Trunk Music

tell.
    “Do you want a beer?” she asked instead. “I bought some more. They’re in the fridge.”
    He nodded, letting her escape from the moment, and went into the kitchen. He saw a Crock-Pot on the counter and wondered if she had bought it or brought it back with her from Las Vegas. He opened the refrigerator and smiled. She knew him. She had bought bottles of Henry Weinhard’s. He took two out and brought them back to the dining room. He opened hers and gave it to her, then his own. They both started to speak at the same time.
    “Sorry, go ahead,” she said.
    “No, you.”
    “You sure?”
    “Yeah, what?”
    “I was just going to ask how things went today.”
    “Oh. Well, they went good and bad. We broke the guy down and he told us the story. He gave up the wife.”
    “Tony Aliso’s wife?”
    “Yeah. It was her plan all along. According to him. The Vegas stuff was just a misdirection.”
    “That’s great. What’s the bad part?”
    “Well, first of all, our guy is a cop and-”
    “Oh, shit!”
    “Yeah, but it’s even worse. He got away from us today.”
    “Got away? What do you mean got away?”
    “I mean he escaped. Right out of the station. He had a pistol, a little Raven, in his boot. We missed it when we hooked him up. Edgar and me took him into the can, and he must’ve stepped on his shoelace while we were going over. You know, on purpose. Then, when Edgar noticed it and told him to tie his shoe, he came up with the Raven. He got away from us, went into the back lot and just took a squad car. He was still in uniform.”
    “Jesus, and they didn’t find him yet?”
    “That was about eight hours ago. He’s in the wind.”
    “Well, where could he go in a patrol car and in a uniform?”
    “Oh, he dumped the car-they already found that-and I doubt, wherever he is, he’s in the uniform. It looks like he was into the far-right, white-supremacy thing. He probably knew people who’d get him clothes, no questions asked.”
    “Sounds like a helluva cop.”
    “Yeah. It’s funny. He was the guy who found the body, you know, last week. It was on his beat. And because he was a cop, I didn’t give him a second thought. I knew that day he was an asshole, but I didn’t even look at him at all as anything other than the cop who found the stiff. And he must’ve known that. And he timed it so that we’d be in a rush out there. He was pretty smart about it.”
    “Or she was.”
    “Yeah. More likely it was her. But, anyway, I feel more, I don’t know, upset or disappointed about that first day, that I didn’t take a look at him, than I do about letting him get away today. I should’ve looked at him. More often than not the one who finds the body is the one. His uniform blinded me to that.”
    She got up from the table and came over to him. She put her arms around his neck and smiled up at him.
    “You’ll get him. Don’t worry.”
    He nodded. They kissed.
    “What were you going to say before?” she asked. “When we both talked at once.”
    “Oh…I don’t remember now.”
    “Must not have been important, then.”
    “I wanted to tell you to stay here with me.”
    She put her head down against his chest so that he couldn’t see her eyes.
    “Harry…”
    “Just to see how it works. I feel like…it’s almost like all this time hasn’t gone by. I want-I just want to be with you. I can take care of you. You can feel safe and you can have all the time you need to make a new start here. Find a job, whatever you want to do.”
    She stepped back from him and looked up into his eyes. The warning Irving had given him was the furthest thing from his mind. Right now all he cared about was keeping her close and doing whatever it took to accomplish that.
    “But a lot of time has gone by, Harry. We just can’t jump in like this.”
    Bosch nodded and lowered his eyes. He knew she was right but he still didn’t care.
    “I want you, Harry,” she said. “Nobody else. But I want to take it slow. So that we’re sure. Both of us.”
    “I already know I’m sure.”
    “You just think you are.”
    “Santa Monica is so far away from here.”
    She smiled and then laughed and shook her head.
    “Then you’re just going to have to sleep over when you come visit.”
    He nodded again and they embraced for a long moment.
    “You can make me forget a lot of things, you know that?” he whispered into her ear.
    “You, too,” she said back.
    While they made love the phone rang, but whoever was