The Drop

approached the cop posted in front of room 79. He signed his clipboard, noting the time, and went in. He stepped into a living room with open French doors that led to the balcony and a western exposure. The wind was billowing the curtains and Bosch saw Chu out there on the balcony. He was looking down.
    Standing in the room were Solomon and Glanville. Crate and Barrel. They didn’t look happy. When Jerry Solomon saw Bosch, he stretched his hands out in a what gives? gesture. Actually, Bosch realized, it was more of a what the fuck? gesture.
    “What can I tell you?” Bosch said. “High jingo. We do what we’re told.”
    “You aren’t going to find anything here we didn’t find. We have it right, the guy took the dive.”
    “And that’s what I told the chief and the councilman, but here I am.”
    Now Bosch spread his hands in a what can I do? gesture.
    “So you want to stand around complaining about it or you want to tell me what you’ve got?”
    Solomon nodded to Glanville, the junior of the two partners, and he pulled a notebook out of his back pocket. He flipped through a few pages and then started telling the story. Meantime, Chu came in from the balcony to listen as well.
    “Last night at eight fifty the front desk gets a call from a man identifying himself as George Irving. He reserves a room for the night and says he’s on the way. He specifically asks what rooms with balconies they’ve got on the top floor. They give him a choice and he takes seventy-nine. He gives an American Express number to hold the room and it checks out to the card in his wallet, which is in the bedroom in the safe.”
    Glanville pointed down a hallway to Bosch’s left. Harry saw an open doorway at the end and a bed.
    “Okay, so he shows up at nine forty,” Glanville continued. “He valets his car in the garage, uses the AmEx to register and then goes up to his room. Nobody ever sees him again.”
    “Until they find him on the sidewalk down below,” Solomon said.
    “When?” Bosch asked.
    “At five fifty one of the kitchen guys reports for work. He’s heading up the sidewalk to get to the rear entrance where the time-card rack is located. He finds the body. Patrol comes out first, then we get called when they make a tentative ID.”
    Bosch nodded and looked around the room. There was a writing table next to the balcony door.
    “No note?”
    “Not that we’ve found in here.”
    Bosch noticed a digital clock on the floor. It was plugged into a wall outlet near the desk.
    “Is that how that was found? Is it supposed to be on the desk?”
    “It’s where we found it,” Solomon said. “We don’t know where it is supposed to be.”
    Bosch walked over and squatted down next to the clock while he put on a fresh set of gloves. He carefully picked up the clock and studied it. It had a dock for connecting an iPod or an iPhone.
    “Do we know what kind of phone Irving had?”
    “Yeah, iPhone,” Glanville said. “It’s in the safe in the bedroom.”
    Bosch checked the alarm on the clock. It was switched off. He pushed the set button to see what time it had previously been set for. The red digits shifted. The last time the alarm was used it was set for 4 A.M.
    Bosch put the clock back on the floor and stood up, his knee joints popping with the effort. He left the main room behind and stepped through the French doors onto the balcony. There was a small table and two chairs. A white terry cloth robe had been left lying across one of the chairs. Bosch looked down over the edge. The first thing he noticed was that the balustrade came up only to the top of his thighs. It seemed low to him, and while he had no idea how tall Irving had been, he immediately had to consider the possibility of an accidental fall. He wondered whether that was what he was here for. Nobody wants a suicide on the family ledger. An accidental tumble over a low balustrade was far more acceptable.
    He looked directly down and saw the canopy the forensic team had put up. He also saw the body, on a gurney and covered in a blue blanket, being loaded into the coroner’s van.
    “I know what you’re thinking,” Solomon said from behind him.
    “Yeah, what am I thinking?”
    “That he didn’t jump. That it was an accident.”
    Bosch didn’t respond.
    “But there are things to consider.”
    “What are they?”
    “The guy’s naked. The bed isn’t slept in and he didn’t check in with any luggage. He just checked into a hotel room in his own city