9 Dragons

tell you, I might have done the same thing to him if I had found him alive. Let’s go in now.”
    Bosch turned from the railing.
    “What about He?”
    Bosch stopped and looked back at her.
    “I don’t know about He.”
    He moved to the door and went inside. There, he had lied to her for the first time. It was to save her from some grief, but it didn’t matter. He could already feel that he was beginning to slide down the slope.

40
    A t 11 A.M. Monday, Bosch was waiting outside the Downtown Detention Center for the release of Bo-Jing Chang. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do or say to the murderer when he stepped through the door as a free man. But he knew he couldn’t let the moment pass. If Chang’s arrest had been the trigger that resulted in all that had happened in Hong Kong, including the death of Eleanor Wish, then Bosch would not be able to live with himself if he didn’t confront the man when he had the chance.
    His phone buzzed in his pocket and he was tempted not to answer it and risk missing Chang, but he saw on the screen that it was Lieutenant Gandle calling. He took the call.
    “I hear you’re back.”
    “Yeah, I was going to call you.”
    “You got your daughter?”
    “Yeah, she’s safe.”
    “Where?”
    Bosch hesitated but not for too long.
    “She’s with me.”
    “And her mother?”
    “She’s still in Hong Kong.”
    “How’s that going to?”
    “She’ll live with me. For a while, at least.”
    “What happened back there? Anything I need to worry about?”
    Bosch wasn’t sure what to tell him. He decided to put it off.
    “I’m hoping there’s no blowback. But you never know.”
    “I’ll let you know what I hear. Are you coming in?”
    “Uh, not today. I need to take a couple days to get my daughter situated and in school and stuff. I want to get her some counseling.”
    “Is this white time or vacay days? I need to put it down.”
    Comp time was called “white time” in the LAPD, after the blank white form on which supervisors kept track of it.
    “Doesn’t matter. I think I have the white time.”
    “Then I’ll go with that. Are you okay, Harry?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “I guess Chu told you about Chang getting kicked.”
    “Yeah, he told me.”
    “His prick lawyer was already here this morning to pick up his suitcase. I’m sorry, Harry. There’s nothing we could do. The case isn’t there and those two wimps up in the Valley won’t help us hold him on the extortion.”
    “I know.”
    “Didn’t help that your partner stayed home all weekend. Claimed he was sick.”
    “Yeah, well…”
    Bosch had reached the end of his patience with Ferras but that was between him and his partner. He wouldn’t discuss it with Gandle yet.
    The door to the release office opened and Bosch saw an Asian man in a suit step out, carrying a briefcase. It wasn’t Chang. The man held the door with his body and waved up the street to a waiting car. Bosch knew this was it. The man in the suit was a well-known defense attorney named Anthony Wing.
    “Lieutenant, I gotta go. Can I call you back?”
    “Just call me when you decide how many days you’re taking and when I can put you back on the schedule. Meantime, I’ll find something for Ferras to do. Something inside.”
    “I’ll talk to you later.”
    Bosch closed the phone just as a black Cadillac Escalade cruised up and Bo-Jing Chang stepped through the jail’s release door. Bosch moved into the path between him and the SUV. Wing then stepped between Bosch and Chang.
    “Excuse me, Detective,” Wing said. “You are impeding my client’s path.”
    “Is that what I’m doing?, ‘impeding’? What about him impeding John Li’s life?”
    Bosch saw Chang smirk and shake his head behind Wing. He heard a car door slam behind him and Wing’s attention moved over Harry’s shoulder.
    “Make sure you get this,” he commanded.
    Bosch looked behind him and saw that a man with a video camera had gotten out of the big SUV. The lens of the camera was pointed at Bosch.
    “What is this?”
    “Detective, if you touch or harass Mr. Chang in any way, it will be documented and offered to the media.”
    Bosch turned back to Wing and Chang. Chang’s smirk had turned into a satisfied smile.
    “You think this is over, Chang? I don’t care where you go, this isn’t over. You and your people made it personal, asshole, and I don’t forget that.”
    “Detective, move aside,” Wing said, clearly playing to the camera. “Mr.