The Drop - Michael Connelly [43]
“And what’s it got to do with George Irving?”
“It basically came down to the fact that people were using the hold too often and for too long. The carotid is supposed to open up immediately after you stop the pressure. But sometimes the pressure was held too long and people died. And sometimes the pressure cracked the hyoid bone, crushing the windpipe. Again people died. The bar hold was banned and the carotid hold was relegated to use in deadly force situations only. And deadly force is a whole separate set of criteria. The bottom line was, you could no longer choke somebody out in a basic street scuffle. Okay?”
“Got it.”
“My part was the autopsies. I was coordinator of that. Gathering all the cases going back twenty years and then looking for similarities. There was an anomaly in some of the cases. It didn’t really mean anything but it was there. We found a wound pattern on the shoulder. Showed up in maybe a third of the cases. A repeating crescent-moon pattern on the shoulder blade of the victim.”
“What was it?”
Bosch gestured to the video screen. The training tape was frozen on the hand creep move.
“It was the hand creep. A lot of cops wore military watches with the big chrono bezels. During the choke hold, if they made that move and walked the wrist lock up the shoulder, the watch bezel cut the skin or left a bruise. It didn’t really have to do with anything other than to help prove there had been a struggle. But I remembered it today.”
“At the autopsy?”
From his inside pocket he pulled out an autopsy photo of George Irving’s shoulder.
“That’s Irving’s shoulder.”
“Could this have happened in the fall?”
“He hit the ground face-first. There shouldn’t be an injury like that on his back. The ME confirmed it was antemortem.”
Rider’s eyes darkened as she studied the photo.
“So we have a homicide?”
“It’s looking that way. He was choked out and then dropped from the balcony.”
“You’re sure about this?”
“No, nothing’s for sure. But it’s the direction I’m now taking it.”
She nodded in acceptance.
“And you think a cop or a former cop did it?”
Bosch shook his head.
“No, I don’t think that. It’s true that cops of a certain age were trained to use the hold. But they’re not the only ones. Military, mixed martial-arts fighters. Any kid who watches YouTube can learn how it’s done. There’s one thing that’s sort of a coincidence, though.”
“Coincidence? You always said there was no such thing as coincidence.”
Bosch shrugged.
“What’s the coincidence, Harry?”
“The choke hold task force I was on back then? Deputy Chief Irvin Irving was in command. We worked it out of Central Division. It was the first time Irving and I directly crossed paths.”
“Well, as coincidences go, that’s kind of weak.”
“Probably so. But it means Irving will recognize the significance of the crescent marks on his son’s back if he is told about them or shown a photo. And I don’t want the councilman to know about this yet.”
Rider looked at him sharply.
“Harry, he’s all over the chief about this. He’s all over me. He’s already called three times today about the autopsy. And you want to withhold this from him?”
“I don’t want it out there in the open. I want whoever did this to think they’re in the clear. That way they won’t see me coming.”
“Harry, I don’t know about this.”
“Look, who knows what Irving will do with it if he knows? He might end up talking about it with the wrong person or having a press conference and then it gets out and we’ve lost our edge on it.”
“But you are going to have to go to him with it to conduct your homicide investigation. He’ll know then.”
“Eventually he’ll have to know. But for now we tell him the jury is still out. We’re waiting on the tox results from autopsy. Even with a high-jingo rush, that will take two weeks. Meantime, we are simply leaving no stone unturned, conducting a thorough investigation into all the possibilities. He doesn’t need to know about this, Kiz. Not right now.”
Bosch held up the photo. Rider rubbed her mouth as she considered his request.
“I don’t think