The Overlook

the witness. He then called information and was connected to the front desk at the Mark Twain.
    “Alvin, this is Detective Bosch. From this morning?”
    “Yeah, yeah. What’s up with you, Detective?”
    “Has anyone come in asking for Stephen King?”
    “Mmm, nope.”
    “In the last twenty minutes have you buzzed in anybody who looked like a cop or who wasn’t a tenant there?”
    “No, Detective. What’s going on?”
    “Listen, I need you to go up to that room and tell Stephen King to get out of there and then to call me on my cell.”
    “I got nobody to watch the desk, Detective.”
    “It’s an emergency, Alvin. I need to get him out of there. It will take you less than five minutes. Here, write this down. My number is three-two-three, two-four-four, five-six-three-one. You got it?”
    “I got it.”
    “Okay, go. And if anybody but me comes in there looking for him, say he checked out, took a refund and left. Go, Alvin, and thanks.”
    Bosch closed the phone and looked over at Rachel. His face showed his lack of confidence in the deskman.
    “I think the guy’s a tweaker.”
    Bosch increased his speed and tried to concentrate on driving. They had just turned south on Cahuenga off Barham. He was thinking that, depending on traffic in Hollywood, they could get to the Mark Twain in another five minutes. This conclusion made him shake his head. With a half-hour lead Maxwell should already be at the Mark Twain. He wondered if he had slipped in the back way and already gotten to Mitford.
    “Maxwell may have already gone in through the back,” he told Walling. “I’m going to come in from the alley.”
    “You know,” Walling said, “maybe he’s not going to hurt him. He’ll pick him up and talk to him, judge for himself if he saw enough at the overlook that he’d be a threat.”
    Bosch shook his head.
    “No way. Maxwell’s got to know that once the cesium was found, his plan was going down the toilet. He’s got to take action against all threats. First the witness, then Alicia Kent.”
    “Alicia Kent? You think he’d make a move against her? This whole thing is because of her.”
    “Doesn’t matter now. Survival instincts take over now and she’s a threat. It goes with the territory. You cross the big line to be with her. You cross it again to save your-”
    Bosch stopped talking as a sudden realization thudded in his chest. He cursed out loud and pinned the accelerator as they came out of the Cahuenga Pass. He cut across three lanes of Highland Avenue in front of the Hollywood Bowl and made a screeching U-turn in front of oncoming traffic. He punched it, and the car fishtailed wildly as he headed toward the southbound entrance to the Hollywood Freeway. Rachel grabbed the dashboard and a door handle to hold on.
    “Harry, what are you doing? This is the wrong way!”
    He flicked on the siren and the blue lights that flashed in the front grille and back window of the car. He yelled his response to Walling.
    “Mitford is a misdirection. This is the right way. Who is the greater threat to Maxwell?”
    “Alicia?”
    “You bet and now’s the best shot he has of getting her out of Tactical. Everybody’s up in that alley with the cesium.”
    The freeway was moving pretty well and the siren helped open it up further. Bosch figured Maxwell could have already gotten to downtown, depending on what kind of traffic he encountered.
    Rachel opened her phone and started punching in numbers. She tried number after number but no one was answering.
    “I can’t get anybody,”
she yelled.
    “Where’s TIU?”
    Walling didn’t hesitate.
    “On Broadway. You know where the Million Dollar Theater is? Same building. Entrance on Third.”
    Bosch flicked off the siren and opened his phone. He called his partner and Ferras answered right away.
    “Ignacio, where are you?”
    “Just got back to the office. Forensics worked the car for-”
    “Listen to me. Drop what you’re doing and meet me at the Third Street entrance to the Million Dollar Theater building. You know where that is?”
    “What’s going on?”
    “Do you know where the Million Dollar Theater is?”
    “Yeah, I know where it is.”
    “Meet me there at the Third Street entrance. I’ll explain when I get there.”
    He closed the phone and hit the siren again.

TWENTY-ONE
    THE NEXT TEN MINUTES took ten hours. Bosch moved in and out of traffic and finally reached the Broadway exit in downtown. He killed the siren as he made the turn and