Michael Connelly (36 page)

“Why now? Why so long? It’s been fifteen years.”

“I don’t know. Just might be the right time, that’s all. People, things, unseen forces, sort of come together from time to
time. That’s what I believe. Who knows? Maybe Meadows forgot all about Binh and just saw him one day on the street and it
all came to him. The perfect plan. Maybe it was someone else’s plan or it really was hatched on that one day the three of
them were together at Charlie Company. The whys you never really know. You just need the hows and the whos.”

“You know, Harry, if they’re out there, or I should say, under there, digging a new tunnel, then we have less than two days
to find them. We have to put some crews underground and look for them.”

He thought that putting a crew in the city’s tunnels looking for a possible entrance to a bandit tunnel was a long shot. She
had told him there were more than 1,500 miles of tunnels under L.A. alone. They might not find the bandits’ tunnel if they
had a month. The key would be Tran. Find the last police captain, then find his bank. There you find the bandits. And the
killers of Billy Meadows. And Sharkey.

He said, “Do you think Binh would give Tran to us?”

“He didn’t report his fortune was taken from the vault, so he doesn’t seem like the type that’s going to tell us about Tran.”

“Right. I think we should try finding him ourselves before we go to Binh. Let’s make Binh the last resort.”

“I’ll start on the computer.”

“Right.”

• • •

The FBI computer and the computer networks it could access did not divulge the location of Nguyen Tran. Bosch and Wish found
no mention of him in DMV, INS, IRS or Social Security files. There was nothing in the fictitious name filings in the Los Angeles
County recorder’s office, no mention of him in DWP records or the voter or property tax rolls. Bosch called Hector Villabona
and confirmed that Tran entered the United States on the same day as Binh, but there was no further record. After three hours
of staring at the amber letters on the computer screen, Eleanor turned it off.

“Nothing,” she said. “He’s using another name. But he hasn’t legally changed it, at least in this county. Nobody has the guy.”

They sat there dejected and quiet. Bosch took the last swallow of coffee from a Styrofoam cup. It was after five and the squad
room was deserted. Rourke had gone home, after being informed of the latest developments and deciding not to send anyone into
the tunnels.

“You know how many miles of underground flood-control tunnels there are in L.A.?” he had asked. “It’s like a freeway system
down there. These guys, if they are really down there, could be anywhere. We would be stumbling around in the dark. They’ll
have the advantage and one of us could get hurt.”

Bosch and Wish knew he was right. They gave him no argument and set to work finding Tran. And they had failed.

“So now we go to Binh,” Bosch said after finishing his coffee.

“You think he’ll cooperate?” she said. “He’ll know that if we want Tran, then we must know about their past. About the diamonds.”

“I don’t know what he’ll do,” he said. “I’ll go see him tomorrow. You hungry?”

“We’ll go see him tomorrow,” she corrected and smiled. “And yes, I’m hungry. Let’s get out of here.”

They ate at a grill on Broadway in Santa Monica. Eleanor picked the place, and since it was near her apartment Bosch’s spirits
were high and he was relaxed. There was a trio playing in the corner on a wooden stage, but the place’s brick walls made the
sound harsh and mostly unnotable. Afterward, Harry and Eleanor sat in a comfortable silence while nursing espressos. There
was a warmness between them that Bosch felt but couldn’t explain to himself. He didn’t know this woman who sat across from
him. One look at those hard brown eyes told him that. He wanted to get behind them. They had made love, but he wanted to be
in love. He wanted her.

Always seeming to know his thoughts, she asked, “Are you coming home with me tonight?”

• • •

Lewis and Clarke were on the second level of the parking garage across the street and down a half block from the Broadway
Bar & Grill. Lewis was out of the car and crouched at the guardrail, watching through the camera. Its foot-long lens was steadied
on a tripod and pointed at the front door of the restaurant, a hundred yards away. He was hoping the lights over the door,
by the valet’s stand, would be enough. He had high-speed film in the camera, but the blinking red dot in the viewfinder was
telling him not to take the shot. There still wasn’t enough light. He decided he would try anyway. He wanted a hand shot.

“You’re not going to get it,” Clarke said from behind him. “Not in this light.”

“Let me do my work. If I don’t get it, I don’t get it. Who cares?”

“Irving.”

“Well, fuck him. He tells us he wants more documentation. He’ll get it. I’m only trying to do what the man says.”

“We should try to go down there by that deli, get a closer —”

Clarke shut up and turned around at the sound of footsteps. Lewis kept his eye to the camera, waiting for the shot at the
restaurant. The steps belonged to a man in a blue security uniform.

“Can I ask you what you guys are doing?” the guard asked.

Clarke badged him and said, “We’re on the job.”

The guard, a young black man, stepped closer to look at the badge and ID and raised his hand to hold it steady. Clarke jerked
it up out of his reach.

“Don’t touch it, bro. Nobody touches my badge.”

“That says LAPD. You all check in with Santa Monica PD? They know you’re out here?”

“Who the fuck cares? Just leave us alone.”

Clarke turned around. When the guard didn’t leave, he turned back and said, “Son, you need something?”

“This garage is my beat, Detective Clarke. I can be wherever I want to be.”

“You can get the fuck outta here. I can —”

Clarke heard the camera shutter close and the sound of the automatic wind. He turned to Lewis, who stood up smiling.

“I got it — a hand shot,” Lewis said as he stood up. “They’re on the move, let’s go.”

Lewis collapsed the telescope legs of the tripod and quickly got in the passenger seat of the gray Caprice they had traded
the black Plymouth for.

“See ya, bro,” Clarke said to the guard. He got in behind the wheel.

The car backed out, forcing the security guard to jump out of the way. Clarke looked in the rearview mirror smiling as he
drove toward the exit ramp. He saw the guard talking into a hand-held radio.

“Talk all you want, buddy boy,” he said.

The IAD car pulled up to the exit booth. Clarke handed the parking stub and two dollars to the man in the booth. He took it
but didn’t lift the black-and-white-striped pipe that served as a gate.

“Benson said I have to hold you guys here,” the man in the booth said.

“What? Who the fuck is Benson?” Clarke said.

“He’s the security. He said hold it here a minute.”

Just then, both IAD officers saw Bosch and Wish drive by the garage, heading up to Fourth Street. They were going to lose
them. Clarke held out his badge to the booth attendant.

“We’re on the job. Open that goddam gate. Now!”

“He’ll be along. I gotta do what he say. Else I’ll lose my job.”

“You open that gate or you’re going to lose it, peckerwood,” Clarke yelled.

He put his foot down and revved the engine to show he meant to drive through it.

“Why you think we got a pipe ’stead a flimsy piece a wood. You go ahead. That pipe’ll take out your windshield, mister. You
do what you want, but he’s coming right along.”

In the rearview, Clarke saw the security guard walking down the ramp. Clarke’s face was becoming blotchy red with anger. He
felt Lewis’s hand on his arm.

“Cool it, partner,” Lewis said. “They were holding hands when they came out of the restaurant. We won’t lose them. They’re
only going to her place. I’ll bet you a week’s driving that we’ll pick ’em up there.”

Clarke shook his hand off and let out a long breath; that seemed to bring a more placid tone to his face. He said, “I don’t
care. I don’t fucking like this shit one bit.”

• • •

On Ocean Park Boulevard Bosch found a parking space across from Eleanor’s building. He pulled in but made no move to get out
of the car. He looked at her, still feeling the glow of a few minutes before but unsure where they were going with this. She
seemed to know this, maybe even feel it herself. She put her hand on top of his and leaned over to kiss him. She whispered,
“Come in with me.”

He got out and came around to her side. She was already out and he closed the door. They rounded the front end of the car
and then stood next to it, waiting for an approaching car to pass by. The car’s high beams were on and Bosch turned away and
looked at Eleanor. So it was she who first noticed the high beams drift toward them.

“Harry?”

“What?”

“Harry!”

Then Bosch turned back to the approaching car and saw the lights — actually four beams from two sets of square side-by-side
headlights — bearing down on them. In the few seconds that were left Bosch clearly came to the conclusion that the car was
not drifting their way but rather driving at them. There was no time, yet time seemed to go into suspension. In what seemed
to him to be slow motion, Bosch turned to his right, to Eleanor. But she needed no help. In unison, they leapt onto the hood
of Bosch’s car. He was rolling over her and they were both tumbling toward the sidewalk when his car lurched violently and
there was a high-pitched keening sound of tearing metal. Bosch saw a shower of blue sparks pass in his peripheral vision.
Then he landed on top of Eleanor on the thin strip of sod that was between the curb and the sidewalk. They were safe, Bosch
could sense. Scared, but safe for the moment.

He came up, gun out and steadied by both hands. The car that had come after them was not stopping. It was already fifty yards
east, heading away and picking up speed. Bosch fired one round that he thought ricocheted off the rear window, the bullet
too weak at that distance to penetrate the glass. He heard Eleanor’s gun fire twice at his side, but saw no damage to the
hit-and-run car.

Without a word they both piled into Bosch’s car through the passenger door. Bosch held his breath while he turned the key,
but the engine started and the car squealed away from the curb. Bosch rocked the steering wheel from side to side as he picked
up speed. The suspension felt a little loose. He had no idea what the extent of the damage was. When he tried to check the
side-view mirror he saw it was gone. When he turned on the lights, only the passenger-side beam worked.

The hit-and-run car was at least five blocks ahead, near the crest where Ocean Park Boulevard rises and then drops from sight.
The lights on the speeding car went out just as it dropped over the hill out of sight. He was heading for Bundy Drive, Bosch
thought. From there a short jog to the 10. And from there he would be gone and they’d never catch him. Bosch grabbed the radio
and called in an Officer Needs Assistance. But he could not provide a description of the car, only the direction of the chase.

“He’s going for the freeway, Harry,” Eleanor yelled. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Are you? Did you get a make?”

“I’m fine. Scared is all. No make. American, I think. Uh, square headlights. No color, just dark. I didn’t see the color.
We won’t catch him if he makes the freeway.”

They were heading east on Ocean Park, parallel to the 10, which was about eight blocks to the north. They approached the top
of the crest, and Bosch cut off the one working headlight. As they came over, he saw the unlit form of the hit-and-run car
passing through the lighted intersection at Lincoln. Yeah, he was going for Bundy. At Lincoln, Bosch took a left and floored
the gas pedal. He put the lights back on. And as the car’s speed increased there was a thumping sound. The front left tire
and alignment were damaged.

“Where are you going?” Eleanor shouted.

“I’m going for the freeway first.”

Bosch had no sooner said that than the freeway entrance signs came up and the car made a wide, arcing right turn onto the
ramp. The tire held up. They sped down the ramp into the traffic.

“How’ll we know?” Eleanor shouted. The noise from the tire was very loud now, almost a continual throbbing.

“I don’t know. Look for the square lights.”

In one minute they were coming up on the Bundy entrance, but Bosch had no idea whether they had beaten the other car or if
it was already well ahead of them. A car was coming up the ramp and into the merging lane. The car was white and foreign.

“I don’t think so,” Eleanor called.

Bosch gunned it to the floor again and moved ahead. His heart was pounding almost as fast as the tire, half with the excitement
of the chase, half with the excitement of still being alive and not broken on the street in front of Eleanor’s apartment.
He was gripping the steering wheel at the ten and two o’clock positions, urging the car on as if he held the reins of a galloping
horse. They were moving through sparse traffic at ninety miles an hour, both of them looking at the front ends of the cars
they passed, searching for the four square lights or a damaged right side.

A half-minute later, Bosch’s knuckles as white as bones wrapped around the wheel, they came upon a maroon Ford going at least
seventy in the slow lane. Bosch swung out from behind and passed alongside. Eleanor had her gun in her hands but was holding
it below the window so it could not be seen from outside the car. The white male driver didn’t even look over or register
notice. As they pulled ahead, Eleanor shouted, “Square lights, side by side.”

“Is it the car?” Bosch called back excitedly.

“I can’t — I don’t know. Can’t see the right side for damage. It could be. The guy isn’t showing anything.”

They were three-quarters of a car length ahead now. Bosch grabbed the portable pull-over light off the transmission hump on
the floor and swung it out the window onto the roof. He switched on the revolving blue light and slowly began to angle the
Ford onto the shoulder. Eleanor put her hand out the window and signaled the car over. The driver began to comply. Bosch braked
sharply and let the other car shoot by onto the shoulder, then Bosch swung his car onto the shoulder behind it. When both
had stopped alongside a sound barrier wall Bosch realized he had a big problem. He put on the high beams, but still only the
passenger-side headlight responded. The car in front was too close to the wall for Bosch and Wish to see if the right side
was damaged. Meantime, the driver sat in his car, mostly shrouded in darkness.