Michael Connelly - Angels Flight

Bosch looked over at him and then back at the road.

“Recently.”

There were no reporters waiting outside Sheehan’s home when they got there twenty minutes later. Bosch said he was going to wait in the car and make some calls while Sheehan got his things. When he was alone he called his house to check for messages, so he wouldn’t have to play them in front of Sheehan when they got there. But there were none. He put the phone away and just sat. He wondered if his inviting Sheehan to stay at his house had been a subconscious effort to avoid facing the emptiness of the place. After a while he decided it wasn’t. He had lived alone most of his life. He was used to places that were empty. He knew the real shelter of a home was inside yourself.

Light washing across the mirrors caught Bosch’s eyes. He checked the side view and saw the lights of a car that was being parked against the curb a block or so back. He doubted it was a reporter. A reporter would have pulled right into Sheehan’s driveway, made no effort at concealment. He started thinking about what he wanted to ask Sheehan.

A few minutes later his former partner came out of the house carrying a grocery bag. He opened the back door and tossed it in, then got in up front. He was smiling.

“Margie took all the suitcases,” he said. “I didn’t realize that till tonight.”

They took Beverly Glen up the hill to Mulholland and then took it east to Woodrow Wilson. Bosch usually loved driving Mulholland at night. The curving road, the city lights coming in and out of view. But along the way they drove by The Summit and Bosch studied the gate and thought about the Kincaids somewhere behind it in the safety of their home with jetliner views.

“Frankie, I have to ask you something,” he said.

“Shoot.”

“Back on the Kincaid thing, during the investigation, did you talk to Kincaid much? Sam Kincaid, I mean.”

“Yeah, sure. Guy like that you handled with kid gloves. Him and the old man. You be careful, else it might come back on you.”

“Yeah. So you were pretty much keeping him informed on what was happening?”

“Yeah, pretty much. What about it? You’re sounding like those bureau guys who were all over me all day, Harry.”

“Sorry, just asking. Did he call you a lot or did you call him?”

“Both ways. He also had a security guy who was talking to us, staying in touch.”

“D.C. Richter?”

“Yeah, that’s him. Harry, you going to tell me what’s goin’ on or what?”

“In a minute. Let me ask you something first. How much did you tell Kincaid or Richter about Michael Harris, you remember?”

“What do you mean?”

“Look, I’m not saying you did anything wrong. A case like that, you keep the principals involved and informed. So did you go to them and tell them you had brought Harris in on the fingerprints and, you know, that you were smoking him in the rooms?”

“Sure we did. Standard operating procedure.”

“Right. And did you tell them about who Harris was and where he came from, that sort of thing?”

“I suppose I did.”

Bosch let it go for a while. He turned onto Woodrow Wilson and drove the winding road down to the house. He pulled into the carport.

“Hey, this looks nice,” Sheehan said.

Bosch put the car into park but paused before getting out.

“Did you tell the Kincaids or Richter specifically where Harris lived?” he asked.

Sheehan looked over at him.

“What are you telling me?”

“I’m asking you. Did you tell any of them where Harris lived?”

“I might have. I don’t remember.”

Bosch got out and headed to the kitchen door. Sheehan got his stuff out of the back seat and followed.

“Talk to me, Hieronymus.”

Bosch unlocked the door.

“I think you made a mistake.”

He went inside.

“Talk to me, Hieronymus.”

Bosch led Sheehan to the guest room and Sheehan threw his bag onto the bed. Back out in the hall Bosch pointed into the bathroom and headed back into the living room. Sheehan was silent, waiting.

“The toilet handle in that one is broken,” Bosch said, not looking at him. “You have to hold it down the whole time it’s flushing.”

He now looked at his former partner.

“We can explain Harris’s fingerprints. He didn’t abduct or kill Stacey Kincaid. In fact, we don’t even think there was an abduction. Kincaid killed his stepdaughter. He was abusing her and killed her, then staged the abduction scene. He got lucky when the prints on the book tied in Harris. He then used it. We think it was him – or his man, Richter – who dumped the body near Harris’s place because he knew where that place was. So think, Francis. I don’t want probablys. I need to know if you told Kincaid or his security man where Harris lived.”

Sheehan looked dumbfounded and his eyes wandered to the floor.

“You’re saying we were wrong about Harris…”

“You guys had blinders on, man. Once those prints came up, you could only see Harris.”

Sheehan kept his eyes on the floor and slowly nodded his head.

“We all make mistakes, Frankie. Sit down and think about what I just asked. What did you tell Kincaid and at what point did you tell him? I’ll be right back.”

While he left Sheehan to ponder what he had just been told, Bosch went back down the hall to his bedroom. He stepped in and looked around. It looked the same. He opened the door to the walk-in closet and hit the light. Eleanor’s clothes were gone. He looked down at the floor. Her shoes had been cleared out as well. On the rug he saw a little bundle of netting tied with a blue ribbon. He bent down and picked it up. The netting was wrapped around a handful of rice. He remembered that the chapel in Las Vegas had provided the rice bundles as part of the wedding package – for tossing at the happy couple. Eleanor had kept one as a keepsake. Now Bosch wondered if she had mistakenly left it behind or had simply discarded it.

Bosch dropped the bundle into his pocket and turned off the light.

EDGAR and Rider had rolled the television out of the lieutenant’s office and were watching the news when Bosch walked into the squad room after leaving Sheehan at his house. They barely looked up to acknowledge him.

“What?” Bosch asked.

“I guess people didn’t like us cutting Sheehan loose,” Edgar said.

“Sporadic looting and arson,” Rider said. “Nothing like last time. I think we’ll make it if we get through this night. We got roving platoons out there and they’re coming down on anything that moves.”

“No bullshit like last time,” Edgar added.

Bosch nodded and stared at the TV for a few moments. The screen showed firefighters aiming three-inch hoses into the balling flames pouring through the roof of another strip mall. It was too late to save it. It almost seemed as though it was being done for the media.

“Urban redevelopment,” Edgar said. “Get rid of all the strip malls.”

“Problem is, they just put strip malls back,” Rider said.

“At least they look better than before,” Edgar said. “Real problem is the liquor stores. These things always start in the liquor stores. We put a squad out front of every liquor store, no riot.”

“Where are we on the warrants?” Bosch asked.

“We’re done,” Rider said. “We just have to take them over to the judge.”

“Who are you thinking about?”

“Terry Baker. I already called and she said she’d be around.”

“Good. Let’s have a look.”

Rider got up and walked over to the homicide table while Edgar stayed behind and continued to watch the television. Stacked neatly at her spot were the search warrant applications. She handed them to Bosch.