The Wrong Side of Goodbye(67)

“Not going to happen,” Haller said. “This is change-the-world money. She’ll take it. What artist doesn’t want to change the world?”

“Most want to change it with their art, not their money.” Bosch got a call-waiting signal and saw that it was from one of the SFPD exchanges. He thought maybe it was Bella Lourdes calling with the results of the second search of the Sahagun house. He told Haller he needed to go and would check in with him the next day after he found Vibiana and spoke to her.

He switched over but it wasn’t Lourdes calling.

“Bosch, Chief Valdez. Where are you?”

“Uh, heading north, just passing by downtown. What’s up?”

“Are you with Bella?”

“Bella? No, why would I be with Bella?”

Valdez ignored Bosch’s question and asked another. The serious tone in his voice had Bosch’s attention.

“Have you heard from her today?”

“Not since this morning when we talked on the phone. Why? What’s going on, Chief?”

“We can’t find her and we’re not getting any answers on her cell or the radio. She signed in this morning on the board in the D bureau but never signed out. It’s not like her. Trevino was working on budgets with me today, so he was never in the D bureau. He never saw her.”

“Her car in the lot?”

“Both her personal car and her plain wrap are still in the lot and her partner called and said she hasn’t come home.”

A hollow opened up in the middle of his chest.

“Did you talk to Sisto?” he asked.

“Yeah, he hasn’t seen her either,” Valdez said. “He said she called him this morning to see if he was available to go with her into the field but he was tied up on a commercial burglary.”

Bosch pushed his foot further down on the gas pedal.

“Chief, send a car right now up to the Sahagun house. That was where she was going.”

“Why, what was—”

“Just send the car, Chief. Now. Tell them to search inside and outside the house. The backyard in particular. We can talk after. I’m on my way and will be there in thirty minutes or less. Send that car.”

“Right away.”

Bosch disconnected and called Bella’s number, though he knew it was unlikely she would answer for him if she wasn’t answering for the police chief.

It rang through to voice mail and Bosch disconnected. He felt the hollow in his chest growing wider and deeper.





28

Bosch broke away from the crushing evening traffic after passing by downtown. With speed and illegal use of the carpool lane, he covered the remaining distance to San Fernando in twenty minutes. He felt lucky to be in the rental, because he knew his old Cherokee wouldn’t have reached the speeds he maintained on his way.

In the station he moved quickly through the back hallway to the chief’s office but found it empty, the hanging toy helicopter moving in a circular pattern, propelled by a breeze from the overhead air-conditioning vent.

He then moved on to the detective bureau and found Valdez standing at Lourdes’s cubicle along with Trevino, Sisto, and Sergeant Rosenberg, the evening watch commander. He could tell by the concerned looks on their faces that they still hadn’t located the missing detective.

“You checked the Sahagun house?” he asked.

“We sent a car over,” Valdez said. “She’s not there, doesn’t look like she ever was.”

“Damn,” Bosch said. “Where else are you looking?”

“Never mind that,” Trevino said. “Where were you today?”

He said it in an accusatory tone, as if Bosch had some knowledge of the missing detective’s whereabouts.

“I had to go to San Diego,” Bosch said. “One of my private cases. Went there and back.”

“Then who the hell is Ida Townes Forsythe?”

Bosch looked at Trevino.

“What?”

“You heard me. Who is Ida Townes Forsythe?”

He held up a printout of Forsythe’s DMV information and Bosch suddenly realized he had left it in the printer tray that morning when he was distracted by the call to the lobby to see Creighton.

“Right, I forgot, I was here this morning for about twenty minutes,” he said. “I printed that out, but what’s that got to do with Bella?”

“We don’t know,” Trevino said. “We’re trying to figure out what the fuck is going on here. I find this in the printer and then check our DMV account to see if it was Bella who pulled it up and instead I see that you ran this. Who is she?”

“Look, Ida Forsythe has nothing to do with this, okay? She’s part of the private case I’m working.”

Bosch knew it was an admission he should not have made but he wasn’t in the mood for sparring with Trevino and he wanted to get the focus quickly back on Bella.

For a moment Trevino’s face betrayed him. Bosch could see his barely masked delight in knowing he had just outed Bosch in front of the man who had brought him into the department.

“No, not okay,” Trevino said. “That’s a firing offense. And it could mean charges as well.”

Trevino looked at Valdez as he said it, as if to say, I told you this guy was just using us for access.