The Last Coyote

ago.”
    “Okay.”
    Bosch wanted to take out his notebook but he didn’t want to make this seem like an interview. He tried to remember what else he had read in the murder book that he could ask about.
    “What about this guy Johnny Fox?”
    “Yes, I told those detectives about him. They got all excited but then nothing ever happened. He was never arrested.”
    “I think he was. But then he was let go. His fingerprints didn’t match the killer’s.”
    She raised her eyebrows.
    “Well, that’s news to me. They never told me anything about any fingerprints.”
    “On your second interview-with McKittrick, you remember him?”
    “Not really. I just remember that there were police, you know? Two detectives. One was smarter than the other, that’s what I remember. But I don’t remember which one was which. It seemed like the dumber one was in charge and that was par for the course in those days.”
    “Well, anyway, McKittrick talked to you the second time. In his report he said you changed your story and you told about this party in Hancock Park.”
    “Yes, the party. I didn’t go because that…Johnny Fox hit me the night before and I had a bruise on my cheek. It was gorgeous. I played around with makeup but I couldn’t do anything about the swelling. Believe me there wasn’t much business in Hancock Park for a party girl with a knot on her face.”
    “Who was having the party?”
    “I don’t remember. I don’t know if I even knew whose party it was.”
    Something about the way she answered bothered Bosch. Her tone had changed and it came across as almost a rehearsed answer.
    “Are you sure don’t remember?”
    “Of course, I’m sure.” Katherine stood up. “I think I’m going to get some water now.”
    She took his glass to refill and left the room again. Bosch realized that his familiarity with the woman, his emotion in seeing her again after so long, had blocked most of his investigative instincts. He had no feel for the truth. He could not tell whether there was more to what she was telling him or not. He decided he had to somehow steer the conversation back to the party. He thought she knew more than she had said all those years ago.
    She came back with two glasses filled with ice water and placed his back down on the cork coaster. Something about the way she was so careful about putting the glass down gave him a knowledge about her that had not come through in her spoken words. It was simply that she had worked hard to attain the level she was at in life. That position and the material things it brought with it-like glass coffee tables and plush carpets-meant a lot to her and were to be taken care of.
    She took a long drink from her glass after sitting down.
    “Let me tell you something, Harry,” she said. “I didn’t tell them everything. I didn’t lie, but I didn’t tell them everything. I was afraid.”
    “Afraid of what?”
    “I became afraid on the day they found her. You see, I’d gotten a call that morning. Before I even knew what had happened to her. It was a man, but a voice I didn’t recognize. He told me if I said anything I would be next. I remember, he said, ‘My advice to you, little lady, is to get the hell out of Dodge.’ Then, of course, I heard the police were in the building and had gone to her apartment. Then I heard she was dead. So I did what I was told. I left. I waited about a week until the police said they were done with me, then I moved to Long Beach. I changed my name, changed my life. I met my husband down there and then years later we moved here…You know, I’ve never been back to Hollywood, not even to drive through. It’s an awful place.”
    “What was it that you didn’t tell Eno and McKittrick?”
    Katherine looked down at her hands as she spoke.
    “I was afraid, you see, so I didn’t tell everything…but I knew who she was going to see there, at the party. We were like sisters. Lived in the same building, shared clothes, secrets, everything. We talked every morning, had our coffee together. We had no secrets between us. And we were going to go to the party together. Of course, after that…after Johnny hit me, she had to go alone.”
    “Who was she going to meet there, Katherine?” Bosch prompted.
    “You see that is the right question but the detectives never asked that. They only wanted to know whose party it was and where it was. That didn’t matter. What was important was who was she going to meet there and they never asked