Echo Park

wealthy oil baron from Hancock Park. O’Shea was in a highly contested election battle, and money was the gasoline that kept a campaign engine running. It was not inconceivable that a quiet approach had been made to T. Rex, a deal struck and a plan enacted. O’Shea gets the money he needs to win the election, Olivas gets the head investigator nod in O’Shea’s office and Waits takes the fall for Gesto while Garland takes a ride on it.
    It was said that L.A. was a sunny place for shady people. Bosch knew that better than most. He had no hesitation in believing Olivas had been part of such a scheme. And the thought of O’Shea, a career prosecutor, selling his soul for a shot at the top slot didn’t give him pause for very long either.
    “Run, you coward! How’s your bullshit deal looking now?”
    He opened his phone and called Keisha Russell at the
Times.
After several rings he checked his watch and saw it was a few minutes after five. He realized she was probably on deadline and ignoring her calls. He left a message at the prompt, asking her to call back.
    Since it was so late in the day Bosch decided he had earned a beer. He went to the kitchen and got an Anchor Steam out of the box. He was happy he had gone high end the last time he bought beer. He took the bottle out on the deck and watched as the heart of rush hour gripped the freeway below. The traffic slowed to a crawl and the incessant sound of car horns of every variety began. It was just far enough away to be less than intrusive. Bosch was glad he was not down there in the fight.
    His phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket. It was Keisha Russell calling back.
    “Sorry, I was going over tomorrow’s story with the copyeditor.”
    “I hope you spelled my name right.”
    “Actually, you’re not in this one, Harry. Surprise.”
    “Glad to hear it.”
    “What can you do for me?”
    “Uh, I was actually going to ask you to do something for me.”
    “Of course you were. What could it be?”
    “You’re a political reporter now, right? Does that mean you look at campaign contributions?”
    “I do. I review every filing by every one of my candidates. Why?”
    He walked back inside and muted the stereo.
    “This is off the record, Keisha. I’d like to know who has been supporting Rick O’Shea’s campaign.”
    “O’Shea? Why?”
    “I’ll tell you when I can tell you. I just need the information right now.”
    “Why do you always do this to me, Harry?”
    It was true. They had danced like this many times in the past. But their history was that Bosch was always true to his word when he said he would tell her when he could tell her. He hadn’t double-crossed her once. And so her protests were banter, a mere prequel to her doing what Bosch wanted her to do. That was part of the dance as well.
    “You know why,” he said, playing his part. “Just help me out and there will be something for you when the time is right.”
    “Someday I want to decide when the time is right. Hold on.”
    She clicked off and was gone for almost a minute. As he waited Bosch stood over the spread of documents on the dining room table. He knew that he was spinning his wheels with this angle on O’Shea and Garland. They could not be touched at the moment. They were guarded by money and the law and the rules of evidence. Bosch knew the correct angle of investigation was to go at Raynard Waits. His job was to find him and break open the case.
    “Okay,” Russell said after getting back on the line. “I have the most up-to-date filing. What do you want to know?”
    “How up-to-date is up-to-date?”
    “This was filed last week. Friday.”
    “Who are his main contributors?”
    “There’s nobody who is really big, if that is what you mean. He’s mostly running a grassroots campaign. Most of his contributors are fellow lawyers. Almost all of them.”
    Bosch thought of the Century City law firm that handled things for the Garland family and had gotten the court orders preventing Bosch from questioning Anthony Garland about Marie Gesto without an attorney present. The head of the firm was Cecil Dobbs.
    “Is one of those lawyers Cecil Dobbs?”
    “Um . . . yes, C. C. Dobbs, Century City address. He gave a thousand.”
    Bosch remembered the lawyer in his collection of videotaped interviews with Anthony Garland.
    “What about Dennis Franks?”
    “Franks, yes. A lot of people from that firm contributed.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, according to