Lost Light

my films than he was in the real case, Angie. Whatever happened to them?”
    “One’s dead and one’s retired.”
    Dorsey and Cross. I had known them both. Taylor ’s description aside, both had been capable investigators. You didn’t get to RHD by coasting. What I didn’t tell Taylor was that Jack Dorsey and Lawton Cross became known in Detective Services as the partners who had the ultimate bad luck. While working an investigation they drew several months after the Angella Benton case, they stopped into a bar in Hollywood to grab lunch and a booster shot. They were sitting in a booth with their ham sandwiches and Bushmills when the place was hit by an armed robber. It was believed that Dorsey, who was sitting facing the door, made a move from the booth but was too slow. The gunman cut him down before he got the safety off his gun and he was dead before he hit the floor. A round fired at Cross creased his skull and a second hit him in the neck and lodged in his spine. The bartender was executed last at point-blank range.
    “And then what happened to the case?” Taylor asked rhetorically, not an ounce of sympathy in his voice for the fallen cops. “Not a damn thing happened. I guarantee it’s been gathering dust like that cheap suit you pulled out of the closet before coming to see me.”
    I took the insult because I had to. I just nodded as if I agreed with him. I couldn’t tell if his anger was for the never avenged murder of Angella Benton or for what happened after, the robbery and the next murder and the shutting down of his film.
    “It was worked by those guys full-time for six months,” I said. “After that there were other cases. The cases keep coming, Mr. Taylor. It’s not like in your movies. I wish it was.”
    “Yes, there are always other cases,” Taylor said. “That’s always the easy out, isn’t it? Blame it on the workload. Meantime, the kid is still dead, the money’s still gone and that’s too bad. Next case. Step right up.”
    I waited to make sure he was finished. He wasn’t.
    “But now it’s four years later and you show up. What’s your story, Bosch? You con her family into hiring you? Is that it?”
    “No. All of her family was in Ohio. I haven’t contacted them.”
    “Then what is it?”
    “It’s unsolved, Mr. Taylor. And I still care about it. I don’t think it is being worked with any kind of… dedication.”
    “And that’s it?”
    I nodded. Then Taylor nodded to himself.
    “Fifty grand,” he said.
    “Excuse me?”
    “I’ll pay you fifty grand-if you solve the thing. There’s no movie if you don’t solve it.”
    “Mr. Taylor, you somehow have the wrong impression. I don’t want your money and this is no movie. All I want right now is your help.”
    “Listen to me. I know a good story when I hear it. Detective haunted by the one that got away. It’s a universal theme, tried and true. Fifty up front, we can talk about the back end.”
    I gathered the notebook and pen from the bench and stood up. This wasn’t going anywhere, or at least not in the direction I wanted.
    “Thanks for your time, Mr. Taylor. If I can’t find my way out I’ll send up a flare.”
    As I took my first step toward the door a second chime came from the exercise bike. Taylor spoke to my back.
    “Home stretch, Bosch. Come back and ask me your questions. And I’ll keep my fifty grand if you don’t want it.”
    I turned back to him but kept standing. I opened the notebook again.
    “Let’s start with the robbery,” I said. “Who from your company knew about the two million dollars? I’m talking about who knew the specifics-when it was coming in for the shoot and how it was going to be delivered. Anything and anybody you can remember. I’m starting this from scratch.”

2
    Angella Benton died on her twenty-fourth birthday. Her body was found crumpled on the Spanish tile in the vestibule of the apartment building where she lived on Fountain near La Brea. Her key was in her mailbox. Inside the mailbox were two birthday cards mailed separately from Columbus by her mother and father. It turned out they were not divorced. They each just wanted to write their own birthday wishes to their only daughter.
    Benton had been strangled. Before or after death, but most likely after, her blouse had been torn open and her bra jerked up to expose her breasts. Her killer then apparently masturbated over the corpse, producing a small amount of ejaculate that was later collected by