The Black Echo

away in the trunk of his car, he watched Sakai and Osito slide the body roughly onto a stretcher and then into the back of a blue van. He started over, thinking about what would be the best way to get the autopsy done as a priority, meaning by at least the next day instead of four or five days later. He caught up with the coroner’s tech as he was opening the driver’s door.
    “We’re outta here, Bosch.”
    Bosch put his hand on the door, holding it from opening enough for Sakai to climb in.
    “Who’s doing the cutting today?”
    “On this one? Nobody.”
    “Come on, Sakai. Who’s on?”
    “Sally. But he’s not going near this one, Bosch.”
    “Look, I just went through this with my partner. Not you, too, okay?”
    “Bosch, you look. You listen. I’ve been working since six last night and this is the seventh scene I’ve been to. We got drive-bys, floaters, a sex case. People are dying to meet us, Bosch. There is no rest for the weary, and that means no time for what you think might be a case. Listen to your partner for once. This one is going on the routine schedule. That means we’ll get to it by Wednesday, maybe Thursday. I promise Friday at the latest. And tox results is at least a ten-day wait, anyway. You know that. So what’s your goddam hurry?”
    “Are. Tox results
are
at least a ten-day wait.”
    “Fuck off.”
    “Just tell Sally I need the prelim done today. I’ll be by later.”
    “Christ, Bosch, listen to what I’m telling you. We’ve got bodies on gurneys stacked in the hall that we already know are one eighty-sevens and need to be cut. Salazar is not going to have time for what looks to me and everybody else around here except you like a hype case. Cut and dried, man. What am I going to say to him that’s going to make him do the cut today?”
    “Show him the finger. Tell him there were no tracks in the pipe. Think of something. Tell him the DB was a guy who knew needles too well to’ve OD’d.”
    Sakai put his head back against the van’s side panel and laughed loudly. Then he shook his head as if a child had made a joke.
    “And you know what he’ll say to me? He’ll say that it doesn’t matter how long he’d been spiking. They all fuck up. Bosch, how many sixty-five-year-old junkies do you see around? None of them go the distance. The needle gets them all in the end. Just like this guy in the pipe.”
    Bosch turned and looked around to make sure none of the uniforms were watching and listening. Then he turned back to Sakai’s face.
    “Just tell him I’ll be by there later,” he said quietly. “If he doesn’t find anything on the prelim, then fine, you can stick the body at the end of the line in the hall, or you can park it down at the gas station on Lankershim. I won’t care then, Larry. But you tell him. It’s his decision, not yours.”
    Bosch dropped his hand from the door and stepped back. Sakai got in the van and slammed the door. He started the engine and looked at Bosch through the window for a long moment before rolling it down.
    “Bosch, you’re a pain in the ass. Tomorrow morning. It’s the best I can do. Today is no way.”
    “First cut of the day?”
    “Just leave us alone today, okay?”
    “First cut?”
    “Yeah. Yeah. First cut.”
    “Sure, I’ll leave you alone. See you tomorrow, then.”
    “Not me, man. I’ll be sleeping.”
    Sakai rolled the window back up and the van moved away. Bosch stepped back to let it pass, and when it was gone he was left staring at the pipe. It was really for the first time then that he noticed the graffiti. Not that he hadn’t seen that the exterior of the pipe was literally covered with painted messages, but this time he looked at the individual scrawls. Many were old, faded together-a tableau of letters spelling threats either long forgotten or since made good. There were slogans: Abandon LA. There were names: Ozone, Bomber, Stryker, many others. One of the fresher tags caught his eye. It was just three letters, about twelve feet from the end of the pipe-
Sha.
The three letters had been painted in one fluid motion. The top of the S was jagged and then contoured, giving the impression of a mouth. A gaping maw. There were no teeth but Bosch could sense them. It was as though the work wasn’t completed. Still, it was good work, original and clean. He aimed the Polaroid at it and took a photo.
    Bosch walked to the police van, putting the exposure in his pocket. Donovan was stowing his equipment on shelves