Trunk Music

contacted your Mr. Gregson. So, you see, Detective, you’re just a courier here. Your job is to get Mr. Goshen on a plane tomorrow morning and get him safely to Los Angeles. It will most likely be out of your hands after that.”
    “Most likely not,” Bosch said.
    He stepped around the lawyer and opened the door to the interview room. Goshen looked up. Bosch stepped in and moved to the table. He leaned over it and put his hands flat on the table. Before he could speak, Weiss had moved into the room and was talking.
    “Luke, don’t say a word to this man. Don’t say a word.”
    Bosch ignored Weiss and looked only at Goshen.
    “All I want, Lucky, is a show of faith. You want me to take you to L.A., get you there safe, then give me something. Just answer one question. Where-”
    “He has to take you anyway, Luke. Don’t fall for this. I can’t represent you if you don’t listen to me.”
    “Where’s Layla?” Bosch asked. “I’m not leaving Vegas until I talk to her. If you want to get out of here in the morning, I’ve got to talk to her tonight. She’s not at her place. I talked to her roommate, Pandora, last night and she says Layla’s been gone a couple of days. Where is she?”
    Goshen looked from Bosch to Weiss.
    “Don’t say a word,” Weiss said. “Detective, if you step out, I’d like to confer with my client. I think, actually, that might be something I won’t have a problem with him answering.”
    “Hope not.”
    Bosch went back into the hallway with Edgar. He put a cigarette in his mouth but didn’t light it.
    “Why’s Layla so important?” Edgar asked.
    “I don’t like loose ends. I want to know how she fits.”
    Bosch didn’t tell him that he knew from the illegal tapes that Layla had called Aliso and asked, at Goshen’s request, when he’d be coming out to Vegas. If they found her, he would have to draw it out of her during the interview without giving away that he already knew it.
    “It’s also a test,” he did tell Edgar. “To see how far we can get Goshen to go with us.”
    The lawyer stepped out then and closed the door behind him.
    “If you try that again, talking to him when I specifically said he would not respond, then we will have no relationship whatsoever.”
    Bosch felt like asking what relationship they already had but let it go.
    “Is he going to tell us?”
    “No. I am. He said that when this person Layla first came to work at the club, he gave her a ride home a few nights. On one of those nights she asked him to drop her at a different place because she was trying to avoid somebody she was dating at the time and she thought he might be waiting at her apartment. Anyway, it was a house in North Las Vegas. She told him it was where she grew up. He doesn’t have the exact address but said the place was at the corner of Donna Street and Lillis. The northeast corner. Try there. That’s all he had.”
    Bosch had his notebook out and wrote the street names down.
    “Thank you, Counselor.”
    “While you have the notebook out, write down courtroom ten. That’s where we will be tomorrow at nine. I trust you will make secure arrangements for my client’s safe delivery?”
    “That’s what a courier is for, right?”
    “I’m sorry, Detective. Things are said in the heat of the moment. No offense.”
    “None taken.”
    Bosch went out to the squad room and used the phone at an empty desk to call Southwest and change the reservations on the return flight from three in the afternoon to a ten-thirty morning flight. Bosch didn’t look at Iverson but could tell the detective was watching him from a desk fifteen feet away.
    When he was done Bosch stuck his head in Felton’s office. The captain was on the phone. Bosch just mock-saluted him and was gone.
    Back in the rental car, Edgar and Bosch decided to go over to the jail and make arrangements for the custody transfer before trying to find Layla.
    The jail was next to the courthouse. A discharge sergeant named Hackett gave the detectives a rudimentary rundown on how and where Goshen would be delivered to them. Since it was after five and the shifts had changed, Bosch and Edgar would be dealing with a different sergeant in the morning. Still, it made Bosch feel more comfortable seeing the routine ahead of time. They would be able to put Goshen into their car in an enclosed and safe loading-dock area. He felt reasonably sure that there wouldn’t be trouble. At least not there.
    With directions from Hackett,