“Let me get in there.”
Bosch got up and Rider sat in front of the computer. Bosch stood behind the chair and watched as she turned the computer on and waited for it to boot up.
“Let’s see what Internet provider he’s got,” she said. “Did you see any letterhead around?”
“What?”
“Letterhead. Stationery. Sometimes people put their E-mail address on it. If we know Elias’s E-mail address we’re halfway there.”
Bosch understood now. He hadn’t seen any letterhead during his search.
“Hold on.”
He went out to the reception room and asked Chastain, who was sitting behind the secretary’s desk, if he’d seen any stationery. Chastain opened a drawer and pointed to an open box of letterhead stationery. Bosch grabbed a page off the top. Rider had been correct. Elias’s E-mail address was printed beneath his postal address on the top center of the page. [email protected] Bosch took the page with him back to Elias’s office. When he got there he saw Rider had closed the file that contained the printout of the blond woman. Bosch realized it must have been embarrassing to her.
“I got it,” he said.
She looked at the page Bosch placed on the desk next to the computer.
“Good. That’s the user name. Now we just need his password. He’s got the whole computer password protected.”
“Shit.”
“Well,” she said as she began typing, “most people choose something pretty easy – so even they won’t forget.”
She stopped typing and watched the screen. The cursor had turned into an hourglass as it worked. A message then printed across the screen informing Rider she had used an improper password.
“What did you use?” Bosch asked.
“His DOB. You did next of kin, right? What was his wife’s name?”
“Millie.”
Rider typed it in and after a few seconds got the same rejection message.
“What about his son?” Bosch asked. “His name’s Martin.”
Rider didn’t type anything.
“What’s the matter?”
“A lot of these password gates give you three strikes. If you don’t get in on the third one they go into automatic lockdown.”
“Forever?”
“No. For however long Elias would have set it at. Could be fifteen minutes or an hour or even longer. Let’s think about this for a – ”
“V-S-L-A-P-D.”
Rider and Bosch turned. Chastain was in the doorway.
“What?” Bosch asked.
“That’s the password. V-S-L-A-P-D. As in Elias versus the LAPD.”
“How do you know that?”
“The secretary wrote it down on the underside of her blotter. Guess she’s got to use the computer, too.”
Bosch studied Chastain for a moment.
“Harry?” Rider said. “Should I?”
“Give it a shot,” Bosch said, still looking at Chastain. He then turned and watched as his partner typed in the password. The hourglass blinked on and then the screen changed and icon symbols began appearing on a field of blue sky and white clouds.
“We’re in,” Rider said.
Bosch glanced back at Chastain.
“Good one.”
He then looked back at the screen and watched as Rider hit keys and maneuvered through the icons, files and programs, all of it meaning little to Bosch and reminding him that he was an anachronism.
“You really ought to learn this stuff, Harry,” Rider said, seeming to know his thoughts. “It’s easier than it looks.”
“Why should I when I’ve got you? What are you doing anyway?”
“Just having a look around. We’ll have to talk to Janis about this. There are a lot of file names corresponding with cases. I don’t know if we should open them before – ”
“Don’t worry about it for now,” Bosch interjected. “Can you get on the Internet?”
Rider made a few more moves with the mouse and then typed the user name and password into blanks on the screen.
“I’m running lawyerlink,” she said. “Hopefully the same passwords work and we’ll be able to go to that naked lady’s web page.”
“What naked lady?” Chastain said.
Bosch picked the file off the desk and handed it unopened to Chastain. He opened it, glanced at the photo and smirked.
Bosch looked back at the screen. Rider was on lawyerlink, using Elias’s user name.
“What’s that address?”
Chastain read it off to her as she typed. She then hit the enter key and they waited.
“What this is is a singular web page address within a larger web site,” she said. “What we’ll get here is the Gina page.”
“You mean that’s her name? Gina?”
“Looks like it.”
As she said this the photo from the printout appeared on the screen. Beneath it was information on what the woman in the photo provided and how to contact her.
I am Mistress Regina. I am a lifestyle dominatrix providing elaborate bondage, humiliation, forced feminization, slave training and golden blessings. Other torments available upon request. Call me now.
Below the block of information there was a phone number, a pager number and an E-mail address. Bosch wrote these down in a notebook he took from his pocket. He then looked back at the screen and saw there was also a blue button with the letter A on it. He was about to ask Rider what the button meant when Chastain made a disdainful sound with his mouth. Bosch turned and looked at him and the Internal Affairs man shook his head.
“The bastard was probably getting his rocks off on his knees with this broad,” Chastain said. “I wonder if Reverend Tuggins and his pals down at the SCCA knew about that.”
He was referring to an organization called the South Central Churches Association, a group which Tuggins headed and which always seemed to be at Elias’s beck and call when he needed to show the media an image of South Central outrage in regard to alleged police misconduct.
“We don’t know that he ever even met the woman yet, Chastain,” Bosch said.
“Oh, he met her. Why else did he have this laying around? I tell you, Bosch, if Elias was into rough trade like that, there’s no telling where that could’ve led. It’s a righteous avenue of investigation and you know it.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be checking everything out.”
“You’re damn right we will.”
“Uh,” Rider said, interrupting. “There’s an audio button.”
Bosch looked at the screen. Rider had the arrow poised over the blue button.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I think we can actually hear Mistress Regina.”
She clicked the arrow on the button. The computer then downloaded an audio program and started playing it. A dark and heavy voice came from the computer’s speaker.
“This is Mistress Regina. If you come to me I will find the secret of your soul. Together, we will reveal the true subservience through which you will know your rightful identity and attain the release you can find nowhere else. I will mold you into my own. I will own you. I am waiting. Call me now.”
