Echo Park

machine. Why would the future district attorney of Los Angeles County put himself in that position?”
    The waiter brought back the credit card and the final bill. Bosch added a tip and signed it. It had to be the most expensive lunch he had never eaten.
    He looked up at Rachel when he was finished scribbling his name.
    “Good question, Rachel. I don’t know the exact answer to it but I assume O’Shea or Olivas or somebody had a plan for an endgame. And maybe that’s why Waits decided to run.”
    She frowned.
    “You can’t be talked out of this, can you?”
    “Not yet.”
    “Well, good luck. I think you are going to need it.”
    “Thanks, Rachel.”
    He stood up and so did she.
    “Did you valet?” she asked.
    “No, I’m over in the library garage.”
    It meant they would leave the restaurant by different doors.
    “Will I see you tonight?” he asked.
    “If I’m not held up. There’s word of a case coming our way from Washington headquarters. How about if I call you?”
    He said that was fine and walked with her to the door that led to the garage where the valets waited. He hugged her there and said good-bye.

23

    ON THE WAY OUT of downtown Bosch took Hill Street up to Caesar Chavez and turned left. It soon became Sunset Boulevard and he drove it through Echo Park. He wasn’t expecting to see Raynard Waits crossing at the light or coming out of a
medicina
clinic or one of the
migra
offices that lined the street. But Bosch was running way out on his instincts on this case and they told him Echo Park was still in play. The more he drove through, the more he would get a feel for the neighborhood and the better he would be at his search. Instincts or not, he was sure of one thing. Waits had originally been arrested while on his way to a specific destination in Echo Park. Bosch was going to find it.
    He pulled into a no-parking zone near Quintero Street and walked up to the Pescado Mojado grill. He ordered
camarones a la diabla
and showed the booking photo of Waits to the man who took his order and to the patrons waiting in line. He got the usual shake of the head from each customer, and the Spanish conversation among them died off. Bosch took his shrimp plate to a table and finished his food quickly.
    From Echo Park he drove home to change from his suit into jeans and a pullover shirt. Then he drove over to Beachwood Canyon and made his way to the top of the hill. The parking clearing below Sunset Ranch was empty and Bosch wondered if all the activity and media attention from the day before had kept riders away. He got out of his car and went to its trunk. He pulled out a coiled thirty-foot length of rope and headed into the brush on the same path he had taken behind Waits the day before.
    He was only a few steps down the path when his cell phone started vibrating. He stopped, dug the phone out of his blue jeans and saw on the screen that it was Jerry Edgar calling. Bosch had left him a message earlier while driving home.
    “How’s Kiz?”
    “Doing better. You ought to go visit her, man. Get over whatever it is you two need to get over and visit her. You didn’t even call yesterday.”
    “Don’t worry, I will. In fact, I was thinking about cutting out of here early and dropping by. You going to be there?”
    “I might. Give me a call when you’re going and I’ll try to meet you. Anyway, that’s not really why I called. There’s a couple things I wanted to tell you. First, they got a confirmation on the ID at the autopsy today. It was Marie Gesto.”
    Edgar was silent a moment before responding.
    “Have you talked to her parents?”
    “No, not yet. Dan’s got that job selling tractors. I was going to call up there tonight when he’s home and they’re together.”
    “That’s what I’d do. What else you got, Harry? I got a guy in a room here and I’m about to go in and break his ass down on a murder-rape we’re working.”
    “Sorry to interrupt. I thought you called me.”
    “I did, man, but I was calling you back real quick in case it was important.”
    “It is important. I thought you’d want to know, I think that line that was found in the fifty-ones on this case was phonied. I think when it all shakes out we’ll be clear on it.”
    This time there was no hesitation in his old partner’s response.
    “What are you saying, Waits never called us back then?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Then how’d that entry get in the chrono?”
    “Somebody added it. Recently. Somebody trying