“Right,” Bosch said. “Look, you need to see the big picture here. Your man, Cisco, was working on this case and he gets sent into oncoming traffic and taken out. You’re on the case and you get pulled over on a setup DUI. The Nguyen brothers get whacked for reasons we don’t yet know — less than an hour after I talk to them. We can believe it’s all coincidence or we can look at it in its entirety and see a bigger picture. I want to ask Cisco what he was working on the day somebody knocked him out of the game.”
Haller nodded.
“He has physical therapy every morning at the Veterans in Westwood.”
“Good,” Bosch said. “I’ll see him there.”
“What else?”
Pointing to Ellis and Long, Bosch said, “One of us should talk to DQ and see if he’s ever had any interaction with these two guys. Just to be sure.”
“I can do it,” Haller said. “I need to see him about some pretrial stuff and get his measurements for a trial suit. Hope I got something that fits in my client closet.”
He pointed to the photocopy on the table.
“Can I take that, show it to him?” he asked.
“I’ve got another,” Bosch said.
Bosch remembered something.
“When you see him, ask him if he remembers James Allen’s phone number. Cops never found Allen’s phone. If I can get the number we might be able to pull records that will show the two of them in contact.”
“And bolster the alibi. Good one. What about you?”
“I still think the watch is the key to all of this. I need to get to the original buyer.”
“The guy in Beverly Hills?”
“Yeah. I went by his house tonight. Nice spread. He’s got money. I need to corner him and see where the connections are.”
“Good luck with that.”
“Thanks.”
They sat there for the next few minutes without talking. They sipped bourbon and worked their own thoughts. Finally, it was Haller who spoke.
“This is good stuff,” he said.
Bosch looked at his glass and rolled the ice around the bottom of it.
“Better than I got at home,” he said.
“Well, don’t get me wrong, the bourbon is good, but I’m talking about everything you’ve pulled together these last few days. There’s a lot here. A lot I can work with. We’re going to be able to mount an actual alternate-theory defense. This stuff goes beyond reasonable doubt.”
Bosch finished the remaining bourbon in his glass. He realized that he and Haller would always have a fundamental difference in how they looked at evidence and the other nuances of an investigation. Haller had to put things in the context of trial and how it might be used to knock down the prosecution’s case. Bosch only had to look at the evidence as a bridge to the truth. This is why he knew he had not really crossed to the dark side. He could never work a case from Haller’s angle.
“I don’t really care about alternate theories or reasonable doubt,” he said. “To me it’s a simple equation. If your client didn’t do it, then I’m going to find out who did. That’s the person or persons I want.”
Haller nodded and raised his glass to Bosch. He then finished off his drink.
“That works for me,” he said.
35
The Vice Unit’s weekly all-hands meeting was the usual waste of time. It finally ended and Ellis crossed the hall to the break room so he could refill his cup with black coffee. He was unused to coming in so early and he needed to double down on the caffeine.
But he had to wait his turn behind Janet, the captain’s secretary, who looked like she was putting together an order of coffees for the whole command staff downstairs. Janet was a wide body and Ellis could not get to the coffee urn until she was finished adding cream and various sweeteners to the five cups in front of her. This annoyed Ellis because he just wanted to top off his cup with the straight black stuff and then get back over to the unit.
“Sorry,” Janet said, sensing someone behind her.
“No problem,” Ellis said. “Take your time.”
Recognition of his voice made Janet glance back and confirm it was Ellis.
“Oh, Don, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Fire away.”
“Were you in the office this morning or last night?”
“What office?”
“I’m sorry. I mean downstairs. The command offices.”
Ellis shook his head, confused.
“No, what do you mean?”
“Well, it’s just funny. I came in today and I had to make copies of the overnight log for both captains. It’s the first thing I do every day.”
She turned back to finishing her work on the array of coffee cups on the counter in front of her.
“Okay.”
“And when I went to the copier, I found your and Kevin’s photos already in the machine. Like they had been left there by accident.”
Ellis wanted to grab her and turn her around.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “Our photos? What were we doing in the photos?”
Janet laughed at his confusion.
“No, no, you weren’t doing anything. It was your photo from the station personnel chart. The one on the wall down there. Somebody unpinned your photos, took them over to the copy machine, and then I guess made copies. Then forgot to put them back on the wall. They were under the flap on the glass this morning when I went to make copies of the overnight log.”
She was weaving her fingers through the handles of five coffee mugs now. Ellis threw his cup into a trash can and moved in next to her at the counter.
“Let me help you,” he said. “You’ll burn yourself.”
She laughed that possibility off.
“I do this every morning and every afternoon,” she said. “I’ve never burned myself once.”
“I’ll help you anyway,” Ellis said. “Did you ask in the office if anybody was making the copies? The captain, maybe?”
“Yes, and that’s the mystery. Nobody did it. I asked everybody, including both captains. Somebody must have come in after hours to do it and then forgot to put the photos back up. I thought you might want to know. In case somebody’s pulling a prank.”
“Thanks, I do. And I think you’re right about somebody working up a prank.”
Janet laughed.
“Some people have too much time on their hands, that’s for sure.”
There was a long tradition of pranking in every station in the LAPD. Photos were often used in the commission of such efforts. Ellis was thinking that something else might be in play but was happy to allow Janet to think otherwise.
He followed her down the steps, across the back hallway, and into the command-office suite. He put the two cups of coffee he was carrying down on her desk for her to deliver, then scanned the room and looked at the personnel pyramid on the opposite wall. His photo was in place next to Long’s on the line containing the undercover units. All was how it should be.
“Thank you, Don,” Janet said.
“Glad to,” he said. “Thanks for the heads-up on the prank.”
“I wonder what they’re up to.”
“Like you said, some people have too much time on their hands.”
Ellis and Long shared a cubicle in the corner of the Vice Unit. It afforded them the most privacy available in the room and they got it because of Ellis’s seniority. Ellis now came back to the cubicle and signaled his partner to roll his chair over so they could huddle and speak privately.
“What’s up?” Long asked.
“Not sure,” Ellis said. “You checked on our guy today?”
“He was still at home. I get a text if he goes anywhere.”
“What about last night?”
“He stayed in.”
“According to your phone?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Well, maybe just his car stayed in. I want you to go up there, confirm that he’s there.”