The Reversal

the top was for the tassel.”
    “Yeah. The tassel’s missing, probably still in the dirt.”
    “Okay, so what’s it mean?”
    Bosch sat back down and quickly started looking through the files.
    “You don’t remember? The first girl I showed you and Maggie. Valerie Schlicter. She disappeared a month after graduating from Riverside High.”
    “Okay, so you think…”
    Bosch found the file and opened it. It was thin. There were three photos of Valerie Schlicter, including one of her in her graduation cap and gown. He quickly scanned the few documents that were in the file.
    “Nothing here about a charm bracelet,” he said.
    “Because it probably wasn’t hers,” I said. “This is a long shot, don’t you think?”
    He acted as though I had said nothing, his mind shutting out any opposing response.
    “I’m going to have to go out there. She had a mother and a brother. See who’s still around and can look at this thing.”
    “Harry, you sure you—”
    “You think I have a choice?”
    He stood back up, took the evidence bag back from me and gathered up the files. I could almost hear the adrenaline buzzing through his veins. A dog with a bone. It was time for Bosch to go. He had a long shot in his hand but it was better than no shot. It would keep him moving.
    I got up, too, and followed him to the excavation. He told Kohl that he had to go check out the bracelet. He told her to call him if anything else was found in the hole.
    We moved to the gravel parking lot, Bosch walking quickly and not looking back to see if I was still with him. We had driven separately to the dig.
    “Hey,” I called to him. “Wait up!”
    He stopped in the middle of the lot.
    “What?”
    “Technically, I’m still the prosecutor assigned to Jessup. So before you go rushing off, tell me what the thinking is here. He buried the bracelet here but not her? Does that even make sense?”
    “Nothing makes sense until I ID the bracelet. If somebody tells me it was hers, then we try to figure it out. Remember, when Jessup was up here, we couldn’t get close to him. It was too risky. So we don’t know exactly what he was doing. He could’ve been looking for this.”
    “Okay, I can maybe see that.”
    “I gotta go.”
    He continued on to his car. It was parked next to my Lincoln. I called after him.
    “Let me know, okay?”
    He looked back at me when he got to his car.
    “Yeah,” he said. “I will.”
    He then dropped into the car and I heard it roar to life. Bosch drove like he walked, pulling out quickly and throwing dust and gravel into the air. A man on a mission. I got in the Lincoln and followed him out of the park and up to Mulholland Drive. After that, I lost him on the curving road ahead.

Acknowledgments
    The author wishes to thank several people for their help in the research and writing of this book. They include Asya Muchnick, Michael Pietsch, Pamela Marshall, Bill Massey, Jane Davis, Shannon Byrne, Daniel Daly, Roger Mills, Rick Jackson, Tim Marcia, David Lambkin, Dennis Wojciechowski, John Houghton, Judge Judith Champagne, Terrill Lee Lankford, John Lewin, Jay Stein, Philip Spitzer, and Linda Connelly.
    The author also greatly benefited from reading Defending the Damned: Inside a Dark Corner of the Criminal Justice System by Kevin Davis.