Echo Park

part of this and my wife doesn’t need to know about her,” Pratt said.
    It was an opening offer. Pratt was going to talk. Bosch kicked his foot on the tile edging and turned back to face him.
    “I’m not a prosecutor but I’ll bet something could be worked out.”
    “Pratt, you are making a big mistake!” Swann said urgently.
    Bosch reached down to Pratt and patted his pockets until he located the keys to the Commander and pulled them out.
    “Rachel, take Mr. Swann to Detective Pratt’s car. It will be better for transporting him. We’ll be right there.”
    He threw her the keys and she started walking Swann to the opening in the hedge she had come through. Swann had to be pushed. He looked over his shoulder as he went and called back to Pratt.
    “Do not talk to that man,” he yelled. “Do you hear me? Do not talk to anyone! You will talk us all into prison!”
    Swann kept yelling legal advice through the hedge. Bosch waited until he heard the car door close on his voice. He then stood in front of Pratt and noticed that sweat was dripping from his hairline and down his face.
    “I don’t want Jessie or my family involved,” Pratt said. “And I want a deal. No jail time, I’m allowed to retire
and
I get to keep my pension.”
    “You want a lot for somebody who got two people killed.”
    Bosch started to pace, trying to figure out a way of making it all work for both of them. Rachel came back through the hedge. Bosch looked at her and was about to ask why she had left Swann unattended.
    “Child-proof locks,” she said. “He can’t get out.”
    Bosch nodded and gave his attention back to Pratt.
    “Like I said, you want a lot,” he said. “What are you giving back?”
    “I can give you the Garlands, easy,” Pratt said desperately. “Anthony took me up there two weeks ago and led me to the girl’s body. And Maury Swann, I can give you him on a platter. The guy’s as dirty as . . .”
    He didn’t finish.
    “You?”
    Pratt lowered his eyes and slowly nodded his head.
    Bosch tried to put everything aside so that he could think clearly about Pratt’s offer. The blood of Freddy Olivas and Deputy Doolan was on Pratt’s hands. Bosch didn’t know whether he’d be able to sell the deal to a prosecutor. He didn’t know if he could even sell it to himself. But in that moment, he was willing to try if it meant he would finally get to the man who killed Marie Gesto.
    “No promises,” he said. “We’ll go see a prosecutor.”
    Bosch moved to the last important question.
    “What about O’Shea and Olivas?”
    Pratt shook his head once.
    “They were clean on this.”
    “Garland funneled at least twenty-five grand to O’Shea’s campaign. That’s documented.”
    “He was just covering his bets. If O’Shea got suspicious, T. Rex could keep him in line because it would look like a payoff.”
    Bosch nodded. He felt the burn of humiliation over what he had thought about O’Shea and said to him.
    “That wasn’t the only thing you got wrong,” Pratt said.
    “Yeah, what else?”
    “You said I went to the Garlands with this thing. I didn’t. They came to me, Harry.”
    Bosch shook his head. He didn’t believe Pratt for the simple reason that if the Garlands had had the idea to buy off a cop, their first overture would have been to the source of their problem: Bosch. That never happened and that made Bosch feel confident that the scheme had been hatched by Pratt as he tried to juggle retirement, a possible divorce, a mistress and whatever other secrets his life held. He had gone to the Garlands with it. He had gone to Maury Swann, too.
    “Tell it to the prosecutor,” Bosch said. “Maybe he’ll care.”
    He looked at Rachel and she nodded.
    “Rachel, you take the Jeep with Swann. I’ll take Detective Pratt in my car. I want to keep them separated.”
    “Good idea.”
    Bosch signaled Pratt up.
    “Let’s go.”
    Pratt stood up again and came face-to-face with Bosch.
    “Harry, you’ve got to know something first.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Nobody was supposed to get hurt, okay? It was a perfect plan with nobody getting hurt. It was Waits—he turned it all to shit out there in the woods. If he had just done what he’d been told, everybody would still be alive and everybody’d be happy. Even you. You would’ve solved the Gesto case. End of story. That’s how it was supposed to be.”
    Bosch had to work to hold back his anger.
    “Nice fairy tale,” he said. “Except for the