Angels Flight

wasn’t intimidated, just annoyed on occasion. She could handle it.
    “You go first, Kiz,” Bosch said, also ignoring Edgar’s comment, even though he privately disagreed with his conclusion about Tam. “Anything catch your eye in there?”
    “Same as everybody else, I guess. Looks like the victims were not together. The woman either got on ahead of Elias or was about to get off. I think it’s pretty clear Elias was the primary target and she was just an also-ran. The shot up the ass tells me that. Also, like you said in there, this guy was a hell of a shot. We’re looking for someone who’s spent some time at the range.”
    Bosch nodded.
    “Anything else?”
    “Nope. It’s a pretty clean scene. Nothing much to work with.”
    “Jerry?”
    “Nada. What about you?”
    “Same. But I think Garwood was telling us a story. His sequence was for shit.”
    “How?” Rider said.
    “The shot up the pipe was the last one, not the first. Elias was already down. It’s a contact wound and the entry is in the underside, where all the seams of the pants come together. It would be hard to get a muzzle up there if Elias was standing – even if he was up a step from the shooter. I think he was already down when the shooter popped that cap.”
    “That changes things,” Rider said. “Makes the last one a ‘fuck you’ shot. The shooter was angry at Elias.”
    “So he knew him,” Edgar said.
    Bosch nodded.
    “And you think Garwood knew this and was just trying to steer us wrong by planting the suggestion?” Rider asked. “Or do you think he just missed it?”
    “What I know about Garwood is that he is not a stupid man,” Bosch said. “He and fifteen of his men were about to be pulled into federal court on Monday by Elias and dragged right through the shit. He knows any one of those boys might possibly be capable of this. He was protecting them. That’s what I think.”
    “Well, that’s bullshit. Protecting a killer cop? He should be – ”
    “Maybe protecting a killer cop. We don’t know. He didn’t know. I think it was probably a just-in-case move.”
    “Doesn’t matter. If that’s what he was doing, he shouldn’t have a badge.”
    Bosch didn’t say anything to that and Rider wasn’t placated. She shook her head in disgust. Like most cops in the department, she was tired of fuck-ups and cover-ups, of the few tainting the many.
    “What about the scratch on the hand?”
    Edgar and Rider looked at him with arched eyebrows. “What about it?” Edgar said. “Prob’ly happened when the shooter pulled off the watch. One of those with the expanding band. Like a Rolex. Knowing Elias, it was prob’ly a Rolex. Makes a nice motive.”
    “Yeah, if it was a Rolex,” Bosch said.
    He turned and looked out across the city. He doubted Elias wore a Rolex. For all of his flamboyance, Elias was the kind of lawyer who also knew the nuances of his profession. He knew that a lawyer wearing a Rolex might turn jurors off. He wouldn’t wear one. He would have a nice and expensive watch, but not one that advertised itself like a Rolex.
    “What, Harry?” Rider said. “What about the scratch?”
    Bosch looked back at them.
    “Well, whether it was a Rolex or a high-priced watch or not, there’s no blood in the scratch.”
    “Meaning?”
    “There is a lot of blood in there. The bullet wounds bled out, but there was no blood in the scratch. Meaning I don’t think the shooter took the watch. That scratch was made after the heart stopped. I’d say long after. Which means it was made after the shooter left the scene.”
    Rider and Edgar considered this.
    “Maybe,” Edgar finally said. “But that vascular system shit is hard to nail down. Even the coroner isn’t gonna be definitive on that.”
    “Yeah,” Bosch said, nodding. “So call it gut instinct. We can’t take it to court but I know the shooter didn’t take the watch. Or probably the wallet, for that matter.”
    “So what are you saying?” Edgar asked. “Somebody else came along and took it?”
    “Something like that.”
    “You think it was the guy who ran the train – the one who called it in?”
    Bosch looked at Edgar but didn’t answer him. He hiked his shoulders.
    “You think it was one of the RHD guys,” Rider whispered. “Another just-in-case move. Send us down the robbery path, just in case it was one of their own.”
    Bosch looked at her a moment, thinking about how to respond and how thin the ice was where they now