The Black Echo

turn Avery away and send the two uniforms home, they figure they know your game. They grab Avery at Darling’s and he tells them about your visit the day before, and all the alarms this week, and then he lets it slip that you didn’t want him to open the vault.”
    “And they said, ‘You mean you can open the vault?’ and the next thing is they are sneaking down the alley.”
    “Yeah. They had an idea about being heroes. Catching the bad cops and the robbers all at once. Nice plan until the payoff.”
    “Poor dumb jerks.”
    “Poor dumb jerks.”
    The silence came back then and Eleanor didn’t wait for it to settle.
    “Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing.”
    He nodded.
    “And… and to tell you-”
    Here it is, he thought, the kiss good-bye.
    “-I’ve decided to quit. I’m going to leave the bureau.”
    “What about… What will you do?”
    “I don’t know. But I’m going to leave here, Harry. I have some money so I’ll travel awhile and then see what I want to do.”
    “Eleanor, why?”
    “I don’t-it’s hard for me to explain. But everything that happened. Everything about the job has turned to shit. And I don’t think I can go back and work in that squad room again after what has happened.”
    “Will you come back to L.A.?”
    She looked down at her hands and then around the room again.
    “I don’t know. Harry, I’m sorry. It seemed like-I don’t know, I’m very confused about things right now.”
    “What things?”
    “I don’t know. Us. What’s happened. Everything.”
    Silence filled the room again and it seemed so loud that Bosch hoped a nurse or even Galvin Junior would stick a head in to see if everything was all right. He needed a cigarette badly. He realized it was the first time today that he had thought about smoking. Eleanor looked down at her feet now, and he looked over at his untouched food. He picked up the roll and started to toss it up and down in his hand like a baseball. After a while Eleanor’s eyes made their third trip around the room without seeing whatever it was she was looking for. Bosch couldn’t figure it out.
    “Didn’t you get the flowers I sent?”
    “Flowers?”
    “Yes, I sent daisies. Like the ones growing on the hill below your house. I don’t see any in here.”
    Daisies, Bosch thought. The vase he had knocked against the wall. Where are my goddam cigarettes, he wanted to yell.
    “They’ll probably come later. They only make deliveries up here once a day.”
    She frowned.
    “You know,” Bosch said, “if Rourke knew we’d found the second vault and were watching it, and if he knew that we watched Tran go in and clear his box, why didn’t he get his people out? That really bothers me about this whole thing. Why’d he go through with it?”
    She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. Maybe… well, I’ve been thinking that maybe he wanted them to go down. He knew those guys, maybe he knew it would work out that they’d go down shooting, that without them he’d get to keep all the diamonds from the first vault.”
    “Yeah. But you know, I’ve been remembering things all day. About when we were down there. It’s been coming back, and I remember that he didn’t say he’d get it all. He said something about his share being bigger now with Meadows and the other two dead. He still used the word ‘share,’ like there was still someone else to split it with.”
    She raised her eyebrows. “Maybe, but it’s just semantics, Harry.”
    “Maybe.”
    “I’ve got to go. You know how long they’ll keep you?”
    “Haven’t been told, but I think tomorrow I’ll take myself out. Thinking about going to Meadows’s funeral over at veterans.”
    “A Memorial Day funeral. Sounds appropriate to me.”
    “Want to go with me?”
    “Mmmm, no. I don’t think I want anything more to do with Mr. Meadows… But I’ll be at the bureau tomorrow. Clearing out my desk and writing up status sheets on the cases I’ll have to pass to other agents. You could come by if you’d like. I’ll brew you some fresh coffee like before. But, you know, I don’t really think they are going to let you out so fast, Harry. Not with a bullet wound. You need to rest. You need to heal some.”
    “Sure,” Bosch said. He knew she was saying good-bye to him.
    “Okay, then, maybe I’ll see you.”
    She leaned over and kissed him good-bye, and he knew it was good-bye to everything about them. She was almost out the door before he opened his