A Darkness More Than Night

before. But what do you think?”
    Bosch was saved by the bell. In the silence after Said’s question they both could hear the secretary talking to someone in the next room. Then the speakerphone on Said’s desk beeped and the secretary said, “Ms. Crowe is here. She will be waiting in the conference room.”
    Bosch nodded at Said.
    “Thanks, Nuff,” he whispered. “I’ll take it from here.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “I’ll let you know if I need any help.”
    He turned to the office door but then went back to the desk and put out his hand.
    “I may have to split kind of fast. So I’ll say good-bye. Good luck with that project. Sounds like another winner.”
    They shook hands.
    “Yes, we shall see,” Said said.
    Bosch left the office and crossed a small hallway and entered the conference room. There was a square, glass-topped table at center with a chair on each side. Annabelle Crowe sat in the chair on the side opposite the door. She was studying a black-and-white photograph of herself as Bosch entered. She looked up with a bright smile and perfect teeth. The smile held for a little longer than a second and then crashed off her face like a Malibu mudslide.
    “What – what are you doing here?”
    “Hello, Annabelle, how’ve you been?”
    “This is an audition – you can’t just -”
    “You’re right, this is an audition. I am auditioning you for the role of witness in a murder trial.”
    The woman stood up. Her head shot and a résumé slipped off the table to the floor.
    “You can’t just – what is going on here?”
    “You know what is going on. You moved and left no forwarding. Your parents wouldn’t help. Your agent wouldn’t help me. The only way I could get to you was to set up an audition. Now sit down and we’re going to talk about where you’ve been and why you’re ducking the trial.”
    “So there is no part?”
    Bosch almost laughed. She still didn’t get it.
    “No, no part.”
    “And they’re not remaking Chinatown?”
    This time he did laugh but quickly covered.
    “One of these days they’ll get around to it. But you’re too young for the part and I’m no Jake Gittes. Sit down, please.”
    Bosch started to pull out the chair opposite hers. But she refused to sit down. She looked very put out. She was a beautiful young woman with a face that often got her what she wanted. But not this time.
    “I said sit down,” Bosch said sternly. “You have to understand something here, Miss Crowe. You broke the law when you did not respond to a court-issued subpoena to appear today. That means if I want, I can just place you under arrest and we can talk about this in lockup. Or the alternative is that we sit down here because they’re letting us use the nice room and talk about this in a civilized manner. Your choice, Annabelle.”
    She dropped back into her chair. Her mouth was a thin, tight line. The lipstick she had carefully painted on for a casting session was already starting to crack and wear. Bosch studied her for a long moment before beginning.
    “Who got to you, Annabelle?”
    She looked at him sharply.
    “Look,” she said, “I was scared, okay? I still am. David Storey is a powerful man. He has some scary people behind him.”
    Bosch leaned across the table.
    “Are you saying you were threatened by him? By them?”
    “No, I am not saying that. They didn’t need to threaten me. I know the picture.”
    Bosch leaned back away from her and quietly studied her. Her eyes moved everywhere around the room but to him. The traffic noise from out on Sunset filtered through the room’s one closed window. Somewhere in the building a toilet was flushed. Finally, she looked at Bosch.
    “What? What do you want?”
    “I want you to testify. I want you to make a stand against this guy. For what he tried to do to you. For Jody Krementz. And Alicia Lopez.”
    “Who is Alicia Lopez?”
    “Another one we found. She wasn’t lucky like you.”
    Bosch could read the turmoil on her face. She clearly viewed testifying as some sort of danger.
    “If I testify I’ll never work again. And maybe worse.”
    “Who told you that?”
    She didn’t answer.
    “Come on, who? Did that come from them, your agent, who?”
    She hesitated and then shook her head as if she couldn’t believe she was talking to him.
    “I was working out at Crunch and I was on a Stairmaster and this guy got on the machine next to me. He was reading the newspaper. It was folded to the story he was reading. And I