Michael Connelly - City Of Bones

Bosch clicked the phone off. He felt his face grow hot. He wondered if Bollenbach had caller ID on his phone. He knew that delaying the call was ridiculous because what was done was done whether he called in to get the news or not.

He put the phone and the message aside and tried to concentrate on the case, particularly the latest information Antoine Jesper had provided about the skateboard found in Nicholas Trent’s house. Bosch realized that after ten days the case was wholly out of his grasp. A man he had fought with others in the department to clear was now the only suspect-with apparent physical evidence tying him to the victim. The thought that immediately poked through all of this was that maybe Irving was right. It was time for Bosch to go.

His phone chirped and he immediately thought it was Bollenbach. He was not going to answer but then decided his fate was unavoidable. He flipped open the phone. It was Edgar.

“Harry, what are you doing?”

“I told you. I had to go to SID.”

He didn’t want to tell him about Jesper’s latest discovery until he had seen it for himself.

“I could’ve gone with you.”

“Would’ve been a waste of your time.”

“Yeah, well, listen, Harry, Bullets is looking for you and, uh, there’s a rumor floatin’ around up here that you caught a transfer.”

“Don’t know anything about it.”

“Well, you’re going to let me know if something’s happening, aren’t you? We’ve been together a long time.”

“You’ll be the first, Jerry.”

When Bosch got to Parker Center he had one of the patrolmen stationed in the lobby help him lug the dummy up to SID, where he returned it to Jesper, who took it and carried it easily to its storage closet.

Jesper led Bosch into a lab where the skateboard was on an examination table. He turned on a light that was mounted on a stand next to the board, then turned off the overhead light. He swung a mounted magnifying glass over the skateboard and invited Bosch to look. The angled light created small shadows in the etchings of the wood, allowing the letters to be clearly seen.

1980 A.D.

Bosch could definitely see why Jesper had jumped to the conclusion he did about the letters, especially since he did not have the case victim’s name.

“It looks like somebody sanded it down,” Jesper said while Bosch continued to look. “I bet what happened was that the whole board was rehabbed at one point. New trucks and new lacquer.”

Bosch nodded.

“All right,” he said after straightening up from the magnifying glass. “I’m going to need to take this with me, maybe show it to some people.”

“I’m done with it,” Jesper said. “It’s all yours.”

He turned the overhead light back on.

“Did you check under these other wheels?”

“’Course. Nothing there, though. So I put the truck back on.”

“You got a box or something?”

“Oh, I thought you were going to ride it out of here, Harry.”

Bosch didn’t smile.

“That’s a joke.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Jesper left the room and came back with an empty cardboard file box that was long enough to contain the skateboard. He put the skateboard in it along with the detached set of wheels and the screws, which were in a small plastic bag. Bosch thanked him.

“Did I do good, Harry?”

Bosch hesitated and then said, “Yeah, I think so, Antoine.”

Jesper pointed to Bosch’s cheek.

“Shaving?”

“Something like that.”

The drive back to Hollywood was even slower on the freeway. Bosch finally bailed at the Alvarado exit and worked his way over to Sunset. He took it the rest of the way in, not making any better time and knowing it.

As he drove he kept thinking about the skateboard and Nicholas Trent, trying to fit explanations into the framework of time and evidence that they had. He couldn’t do it. There was a piece missing from the equation. He knew that at some level and at some place it all made sense. He was confident he would get there, if he had enough time.

At four-thirty Bosch banged through the back door into the station house carrying the file box containing the skateboard. He was heading quickly down the hallway to the squad room, when Mankiewicz ducked his head into the hallway from the watch office.

“Hey, Harry?”

Bosch looked back at him but kept walking.

“What’s up?”

“I heard the news. We’re gonna miss you around here.”

The word traveled fast. Bosch held the box with his right arm and raised his left hand palm down and made a sweeping gesture across the flat surface of an imaginary ocean. It was a gesture usually reserved for drivers of patrol cars passing on the street. It said, Smooth sailing to you, brother. Bosch kept going.

Edgar had a large white board lying flat across his desk and covering most of Bosch’s as well. He had drawn what looked like a thermometer on it. It was Wonderland Avenue, the turnaround circle at the end being the bulb at the bottom of the thermometer. From the street there were lines drawn signifying the various homes. Extending from these lines were names printed in green, blue and black marker. There was a red X that marked the spot where the bones had been found.

Bosch stood and stared at the street diagram without asking a question.

“We should’ve done this from the start,” Edgar said.

“How’s it work?”

“The green names are residents in nineteen eighty who moved sometime after. The blue names are anybody who came after ’eighty but has already left. The black names are current residents. Anywhere you see just a black name-like Guyot right here-that means they’ve been there the whole time.”

Bosch nodded. There were only two names in black. Dr. Guyot and someone named Al Hutter, who was at the end of the street farthest from the crime scene.

“Good,” Bosch said, though he didn’t know what use the chart would be now.

“What’s in the box?” Edgar asked.

“The skateboard. Jesper found something.”

Bosch put the box down on his desk and took off the top. He told and showed Edgar the scratched date and initials.

“We’ve got to start looking at Trent again. Maybe look at that theory you had about him moving into the neighborhood because he had buried the kid up there.”

“Jesus, Harry, I was almost joking about that.”

“Yeah, well, it’s no joke now. We have to go back, put together a whole profile on Trent going all the way back to nineteen eighty, at least.”

“And meantime we catch the next case here. That’s real sweet.”

“I heard on the radio it’s supposed to rain this weekend. If we’re lucky it will keep everybody inside and quiet.”

“Harry, inside is where most of the killing is done.”

Bosch looked across the squad room and saw Lt. Billets standing in her office. She was waving him in. He had forgotten that Edgar said she was looking for him. He pointed a finger at Edgar and then back at himself, asking if she wanted to see them both. Billets shook her head and pointed back only at Bosch. He knew what it was about.

“I gotta go see Bullets.”

Edgar looked up at him. He knew what it was about, too.

“Good luck, partner.”

“Yeah, partner. If that’s still the case.”

He crossed the squad room to the lieutenant’s office. She was now seated behind her desk. She didn’t look at him when she spoke.

“Harry, you’ve got a forthwith from the Oh-Three. Call Lieutenant Bollenbach before you do anything else. That’s an order.”

Bosch nodded.

“Did you ask him where I’m going?”

“No, Harry, I’m too pissed off about it. I was afraid if I asked I’d get into it with him and it’s got nothing to do with him. Bollenbach’s just the messenger.”