The Narrows

the accelerator down harder.
    "Kiz, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later."
    I closed the phone without waiting for a good-bye from her. Glancing between the road and the phone's display I scrolled through my recent calls list and pressed the connect button after highlighting Rachel Waiting's cell number. She answered before I even heard it ring.
    "Rachel, it's Harry. Sorry to call so late but it's important."
    "I'm in the middle of something," she whispered.
    "You're at the field office still?"
    "That's right."
    I tried to think of what would keep her there after midnight on a day that had started so early.
    "Is it the trash barrel? The burned book?"
    "No, we haven't gotten there yet. It's something else. I have to go."
    Her voice was somber and because she had not used my name I got the idea there were other agents present and that whatever she was in the middle of was not good.
    "Rachel, listen, I have something. You have to come to L.A."
    Her tone changed. I think she could tell by the urgency in my voice that this was serious.
    "What is it?"
    "I know the Poet's next move."

CHAPTER 38
    I'll have to call you back." Rachel closed her phone and slid it into the pocket of her blazer. Bosch's last words echoed in her heart.
    "Agent Walling, I'd appreciate it if you could stay in our conversation."
    She looked up at Alpert.
    "Sorry."
    She looked past him at the telecommunication screen where Brass Doran's face was larger than life. She was smiling.
    "Agent Doran, continue," Alpert said.
    "Actually, I'm finished. That's all we have at this time. We can confirm through the latents that Robert Backus was at that trailer. We cannot confirm that he was in it when it exploded."
    "What about the DNA?"
    "The DNA evidence gathered by Agent Walling, at great danger, I might add, and later by the ERT will only be useful if we have something to compare it with. That is, if we somehow find a source of Robert Backus's DNA. Or we use it to identify the body that was in the trailer as someone else."
    "What about Backus's parents? Can't we extract his DNA from-"
    "We went that route before. His father was dead and cremated before we thought of it-the science wasn't really there back then-and his mother has never been located. There is some thought that she might have been his first victim. She disappeared some years ago without the proverbial trace."
    "This guy thought of everything."
    "In the case of the mother it was more likely a revenge thing for her abandonment. It is hard to believe that he did something back then in order to prevent later DNA extraction."
    "All I meant was that we are genuinely fucked."
    "I am sorry, Randal, but the science can only go so far."
    "I know that, Agent Doran. Can you tell me anything else? Anything new?"
    "I guess not."
    "Terrific. Okay, so then I will tell the director just that. That we know Backus was in that trailer-we have forensics and witness accounts to that effect. But as of this time we cannot take the next step and say he is dead and good riddance."
    "Is there no way we can convince the director to sit tight and give us more time to sew it all up? For the good of the investigation."
    Rachel almost laughed. She knew the good of the investigation would always take second place to political considerations in the Hoover Building in D.C. "I have already tried," Alpert said. "The answer is no. There is too much at stake. The cat is out of the bag on this-thanks to the explosion in the desert. If that was Backus blown to bits out there, then fine, we'll eventually confirm it and everything will be fine. If that was not Backus and he has some other play in mind, the director has to get on record with this now or the consequences of the blowback could be fatal. So he is going on record with what we know now: Backus was there, Backus is the suspect in the killings in the desert, Backus may or may not be dead. There is no dissuading him at this point."
    Alpert had thrown Rachel a look when he said the cat was out of the bag, as if he held her responsible for everything. She thought about revealing what Bosch had just told her but in that instant decided against it. Not yet. Not until she knew more.
    "Okay, people, that's it," Alpert announced abruptly. "Brass, we'll see you on the big screen tomorrow morning. Agent Walling, can you stay behind for a moment?"
    Rachel watched Brass leave the screen and then it went black, the transmission ended. Alpert then walked up close to the table where Rachel