Angels Flight

computer then downloaded an audio program and started playing it. A dark and heavy voice came from the computer’s speaker.
    “This is Mistress Regina. If you come to me I will find the secret of your soul. Together, we will reveal the true subservience through which you will know your rightful identity and attain the release you can find nowhere else. I will mold you into my own. I will own you. I am waiting. Call me now.”
    They were all silent for a long moment. Bosch looked at Chastain.
    “Does it sound like her?”
    “Like who?”
    “The woman on tape at the apartment.”
    Chastain suddenly realized the possibility and was silent as he thought about this.
    “What tape?” Rider asked.
    “Can you play it again?” Bosch asked.
    Rider clicked the audio button again and asked about the tape once more. Bosch waited until the replay was over.
    “A woman left a message on the phone at Elias’s apartment. It wasn’t his wife. But I don’t think it was this voice either.”
    He looked at Chastain once more.
    “I don’t know,” Chastain said. “Could be. We’ll be able to do a comparison in the lab if we need to.”
    Bosch hesitated, studying Chastain for any indication that he knew the phone message had been erased. He saw nothing.
    “What?” Chastain said, uneasy under Bosch’s stare.
    “Nothing,” Bosch said.
    He turned back and looked at the computer screen.
    “You said this was part of a larger web site,” he said to Rider. “Can we look at that?”
    Rider didn’t answer. She just went to work on the keyboard. In a few moments the screen changed and they were looking at a graphic which showed a woman’s stocking-clad leg bent at the knee and reaching across the screen. Below this it said:
    WELCOME TO GIRLAWHIRL, a directory of intimate, sensual and erotic services in Southern California
    Below this was a table of contents by which the user could choose listings of women offering a variety of services, from sensual massage to evening escort to female domination. Rider clicked the mouse on this last offering and a new screen was revealed featuring boxes with the names of mistresses followed by an area code prefix.
    “It’s a goddamn Internet whorehouse,” Chastain said. Bosch and Rider said nothing. Rider moved the arrow onto the box marked Mistress Regina.
    “This is your directory,” she said. “You choose which page you want and click.”
    She clicked the mouse and the Regina page appeared again.
    “He chose her,” Rider said.
    “A white woman,” Chastain said. There was glee in his voice. “Golden blessings from a white woman. I bet they aren’t going to be too pleased about that on the South Side, either.”
    Rider turned around and looked sharply at Chastain. She was about to say something when her eyes widened and looked past the IAD detective. Bosch noticed this and turned. Standing in the doorway of the office was Janis Langwiser. Next to her was a woman Bosch recognized from her newspaper photos and television appearances. She was an attractive woman with the smooth coffee-and-cream skin of mixed races.
    “Wait a minute,” Bosch said to Langwiser. “This is a crime investigation. She can’t come in here and – ”
    “Yes, Detective Bosch, she can,” Langwiser said. “Judge Houghton just appointed her special master on the case. She’ll be reviewing the files for us.”
    With that the woman Bosch recognized stepped fully into the room, smiled, but not warmly, and held her hand out to him in order to shake his.
    “Detective Bosch,” she said. “It’s good to meet you. I hope we will be able to work together on this. I’m Carla Entrenkin.”
    She waited a beat but no one responded. She continued.
    “Now the first thing I am going to need is for you and all of your people to vacate these premises.”

Chapter 12
    OUTSIDE the front doors of the Bradbury the detectives walked empty-handed to their cars. Bosch was still angry but was cooler now. He walked slowly, allowing Chastain and Dellacroce to get to their car first. As he watched them drive off on their way back up Bunker Hill to California Plaza he opened the passenger door of Kiz’s slickback but didn’t get in. He bent down and looked in at her as she pulled the seat belt across her lap.
    “You go on up, Kiz. I’ll meet you up there.”
    “You’re going to walk it?”
    Bosch nodded and looked at his watch. It was eight-thirty.
    “I’ll take Angels Flight. It should be running again. When you get