Echo Park

manner.
    “One of
our
responsibilities is the safety of the accused,” he said. “Maury makes a point. If Mr. Waits falls going down the ladder without being able to use his hands, then we’re responsible. And then we’ve got a problem. I am sure that with all of you people holding guns and shotguns, we can control this situation for the ten seconds it takes him to go down a ladder.”
    “I’ll go get the ladder,” said the forensic tech. “Can you hold this?”
    Her name was Carolyn Cafarelli and Bosch knew most people called her Cal. She handed the gas probe, a yellow T-shaped device, to Bosch and started back through the woods.
    “I’ll help her with it,” Rider said.
    “No,” Bosch said. “Everybody carrying a weapon stays with Waits.”
    Rider nodded, realizing he was right.
    “I can handle it,” Cafarelli called out. “It’s lightweight aluminum.”
    “I just hope she can find her way back,” O’Shea said after she was gone.
    For the first few minutes they waited in silence, then Waits spoke to Bosch.
    “Anxious, Detective?” he asked. “Now that we’re so close.”
    Bosch didn’t respond. He wasn’t going to let Waits get inside his head.
    Waits tried again.
    “I think about all the cases you have worked. How many are like this one? How many are like Marie? I bet she—”
    “Waits, shut the fuck up,” Olivas commanded.
    “Ray, please,” Swann said in a soothing voice.
    “Just making conversation with the detective.”
    “Well, make it with yourself,” Olivas said.
    The silence returned until a few minutes later, when they all heard the sound of Cafarelli carrying the ladder through the woods. She banged it a few times on low-level limbs but finally got it to their position. Bosch helped her slide it down the slope and they made sure it was steady on the steep incline. When he stood up and turned back to the group Bosch saw that Olivas was uncuffing one of Waits’s hands from the chain running around the prisoner’s waist. He left the other hand secured.
    “The other hand, Detective,” Swann said.
    “He can climb with one hand free,” Olivas insisted.
    “I am sorry, Detective, but I am not going to allow that. He has to be able to hold on and break a fall if he happens to slip. He needs both hands free.”
    “He can do it with one.”
    While the posturing and debate continued, Bosch swung himself onto the ladder and went down the slope backwards. The ladder was steady. At the bottom he looked around and realized that there was no discernible path. From this point the trail to Marie Gesto’s body was not as obvious as it had been above. He looked back up at the others and waited.
    “Freddy, just do it,” O’Shea instructed in an annoyed tone. “Deputy, you go down first and be ready with that shotgun in case Mr. Waits gets any ideas. Detective Rider, you have my permission to unholster your weapon. You stay up here with Freddy and be ready as well.”
    Bosch climbed back up a few steps on the ladder so the deputy could carefully hand him the shotgun. He then stepped back down and the uniformed man came down the ladder. Bosch gave him back the weapon and returned to the ladder.
    “Toss me the cuffs,” Bosch called up to Olivas.
    Bosch caught the cuffs and then took a position two rungs up on the ladder. Waits began to go down while the videographer stood at the edge and recorded his descent. When Waits was three rungs from the bottom Bosch reached up and grabbed the waist chain to guide him the rest of the way to the lower ground.
    “This is it, Ray,” he whispered in his ear from behind. “Your only chance. You sure you don’t want to make a run for it?”
    Safely at the bottom, Waits stepped off the ladder and turned to Bosch, holding his hands up for the cuffs. His eyes held on Bosch’s.
    “No, Detective, I think I like living too much.”
    “I thought so.”
    Bosch cuffed his hands to the waist chain and looked back up the slope at the others.
    “Okay, we’re secure.”
    One by one the others came down the ladder. Once they had regrouped at the bottom O’Shea looked around and saw that there was no longer a path. They could go in any direction.
    “Okay, which way?” he said to Waits.
    Waits turned in a half circle as if seeing the area for the first time.
    “Ummmm . . .”
    Olivas almost lost it.
    “You better not be pulling—”
    “That way,” Waits said coyly as he nodded to the right of the slope. “Lost my bearings there for a