The Closers

forcefully.
    “Mrs. Sobek, let’s stay calm about this,” Rider said. “Kaitlyn, these electronic traps I was telling you about are called pen registers. The registers don’t lie. Your cell phone was used to make the call. There is no doubt. So is it possible someone got into your locker and used your phone yesterday?”
    She shrugged.
    “Anything’s possible, I guess.”
    “Okay, who would have done that?”
    “I don’t know. You were the one who said it.”
    Bosch cleared his throat, which drew the girl’s eyes to his. He stared hard at her and said, “I think maybe we should take a drive downtown. Maybe this is not the right place for an interview.”
    He started to push back his chair and get up.
    “Kaitlyn, what is going on here?” Amanda pleaded. “These people are serious. Who did you call?”
    “No one, okay?”
    “No, it’s not okay.”
    “I didn’t have the phone, all right? It was confiscated.”
    Bosch sat back down and Rider took over again.
    “Who confiscated your phone?” she asked.
    “Mrs. Sable,” the girl said.
    “Why?”
    “Because we’re not supposed to use them inside school once the homeroom bell rings. Yesterday my best friend Rita didn’t come to school. So I tried to text message her during homeroom to see if she was all right and Mrs. Sable caught me.”
    “And she took your phone?”
    “Yes, she took it.”
    Bosch’s mind was racing, trying to put Bailey Koster Sable into the mold of murderer of Rebecca Verloren. He knew one thing didn’t work. A sixteen-year-old Bailey Koster could not have carried her friend’s limp body up the hill behind her house.
    “Why did you just lie to us about this?” Rider asked Kaitlyn.
    “Because I didn’t want her to know I was in trouble,” the girl said, indicating her mother with her chin.
    “Kaitlyn, you never lie to the police,” Amanda shot back. “I don’t care what -”
    “Mrs. Sobek, you can talk to her about this later,” Bosch said. “Let us continue.”
    “When did you get the phone back, Kaitlyn?” Rider asked.
    “At the end of the day.”
    “So Mrs. Sable had your phone all day?”
    “Yes. I mean, no. Not all day.”
    “Well, who had it?”
    “I don’t know. When they take your phone they tell you that you have to pick it up at the end of the day at the principal’s office. That’s what I did. Mr. Stoddard gave it back to me.”
    Gordon Stoddard. Things all at once started to come together. Bosch had tucked into the water tunnel and the case and all its details were swirling around him. He rode the wave of clarity and grace. Everything was clicking. Stoddard clicked. Mackey’s last word clicked. Stoddard was Rebecca’s teacher. He was close to her. He was her lover and the late night caller. It all clicked into place.
    Mr. X.
    Bosch stood up and left the room without a word. He walked past Stoddard’s office door. It was open and the desk was empty. He went out to the front counter.
    “Mrs. Atkins, where is Mr. Stoddard?”
    “He was just here but then he stepped out.”
    “To where?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe the cafeteria. I told him you and the other detective were here talking to Kaitlyn.”
    “And then he left?”
    “Yes. Oh, I just realized-he might be in the parking lot. He said he got a new car today. Maybe he’s showing it to one of the teachers.”
    “What kind of car? Did he say?”
    “A Lexus. He said it had a model number but I forget which one.”
    “Does he have an assigned parking space?”
    “Uh, yes, it is in the first row on the right as you come out of the entrance hall.”
    Bosch turned from her and went out the door to the hallway. It was crowded with students leaving the cafeteria to start afternoon classes. Bosch started moving through the crowd, dodging students and picking up speed. Soon he was free of them and running. He came into the parking lot and immediately trotted down the parking lane to the right. He found an empty space with Stoddard’s name painted on the curb.
    He turned to go back in to get Rider. He was pulling his phone off his belt when he saw a silver blur to his right. It was a car coming right at him and it was too late to get out of the way.

39
    BOSCH WAS HELPED UP into a sitting position on the asphalt.
    “Harry, are you all right?”
    He focused and saw that it was Rider. He nodded shakily. He tried to remember what had just happened.
    “It was Stoddard,” he said. “He was coming right at me.”
    “In his car?”
    Bosch