The Last Coyote

clear description of the make and model year. Police said an investigation is continuing.
    Conklin campaign manager Gordon Mittel said Fox had joined the campaign only a week ago.
    Reached at the district attorney’s office, where he is in charge of the special investigation branch under retiring DA John Charles Stock, Conklin said he had not yet met Fox but regretted the death of the man working for his election. The candidate declined further comment.
    Bosch studied the clip for a long moment after reading it.
    “This Monte Kim, is he still at the paper?”
    “Are you kidding? That’s like a millennium ago. Back then the newsroom was a bunch of white guys sitting around in white shirts and ties.”
    Bosch looked down at his own shirt, then at her.
    “Sorry,” she said. “Anyway, he’s not around. And I don’t know about Conklin. A little before my time. Did he win?”
    “Yeah. I think he had two terms, then I think he ran for attorney general or something and got his ass handed to him. Something like that. I wasn’t here then.”
    “I thought you said you’ve been here all your life.”
    “I went away for a while.”
    “ Vietnam, right?”
    “Right.”
    “Yeah, a lot of cops your age were there. Must’ve been a trip. Is that why you all became cops? So you could keep carrying guns?”
    “Something like that.”
    “Anyway, if Conklin’s still alive, he’s probably an old man. But Mittel’s still around. Obviously, you know that. He’s probably in one of these booths eating with the mayor.”
    She smiled and he ignored it.
    “Yeah, he’s a big shot. What’s the story on him?”
    “Mittel? I don’t know. First name on a big downtown law firm, friend of governors and senators and other powerful people. Last I heard, he’s running the financing behind Robert Shepherd.”
    “Robert Shepherd? You mean that computer guy?”
    “More like computer magnate. Yeah, don’t you read the paper? Shepherd wants to run but doesn’t want to use up his own money. Mittel is doing the fund-raising for an exploratory campaign.”
    “Run for what?”
    “Jesus, Bosch, you don’t read the paper or watch TV.”
    “I’ve been busy. Run for what?”
    “Well, like any egomaniac I guess he wants to run for president. But for now he’s looking at the Senate. Shepherd wants to be a third-party candidate. Says the Republicans are too far right and the Democrats too left. He’s right down the middle. And from what I hear, if anybody can get the money together for him to do the third-candidate dance, it’s Mittel.”
    “So Mittel wants to make himself a president.”
    “I guess. But what are you asking me about him for anyway? I’m a cop reporter. You’re a cop. What’s this have to do with Gordon Mittel?”
    She pointed to the photocopy. Bosch became aware that he might have asked too many questions.
    “I’m just trying to catch up,” he said. “Like you said, I don’t read the papers.”
    “That’s paper, not papers,” she said smiling. “I better not catch you reading or talking to the Daily Snews.”
    “Hell hath no fury like a reporter scorned, right?”
    “Something like that.”
    He felt assured that he had deflected her suspicions. He held up the photocopy.
    “There was no follow-up to this? They never caught anybody?”
    “I guess not or there would be a story.”
    “Can I keep this?”
    “Sure.”
    “You feel like taking another walk back to the morgue?”
    “For what?”
    “Stories about Conklin.”
    “There will be hundreds, Bosch. You said he was DA for two terms.”
    “I only want stories from before he was elected. And if you have the time, throw in stories on Mittel, too.”
    “You know, you’re asking a lot. I could get in trouble if they knew I was doing clip searches for a cop.”
    She put on a fake pout and he ignored that, too. He knew what she was driving at.
    “You want to tell me what this is about, Bosch?”
    He still didn’t say anything.
    “I didn’t think so. Well, look, I’ve got two interviews to do this afternoon. I’m going to be gone. What I can do is get an intern to get the clips together and leave it all for you with the guard in the globe lobby. It will be in an envelope so nobody will know what it is. Would that be okay?”
    He nodded. He’d been to Times Square before on a handful of occasions, usually meetings with reporters. It was a block-sized building with two lobbies. The centerpiece of the lobby at the First and Spring entrance