The Drop

was. But now she’s in major crimes. It’s a good break for us.”
    Marcia agreed.
    They took the elevator down and there were reporters waiting outside the PAB. A few of them recognized Bosch and that started the stampede. Bosch brushed them off with no comment and he and Chu headed to the sidewalk. They crossed First and Bosch pointed to the monolithic Times Building.
    “Tell your girlfriend she did a good job with the story in today’s paper.”
    “I told you, she’s not my girlfriend,” Chu protested. “I made a mistake with her and it’s been corrected. I didn’t read the story but whatever she got, she got without my help.”
    Bosch nodded and decided he would finally let up on Chu about it. It was behind them now.
    “So how’s your girlfriend?” Chu asked, jabbing back at Bosch.
    “My girlfriend? Uh, as soon as I meet her I’ll ask how she’s doing and let you know.”
    “Come on, Harry. You gotta go for that. I saw the look, man.”
    “Didn’t you just fall in and out of the shit by allowing a work relationship to become something more than a work relationship?”
    “Your situation is something totally different.”
    Bosch’s cell buzzed and he pulled it and looked at the screen. Speak of the devil, it was Hannah Stone. Bosch pointed to the phone as he answered it so Chu would know not to say anything in background.
    “Dr. Stone?”
    “I guess that means you’re not alone.”
    There was stress in her voice.
    “No, but what’s up?”
    “Um, I don’t know if it means anything but Clayton Pell didn’t come back to the facility last night, and it turns out that he didn’t go to work when he left here after signing the statement for you.”
    Bosch stopped on the sidewalk and took a moment to compute this.
    “And he’s still not back?”
    “No, I just found out when I came in.”
    “Did you call his work?”
    “Yes, I talked to his boss. He said Clayton called in sick yesterday and never showed. But he left here right after you left. He said he was going to work.”
    “Okay, what about his PO? Was he informed last night?”
    “Not last night. I just called him before calling you. He said he hadn’t heard anything but would do some checking. Then I called you.”
    “Why did you wait until this morning? He’s gone almost twenty-four hours now.”
    “I told you; I just found out. Remember, this is a voluntary program. We have rules and everyone must abide by them when they’re here, but when someone takes off like that, there’s really very little you can do about it. You wait and see if they come back and you inform Probation and Parole that he’s left the program. But because of what happened this week and him being a witness in the case, I thought you should know.”
    “Okay, I get it. So any idea where he would have gone? Does he have friends or family around?”
    “No, he’s got nobody.”
    “Okay, I’ll make some calls. Let me know if you hear anything.”
    Bosch closed the phone and looked at Chu. An uneasy feeling was rising in his chest. He thought he might know where Pell was.
    “Clayton Pell is in the wind. He apparently took off right after we talked to him yesterday.”
    “He’s probably . . .”
    But Chu didn’t finish because he didn’t have a good answer.
    Bosch thought he did. He called the communications center and asked an operator to run the name Clayton Pell through the computer to see if he’d had any recent interaction with the justice system.
    “Okay,” the operator said. “We have a Clayton Pell arrested yesterday on a two-forty-three felony class.”
    Bosch didn’t need a translation on California Penal Code 243. Every cop knew it. Battery on a peace officer.
    “What agency?” he asked.
    “It was us. But I don’t have the details other than that he was taken into custody at the PAB.”
    Bosch had been out of the PAB for most of Tuesday running down the final details for the prosecutor, but when he’d gotten back at the end of the day he’d heard some squad room chatter about a cop having been attacked in the plaza right out front. It was completely unprovoked. The cop suffered a broken nose when the attacker stopped him to ask a question and then inexplicably head-butted him in the face. But the attacker was dismissed in the banter as a crazy and his name was never mentioned.
    Bosch now knew what had happened. Pell had made his way downtown and to the PAB with the purpose of getting arrested. This would ensure that he would be