did or didn’t do. It just happened. Don’t blame yourself. Blame the person who did this.
GARCIA: And we are going to get him. You don’t have to worry about that. Now, we have some questions we need to ask. Some of these might be painful but we need the answers if we are going to get this guy.
ROBT. VERLOREN: You keep saying “guy.” Is there a suspect? Do you know it was a man?
GARCIA: We don’t know anything for sure, sir. We’re mostly going with the percentages there. But also you have that steep hill behind your house. Becky was definitely carried up that hill. She wasn’t a big girl but we definitely think it would have to be a man.
MURIEL VERLOREN: But you said she wasn’t… that there was no sexual assault.
GARCIA: That is true, ma’am. But that does not preclude this from being a sexually motivated or related crime.
ROBT. VERLOREN: How do you mean?
GARCIA: We will get to that, sir. If you don’t mind, let us ask our questions and then we will get to your questions if you would like.
ROBT. VERLOREN: Go ahead, please. I’m sorry. It’s just that we cannot understand what has happened. It’s like we are underwater all the time.
GARCIA: That is completely understandable. As I said, you have our deepest sympathy. From the department, too. We have the upper echelon of this department watching over this case very closely.
GREEN: We would like to start by going back before her disappearance. Maybe a month before. Did your daughter go away at all during that time?
ROBT. VERLOREN: What do you mean, away?
GARCIA: Was she away from you at any time?
ROBT. VERLOREN: No. She was sixteen. She was in school. She didn’t go away on her own.
GREEN: What about a sleepover with her friends?
MURIEL VERLOREN: No, I don’t think so.
ROBT. VERLOREN: What are you looking for?
GREEN: Was she sick at all in the month or two prior to the disappearance?
MURIEL VERLOREN: Yes, she had the flu the first week after school ended. It delayed her going to work for Bob.
GREEN: Was she in bed sick?
MURIEL VERLOREN: A lot of the time. I don’t see what this has to -
GARCIA: Mrs. Verloren, did your daughter go to see a doctor at this time?
MURIEL VERLOREN: No, she just said she had to rest. To tell you the truth, we thought she just didn’t want to go to work in the restaurant. She didn’t have a fever or a cold. We just thought she was being lazy.
GREEN: She didn’t confide in you at this time that she had been pregnant?
MURIEL VERLOREN: What? No!
ROBT. VERLOREN: Look, Detective, what are you telling us?
GREEN: The autopsy revealed that Becky had had a procedure called a dilation and curettage about a month before her death. An abortion. Our guess is that she was resting and recovering from this procedure when she told you she had the flu.
GARCIA: Would you two like to take a break here?
GREEN: Why don’t we take a break? We’ll step out and get all of us some water.
[Break]
GARCIA: Okay, we’re back. I hope you understand and forgive us. We do not ask questions or attempt to shock you to hurt you. We need to follow procedure and employ methods that allow us to collect information that is unfettered by preconceived perceptions.
ROBT. VERLOREN: We understand what you are doing. It’s part of our life now. What’s left of it.
MURIEL VERLOREN: You are saying our daughter was pregnant and chose to get an abortion?
GARCIA: Yes, that’s right. And we think there is a possibility that it could have a bearing on what happened to her a month later. Do you have any idea where she would have gone for this procedure?
MURIEL VERLOREN: No. I had no idea about this. Neither of us.
GREEN: And as you said before, she did not go away overnight during that time?
MURIEL VERLOREN: No, she was home every night.
GARCIA: Any idea who the relationship could have been with? In our earlier talks you said she had no current boyfriend.
MURIEL VERLOREN: Well, obviously I guess we were wrong about that. But, no, we don’t know who she was seeing or who could have… done this.
GREEN: Have either of you ever read the journal that your daughter kept?
ROBT. VERLOREN: No, we didn’t even know there was a journal until you found it in her room.
MURIEL VERLOREN: I would like to get that back. Will I get that back?
GREEN: We will need to keep it through the investigation but you will eventually get it back.
GARCIA: There are several references in the journal to an individual referred to as MTL. This is a person we would like to identify and talk to.
MURIEL VERLOREN: I don’t know anyone with those initials offhand.
GREEN: We looked at the school’s yearbook. There is one boy named Michael Lewis. But we checked and his middle name is Charles. We think the initials were a code or an abbreviation. It could stand for My True Love.
MURIEL VERLOREN: So there was obviously someone we didn’t know about, that she kept from us.
ROBT. VERLOREN: I can’t believe this. You two are telling us we didn’t really know our little girl.
GARCIA: I’m sorry, Bob. Sometimes the damage from a case like this goes deep. But it’s our job to follow it where it goes. This is the current we are in right now.
GREEN: Basically, we need to pursue this aspect of the investigation and find out who MTL is. Which means we need to ask questions of your daughter’s friends and acquaintances. Word about this, it will get around, I’m afraid.
ROBT. VERLOREN: We understand this, Detective. We will deal with it. As we said on the day we met, do what you have to do. Find the person who did this.
GARCIA: Thank you, sir. We will.
[End of interview, 2:40 p.m.]
Bosch read the transcript a second time, this time writing down notes on his pad as he went. He then moved on to three more formal interview transcripts. These were conducted with Becky Verloren’s three closest friends, Tara Wood, Bailey Koster and Grace Tanaka. But none of the girls-girls at the time-said they had knowledge of Becky’s pregnancy or the secret relationship that produced it. All three said they did not see her the week after school got out because she was not answering her phone and when they called the house’s main number Muriel Verloren told them her daughter was sick. Tara Wood, who was splitting a work schedule as a hostess at the Island House Grill with Becky, said that her friend was moody and incommunicative in the weeks prior to her murder, but the reason for this was unknown because she rebuffed Wood’s efforts to find out what was wrong.
The last entry in the murder book was the media file. It was where Garcia and Green kept the newspaper stories that accumulated in the early stages of the case. The crime played bigger in the
There was no coverage of Becky Verloren’s initial disappearance. The newspapers had obviously viewed it in the same way as the police had. But once the body was found there were several stories on the investigation, the funeral and the impact the young girl’s death had at her school. There was even a mood piece set at the Island House Grill. This story had been in the
Both newspapers linked the murder weapon to a burglary that occurred a month before the killing but neither had the anti-Semitic angle. Neither reported on the blood evidence recovered from the weapon either. Bosch guessed that the blood and tissue recovery was the investigators’ ace in the hole, the one piece of evidence held
