“What is it?” Hannah asked.
“The cover-up is always worse than the original crime.”
“What do you mean?”
“Her telling you she’s going up there Monday. Maybe she told you because she knew you would tell me. Then she’d see if I would try to get to Shawn first to coach him on what to say or to tell him to refuse the interview.”
Hannah frowned.
“She didn’t seem to be the sneaky type. She seemed really straightforward. In fact, I got the impression that she wasn’t happy about being in the middle of something that was politically inspired.”
“Did she call it that or did you?”
Hannah had to think about it before she answered.
“I might have first mentioned or implied it, but it wasn’t news to her. She said she was considering the motivation behind the original complaint. I remember that. That came from her, not me.”
Bosch nodded. He assumed she was referring to O’Toole as the originator of the complaint. Maybe he should have faith in Mendenhall, that she would see things for what they were.
Pino served their Caesar salads and they dropped discussion of the internal investigation while they ate. After a while Bosch moved the conversation in a new direction.
“I’m on vacation next week,” he said.
“Really? Why didn’t you tell me? I could have taken some time off. Unless . . . that was the point—you wanted to be alone.”
He knew she would come to that conclusion or at least consider it.
“I’ll be working. I’m going up to the middle of the state. Modesto, Stockton, a place called Manteca.”
“Is this on the Snow White case?”
“Yes. There is no way O’Toole would approve travel for me. He doesn’t want this case solved. So I’m going up on my own time and my own dime.”
“And without a partner? Harry, that’s not—”
He shook his head.
“I’m not going to be doing anything dangerous. I’ll just be talking to some people, watching others. From afar.”
She frowned again. She didn’t like it. He pressed on before she could voice another objection.
“How would you feel about staying at my house with Maddie while I’m gone?”
He could clearly see the surprise on her face.
“She used to stay with a friend whose mother offered to take care of her, but now she and the girl are not friends anymore. So it’s awkward. Maddie always says she’s fine to stay by herself but I don’t like that idea.”
“I don’t either. But I don’t know about this, Harry. Did you ask Maddie?”
“Not yet. I’ll tell her tonight.”
“You can’t ‘tell’ her. It’s got to be her decision, too. You have to ask her.”
“Look, I know she likes you and I know you two talk.”
“We don’t talk talk. We’re Facebook friends.”
“Well, for her that’s the same thing. Facebook and texting are how these kids talk. You got her the beer for my birthday. She reached out to you.”
“That’s nothing. Certainly a different level than actually staying with her in your house.”
“I know but I think she’ll be fine with it. If it makes you feel better, I’ll ask her tonight when I get home. When she says yes, will you then say yes?”
Pino came and took their salad plates away. Bosch asked the question again once the waiter was gone.
“Yes, I’ll do it,” Hannah said. “I’d love to do it. I’d also love to stay there when you’re home, too.”
She had mentioned their moving in together before. Bosch was comfortable with the relationship but wasn’t sure he wanted to take that next step. He wasn’t sure why. He wasn’t a young man. What was he waiting for?
“Well, this would be a step toward that, wouldn’t it?” he asked, in attempt to sidestep the issue.
“Seems like it’s more like some sort of a weird tryout. If I pass the daughter test, then I’m in.”
“It’s not like that, Hannah. But look, I don’t want to get off on this topic right now. I’m in the middle of a case, I have to travel on Sunday or Monday, and I’ve got a detective from Professional Standards on my tail. I want to talk about this. It’s important. But can it wait until some of this other stuff is out of the way?”
“Sure.”
She said it in a way that communicated that she wasn’t happy about him pushing the question aside.
“Come on, don’t be upset.”
“I’m not.”
“I know you are.”
“I just want it to be clear that I’m not in your life to be a babysitter.”
Bosch shook his head. The conversation was getting out of hand. He smiled reflexively. He always did that when he felt cornered.
“Look, I simply asked if you could do me this favor. If you don’t want to do it or if doing it is going to have all of this bad feeling attached to it, then we—”
“I told you I wasn’t upset. Can we just drop it for now?”
Bosch reached for his glass and took a long drink of wine, draining it. He then reached for the bottle so he could pour some more.
“Sure,” he said.
24
Bosch split Saturday between work and family. He had persuaded Chu to meet him in the squad room in the morning so they could work without the scrutiny of Lieutenant O’Toole and others in the unit. Not only was OU dead, but both wings of the vast Robbery-Homicide Division squad room were completely abandoned. With paid overtime a thing of the past, the only time there was activity in the elite detective squads on a weekend was when there was a breaking case. It was lucky for Bosch and Chu that there was no such case. They were left alone and undisturbed in their cubicle to do their work.
Once he finished grumbling about giving up half a Saturday for no pay, Chu dug in on the computer and conducted a third- and fourth-layer search on the men of the 237th Transportation Company of the California National Guard.
While Bosch had ratcheted down his focus on the four men in the photograph on the
If nothing else, Bosch knew the exercise could pay dividends if a prosecution should arise from the case. Defense attorneys were always quick to claim the police had put on blinders and focused only on their clients while the true culprit slipped away. By widening their scope and thoroughly looking at all known members of the 237th in 1991 and 1992, Bosch was undercutting the tunnel-vision defense before it had even been put forth.
While Chu worked his computer, Bosch did the same, printing out everything they had accumulated on the five men in the main focus. All told, there were twenty-six pages of information, more than two-thirds of which were dedicated to Sheriff J.J. Drummond and Carl Cosgrove, the two who were powerful in Central Valley business, politics, and law enforcement.
Bosch next printed out maps of the Central Valley locations he intended to visit in the week ahead. These also allowed him to see the geographical relationships between the places where the five men worked and lived. It was all part of a travel package that was routine to put together before making a case trip.
While Bosch worked, he received an email from Henrik Jespersen. He had finally gotten to his storage room and found the details of his sister’s travel in the last months of her life. The information merely confirmed much of what he had told Bosch about Anneke’s trip to the United States. It also confirmed her short trip to Stuttgart.
According to Henrik’s records, his sister had spent only two nights in Germany in the last week of March 1992, staying at a hotel called the Schwabian Inn, located outside Patch Barracks at the U.S. Army Garrison. Henrik
