9 Dragons

the murder charge and Chang would be released.
    “You’re a good man, Lieutenant.”
    “And, of course, I didn’t just say any of that.”
    “It’s not going to come to that, but I appreciate what you didn’t just say. Besides, the sad truth is, we may have to kick this guy loose Monday, anyway. Unless we come up with something over the weekend or on the searches.”
    Bosch remembered that he had promised Teri Sopp that he’d get a copy of Chang’s print card to her so she would have it on hand if anything developed during the electrostatic enhancement test of the casing recovered from John Li’s body. He told Gandle to make sure Ferras or Chu got a card over to her. The lieutenant said he’d get it covered. He handed the printout of the video image back to Bosch and told him what he always told him, to stay in touch. Then he headed back to his office.
    Bosch set the printout on his desk and put on his reading glasses. He also took a magnifying glass out of a drawer and began a study of every square inch of the image, looking for anything that might help and that he hadn’t seen before. He was ten minutes into it and finding nothing new when his cell rang. It was Ferras and he knew nothing about Bosch’s daughter being abducted.
    “Harry, I got it. We got approval to search the phone, suitcase and car.”
    “Ignacio, you’re a hell of a writer. Still pitching a perfect game.”
    It was true. So far, in the three years they had been partnered, Ferras had yet to write a search warrant application that had been turned down by a judge for insufficient cause. He might be intimidated by the streets but he wasn’t cowed by the courthouse. He seemed to know just what to put in each search application and what to leave out.
    “Thanks, Har.”
    “You finished over there now?”
    “Yeah, I’m coming back.”
    “Why don’t you divert over to the OPG and handle that? I’ve got the phone and the suitcase right here. I’ll dive in now. Chu is booking Chang.”
    Ferras hesitated. Going to the Official Police Garage to handle the search of Chang’s car would stretch the psychological tether to the squad room.
    “Uh, Harry? Don’t you think I should take the phone? I mean, you just got your first multifunction phone about a month ago.”
    “I think I can figure it out.”
    “You sure?”
    “Yeah, I’m sure. And I’ve got it right here. You head over to the garage. Make sure they check the door panels and the air filter. I had a Mustang once. You could fit a forty-five in the filter.”
    They
referred to the staff at the OPG. They would be the ones who tore apart Chang’s car while Ferras supervised the search.
    “Will do,” Ferras said.
    “Good,” Bosch said. “Call me if you strike gold.”
    Bosch closed the phone. He didn’t see the need to tell Ferras about his daughter’s plight yet. Ferras had three young kids of his own and a reminder of how vulnerable he really was wouldn’t be helpful at a time when Bosch was counting on his best work.
    Harry pushed back from his desk and swiveled the chair to look at Chang’s big suitcase on the floor against the cubicle’s rear wall. Striking gold meant finding the murder weapon in your suspect’s possession or possessions. Bosch knew Chang was heading to a plane, so there would be no gold in the suitcase. If he still possessed the gun that killed John Li, it would likely be in his car or his apartment. Or it would be long gone.
    But the suitcase could still yield valuable information and incriminating evidence-a drop of blood from the victim on the cuff of a shirt, for example. They could get lucky. But Bosch turned back to the desk and decided to go with the cell phone first. He would go for gold of a different kind. Digital gold.

21
    I t took Bosch less than five minutes to determine that Bo-Jing Chang’s cell phone would be of little use to the investigation. He easily found the call log but it contained a listing of only two recent calls, both to toll-free numbers, and one incoming call. All three were placed or received that morning. There was no record beyond that. The phone’s history had been wiped clean.
    Bosch had been told that digital memories lasted forever. He knew a full forensic analysis of the phone could possibly result in the data wiped off the device being rebuilt, but for immediate purposes the phone was a bust. He called the 800 numbers and learned they belonged to Hertz Car Rental and Cathay Pacific Airways. Chang had