A Darkness More Than Night

had never seen before in any man, guilty or innocent.
    “Storey’s killed two women, and those are just the two we know about. He’s the monster you spent your life chasing, McCaleb. And now… and now you’re giving him the key that unlocks the door to the cage. He gets out, he’ll do it again. You know his kind. You know he will.”
    McCaleb could not compete with Bosch’s eyes. He looked down at the gun in his hands.
    “What made you think I would listen, that I would do this?” he asked.
    “Like I said, you take somebody’s measure. I got yours, McCaleb. You’ll do this. Or the monster you set free will haunt you the rest of your life. If God is really in your daughter’s eyes, how will you be able to look at her again?”
    McCaleb unconsciously nodded and immediately wondered what he was doing.
    “I remember you once told me something,” Bosch said. “You said if God is in the details, so is the devil. Meaning, the person you are looking for is usually right there in front of us, hiding in the details all the time. I always remember that. It still helps me.”
    McCaleb nodded again. He looked down at the documents on the floor.
    “Listen, Harry, you should know. I was convinced about this when I took it to Jaye. I’m not sure I can be turned the other way. If you want help, I’m probably the wrong one to go to.”
    Bosch shook his head and smiled.
    “That’s exactly why you’re the right one. If you can be convinced, the world can be convinced.”
    “Yeah, where were you on New Year’s Eve? Why don’t we start with that.”
    Bosch shook his shoulders.
    “Home.”
    “Alone?”
    Bosch shook his shoulders again and didn’t answer. He stood up to go. He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket. He went through the narrow door first and up the steps to the salon. McCaleb followed, now holding the gun at his side.
    Bosch slid the door open with his shoulder. As he stepped out onto the cockpit he looked up at the cathedral of the hillside, then he looked at McCaleb.
    “So all that talk at my place about finding God’s hand, was that bullshit? Interview technique or something? A statement designed to get a response that could fit into a profile?”
    McCaleb shook his head.
    “No, no bullshit.”
    “Good. I was hoping it wasn’t.”
    Bosch climbed over the transom to the fantail. He untied his rental boat and got in and sat down on the rear bench. Before starting the engine he looked once more at McCaleb and pointed to the back of the boat.
    “The Following Sea. What’s that mean?”
    “My father named the boat. It was his originally. The following sea is the wave that comes up behind you, that hits you before you see it coming. I guess he named the boat as sort of a warning. You know, always watch your back.”
    Bosch nodded.
    “Overseas we used to tell each other, ‘Watch six.’”
    Now McCaleb nodded.
    “Same thing.”
    They were silent a moment. Bosch put his hand on the boat motor’s pull handle but didn’t start the engine.
    “You know the history of this place, Terry? I’m talking about back before the missionaries came.”
    “No, do you?”
    “A little. I used to read a lot of history books. When I was a kid. Whatever they had in the library. I liked local history. L.A. mostly, and California. I just liked reading it. We took a field trip here from the youth hall once. So I read up on it.”
    McCaleb nodded.
    “The Indians that lived out here – the Gabrielinos – were sun worshippers,” Bosch said. “The missionaries came and changed all of that – in fact, they were the ones who called them Gabrielinos. They called themselves something else but I don’t remember what it was. But before all that happened they’d been here and they worshipped the sun. It was so important to life on the island I guess they figured it had to be a god.”
    McCaleb watched Bosch’s dark eyes scan across the harbor.
    “And the mainland Indians thought of the ones out here as these fierce wizards who could control weather and waves through worship and sacrifices to their God. I mean, they had to be fierce and strong to be able to cross the bay so they could trade their pottery and sealskins on the mainland.”
    McCaleb studied Bosch, trying to get a bead on the message he was sure the detective was trying to convey.
    “What are you saying, Harry?”
    Bosch shrugged his shoulders.
    “I don’t know. I guess I’m saying that people find God where they need Him to be. In the sun,