The Overlook

had changed. Brenner’s defensive response told him the conversation was either being taped or overheard by others.
    “It’s still a few hours till the meeting,” Brenner said. “What’s your next move, Harry?”
    Bosch hesitated but not for long.
    “My next move is to go back up to the house and talk to Mrs. Kent again. I have some follow-up. Then we’ll go over to the south tower at Cedars. Kent ’s office is there and we need to see it and to talk to his partner.”
    There was no response. Bosch was coming up on the Denny’s on Sunset. He pulled into the lot and parked. Through the windows he could see that the twenty-four-hour restaurant was largely deserted.
    “You still there, Jack?”
    “Uh, yeah, Harry, I’m here. I should tell you that it probably won’t be necessary, you going back to the house and then by Kent ’s office.”
    Bosch shook his head.
I knew it
, he thought.
    “You’ve already scooped everybody up, haven’t you?”
    “Wasn’t my call. Anyway, from what I hear, the office was clean and we have Kent ’s partner in here being questioned right now. We brought Mrs. Kent in as kind of a precautionary thing. We’re still talking to her, too.”
    “Not your call? Then whose call was it, Rachel’s?”
    “I’m not going to get into that, Harry.”
    Bosch killed the car’s engine and thought about how to respond.
    “Well, then maybe my partner and I should head downtown to TIU,” he finally said. “This is still a homicide investigation. And last I heard, I was still working it.”
    There was a long thread of silence before Brenner responded.
    “Look, Detective, the case is taking on larger dimensions. You have been invited to the status meeting. You and your partner. And at that time you will be updated on what Mr. Kelber has had to say and a few other things. If Mr. Kelber is still here with us I will do my best to get you in to speak with him. And with Mrs. Kent, too. But to be clear, the priority here is not the homicide. The priority is not finding out who killed Stanley Kent. The priority is finding the cesium and we’re now almost ten hours behind.”
    Bosch nodded.
    “I have a feeling that if you find the killer you find the cesium,” he said.
    “That may be so,” Brenner responded. “But the experience is that this material is moved very quickly. Hand to hand. It takes an investigation with a lot of velocity. That’s what we’re engaged in now. Building velocity. We don’t want to be slowed down.”
    “By the local yokels.”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “Sure. I’ll see you at ten, Agent Brenner.”
    Bosch closed his phone and started to get out. As he and Ferras crossed the lot to the restaurant’s doors, his partner barraged him with questions.
    “Why did you lie to him about the wit, Harry? What’s going on? What are we doing here?”
    Bosch held his hands up in a calming motion.
    “Hold on, Ignacio. Just hold on. Let’s sit down and have some coffee and maybe something to eat and I’ll tell you what is going on.”
    They almost had their pick of the place. Bosch went to a booth in a corner that would allow them a clear view of the front door. The waitress came over quickly. She was an old battle-ax with her steel-gray hair in a tight bun. Working graveyard at a Denny’s in Hollywood had leached the life out of her eyes.
    “Harry, it’s been a long time,” she said.
    “Hey, Peggy. I guess it’s been a while since I’ve had to chase a case through the night.”
    “Well, welcome back. What can I get you and your much younger partner?”
    Bosch ignored the dig. He ordered coffee, toast and eggs-over medium well. Ferras ordered an egg-white omelet and a latte. When the waitress smirked and told him that neither could be accomplished he settled for scrambled eggs and regular coffee. As soon as the waitress left them alone Bosch answered Ferras’s questions.
    “We’re being cut out,” he said. “That’s what’s going on here.”
    “Are you sure? How do you know?”
    “Because they’ve already scooped up our victim’s wife and partner and I can guaran-damn-tee you they are not going to let us talk to them.”
    “Harry, did they say that? Did they tell you that we couldn’t talk to them? There’s a lot at stake here and I think you’re being a little paranoid. You’re jumping to-”
    “Am I? Well, wait and see, partner. Watch and learn.”
    “We’re still going to the meeting at nine, aren’t we?”
    “Supposedly. Except