“He told you that?”
“Yes, standing right where you are standing. That’s unprofessional, isn’t it, Detective Bosch? To get close like that. That could be dangerous to let a woman in like that. Dead or alive.”
I wanted to go, to get away from him.
“Look, Seguin, are you going to tell me or not? Or are you just going to take it with you?”
He smiled and stepped back from the bars. He walked over to the chessboard and seemed to look down at it to consider a move.
“You know, they used to let me keep a cat in here. I miss that cat.”
He picked up one of the plastic game pieces but then hesitated and returned it to the same spot. He turned and looked at me.
“You know what I think? I think that you two can’t stand the thought of that girl not having a name, not coming from a home with a mommy and a daddy and a little baby brother. The idea of no one caring and no one missing her, it leaves you hollow, doesn’t it?”
“I just want to close the case.”
“Oh, but it is closed. You’re not here because of any case. You are here on your own. Admit it, Detective. Just as McCaleb came on his own. The idea of that pretty little thing-and by the way, if you thought she was beautiful in death then you should have seen her before-the idea of her lying unclaimed in an unmarked grave all this time undercuts everything you do, doesn’t it?”
“It’s a loose end. I don’t like loose ends.”
“It’s more than that, Detective. I know.”
I said nothing, hoping that if he kept on talking he would make a mistake.
“Her face was like an angel’s,” he said. “And that long brown hair… I was always a sucker for that kind of hair. I can still remember its smell. She told me she used a strawberry and cream shampoo. I didn’t even know they put that stuff in shampoo, man.”
He was taunting me. The whole idea I had of getting him to tell me her name seemed absurd now.
“She was one of those women, you know.”
“No, I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”
“Well, she had that thing, that power. That was why I chose her.”
“What power?”
“You know, she could wound you with just a look. Face like an angel but a body like… Have you ever noticed how red cars look like they’re going fast even if they’re just sitting still? She was like that. She was dangerous. She had to go. If I didn’t do it, she would’ve done it to us. A lot of us.”
He smiled at me and I knew he was still pulling the strings. He was giving me nothing, just trying to get a rise out of me.
“Hey, Bosch?”
“What?”
“If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?”
His smile opened even broader.
“If a woman is murdered in the city and nobody cares, does it matter?”
“I care.”
“Exactly.”
He came back to the bars.
“And you need me to relieve you of that burden by giving you a name, a mommy and daddy who care.”
He was a foot away from me. I could reach through the bars and grab his throat if I wanted to. But that would be what he’d want me to do.
“Well, I won’t release you, Detective. You put me in this cage. I put you in that one.”
He stepped back and pointed at me. I looked down and realized both my hands were tightly gripped on the steel bars of the cage. My cage.
I looked back up at him and his smile was back, as guiltless as a baby’s.
“Funny isn’t it? I remember that day-twelve years ago today. Sitting in the back of the car while you cops played hero. So full of yourselves for saving her. Bet you never thought it would come to this, did you? You saved one but you lost the other.”
I lowered my head to the bars.
“ Seguin, you’re going to burn. You are going to hell.”
“Yes, I suppose so. But I hear it’s a dry heat.”
He laughed loudly and I looked at him.
“Don’t you know, Detective? You have to believe in heaven to believe in hell.”
I abruptly turned from the bars and headed back toward the steel door. Above it I saw the mounted camera. I made an open up gesture with my hand and picked up my speed as I got closer. I needed to get out of there.
I heard Seguin ’s voice echoing off the walls behind me.
“I’ll keep her close, Bosch! I’ll keep her right here with me! Eternally together! Eternally mine!”
When I got to the steel door I hit it with both fists until I heard the electronic lock snap and the guard began to slide it open.
“All right, man, all right. What’s the hurry?”
“Just get me out of here,” I said as I pushed past him.
I could still hear Seguin ’s voice echoing from the death house as I crossed back across the open field.
Michael Connelly
Edward Hopper. Nighthawks
