The Last Coyote

crossword puzzle. Between the two windows was another sign that said DO NOT STORE LOADED FIREARMS. Bosch walked up to the open window and leaned on the counter. The officer looked up after filling in a word on the puzzle. Bosch saw the name tag on his uniform said Nelson. Nelson read Bosch’s ID card so Bosch didn’t have to bother to introduce himself, either. It worked out nicely.
    “Her…on-how you say that?”
    “Hieronymus. Rhymes with anonymous.”
    “Hieronymus. Isn’t there a rock and roll band named that?”
    “Maybe.”
    “What can I do for you, Hieronymus from Hollywood?”
    “I got a question.”
    “Shoot.”
    Bosch put the pink evidence check slip on the counter.
    “I want to pull the box on this case. It’s pretty old. Would it still be around anywhere?”
    The cop took the slip, looked at it and whistled when he saw the year. While writing the case number down on a request log, he said, “Should be here. Don’t see why not. Nothing gets tossed, you know. You want to look at the Black Dahlia case, we got that. That’s what, fifty-something years old. We got ’em going back even further. If it ain’t solved, it’s here.”
    He looked up at Bosch and winked.
    “Be right back. Why don’t you fill out the form.”
    Nelson pointed with his pen out the window to a counter on the back wall where the standard request forms were. He got up and disappeared from the window. Bosch heard him yell to someone else in the back.
    “Charlie! Hey, Char-LEE!”
    A voice from somewhere in the back yelled a response that was unintelligible.
    “Take the window,” Nelson called back. “I’m taking the time machine.”
    Bosch had heard about the time machine. It was a golf cart they used to get back to the deep recesses of the storage facility. The older the case, the farther back in time it went, the farther away it was from the front windows. The time machine got the window cops back there.
    Bosch walked over to the counter and filled out a request form, then reached in the window and put it on the crossword puzzle. While he was waiting, he looked around and noticed another sign on the back wall. NARCOTICS EVIDENCE NOT RELEASED WITHOUT 492 FORM. Bosch had no idea what that form was. Somebody came through the steel doors then carrying a murder book. A detective, but Bosch didn’t recognize him. He opened it on the counter, got a case number and then filled out a form. He then went to the window. There was no sign of Charlie. After a few minutes, the detective turned to Bosch.
    “Anybody working back there?”
    “Yeah, one guy went to get me a box. He told another guy to watch. I don’t know where he is.”
    “Shit.”
    He rapped sharply with his knuckles on the counter. In a few minutes another uniform cop came to the window. He was an old horse, with white hair and a pear shape. Bosch guessed he’d been working in the basement for years. His skin was as white as a vampire’s. He took the other detective’s evidence request slip and was gone. Then both Bosch and the other detective were left waiting. Bosch could tell the other man had started looking at him but was acting like he wasn’t.
    “You’re Bosch, right?” he finally asked. “From Hollywood?”
    Bosch nodded. The other man put out his hand and smiled.
    “Tom North, Pacific. We’ve never met.”
    “No.”
    Bosch shook his hand but didn’t act enthusiastic about the introduction.
    “We never met but listen, I worked Devonshire burglary for six years before I got my homicide gig in Pacific. Know who my CO was up there back then?”
    Bosch shook his head. He didn’t know and he didn’t care but North didn’t seem to realize that.
    “Pounds. Lieutenant Harvey ‘Ninety-eight’ Pounds. The fuck. He was my CO. So, anyway, I heard through the network, you know, what you did to his ass. Put his face right through the fuckin’ window. That’s great, man, fuckin’ great. More power to you. I laughed my ass off when I heard that.”
    “Well, I’m glad it entertained you.”
    “No, really, I know you’re getting piped for it. I heard about that, too. But I just wanted to let you know you made my day and a lot of people are with you, man.”
    “Thanks.”
    “So what are you doing down here? I heard they had you on the Fifty-One-Fifty list.”
    It annoyed Bosch to realize that there were those in the department whom he didn’t even know who knew what had happened to him and what his situation was. He tried to keep