The Black Echo

weren’t any. I’ll take this guy out on the other side, he decided. He would make his move. Either hit and run, or just run.
    They headed toward the sign that said Pedestrian Expressway. There was a concrete outbuilding with an open doorway and then stairs. As they walked down the whitewashed steps, the man with the Rolex put his hand on Sharkey’s shoulder and then clamped it on the back of his neck in a fatherly manner. Sharkey could feel the cold metal of the watch’s wristband.
    The man said, “You sure we don’t know each other, Sharkey? Maybe seen each other?”
    “No, man, I’m telling you, I haven’t been with you.”
    They were about halfway through the tunnel when Sharkey realized he hadn’t told the man his name.

PART V
    THURSDAY, MAY 24

    It had been a long time for him. And in Eleanor’s bedroom, Harry Bosch was clumsy in the way of a man who is overly self-conscious and out of practice. As with most first times he had had, it wasn’t good. She directed him with her hands and whispers. And afterward he felt like apologizing but didn’t. They held each other and lightly dozed, the smell of her hair in his face. The same apple scent he had encountered in his kitchen the night before. Bosch was infatuated with her and wanted to breathe the smell of her hair every minute. After a while he kissed her awake and they made love again. This time he needed no directions and she didn’t need her hands. When they were done, Eleanor whispered to him, “Do you think you can be alone in this world and not be lonely?”
    He didn’t answer at first, and she said, “Are you alone or are you lonely, Harry Bosch?”
    He thought about that for some time, while her fingers gently traced the tattoo on his shoulder.
    “I don’t know what I am,” he finally whispered. “You get so used to things the way they are. And I’ve always been alone. I guess that makes me lonely. Until now.”
    They smiled in the dark and kissed, and soon he heard her deep, sleeping breaths. Much later, Bosch got up from the bed, pulled on his pants and went out on the balcony to smoke. On Ocean Park Boulevard there was no traffic and he could hear the ocean’s noise from nearby. The lights were out in the apartment next door. They were out everywhere except on the street. He could see that the jacaranda trees along the sidewalk were shedding their flowers. They had fallen like a violet snow on the ground and the cars parked along the curb. Bosch leaned on the railing and blew smoke into the cool night wind.
    When he was on his second cigarette he heard the door behind him slide open and then felt her hands come around his waist as she embraced him from behind.
    “What’s wrong, Harry?”
    “Nothing, just thinking. You better watch out. Carcinogen alert. You ever heard of the draft risk easement?”
    “Assessment, Harry, not easement. What are you thinking about? Is this how it is most nights for you?”
    Bosch turned around in her arms and kissed her forehead. She was wearing a short robe of pink silk. He rubbed his thumb up and down the nape of her neck. “Almost no night is like this. I just couldn’t sleep. I guess I was thinking about a lot of things.”
    “About us?” She kissed his chin.
    “I guess.”
    “And?”
    He brought his hand around to her face and traced the outline of her jaw with his fingers.
    “I was wondering how you got this little scar here.”
    “Oh… that is from when I was a girl. My brother and I, we were riding on a bike and I was on the handlebars. And we went down this hill, it was called Highland Avenue-this was when we lived in Pennsylvania-and he lost control. The bike started weaving and I was so scared because I knew we were going to crash. And just as he really lost it and we were going down, he yelled, ‘Ellie, you’ll be all right!’ Just like that. And because he had yelled that, he was right. I cut my chin but I didn’t even cry. I always thought that was something, that he would try to yell something to me rather than worry about himself at a moment like that. But that was my brother.”
    Bosch dropped his hands from her face. He said, “I was also thinking that what happened between us was nice.”
    “I think so, too, Harry. Nice for a couple of nighthawks. Come back to bed now.”
    They went back in. Bosch first went into the bathroom and used his finger as a toothbrush and then crawled back under the sheet with her. The blue glow of a digital clock on the bedtable said