'How did he die?'
'Just died. His pump went out. Died right there on the floor, about where you're standing.'
They both looked down at the floor as if maybe his body was still there.
'I came to look through his things,' Bosch said.
'What things?'
'I don't know. I was thinking maybe he kept files from his time with the police.'
'You better tell me what you're doing here. This doesn't sound right to me.'
'I'm investigating a case he worked back in 1961. It's still open. Parts of the file are missing. I thought maybe he'd taken it. I thought maybe there might be something
important that he kept. I don't know what. Anything. I just thought it was worth a try.'
He could see that her mind was working and her eyes suddenly froze for a second when her memory snagged on something.
'There is something, isn't there?' he said.
'No. I think you should go.'
'It's a big house. Did he have a home office?'
'Claude left the police thirty years ago. He built this house in the middle of nowhere just to be away from all of that.'
'What did he do when he moved out here?'
'He worked casino security. A few years at the Sands, then twenty at the Flamingo. He was getting two pensions and took good care of Olive.'
'Speaking of which, who's signing those pension checks these days?'
Bosch looked at Olive Eno to make his point. The other woman was silent a long moment, then went on the offense.
'Look, I could get power of attorney. Look at her. It wouldn't be a problem. I take care of her, mister.'
'Yeah, you feed her applesauce.'
'I have nothing to hide.'
'You want somebody to make sure or do you want to let it end right here? I don't really care what you're doing, lady. I don't really care if you're even her sister or not. If I was betting, I'd say you're not. But I don't really care right now. I'm busy. I just want to look through Eno's things.'
He stopped there and let her think about it. He looked at his watch.
'No warrant then, right?'
'I don't have a warrant. I've got a cab waiting. You make me get a warrant and I'm going to stop being such a nice guy.'
Her eyes went up and down his body as if to measure how nice and how not nice he could be.
'The office is this way.'
She said the words as if they were bites out of wood planks. She swiftly led him down the hall again and then off to the left into a study. There was an old steel desk as the room's centerpiece, a couple of four-drawer file cabinets, an extra chair and not much else.
'After he died, Olive and I moved everything into those file cabinets and haven't looked at it since.'
'They're all foil?'
'All eight. Have at it.'
Bosch reached his hand into his pocket and took out another twenty-dollar bill. He tore it in half and gave one side to Shivone.
'Take that out to the cab driver. Tell her I'm going to be a litde longer than I thought.'
She exhaled loudly, snatched the half and left the room. After she was gone Bosch went to the desk and opened each of the drawers. The first two he tried were empty. The next contained stationery and office supplies. The fourth drawer contained a checkbook that he quickly leafed through and saw it was an account covering household expenses. There was also a file containing recent receipts and other records. The last drawer in the desk was locked.
He started with the bottom file drawers and worked his way up. Nothing in the first few seemed even remotely connected with what Bosch was working on. There were files labeled with the names of different casinos and gaming organizations. The files in another drawer were labeled by people's names. Bosch looked through a few of these and determined they were files on known casino cheats. Eno had built a library of home intelligence files. By this time, Shivone had come back from her errand and had taken the
seat opposite the desk. She was watching Bosch and he threw a few idle questions at her while he looked.
'So what did Claude do for the casinos?'
'He was a bird dog.'
'What's that?'
'Kind've an undercover thing. He mingled in the casinos, gambled with house chips, watched people. He was good at picking out the cheats and how they did it.'
'Guess it takes one to know one, right?'
'What's that crack supposed to mean? He did a good job.'
'I'm sure he did. Is that how he met you?'
'I'm not answering any of your questions.'
'Okay by me.'
He had only the two top drawers left. He opened one and found it contained no files at all. Just an old, dust-covered Rolodex and other items that had probably sat on the top of the desk at one point. There was an ashtray, a clock and a pen holder made of carved wood that had Eno's name carved on it. Bosch took the Rolodex out and put it on top of the cabinet. He blew the dust off it and then began turning it until he came to the Cs. He looked through the cards but found no listing for Arno Conklin. He met with similar failure when he tried to find a listing for Gordon Mittel.
'You're not going to look through that whole thing, are you?' Shivone asked in exasperation.
'No, I'm just going to take it with me.'
'Oh, no you don't. You can't just come in here and -'
'I'm taking it. If you want to make a complaint about it, be my guest. Then I'll make a complaint about you.'
She went quiet after that. Bosch went on to the next drawer and found it contained about twelve files on old LAPD cases from the 1950s and early 1960s. Again, he didn't have the time to study them, but he checked all the
labels and none was marked Marjorie Lowe. By randomly pulling out a few of the files it became clear to him that Eno had made copies of files on some of his cases to take with him when he left the department. Of the random selections, all were murders, including two of prostitutes. Only one of the cases was closed.
'Go get me a box or a bag or something for these files,' Bosch said over his shoulder. When he sensed the woman in the room had not moved, he barked, 'Do it!'
She got up and left. Bosch stood gazing at the files and thinking. He had no idea if these were important or not. He had no idea what they meant. He only knew he should take them in case they turned out to be important. But what bothered him more than what the files that were in the drawer could mean was the feeling that something was certainly missing. This was based on his belief in McKit-trick. The retired detective was sure his former partner, Eno, had some kind of hold on Conklin, or at the very least, some kind of deal with him. But there was nothing here about that. And it seemed to Bosch that if Eno was holding something on Conklin, it would still be here. If he kept old LAPD files, then he kept whatever he had on Conklin. In fact, he would have kept it in a safe place. Where?
The woman came back and dropped a cardboard box on the floor. It was the kind a case of beer had come in. Bosch put a foot-thick stack of files in it along with the Rolodex.
'You want a receipt?' he asked.
'No, I don't want anything from you.'
'Well, there is still something I need from you.'
'This doesn't end, does it?'
