Angels Flight

into the other man.
    “The phone book in the apartment. I know you took it and I want it back. Right the fuck now.”
    Finally, Chastain tore himself loose. His jacket and shirt and tie were wrenched askew. He stepped away from Bosch as if he was scared and adjusted himself. He then pointed a finger at him.
    “Stay away from me! You’re fucking nuts! I don’t have any phone book. You had it. I saw you put it in the goddamn drawer next to the bed.”
    Bosch took a step toward him.
    “You took it. When I was on the bal – ”
    “I said stay away! I didn’t take it. If it’s not there, then somebody came in and took it after we left.”
    Bosch stopped. It was an obvious explanation but it hadn’t even entered his mind. He had automatically thought of Chastain. He looked down at the tiles, embarrassed by how he’d let an old animosity cloud his judgment. He could hear the elevator gate opening on the fifth floor. He raised his eyes, fixed Chastain with a bloodless stare and pointed at his face.
    “I find out otherwise, Chastain, I promise I’ll take you apart.”
    “Fuck you! I didn’t take the book. But I am going to take your badge for this.”
    Bosch smiled but not in a way that had any warmth.
    “Go ahead. Write your ticket, Chastain. Anytime you can take my badge you can have it.”

Chapter 11
    THE others were inside Howard Elias’s law offices by the time Bosch and Chastain made it up to the fifth floor. The office was essentially three rooms: a reception area with a secretary’s desk, a middle room where there was a clerk’s desk and two walls of file cabinets, and then the third and largest room, Elias’s office.
    As Bosch and Chastain moved through the offices the others stood silently and didn’t look at them. It was clear that they had heard the commotion in the lobby as they had taken the elevator up. Bosch didn’t care about that. He had already put the confrontation with Chastain behind him and was thinking about the search. He was hoping something would be found in the office that would give the investigation a focus, a specific path to follow. He walked through the three rooms making general observations. In the last room he noticed that through the windows behind Elias’s large polished wood desk he could see the huge face of Anthony Quinn. It was part of a mural depicting the actor with arms outstretched on the brick wall of a building across the street from the Bradbury.
    Rider came into the office behind him. She looked out the window, too.
    “You know every time I’m down here and see that I wonder who that is.”
    “You don’t know?”
    “César Chávez?”
    “Anthony Quinn. You know, the actor.”
    He got a nonresponse from her.
    “Before your time, I guess. The mural is called the Pope of Broadway, like he’s watching over all the homeless around here.”
    “Oh, I see.” She didn’t sound impressed. “How you want to do this?”
    Bosch was still staring at the mural. He liked it, even though he had a hard time seeing Anthony Quinn as a Christlike figure. But the mural seemed to capture something about the man, a raw masculine and emotional power. Bosch stepped closer to the window and looked down. He saw the forms of two homeless people sleeping under blankets of newspapers in the parking lot beneath the mural. Anthony Quinn’s arms were outstretched over them. Bosch nodded. The mural was one of the little things that made him like downtown so much. Just like the Bradbury and Angels Flight. Little pieces of grace were everywhere if you looked.
    He turned around. Chastain and Langwiser had entered the room behind Rider.
    “I’ll work in here. Kiz and Janis, you two take the file room.”
    “And what?” Chastain said. “Me and Del get the secretary’s desk?”
    “Yeah. While you’re going through it, see if you can come up with her name and the name of the intern or clerk. We’ll need to talk to them today.”
    Chastain nodded but Bosch could see he was annoyed about getting the weakest assignment.
    “Tell you what,” Bosch added, “why don’t you go out first and see if you can find some boxes. We’re going to be taking a lot of files out of here.”
    Chastain left the office without a word. Bosch glanced at Rider and saw her give him a look that told him he was acting like an asshole.
    “What?”
    “Nothing. I’ll be in the file room.”
    She left then, leaving just Langwiser and Bosch.
    “Everything okay, Detective?”
    “Everything’s