The Black Box

Anneke Jespersen was dead and Bosch was chasing a hunch. He had no evidence of anything. He had a twenty-year-old coincidence and nothing else.
    Suddenly, a wave of mechanical sound and wind broke over him as a helicopter came in over the grove and hovered above. Bosch broke and ran back toward the grove, sliding down the embankment into the mud and water. He looked back and watched the helicopter—a black silhouette against the dark sky—maneuver into position over the landing pad. A spotlight on the craft’s underside came on and lit the targeted H onthe pad. Bosch ducked down lower and watched as the craft seemed to struggle against the wind to hold the line of its landing rails. As the helicopter slowly came down and gently met the pad, the light cut off and the high-pitched turbine was shut down.
    The rotors free spun for a while and then came to a halt. The pilot’s-side door opened and a figure climbed out. Bosch was at least a hundred feet away and could only see the shape of the person, whom he identified as a male. The pilot moved to the back door and opened it. Bosch expected another person to alight from the rear cabin, but it was a dog that leaped out. The pilot reached in for a backpack, closed the door, and started toward the house.
    The dog trotted behind the pilot for a few yards but then suddenly stopped and turned directly toward the spot where Bosch was hiding. It was a big dog, but it was too dark for Bosch to identify a breed. He heard it growl first and then it started running toward him.
    Bosch froze as the animal quickly covered the ground between them. He knew there was nowhere he could move. The mud was behind him. He wouldn’t make it two steps. He crouched lower and closer to the embankment, thinking that maybe the angry dog would jump over him and get mired in the mud.
    And he pulled his weapon off his belt. If the dog didn’t stop, Bosch would be ready to stop it.
    “Cosmo!”
    The man had shouted from the pathway to the house. The dog stopped in midstride, its hind legs sliding out from beneath as it struggled to respond to the command.
    “Get over here!”
    The dog looked back at Bosch, and for a moment Harry thought he saw its eyes glowing red. It then took off, heading back to its master. It was chastised anyway.
    “Bad boy! You don’t run off! And no barking!”
    The man clapped the dog on the haunch as it ran by him. The dog moved ahead on the path and then crouched into a pose of submission. A moment ago it was going to tear Bosch’s throat out. Now Bosch felt sorry for it.
    Harry waited until the man and his dog were inside the château before he headed back into the grove, hoping he would not get lost on the way back to his car.
    Bosch got back to the Blu-Lite Motel by eleven. He went straight into the bathroom and stripped off his wet and muddy clothes, throwing them into the bathtub. He was about to step into the tub and turn on the shower when he heard his phone buzzing—he had turned the ringer setting down after the incident at the Steers.
    He walked out of the bathroom with a towel as stiff as cardboard wrapped around his waist. The caller ID was blocked. Bosch sat down on the bed and took the call.
    “Bosch.”
    “Harry, it’s me. Are you all right?”
    Chu.
    “I’m fine. Why?”
    “’Cause I haven’t heard from you and you didn’t respond to my emails.”
    “I’ve been on the road all day and haven’t looked at email. I just got to the motel and am not sure about the Wi-Fi yet.”
    “Harry, you get email on your phone.”
    “Yeah, I know, but it’s a pain with the password and all of that. It’s too small and I don’t like doing that. I text.”
    “Whatever. You want me to tell you what I sent?”
    Bosch was dead tired. The exhaustion of the day and the slog back and forth through the almond grove had set into his bones. The muscles in his thighs ached from what felt like ten thousand steps through the sucking mud. He wanted to take a shower and go to sleep, but he told Chu to go ahead.
    “Basically two things,” his partner said. “First, I made a pretty solid connection between two of the names on the list you gave me.”
    Bosch looked around for his notebook and realized he had left it in the car. He couldn’t go out for it now.
    “Go ahead, what?”
    “Well, you know how Drummond is running for Congress?”
    “Yeah, I saw one sign today but nothing else.”
    “That’s because the election is next year. So it’s not going to