Michael Connelly - 9 Dragons

Bosch realized that the choke hold wasn’t going to work and that he had to release and attack. He let go and caught Chang’s wrist on one of his backward swings. He shifted his weight and turned the blow to the side. Chang’s shoulders turned with the shift in momentum and Bosch was able to get on top of him on the floor. Bosch raised his hands together and brought down a hammer blow on the back of Chang’s neck.

“I said, Where is-”

“Harry!”

The voice came from behind him. It was Chu’s.

“Hey!” Chu yelled into the squad room. “Help!”

The distraction allowed Chang to rise up and get his knees under his body. He then pushed up and Bosch was thrown into the wall and then down to the floor. Chu jumped on Chang’s back and was trying to wrestle him to the ground. There were running steps and soon more men squeezed into the tiny room. They piled onto Chang, roughly pinning him to the floor with his face smashed into the corner. Bosch rolled away, trying to catch his breath.

For a moment everyone was silent and the room filled with the sounds of all of the men gasping for breath. Lieutenant Gandle then appeared in the open doorway.

“What the hell happened?”

He leaned forward to look down through the hole in the top of the table. The bolt had obviously not been properly reinforced underneath. One of many kinks that were sure to surface in the new building.

“I don’t know,” Chu said. “I came back to get my jacket and all hell was breaking loose.”

All eyes in the room turned to Bosch.

“They’ve got my daughter,” he said.

Bosch stood in Gandle’s office. Not still. He couldn’t stand still. He paced back and forth in front of the desk. The lieutenant had told him twice to sit down but Bosch couldn’t do it. Not with the terror growing inside his chest.

“What’s this about, Harry?”

Bosch pulled his phone and opened it.

“They have her.”

He pushed the play command on the video program, then handed the phone to Gandle, who had sat down behind his desk.

“What do you mean, ‘They have-’”

He stopped as he watched the video.

“Oh, Jesus…Oh, Je-Harry, how do you know this is real?”

“What are you talking about? It’s real. They have her and that guy knows who and where! ”

He pointed in the direction of the interview room. He was pacing more quickly now, like a caged tiger.

“How do you do this? I want to see it again.”

Bosch grabbed the phone and restarted the video.

“I need to get in there with him again,” Bosch said as Gandle watched. “I need to make him tell-”

“You’re not going anywhere near him,” Gandle said without looking up. “Harry, where is she, Hong Kong?”

“Yes, Hong Kong, and that’s where he was going. It’s where he’s from and it’s where the triad he’s in is based. On top of that, they called me. I told you. They said there were consequences if-”

“She doesn’t say anything here. Nobody says anything. How do you know it’s Chang’s people?”

“It’s the triad! They don’t have to say anything! The video says it all. They have her. That’s the message!”

“Okay, okay, let’s think this through. They have her and what’s the message? What are you supposed to do?”

“Let Chang go.”

“What do you mean, let him just walk out of here”

“I don’t know. Yeah, kick the case somehow. Lose the evidence or, better yet, stop looking for the evidence. Right now, we don’t have enough to hold him past Monday. That’s what they want, for him to walk. Look, I can’t just stand in here. I have to-”

“We have to get this to forensics. That’s the first thing. Have you called your ex to see what she knows?”

Bosch realized that in his immediate panic upon seeing the video, he had not called his ex-wife, Eleanor Wish. He had first tried to call his daughter. Then when he got no answer he had immediately gone to confront Chang.

“You’re right. Give me that.”

“Harry, it’s got to go to forens-”

Bosch leaned across the desk and grabbed the phone out of Gandle’s hand. He switched over to the phone program and hit a speed dial for Eleanor Wish. He checked his watch while he waited for the call to go through. It was almost 5 a.m. Saturday in Hong Kong. He didn’t understand why he wouldn’t have already heard from Eleanor if their daughter was missing.

“Harry”

The voice was alert. She had not been dragged from sleep.

“Eleanor, what’s going on? Where’s Madeline?”

He walked out of Gandle’s office and headed toward his cubicle.

“I don’t know. She hasn’t called me and doesn’t answer my calls. How do you know what’s going on?”

“I don’t but I got a…a message from her. Tell me what you know.”

“Well, what did her message say?”

“It didn’t say anything. It was a video. Look, just tell me what’s going on there.”

“She didn’t come home from the mall after school. It was Friday, so I let her go with her friends. She usually checks in about six and asks for more time, but this time she didn’t. Then when she didn’t come home I called and she wouldn’t answer my call. I left her a bunch of messages and I got really angry. You know her, she probably got angry back and she didn’t come home. I’ve called her friends and they all claim not to know where she is.”

“Eleanor, it’s after five in the morning there. Did you call the police?”

“Harry…”

“What?”

“She did this once before.”

“What are you talking about?”

Bosch dropped heavily into the seat at his desk and huddled down, holding the phone tight against his ear.

“She stayed with a friend all night to ‘teach me a lesson,’” Eleanor said. “I called the police then and it was all very embarrassing because they found her at her friend’s. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But she and I have been having problems. She’s at that age, you know? She acts much older than she really is. And it seems like she doesn’t like me very much right now. She talks about wanting to live in L.A. with you. She-”

Bosch cut her off.

“Listen, Eleanor, I understand all of that but this is different. Something’s happened.”

“What do you mean?”

Panic flooded her voice. Bosch recognized his own fear in it. He was reluctant to tell her about the video but felt he now had to. She needed to know. He described the thirty seconds of video, leaving nothing out. Eleanor made a high-pitched keening sound that only a mother could make for a lost daughter.

“Oh my God, oh my God.”

“I know, but we’re going to get her back, Eleanor. I-”

“Why did they send it to you and not me?”

He could tell she was starting to cry. She was losing it. He didn’t answer her question because he knew it would only make it worse.

“Listen to me, Eleanor, we need to keep it together. You have to do this for her. You’re there, I’m not.”

“What do they want?, money”

“No…”

“Then, what?”

Bosch tried to speak calmly, hoping it would be contagious over the phone when the impact of his words came through.

“I think it’s a message to me, Eleanor. They’re not asking for money. They’re just telling me that they have her.”

“You? Why? What do they-Harry, what did you do?”

She said the last question in a tone of accusation. Bosch feared it was a question he might be impaled on for the rest of his life.

“I’m on a case involving a Chinese triad. I think-”

“They took her to get to you? How did they even know about her?”