The Narrows - Michael Connelly [139]
She came away from the railing and stood in front of me.
“Okay, Harry, you think you’ve got it all figured out. You found a sad little suicide hidden in all the murders. What are you going to do with it? You going to go out there and announce it to the world? The only thing that might do is take the money away from the family. Is that what you want? Maybe you can get a piece of it as the whistleblower reward.”
Now I turned away from her and leaned down on the railing.
“No, I don’t want that. I just don’t like being lied to.”
“Oh, I get it. This really isn’t about Terry. It’s about you and me, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know what it’s about, Rachel.”
“Well, when you do, when you figure it all out, let me know, okay?”
She suddenly came up next to me and kissed me hard on the cheek.
“Good-bye, Bosch. Maybe I’ll see you around once the transfer comes through.”
I didn’t turn around to watch her go. I listened as her angry footsteps crossed the deck and then the maple floor inside. I heard the front door slam with a finality that reverberated right through me. It was that tumbling bullet again.
45
I STOOD ON THE PORCH, elbows on the railing, for a long time after Rachel left. My guess was that I would never see her again, whether or not she took a transfer to Los Angeles. I felt a loss. I felt like something good had been taken from me before I really knew how good it could be.
I tried to put her out of my mind for a little while. Terry McCaleb, too. I looked out at the city and thought it was beautiful. The rain had cleaned the sky out and I could see all the way to the San Gabriels and the snow-covered peaks beyond. The air seemed to be as clean and as pure as the air breathed by the Gabrieleños and the padres so many years before. I saw what they had seen in the place. It was the kind of day you felt you could build a future on.
Acknowledgments
T HE AUTHOR WOULD LIKE to thank many individuals who helped with the writing of this book. They include Michael Pietsch, Jane Wood, Pamela Marshall, Perdita Burlingame, Jane Davis, Terry Hansen, Terrill Lee Lankford, Ed Thomas, Frederike Leffelaar, Jerry Hooten, and researcher Carolyn Chriss. Also of great help to the author were Philip Spitzer, Joel Gotler, Shannon Byrne, Sophie Cottrell, John Houghton, Mario Pulice, Mary Capps, Ken Delavigne, Patricia and George Companioni, and the entire staff at Little, Brown and Company as well as the Time Warner Book Group.
Two books that were very helpful to the author were Zzyzx: History of an Oasis, by Anne Q. Duffield-Stoll, and Rio L.A.: Tales from the Los Angeles River, by Patt Morrison with photographs by Mark Lamonica.
Special thanks go to Chief William Bratton and Detective Tim Marcia of the Los Angeles Police Department and special agents Gayle Jacobs and Nina Roesberry of the FBI’s Las Vegas field office.
MICHAEL CONNELLY is a former journalist and author of the bestselling series of Harry Bosch novels, along with the bestselling novels Chasing the Dime, Void Moon, Blood Work, and The Poet. Connelly has won numerous awards for his journalism and novels, including an Edgar Award. He is currently the president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Acknowledgments