“I wanted you men to be here for this,” Hadley said.
“What exactly is this, Captain?” Bosch replied.
Hadley clapped his hands together before speaking.
“We’ve located your Chrysler Three Hundred approximately two and a half blocks from here on a street bordering the reservoir. The plate matches the BOLO and I eyeballed the vehicle myself. It’s the car we’ve been looking for.”
Bosch nodded. That part was good, he thought. What’s the rest?
“The vehicle is parked in front of a home owned by a man named Ramin Samir,” Hadley continued. “He’s a guy we’ve been keeping our eye on for a few years now. A real person of interest to us, you might say.”
The name was familiar to Bosch but he couldn’t place it at first.
“Why is he of interest, Captain?” he asked.
“Mr. Samir is a known supporter of religious organizations that want to hurt Americans and damage our interests. What’s worse than that is that he teaches our young people to hate their own country.”
That last part jogged Bosch’s memory and he put things together.
He could not recall which Middle Eastern country he was from, but Bosch remembered that Ramin Samir was a former visiting professor of international politics at USC who had gained widespread notice for espousing anti- American sentiment in the classroom and in the media.
He was making media ripples before the 9/11 domestic terrorist attacks. Afterward, the ripples became a wave. He openly postulated that the attacks were warranted because of U.S. intrusion and aggression all around the globe. He was able to parlay the attention this brought him into a position as the media go-to guy for the ever-ready anti-American quote or sound bite. He denigrated U.S. policies toward Israel, objected to the military action in Afghanistan and called the war in Iraq nothing more than an oil grab.
Samir’s role as agent provocateur was good for a few years of guest shots on the cable-news debate programs, where everybody tends to yell at one another. He was a perfect foil for both the right and the left and always willing to get up at 4 a.m. to make the Sunday-morning programs in the East.
Meantime, he used his soapbox and celebrity status to help start and fund a number of organizations on and off campus that were quickly accused by conservative interest groups and in newspaper investigations of being connected, at least tangentially, to terrorist organizations and anti-American jihads. Some even suggested that there were links to the grand master of all terror, Osama bin Laden. But while Samir was often investigated, he was never charged with any crime. He was, however, fired by USC on a technicality-he had not stated that his opinions were his own and not those of the school when he wrote an op-ed piece for the
Samir’s fifteen minutes ran their course. He was eventually discounted in the media as a narcissistic provocateur who made outlandish statements in order to draw attention to himself rather than to thoughtfully comment on the issues of the day. After all, he had even named one of his organizations the YMCA-for Young Muslim Cause in America-just so the long-established youth organization with the same internationally recognized initials would file an attention-getting lawsuit.
Samir’s star waned and he dropped from public sight. Bosch could not remember the last time he had seen him on the box or in the paper. But all the rhetoric aside, the fact that Samir was never charged with a crime during a period when the climate in the United States was hot with fear of the unknown and the desire for vengeance always indicated to Bosch that there was nothing there. If there had been fire behind the smoke, then Ramin Samir would be in a prison cell or behind a fence at Guantanamo Bay. But here he was, living in Silver Lake, and Bosch was skeptical of Captain Hadley’s claims.
“I remember this guy,” he said. “He was just a talker, Captain. There was never any solid link between Samir and-”
Hadley held up a finger like a teacher demanding silence.
“Never a solid link
“The Palestinian Jihad?” Bosch asked. “What is that? And what Muslim causes? Are you saying Muslim causes can’t be legit?”
“Look, all I’m saying is that this is a bad dude and he’s got a car that was used in a murder and zesium heist sitting right in front of his house.”
“Cesium,” Ferras said. “It was cesium that was stolen.”
Not used to being corrected, Hadley narrowed his eyes and stared at Ferras for a moment before speaking.
“Whatever. It’s not going to make much difference what you call it, son, if he dumps it into the reservoir across the street or is in that house putting it in a bomb while we’re sitting here waiting on a warrant.”
“The FBI didn’t say anything about it being a water-borne threat,” Bosch said.
Hadley shook his head.
“Doesn’t matter. Bottom line is that it’s a threat. I’m sure the FBI said that. Well, the bureau can talk about it. We’re going to
Bosch stepped back, trying to draw some fresh air into the discussion. This was moving too quickly.
“So you’re going to go in?” he asked.
Hadley was working his jaw in quick powerful bites of the gum. He seemed not to notice the strong odor of garbage emanating from the back of the truck.
“You’re damn right we’re going to go in,” he said. “Just as soon as that warrant gets here.”
“You got a judge to sign a warrant that’s based on a stolen car being parked in front of the house?” Bosch asked.
Hadley signaled to one of his men.
“Bring the bags, Perez,” he called. Then to Bosch he said, “No, that’s not all we got. Today’s trash day, Detective. I sent the garbage truck up the street and a couple of my men emptied the two cans that were in front of Samir’s house. Perfectly legal, as you know. And lookee at what we got.”
Perez hustled over with the plastic evidence bags and handed them to Hadley.
“Captain, I checked the OP,” Perez said. “Still quiet up there.”
“Thank you, Perez.”
Hadley took the bags and turned back to Bosch and Ferras. Perez went back to the SUV.
“Our observation post is a guy in a tree,” Hadley said with a smile. “He’ll let us know if anybody makes a move up there before we’re ready.”
He handed Bosch the bags. Two of them contained black woolen ski masks. The third contained a slip of paper with a hand-drawn map on it. Bosch looked closely at it. It was a series of crisscrossing lines with two of them marked as Arrowhead and Mulholland. Once he registered these he could tell the map was a fairly accurate rendering of the neighborhood where Stanley Kent had lived and died.
Bosch handed the bags back and shook his head.
“Captain, I think you should hold up.”
Hadley looked shocked by the suggestion.
“Hold up? We’re not holding up. If this guy and his pals contaminate the reservoir with that poison, do you think the people of this city are going to accept that we held up to make sure we dotted every
He underlined his resolve by taking the gum out of his mouth and throwing it into the back of the sanitation truck. He took his foot off the bumper and started heading back to his crew but then made a sudden U-turn and came back directly to Bosch.
“As far as I’m concerned we’ve got the leader of a terrorist cell operating out of that house and we’re going to go in and shut it down. What’s your problem with that, Detective Bosch?”
“It’s too easy, that’s my problem. It’s not about us dotting every
Bosch held there and watched Hadley work it over for a few moments. He then shook his head.
“Maybe the car wasn’t left there,” he said. “Maybe they still plan to use it as part of the delivery. There are a lot of variables, Bosch. Things we don’t know. We’re still going in. We laid it all out to the judge and he said we
