubicle, working on his computer.

“Where are we at?” he asked.

“I’m almost done with the search warrant app.”

“What are we going for?”

“I have one affidavit going for the suitcase, the phone and the car. I take it that the car is at the OPG?”

“Just towed it in. What about his apartment?”

“I called the DA’s help line and told the woman what we were doing. She suggested two waves. These three first and then we hopefully come up with something that will give us the PC for the apartment. She said the apartment was a stretch with what we have now.”

“Okay, you got a judge waiting on this?”

“Yeah, I called Judge Champagne’s clerk. She’s getting me in as soon as I’m ready.”

It sounded like Ferras had things in order and moving along. Bosch was impressed.

“Sounds good. Where’s Chu?”

“Last I knew he was in the video room, watching the guy.”

Before joining Chu, Bosch stepped into his cubicle and dropped his keys on his desk. He saw that Chu had left Chang’s heavy suitcase there and had bagged the suspect’s other possessions and left them all on the desk. There were evidence bags holding Chang’s wallet, passport, money clip, keys, cell phone and airline boarding pass, which he had apparently printed at home.

Bosch read the boarding pass through the plastic and saw that Chang had an Alaska Airlines ticket for a flight to Seattle. This gave Harry pause because he was expecting to learn that Chang had been headed to China. Flying to Seattle didn’t exactly sell an allegation of attempting to flee the country to avoid prosecution.

He put the bag back down and picked up the bag containing the phone. It would have been easy for him to quickly open the phone and scan the call log for the numbers of Chang’s associates. He might even find a call from a number belonging to a Monterey Park cop or Chu or whoever had tipped Chang off to the investigation surrounding him. Maybe the phone had e-mail or texts on it that would help them build the murder case against Chang.

But Bosch decided to play by the rules. It was a gray area and the department and DA’s office had both issued directives telling officers to seek court approval before viewing data contained in a suspect’s phone. Unless, of course, permission was granted by the suspect. Opening the phone was treated the same as opening the trunk of a car on a traffic stop. You had to do it correctly or whatever you found in that trunk might be taken out of the case by the courts.

Bosch put the phone down. It might contain the key to the case but he would wait for Judge Champagne’s approval. Just as he did so, the phone on his desk buzzed. The caller ID display said XXXXX, meaning it was a call transferred over from Parker Center. He picked up.

“This is Bosch.”

There was no one there.

“Hello. This is Detective Bosch, can I help you?”

“Bosch…you can help yourself.”

The voice was distinctly Asian.

“Who is this?”

“You do yourself the favor and you back off, Bosch. Chang is not alone. We are many. You back the fuck off. If not, there will be consequences.”

“Listen to me, you-”

The caller had hung up. Bosch dropped the phone into its cradle and stared at the empty ID screen. He knew he could go over to the communications center at Parker and pull up the number the call had come from. But he also knew that someone calling to threaten him would have blocked their number, used a pay phone or a throwaway cell. They would not be so stupid as to use a traceable number.

Instead of worrying about that, he concentrated on the timing of the call and its content. Somehow, Chang’s triad associates knew already that he had been picked up. Bosch rechecked the boarding pass and saw the flight was scheduled to take off at eleven-twenty. That meant the plane was still in the air and it couldn’t be that someone waiting in Seattle for Chang would know he wasn’t on the plane. Nevertheless, Chang’s people somehow knew that he was in the hands of the police. They also knew Bosch by name.

Once again dark thoughts entered Bosch’s brain. Unless Chang was meeting a fellow traveler at LAX or was being watched all the while Bosch was watching him, the evidence once more pointed to a leak inside the investigation.

He left the cubicle and walked directly back to the video center. This was a small electronics alcove between the RHD’s two interview rooms. The IRs were wired for sight and sound and the space in the middle was where suspects could be observed on the recording equipment.

Bosch opened the door and found both Chu and Gandle in the room watching Chang on the monitor. Bosch’s entrance made it crowded.

“Anything?” Bosch asked.

“Not a word so far,” Gandle said.

“What about in the car?”

“Nothing,” Chu said. “I tried to get a conversation going and he just said he wanted a lawyer. That killed it.”

“Guy’s a rock,” Gandle said.

“I looked at his plane ticket,” Bosch said. “Seattle doesn’t help us, either.”