Angels Flight

the good and the bad. It’s day of the locusts.”
    “Well, aren’t you the well-read detective, Detective Bosch.”
    “Not really. I once lived with a woman who taught junior lit at Grant High in the Valley. It was one of the books she taught. I read it then. Anyway, the image that sticks with me from ’ninety-two is Frederick’s of Hollywood.”
    “The lingerie place?”
    Bosch nodded.
    “I pulled up there and the place was swarming. Multiracial, multiage, people who had just lost it. They cleaned that place out in about fifteen minutes. I mean, everything. When they were done I walked in there and there was nothing left. They even stole the manikins. Absolutely nothing but the hangers left on the floor and the chrome display racks… and the thing is, all it had been was underwear. Four cops get off for beating the shit out of Rodney King on video and people respond by going nuts and stealing underwear. It was so surreal that that’s what comes into my head when people bring up the riots. I remember walking around in that empty store.”
    “It didn’t matter what they took. They were acting out frustrations. It’s like the Thigh-Masters. That father and son didn’t care what they took. The important thing was that they took something, that in some way they made a statement. They had no use for those things but by taking them they were showing The Man. That’s the lesson the father taught his son.”
    “It still doesn’t make – ”
    Bosch’s phone rang and he opened it. It was Eleanor.
    “You winning?” he asked.
    He said it with a happy inflection and then immediately realized he had said it in such a way so that his passenger might not surmise what was really going on with his marriage. At once he felt embarrassed and guilty that he would even let what Entrenkin thought or interpreted enter into his relationship with Eleanor.
    “Not yet. I just got here.”
    “Eleanor, I want you to go home.”
    “Harry, we’re not going to talk about this now. I – ”
    “No, I’m not talking about all of that. I think the city… have you watched the news?”
    “No. I’ve been coming here.”
    “Well, it doesn’t look good. The media’s lighting the match, Eleanor. And if something happens and the city goes, you’re not in a good place to be.”
    Bosch took a furtive glance at Entrenkin. He knew he was acting out white paranoia in front of her. Hollywood Park was in Inglewood, a primarily black community. He wanted Eleanor back at their home in the hills where it was safe.
    “Harry, I think you’re being paranoid. I’ll be fine.”
    “Eleanor, why take the – ”
    “Harry, I have to go. They’re holding my chair. I’ll call you later.”
    She hung up then and Bosch said good-bye to a dead line. He dropped the phone onto his lap.
    “For what it’s worth,” Entrenkin said, “I think you’re being paranoid.”
    “That’s what she said.”
    “I’ll tell you right now there are as many blacks as whites, maybe even more, who don’t want to see it happen again. Give them the benefit of the doubt, Detective.”
    “I guess I don’t have a choice.”
    The Hollywood station seemed deserted when Bosch and Entrenkin arrived. There were no patrol cars in the rear lot and when they came through the back door the rear hallway, usually abuzz with activity, was empty. Bosch stuck his head through the open door of the watch office and saw a lone sergeant at a desk. A television mounted on the wall was on. There were no flames on the screen. It showed a news anchor in a studio. The graphic hanging over his shoulder was a photo of Howard Elias. The volume was too low for Bosch to hear what was being said.
    “How we doing?” Bosch said to the sergeant.
    “Hanging in. For now.”
    Bosch knocked twice on the door and headed down the hallway to the detective bureau, Entrenkin following. Rider and Edgar were already there. They had rolled the television out of the lieutenant’s office and were watching the same news report. They saw Bosch and Entrenkin and the surprise registered on their faces.
    Bosch introduced Entrenkin to Edgar, who had not been in Elias’s office that morning. He then asked what the latest news was.
    “The city’s holding tight, it looks like,” Edgar said. “Couple fires and that’s it. Meantime, they’re pretty much making Elias into Saint Howard. Not much said about what an opportunistic asshole he was.”
    Bosch glanced at Entrenkin. She showed nothing.
    “Well,