City Of Bones

I hope so.”
    “Then here’s to redemption.”
    She picked up her glass for a toast.
    “Hold fast,” he said.
    She banged it off of his. Some of her beer sloshed into his almost empty glass.
    “Sorry. I need to practice that.”
    “It’s okay. I needed a refill.”
    He raised his glass and drained it. He put it back down and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
    “So are you coming home with me tonight?” he asked.
    She shook her head.
    “No, not with you.”
    He frowned and started to wonder if his directness had offended her.
    “I’m following you home tonight,” she said. “Remember? Can’t leave the car at the division. Everything’s got to be top secret, hush-hush, eyes only from now on.”
    He smiled. The beer and her smile were like magic on him.
    “You got me there.”
    “I hope in more ways than one.”

Chapter 29
    BOSCH came in late to the meeting in Lt. Billets’s office. Edgar was already there, a rarity, as well as Medina from Media Relations. Billets pointed him to a seat with a pencil she was holding, then picked up her phone and punched in a number.
    “This is Lieutenant Billets,” she said when her call was answered. “You can tell Chief Irving that we are all here now and ready to begin.”
    Bosch looked at Edgar and raised his eyebrows. The deputy chief was still keeping his hand directly in the case.
    Billets hung up and said, “He’s going to call back and I’ll put him on the speaker.”
    “To listen or to tell?” Bosch asked.
    “Who knows?”
    “While we’re waiting,” Medina said, “I’ve started getting a few calls about a BOLO you guys put out. A man named John Stokes? How do you want me to handle that? Is he a new suspect?”
    Bosch was annoyed. He knew the Be on the Lookout flier distributed at roll calls would eventually leak to the media. He didn’t anticipate it happening so quickly.
    “No, he’s not a suspect at all,” he said to Medina. “And if the reporters screw that up like they did Trent, we’ll never find him. He’s just somebody we want to talk to. He was an acquaintance of the victim. Many years ago.”
    “Then you have the victim’s ID?”
    Before Bosch could answer, the phone buzzed. Billets answered and put Deputy Chief Irving on the speaker.
    “Chief, we have Detectives Bosch and Edgar here, along with Officer Medina from Media Relations.”
    “Very good,” Irving’s voice boomed from the phone’s speaker. “Where are we at?”
    Billets started tapping a button on the phone to turn down the volume.
    “Uh, Harry, why don’t you take that?” she said.
    Bosch reached into his inside coat pocket and took out his notebook. He took his time about it. He liked the idea of Irving sitting behind his spotless glass desk in his office at Parker Center, waiting for voices over the phone. He opened the notebook to a page full of jottings he had made that morning while eating breakfast with Julia.
    “Detective, are you there?” Irving said.
    “Uh, yes, sir, I’m right here. I was just going through some notes here. Um, the main thing is we have made a positive identification of the victim. His name is Arthur Delacroix. He disappeared from his home in the Miracle Mile area on May fourth, nineteen eighty. He was twelve years old.”
    He stopped there, anticipating questions. He noticed that Medina was writing the name down.
    “I’m not sure we want to put that out yet,” Bosch said.
    “Why is that?” Irving asked. “Are you saying the identification is not positive?”
    “No, we’re positive on it, Chief. It’s just that if we put the name out, we might be telegraphing which way we’re moving here.”
    “Which is?”
    “Well, we are very confident that Nicholas Trent was clear on this. So we are looking elsewhere. The autopsy-the injuries to the bones-indicate chronic child abuse, dating to early childhood. The mother was out of the picture, so we are looking at the father now. We haven’t approached him yet. We’re gathering string. If we were to announce that we have an ID and the father saw it, we would be putting him on notice before we need to.”
    “If he buried the kid there, then he already is on notice.”
    “To a degree. But he knows if we can’t come up with a legit ID we’ll never link it to him. The lack of an ID is what keeps him safe. And it gives us time to look at him.”
    “Understood,” Irving said.
    They sat in silence for a few moments, Bosch expecting Irving to say something else. But