Echo Park

be making a decision about whether to draw or not. Bosch moved in behind him and yanked the gun out of his pants.
    “Harry!” Rachel called. “I’ve got him. Get the lawyer.”
    Swann was sinking. The blue pole was going down with him. Bosch quickly went to the pool’s edge and grabbed it. He pulled Swann to the surface. The lawyer started coughing and spitting water. He held tight to the pole and Bosch walked him down to the shallow end. Rachel came around to Pratt and ordered him to put his wrists behind his head.
    Maury Swann was naked. He came up the steps in the shallow end cupping his shriveled balls with one hand and trying to pull his toupee back on with the other. Giving up on the hairpiece, he tore it all the way off and threw it down on the tile, where it landed with a splat. He went directly to a pile of clothes by a bench and started getting dressed while still soaking wet.
    “So what was going on here, Maury?” Bosch asked.
    “Nothing that concerns you.”
    Bosch nodded.
    “I get it. A guy comes here to put you in the pool and watch you drown, maybe make it look like suicide or an accident, and you don’t want anybody concerned about it.”
    “It was a disagreement, that’s all. He was scaring me, not drowning me.”
    “Does that mean you and he had an agreement before you then had this disagreement?”
    “I’m not answering that.”
    “Why was he scaring you?”
    “I don’t have to answer any of your questions.”
    “Then maybe we should back on out of here and leave you two to finish your disagreement. Maybe that would be the best thing to do here.”
    “Do what you want.”
    “You know what I think? I think that with your client Raynard Waits dead, there’s only one person who can link Detective Pratt to the Garlands. I think your partner over there was getting rid of that link because he was getting scared. You’d be at the bottom of that pool if we hadn’t happened by here.”
    “You can do
and
think what you want. But what I am telling you is that we had a disagreement. He happened by while I was taking my nightly swim and we disagreed about something.”
    “I thought you didn’t know how to swim, Maury. Isn’t that what you said?”
    “I’m finished talking to you, Detective. You can leave my property now.”
    “Not yet, Maury. Why don’t you finish getting dressed and join us at the deep end.”
    Bosch left him there as he struggled to get his wet legs into a pair of silk pants. At the other end of the pool Pratt was now handcuffed and sitting on a concrete bench.
    “I’m not saying anything until I talk to a lawyer,” he said.
    “Well, there’s one over there putting his clothes on,” Bosch said. “Maybe you can hire him.”
    “I’m not talking, Bosch,” Pratt repeated.
    “Good decision,” Swann called from the far end. “Rule number one: Never talk to the cops.”
    Bosch looked at Rachel and almost laughed.
    “Can you believe this? Two minutes ago he was trying to drown the guy, and now the guy’s giving him free legal advice.”
    “
Sound
legal advice,” Swann said.
    Swann walked over to where the others were waiting. Bosch noticed that his clothes were sticking to his wet body.
    “I wasn’t trying to drown him,” Pratt said. “I was trying to help him. But that’s all I’m going to say.”
    Bosch looked at Swann.
    “Pull your zipper up, Maury, and sit down over here.”
    Bosch pointed to a spot on the bench next to Pratt.
    “No, I don’t think I will,” Swann replied.
    He took a step toward the house but Bosch took two steps and cut him off. He redirected him to the bench.
    “Sit down,” he said. “You’re under arrest.”
    “For
what?
” Swann said indignantly.
    “Double murder. Both of you are under arrest.”
    Swann laughed as though he were dealing with a child. Now that he had his clothes on he was recovering some of his swagger.
    “And what murders would these be?”
    “Detective Fred Olivas and Deputy Derek Doolan.”
    Now Swann shook his head, the smile intact on his face.
    “I’m assuming these charges fall under the felony-homicide rule, since there is ample evidence that we did not actually pull the trigger that fired the bullets that killed Olivas and Doolan.”
    “It’s always good to deal with a lawyer. I hate having to explain the law all the time.”
    “It’s a pity you need the law explained to
you,
Detective Bosch. The felony-homicide rule comes into play only when someone is killed during the