“Then, you have to ask yourself, why did that guy come back? What did he leave behind or forget the first time?”
I just stared at him. I actually wanted to help. I was tired of being under the gun – in more ways than one – and if I could’ve given Bosch just one answer, I would have.
I shook my head.
“I can’t think of a single-”
“Come on, Haller!” Bosch barked at me. “Your life is threatened here! Don’t you get it? What’ve you got?”
“I told you!”
“Who did Vincent bribe?”
“I don’t know and I couldn’t tell you if I did.”
“What did the FBI want with him?”
“I don’t know that, either!”
He started pointing at me.
“You fucking hypocrite. You’re hiding behind the protections of the law, while the killer is out there waiting. Your ethics and rules won’t stop a bullet, Haller. Tell me what you’ve got!”
“I told you! I don’t have anything and don’t point your fucking finger at me. This isn’t my job. It’s your job. And maybe if you would get it done, people around here would feel-”
“Excuse me?”
The voice came from behind Bosch. In one fluid move he turned and pivoted out of his chair, drawing his gun and aiming it at the door.
A man holding a trash bag stood there, his eyes going wide in fright.
Bosch immediately lowered his weapon, and the office cleaner looked like he might faint.
“Sorry,” Bosch said.
“I come back later,” the man said in a thick accent from Eastern Europe.
He turned and disappeared quickly through the door.
“Goddamn it!” Bosch cursed, clearly unhappy about pointing his gun at an innocent man.
“I doubt we’ll ever get our trash cans emptied again,” I said.
Bosch went over to the door and closed and bolted it. He came back to the desk and looked at me with angry eyes. He sat back down, took a deep breath and proceeded in a much calmer voice.
“I’m glad you can keep your sense of humor, Counselor. But enough with the fucking jokes.”
“All right, no jokes.”
Bosch looked like he was struggling internally with what to say or do next. His eyes swept the room and then held on me.
“All right, look, you’re right. It is my job to catch this guy. But you had him right here. Right goddamn here! And so it stands to reason that he was here with a purpose. He came to either kill you, which seems unlikely, since he apparently doesn’t even know you, or he came to get something from you. The question is, what is it? What is in this office or in one of your files that could lead to the identity of the killer?”
I tried to match him with an even-tempered voice of my own.
“All I can tell you is that I have had my case manager in here since Tuesday. I’ve had my investigator in here, and Jerry Vincent’s own receptionist was in here up until lunchtime today, when she quit. And none of us, Detective,
“What about the FBI?”
“Same answer. Nothing.”
Bosch didn’t respond. I saw true disappointment cloud his face. I continued.
“If this mustache man is the killer, then, of course there is a reason that brought him back here. But I don’t know it. Am I concerned about it? No, not concerned. I’m fucking scared shitless about it. I’m fucking scared shitless that this guy thinks I have something, because if I have it, I don’t even know I have it, and that is not a good place to be.”
Bosch abruptly stood up. He pulled Cisco’s gun out of his waistband and put it down on the desk.
“Keep it loaded. And if I were you, I would stop working at night.”
He turned and headed toward the door.
“That’s it?” I called after him.
He spun in his tracks and came back to the desk.
“What else do you want from me?”
“All you want is information from me. Most of the time information I can’t give. But you in turn give nothing back, and that’s half the reason I’m in danger.”
Bosch looked like he might be about to jump over the desk at me. But then I saw him calm himself once more. All except for the palpitation high on his cheek near his left temple. That didn’t go away. That was his tell, and it was a tell that once again gave me a sense of familiarity.
“Fuck it,” he finally said. “What do you want to know, Counselor? Go ahead. Ask me a question – any question – and I’ll answer it.”
“I want to know about the bribe. Where did the money go?”
Bosch shook his head and laughed in a false way.
