9 Dragons

the door. Gandle had the only couch in RHD.
    “Maybe the office cleaners came by and forgot to lock it,” he offered.
    “No, they don’t have a key. Look, Harry, I don’t mind people using the couch to sleep. But if the door is locked, it’s for a reason. I can’t have people opening my door after I’ve locked it.”
    “You’re right, Lieutenant. You think maybe we can get a couch out in the squad?”
    “I’ll work on it but that’s not the point.”
    Bosch stood up.
    “I get the point. I’m going back to work now.”
    “Not so fast. Tell me about this video that kept you here all night.”
    Bosch briefly explained what he had seen when he spent five hours viewing the two discs through the middle of the night and how John Li had unintentionally left behind what looked like a solid lead.
    “You want me to set it up for you in the conference room”
    “Why don’t you wait till your partner’s here. We can all look at it together. Go get some coffee first.”
    Bosch left Gandle and walked through the squad room. It was an impersonal maze of cubicles and sound barriers. It whispered like an insurance office and the truth was, it was so quiet that at times Bosch had trouble concentrating. It was still deserted but would now start to fill up quickly. Gandle was always the first man in. He liked to set the precedent for the squad.
    Harry went down to the cafeteria, which had opened at seven but was empty because the bulk of the police department’s personnel were still working out of Parker Center. The move to the new Police Administration Building was progressing slowly. First some detective squads, then administrators and then the rest. It was a soft opening and the building would not be formally dedicated for another two months. For now it meant there were no lines in the cafeteria but there wasn’t a full menu either. Bosch got the cop’s breakfast: two doughnuts and a coffee. He also picked up a coffee for Ferras. He ate the doughnuts quickly while putting cream and sugar in his partner’s cup and then took the elevator back up. As expected, when he got back to the squad his partner was at his desk. Bosch put one of the coffees down in front of him and walked over to his own cubicle.
    “Thanks, Harry,” Ferras said. “I should have known you’d be here before-hey, you wore that suit yesterday. Don’t tell me you’ve been working all night.”
    Bosch sat down.
    “I got a couple hours on the lieutenant’s couch. What time are Mrs. Li and her son coming in today?”
    “I told them ten. Why?”
    “I think I’ve got something we need to pursue. I watched the extra discs from the store’s cameras last night.”
    “What did you find?”
    “Grab your coffee and I’ll show you. The lieutenant wants to see it, too.”
    Ten minutes later Bosch was standing with the remote control in front of the AV equipment while Ferras and Gandle sat at the end of the boardroom table. He cued the disc marked 9/01 to the right spot and then froze the playback until he was ready.
    “Okay, our shooter took the disc out of the recorder, so we have no video of what happened in the store yesterday. But what
was
left behind were two extra discs marked August twenty-seven and September one. This is the disc from September one, which happens to be one week prior to yesterday. You follow?”
    “Follow,” Gandle said.
    “So what Mr. Li was doing was documenting a tag team of shoplifters. The commonality between these two discs is that on both days these same two guys come in and one goes to the counter and asks for cigarettes while the other goes down the liquor aisle. The first guy draws Li’s attention away from his partner and the camera screen he had behind the counter. While Li’s getting smokes for the guy at the counter the other guy slides a couple flasks of vodka into his pants, then takes a third to the counter for purchase. The guy at the counter pulls his wallet, sees he left his money at home or whatever and they leave without making a purchase. It happens on both these days with them alternating their roles. I think that is why Li kept the discs out.”
    “You think he was trying to make a case or something?” Ferras asked.
    “Maybe,” Bosch said. “If he got them on film he’d have something to give the police.”
    “This is your lead?” Gandle said. “You worked through the night for this? I was reading the reports. I think I like the kid Li pulled the gun on better than