Angels Flight

that…”
    He didn’t finish but Bosch knew what he was getting at. He decided to change the subject.
    “The old man show up?”
    “Jack Kincaid? No, we sent people to him. I hear he is not taking it well. He’s calling every politician he ever gave money to. I guess he thinks maybe the city council or the mayor will be able to bring his son back.”
    “He knew what his son was. Probably knew all the time. That’s why he’s making the calls. He doesn’t want that to come out.”
    “Yeah, well, we’ll see about that. We’ve already found digital video cameras and editing equipment. We’ll tie him to Charlotte’s Web. I feel confident of that.”
    “It won’t matter. Where’s Chief Irving?”
    “On the way.”
    Bosch nodded. He stepped close to the couch and bent over, his hands on his knees, to look closely at the dead car czar. His eyes were open and his jaw was set in a final grimace. Lindell had been right when he’d said it had not been an easy ride down. He thought of Kincaid’s expression in comparison to his wife’s death look. There was no comparison.
    “How do you think it went down?” he asked. “How’d she get the two of them?”
    He continued to stare at the body while Lindell spoke.
    “Well, you shoot a man in the balls and he’s going to be pretty docile. From the blood on them, I’d say that was where they got it first. Once she got past that point, I think she had pretty good control of the situation.”
    Bosch nodded.
    “Richter wasn’t armed?”
    “Nope.”
    “Anybody find a nine-millimeter around here yet?”
    “No, not yet.”
    Lindell gave Bosch another we fucked up look.
    “We need that nine,” Bosch said. “Mrs. Kincaid got them to admit what they did with the girl but they didn’t say anything about Elias. We need to find that nine to tie them in and end this thing.”
    “Well, we’re looking. If anybody finds the nine, we’ll be the first to know.”
    “You have people on Richter’s home, office and car? I’m still putting my money on him being the shooter.”
    “Yeah, we’re on it but don’t count on anything there.”
    Bosch tried to read the FBI agent but couldn’t. He knew that something was not being said.
    “What?”
    “Edgar pulled his file from the police academy this morning.”
    “Right. He was a washout way back. How come?”
    “Turned out the guy was blind in one eye. The left eye. He was trying to make it through with nobody noticing. He did all right until the weapons course. He couldn’t shoot for shit on the range. That’s how they found out. Then they washed him out.”
    Bosch nodded. He thought of the expert shooting that had taken place on Angels Flight and he knew this new information on Richter changed things. He knew it was unlikely Richter could have been the shooter.
    His thoughts were disrupted by the muted roar of a helicopter. He looked up at the windows and saw a helicopter from Channel 4 drifting down and hovering outside the house, about fifty yards away. Through the rain Bosch could barely make out the cameraman in the open sliding door.
    “Fucking vultures,” Lindell said. “You’d think the rain would keep them inside.”
    He stepped back to the doorway where there was a panel of light switches and other electronic controls. He pushed a round button and kept his finger on it. Bosch heard the whine of an electric motor and watched an automatic window shade drop down over the windows.
    “They can’t get near this place on the ground,” Bosch said. “Because of the gates. So the air’s their only shot.”
    “I don’t care. Let’s see what they get now.”
    Bosch didn’t care either. He looked back down at the bodies. Judging by the coloring and the slight odor already apparent in the room, he guessed that the two men had been dead for several hours. He wondered if this meant that Kate Kincaid had been in the house all that time with the bodies or had gone to Brentwood and spent the night in her daughter’s bed. He guessed the latter.
    “Anybody come up with a TOD?” he asked.
    “Yeah. Coroner puts time of death at sometime last night, anywhere from nine to midnight. He said the blood flow indicates they could have been alive as long as a couple hours from first to last bullet. It looks like she wanted some information from them but they didn’t want to give it up – at first.”
    “Her husband talked. I don’t know about Richter – she probably didn’t care about him. But her husband told