A Darkness More Than Night

as he moved to a fire escape and disappeared down the stairs.
    The only reporter who got to McCaleb was Jack McEvoy, who still had his cell phone number. McCaleb talked to him briefly but declined to comment on what had happened in the master cabin of The Following Sea and how close he had come to death. His thoughts about that were too personal and he would never share them with any reporter.
    McCaleb had also talked to Graciela, calling her and filling her in on the events before she saw them on the news. He told her he probably wouldn’t get home until the next day because he was sure the media pack would be watching the boat until well after dark. She said she was glad it was over and that he’d be coming home. He sensed there was still a high level of stress in her voice and knew it was something he would have to address when he got back to the island.
    Late in the day McCaleb was able to slip out of Buddy’s boat unnoticed when the media pack was distracted by activity in the marina parking lot. The LAPD was towing off the old Lincoln Continental that the Tafero brothers had been using the night before when they had come to the marina to kill McCaleb. While the news crews filmed and watched the mundane task of a car being hooked up and towed away, McCaleb was able to get to his Cherokee without being spotted. He started the car and drove out of the lot ahead of the tow truck. Not a single reporter followed.

    ***

    It was fully dark by the time he got to Bosch’s house. The front door was open as it had been the time before, the screen door in place. McCaleb rapped on the wooden frame and peered through the mesh into the darkness of the house. There was a single light – a reading light – on in the living room. He could hear music and thought it was the same Art Pepper CD that had been playing during his last visit. But he didn’t see Bosch.
    McCaleb looked away from the door to check the street and when he looked back Bosch was standing at the screen and it startled him. Bosch unhooked a latch and opened the screen. He was wearing the same suit McCaleb had seen him in on the news. He was holding a bottle of Anchor Steam down at his side.
    “Terry. Come on in. I thought maybe you were a reporter. Bugs the hell out of me when they come to your house. Seems like there should be one place they can’t go.”
    “Yeah, I know what you mean. They’re all over the boat. I had to get away.”
    McCaleb passed by Bosch in the entrance hallway and stepped into the living room.
    “So reporters aside, how’s it going, Harry?”
    “Never better. A good day for our side. How’s your neck doing?”
    “Sore as hell. But I’m alive.”
    “Yeah, that’s what’s important. Want a beer?”
    “Uh, that would be good.”
    While Bosch got the beer McCaleb went out to the rear deck.
    Bosch had the deck lights off, making the lights of the city more brilliant in the distance. McCaleb could hear the ever present sound of the freeway at the bottom of the pass. Searchlights cut across the sky from three different locations on the Valley floor. Bosch came out and handed him a beer.
    “No glass, right?”
    “No glass.”
    They looked out into the night and drank their beers silently for a little while. McCaleb thought about how he should say what he wanted to say. He was still working on it.
    “The last thing they were doing before I left was hooking up Tafero’s car,” he said after some time.
    Bosch nodded.
    “What about the boat? They finished with it?”
    “Yeah, they’re done.”
    “Is it a mess? They always leave things a mess.”
    “Probably. I haven’t been inside. I’ll worry about it tomorrow.”
    Bosch nodded. McCaleb took a long draw on his beer and put the bottle down on the railing. He had taken too much. It backed up in his throat and burned his sinuses.
    “Okay?” Bosch asked.
    “Yeah, fine.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Harry, I came up to tell you I’m not going to be your friend anymore.”
    Bosch started to laugh but then stopped.
    “What?”
    McCaleb looked at him. Bosch’s eyes were still piercing in the darkness. They had caught a speck of reflected light from somewhere and McCaleb could see the two pinpoints holding on him.
    “You should’ve hung around a little longer this morning while Jaye interviewed Tafero.”
    “I didn’t have the time.”
    “She asked him about the Lincoln and he said it was his undercover car. He said he used it on jobs when he