without invitation or appointment. He was met by twin desks with twin adjutants behind them. He went to his left.
“Detective Harry Bosch. I need to see Lieutenant Rider.”
The adjutant was a young officer in a crisp uniform with the name RIVERA on his nameplate. He picked up a clipboard from the side of his desk and studied it for a moment.
“I don’t have anything here. Is the lieutenant expecting you? She’s in a meeting.”
“Yes.”
Rivera seemed surprised by the answer. He had to check the clipboard again.
“Why don’t you have a seat, Detective, and I’ll check on availability.”
“You do that.”
Rivera didn’t move. He waited for Bosch to go away. Harry walked over to some chairs arranged near a set of windows that looked out upon the civic center—the signature spire of City Hall took up most of the view. He stayed standing. When Harry was a safe distance from the desk, Rivera picked up his phone and made a call, cupping his hand over the mouthpiece when he spoke to someone on the other end. Soon he hung up but did not even glance in Bosch’s direction.
Bosch turned back to the window and looked down. He saw a television camera crew set up on the steps of City Hall, waiting for a sound bite from some politician with something to sell. Bosch wondered if it would be Irving who would come out and descend the marble steps.
“Harry?”
He turned. It was Rider.
“Walk with me.”
He wished she hadn’t said that line. But he followed when she turned and walked out the double doors to the hallway. Once they were alone she turned on him.
“What’s going on? I have people in my office.”
“We need to talk. Now.”
“So talk.”
“No, not here like this. Things are breaking. It’s going the way I warned you. The chief should know. Who’s in your office? Is it Irving?”
“No, stop being paranoid.”
“Then why are we talking out here?”
“Because the office is busy and because it was
Bosch walked over and pushed the elevator button. There was only a down button.
“I’ll be there.”
It was a block’s walk to the Bradbury Building. Bosch went in the side door on Third and into the dimly lit stairwell vestibule. There was a bench there and next to it was a sculpture of Charlie Chaplin as his signature character, the Tramp. Bosch took a seat in the shadows next to Charlie and waited. The Bradbury was the oldest and most beautiful building in downtown. It housed private offices as well as LAPD offices, including the board of rights hearing rooms used by Internal Affairs. It was an odd choice for a surreptitious meeting, but it was the spot Bosch and Rider had used in the past. No discussion or direction was needed once Kiz had said meet me at Charlie Chaplin.
Rider was almost ten minutes past the first ten minutes but that was okay with Bosch. He had used the time to construct the story he would tell her. It was complicated and still emerging, even improvisational.
He had just finished walking himself through it when he felt the buzz of an incoming text on his phone. He pulled it from his pocket, half expecting the message to be a cancellation of the meeting from Rider. But it was from his daughter.
Having dinner and study hall at Ash’s. Her mom makes goooood pizza. K?
He felt a slight pang of guilt because he welcomed the message. With his daughter taken care of for the evening, he had more time to work his cases. It also meant he could see Hannah Stone again if he could come up with a viable investigative reason. He sent back his approval but told his daughter she had to be home by ten. He told her to call if she needed a ride.
Bosch was pocketing his phone when Rider came in, hesitated a moment while her eyes adjusted to the shadows and then sat down next to him.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” he said.
He waited a moment for her to settle but she wasn’t interested in wasting time.
“Well?”
“You ready?”
“Of course. I’m here. Tell me the story.”
“Well, it goes like this. George Irving has a consulting firm that is really an influence firm. He sells his influence, his connection to his father and the faction his father is part of on the city council. He—”
“Do you have documentary evidence of this?”
“Right now it’s just a story, Kiz, and it’s just you and me here. Let me tell it and then you can ask your questions when I’m done.”
“Go ahead, then.”
The door on Third opened and a uniformed officer walked in, took off his sunglasses and looked around, blindly at first and then focusing on Bosch and Rider and correctly sizing them up as cops.
“Is this where the BORs are heard?” he asked.
“Third floor,” Rider said.
“Thank you.”
“Good luck.”
“Yeah.”
Bosch waited until the cop left the vestibule and rounded the corner into the main lobby where the elevators were located.
“Okay. So George sells influence with the council and by extension with all the different boards the council appoints. In some cases he can do even more than that. He can tilt the game.”
“I don’t get it. How so?”
“Do you know how taxi franchises are awarded in this city?”
“Not a clue.”
“By geographic zones and on two-year contracts. You come up for review every two years.”
“All right.”
“So I don’t know if George goes to them or they come to George, but there’s a franchise holder in South L.A. called Regent Taxi and they hire George to help them get a more lucrative franchise up in Hollywood, where there are highline hotels and tourists on the streets and lots more money to be made. The current franchise holder is Black and White Taxi.”
“I think I know where this is going. But wouldn’t Councilman Irving have to be transparent on this? He’d have a conflict of interest voting for any company repped by his son.”
“Of course he would. But the first vote is with the Taxi Franchise Board, and who puts the people on that board? The council. And when it next comes before the council for ratification, sure, Irving nobly cites conflict of interest and steps out on the vote and it all looks completely aboveboard. But what about the backroom trade-offs? ‘You vote for me when I step out and next time I’ll vote for you.’ You know what goes on, Kiz. But what George offers is even more of a sure thing. He offers a fuller service, shall we say. Regent says, yes, we’ll take the full package, and a month after he’s hired by Regent, things start going sideways for the current holder of the franchise, B and W.”
“What do you mean ‘sideways’?”
“I’m trying to tell you. Less than a month after George Irving is hired by Regent, B and W drivers start getting popped on deuce raps and traffic citations and suddenly the company’s not looking so good.”
“How many arrests?”
“Three, the first coming a month after Irving signed on. And then there’s an auto accident where the B and W
