9 Dragons

was on the plane his investigation would go on hold. For the next fourteen-plus hours while in flight, things would continue to happen with his daughter, and with the case, but Bosch would be in stasis. Like a space traveler in the movies who is put into hibernation during the long journey home from the mission.
    He knew that he couldn’t get on that plane with nothing. One way or another he had to make a break.
    After he faxed the business card over to the Asian Gang Unit, he went back to his cubicle. He had left his phone on his desk and he saw that he had missed a call from his ex-wife. There was no message but he called her back.
    “You find something?” he asked.
    “I’ve had very long conversations with two of Maddie’s friends. This time they were talking.”
    “He?”
    “No, not He. I don’t have a full name or a number for her. Neither of the other girls did either.”
    “What did they tell you?”
    “That He and her brother are not from the school. They met up with them at the mall but they’re not even from Happy Valley.”
    “Do they know where they came from?”
    “No, but they knew they weren’t local. They said Maddie seemed to get really tight with He and that brought her brother into the picture. This is all in the last month or so. Since she came back from her visit with you, in fact. Both girls said she had put some distance between her and them.”
    “What’s the brother’s name?”
    “All I got was Quick. He said his name was Quick but like with his sister, they never got a last name.”
    “That’s not a lot of help. Anything else”
    “Well, they confirmed what Maddie told you, that Quick was the one who smoked. They said he was sort of rough trade. He has tattoos and bracelets and I guess…well, I guess they sort of were attracted to the element of danger.”
    “They or Madeline?”
    “Maddie mostly.”
    “Did they think she might have gone with him Friday after school?”
    “They wouldn’t say so but, yes, I think that’s what they were trying to say.”
    “Did you ask if Quick ever talked about triad affiliation?”
    “I asked that and they said that never came up. It wouldn’t have, anyway.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because you don’t talk about that here. The triads are anonymous. They’re everywhere but anonymous.”
    “Okay.”
    “You know, you haven’t really told me what you think is going on. I’m not stupid. I know what you’re doing. You’re trying not to upset me with the facts but I think I need to know the facts now, Harry.”
    “Okay.”
    Bosch knew she was right. If he wanted her best effort, then she had to know all he knew.
    “I’m working the murder of a Chinese man who owned a liquor store in the south end. He made regular protection payments to the triad. He was killed on the same day and during the same hour that the weekly payments were always made. That put us onto Bo-Jing Chang, the triad bagman. The trouble is, that’s all we’ve got. No evidence directly connecting him to the murder. Then today we had to take Chang down because he was about to get on a plane and flee the country. We had no choice. So what it comes down to is we have the weekend to get enough evidence to support the charge or we let him walk and he gets on a plane, never to be seen again.”
    “And how does this connect to our daughter”
    “Eleanor, I’m dealing with people I don’t know. The Asian Gang Unit in the LAPD and the Monterey Park Police. Somebody got the word to Chang directly or to the triad that we were onto him and that’s why he tried to bolt. They could just as easily have backgrounded me and zeroed in on Madeline as a way to get to me, to send the message that I need to stand down. I got a call. Somebody told me there would be consequences if I didn’t back off Chang. I never dreamed that the consequences would be…”
    “Maddie,” Eleanor said, finishing the thought.
    A long silence followed and Bosch guessed that his ex-wife was trying to control her emotions, hating Bosch at the same time she had to rely on him to save their daughter.
    “Eleanor?” he finally asked.
    “What?”
    Her voice was clipped but very obviously filled with dark rage.
    “Did Maddie’s friends give you an age on this kid Quick?”
    “They both said they thought he was at least seventeen. They said he had a car. I spoke to them separately and they both said the same thing about all of this. I think they were telling me what they knew.”
    Bosch didn’t