The Black Box

himself chafing at the collar whenever O’Toole approached.
    Added to that, he was clearly a numbers cruncher. He wanted to close cases for the sake of the monthly and yearly reports that he sent up to the tenth floor. It had nothing to do with bringing justice to murder victims long since forgotten. So far, it appeared that O’Toole had no feel for the human content of the job. He had already reprimandedBosch for spending an afternoon with the son of a murder victim who wanted to be walked through the crime scene twenty-two years after his father had been killed. The lieutenant had said the victim’s son could have found the crime scene on his own and Bosch could have used the half day to work on cases.
    The lieutenant suddenly pirouetted and came back toward the cubicle. Bosch wondered if he had seen the sarcastic salute in the reflection of one of the office windows.
    “Harry, a couple other things. First, don’t forget to get your expenses in on the trip. They’re really on my ass about timely filing of that stuff and I want to make sure you get anything back that you took out of your own pocket.”
    Bosch thought about the money he deposited in the canteen account of the second inmate he had visited.
    “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “There’s nothing. I stopped for a hamburger at the Balboa and that was it.”
    The Balboa Bar & Grill in San Francisco was a midway stop between SFO and SQ that was favored by homicide investigators from the LAPD.
    “You sure?” O’Toole asked. “I don’t want to shortchange you.”
    “I’m sure.”
    “Okay, then.”
    O’Toole began to walk away again when Bosch stopped him.
    “What was the other thing? You said a couple things.”
    “Oh, yeah. Happy birthday, Harry.”
    Bosch leaned his head back, surprised.
    “How’d you know?”
    “I know everybody’s birthday. Everybody who works for me.”
    Bosch nodded. He wished O’Toole had used the word with instead of for .
    “Thanks,” he said.
    O’Toole finally went away for good and Bosch was glad the squad room was empty and no one had heard that it was his birthday. At his age, that could start a volley of questions about retirement. It was a subject he tried to avoid.
    Left alone, Bosch first put together a time chart. He started with the Jespersen murder, placing it on May 1, 1992. Even though time of death was inconclusive and she could have been murdered in the late hours of April 30, he officially went with May 1 because that was the day Jespersen’s body was found and it was most likely when she was killed. From there he charted all the killings leading up to the final murder connected or possibly connected to the Beretta model 92. He also included the two other cases Gant had pulled files on and thought might be related.
    Bosch charted the killings on a blank piece of paper rather than on a computer as most of his colleagues would have done. Bosch was set in his ways and he wanted a document. He wanted to be able to hold it, study it, fold it up, and carry it in his pocket. He wanted to live with it.
    He left plenty of space around each entry so that he could add notes as he went. This was how he had always worked.
    May 1, 1992—Anneke Jespersen—67th and Crenshaw (killer unknown)
    Jan. 2, 1996—Walter Regis—63rd and Brynhurst (Rufus Coleman)
    Sept. 30, 2003—Eddie Vaughn—68th and East Park (killer unknown)
    June 18, 2004—Dante Sparks—11th Ave. and Hyde Park (killer unknown)
    July 8, 2007—Byron Beckles—Centinela Park/Stepney Street (killer unknown)
    Dec. 1, 2009—Trumont Story—W. 76th Street/Circle Park (killer unknown)
    The last three murders listed were the cases Gant had pulled files on where there was no ballistics evidence. Bosch studied the list and noticed the seven-year gap in known uses of the gun between the Regis and Vaughn cases and then referred to the criminal record he had pulled off the National Crime Information Center data bank on Trumont Story. It showed that Story had been in prison from 1997 to 2002 serving a five-year stretch on an aggravated battery conviction. If Story had left the gun in a hiding place that only he knew of, then the gap in use of the weapon was explained.
    Bosch next opened his Thomas Bros. map book and used a pencil to chart the murders on the grid work of the city. The first five murders all fit on one page of the thick map book, the killings occurring within the confines of Rolling 60s turf. The last case, the killing of Trumont