The Black Box

wasn’t happy about him pushing the question aside.
    “Come on, don’t be upset.”
    “I’m not.”
    “I know you are.”
    “I just want it to be clear that I’m not in your life to be a babysitter.”
    Bosch shook his head. The conversation was getting out of hand. He smiled reflexively. He always did that when he felt cornered.
    “Look, I simply asked if you could do me this favor. If you don’t want to do it or if doing it is going to have all of this bad feeling attached to it, then we—”
    “I told you I wasn’t upset. Can we just drop it for now?”
    Bosch reached for his glass and took a long drink of wine, draining it. He then reached for the bottle so he could pour some more.
    “Sure,” he said.

24
    B osch split Saturday between work and family. He had persuaded Chu to meet him in the squad room in the morning so they could work without the scrutiny of Lieutenant O’Toole and others in the unit. Not only was OU dead, but both wings of the vast Robbery-Homicide Division squad room were completely abandoned. With paid overtime a thing of the past, the only time there was activity in the elite detective squads on a weekend was when there was a breaking case. It was lucky for Bosch and Chu that there was no such case. They were left alone and undisturbed in their cubicle to do their work.
    Once he finished grumbling about giving up half a Saturday for no pay, Chu dug in on the computer and conducted a third- and fourth-layer search on the men of the 237th Transportation Company of the California National Guard.
    While Bosch had ratcheted down his focus on the four men in the photograph on the Saudi Princess and on the fifth man, who had taken the photograph, he knew that a thorough investigation required that they check every name they had come up with in regard to the 237th, especially those who hadalso been on the cruise ship either at or around the same time as Anneke Jespersen.
    If nothing else, Bosch knew the exercise could pay dividends if a prosecution should arise from the case. Defense attorneys were always quick to claim the police had put on blinders and focused only on their clients while the true culprit slipped away. By widening their scope and thoroughly looking at all known members of the 237th in 1991 and 1992, Bosch was undercutting the tunnel-vision defense before it had even been put forth.
    While Chu worked his computer, Bosch did the same, printing out everything they had accumulated on the five men in the main focus. All told, there were twenty-six pages of information, more than two-thirds of which were dedicated to Sheriff J.J. Drummond and Carl Cosgrove, the two who were powerful in Central Valley business, politics, and law enforcement.
    Bosch next printed out maps of the Central Valley locations he intended to visit in the week ahead. These also allowed him to see the geographical relationships between the places where the five men worked and lived. It was all part of a travel package that was routine to put together before making a case trip.
    While Bosch worked, he received an email from Henrik Jespersen. He had finally gotten to his storage room and found the details of his sister’s travel in the last months of her life. The information merely confirmed much of what he had told Bosch about Anneke’s trip to the United States. It also confirmed her short trip to Stuttgart.
    According to Henrik’s records, his sister had spent only two nights in Germany in the last week of March 1992, staying ata hotel called the Schwabian Inn, located outside Patch Barracks at the U.S. Army Garrison. Henrik could offer nothing further about her purpose there, but Bosch was able to confirm through his own Internet search that Patch Barracks was where the army’s Criminal Investigation Division was located. He also determined that the Stuttgart CID office handled all investigations of alleged war crimes pertaining to Desert Storm.
    It seemed obvious to Bosch that Anneke Jespersen had made inquiries at Stuttgart about an alleged crime committed during Desert Storm. Whether what she learned there led her to the United States was unclear. Bosch knew from experience that even his status as a law enforcement officer did little to earn cooperation with the army CID. It seemed to him that a foreign journalist would face an even greater challenge in getting information on a crime that was most likely still under investigation at the time she asked about it.
    By noon Bosch had his travel