Echo Park

as a mantra a sentence that he believed would ultimately win the day for him, no matter what Randolph or Rachel or anyone else thought of his actions and procedures.
    “It was a life-or-death situation. A woman was in jeopardy and we had been fired upon. I felt that I could not wait around for backup or anybody else. I did what I had to do. I used as much caution as I could and used deadly force only when necessary.”
    Randolph moved on and focused many of the next questions on the actual shooting of Robert Foxworth. He asked Bosch what he was thinking when Foxworth revealed that Bosch had been set up to believe that the Gesto case was solved. He asked Bosch what he was thinking when he saw the remains of Foxworth’s victims positioned in the chamber at the end of the tunnel. He asked Bosch what he was thinking when he pulled the trigger and killed the defiler and murderer of those victims.
    Bosch patiently answered each question but finally hit his limit. Something was off-kilter about the interview. It was almost as if Randolph were working from a script.
    “What’s going on here?” Bosch asked. “I’m sitting here telling you people everything. What aren’t you telling me?”
    Randolph looked at Osani and then back at Bosch. He leaned forward, arms on the table. He had a habit of turning a gold ring on his left hand. Bosch had noticed him doing it last time. He knew it was a USC ring. Big deal. A lot of the department’s ruling class had gone through night school at USC .
    Randolph looked back at Osani and reached over to turn the tape recorder off but held his fingers on the buttons.
    “Detective Osani, could you go get us a couple bottles of water? All this talking and my voice is about to go. Probably the same with Detective Bosch, too. We’ll hold up until you get back.”
    Osani got up to leave and Randolph turned off the recorder. He didn’t speak until the interview room door was closed.
    “The thing is, Detective Bosch, we only have your word on what happened in that tunnel. The female was unconscious. There were only you and Foxworth, and he didn’t make it out alive.”
    “That’s right. Are you saying my word is not acceptable?”
    “I’m saying that your description of events might be perfectly acceptable. But the forensics might come in with an interpretation that varies from your statement. You see? It can get messy very quickly. Things can be left open to interpretation and misinterpretation. Public and political interpretation as well.”
    Bosch shook his head. He didn’t understand what was happening.
    “So what?” he said. “I don’t care what the public or politicians think. Waits pushed the action in that tunnel. It was clearly a kill-or-be-killed situation and I did what I had to do.”
    “But there is no witness to your description of events.”
    “What about Agent Walling?”
    “She didn’t go into the tunnel. She warned you not to go in.”
    “You know, there’s a woman over at County- USC who probably wouldn’t be alive right now if I hadn’t gone in. What is going on here, Lieutenant?”
    Randolph started playing with his ring again. He looked like a man with a distaste for what his duty called on him to do.
    “That’s probably enough for today. You’ve been through a lot. What we’re going to do is keep things open for a few days while we wait for the forensics to come in. You’ll continue on home duty. Once we have everything in order I’ll bring you in to read and sign your statement.”
    “I asked what’s going on, Lieutenant.”
    “And I told you what’s going on.”
    “You didn’t tell me enough.”
    Randolph took his hand away from his ring. It had the effect of underlining with importance what he would say next.
    “You rescued the hostage and brought a resolution to the case. That’s good. But you were reckless in your actions and got lucky. If we believe your story, then you shot a man who was threatening the lives of you and others. The facts and forensics, however, might just as easily lead to another interpretation, perhaps one that indicates the man you shot was attempting to surrender. So what we’re going to do is take our time with it. In a few days we’ll get it right. And then we’ll let you know.”
    Bosch studied him, knowing that he was delivering a message that was not so hidden in his words.
    “This is about Olivas, isn’t it? The funeral’s set for tomorrow, the chief is going to be there and you want to keep