The Wrong Side of Goodbye(68)

“Tell you what, Cap,” Bosch said. “You can fire me and charge me as soon as we find Bella.”

Bosch turned and directed the next question to Valdez.

“What else are we doing?” he asked.

“We’ve brought everybody in and they’re out looking,” the chief said. “We’ve put it out to the LAPD and Sheriff’s Department as well. Why did you tell us to check the Sahagun house?”

“Because she told me this morning that she would go search it again,” Bosch said.

“Why?”

Bosch quickly explained the conversation he’d had with Lourdes that morning, including his theory that the Screen Cutter might have lost the key to his getaway car, which would explain his running from the scene of the crime and trying to find an unlocked car to boost.

“There was no key,” Sisto said. “I would’ve found it.”

“Never hurts to double-check with fresh eyes,” Bosch said. “When she called to see if you could go into the field, did she ask about GTAs in Area Two on Friday?”

Sisto realized that was a detail he had not mentioned to the chief and the captain earlier.

“Yeah, that’s right, she did,” he said. “I told her I hadn’t had time to look at auto thefts from Friday yet.”

Trevino moved quickly to the row of clipboards hung on the wall behind Sisto’s desk. This was where the property crime reports were kept on different clipboards depending on the crime. Trevino grabbed the clipboard marked AUTOS and looked at the top sheet. He then flipped back through several of the reports.

“We’ve got one Friday in Area Three,” he said. “Another on Saturday.”

Valdez turned to Rosenberg.

“Irwin, take those reports,” he said. “Send a car to each location, have them find out if Lourdes was out there doing follow-up.”

“Roger that,” Rosenberg said. “I’ll take one myself.”

He took the whole clipboard from Trevino and quickly headed out of the bureau.

“Is there anybody still over in Public Works?” Bosch asked.

“This time of night, they’re closed,” Valdez said. “Why?”

“Can we get in? This morning Bella said she was going over there to borrow a metal detector for the search up at the Sahagun house.”

“I know we can at least get into the yard,” Trevino said. “We gas up the cars in there.”

“Let’s go,” Valdez said.

The four men left the station through the front door and quickly crossed the street to the Public Works complex. They walked down the left side of the structure to the vehicle and storage yard’s entrance gate, which Valdez opened with a key card pulled from his wallet.

As they entered the yard the men split up and started looking for Lourdes in and among the various work trucks and vans. Bosch headed toward the back wall, where there were a covered workshop and assorted tool benches. Behind him he heard the vehicle doors being opened and closed and the chief’s strained voice calling out Bella’s name.

But there was no response.

Bosch used the light from his phone to find a switch that turned on the fluorescent lights in the workshop. There were three separate benches positioned perpendicular to the back wall. These benches had racks of tools and materials as well as anchored machines and devices like pipe cutters, grinders, and woodworking drills and saws. It looked like projects were left in midcourse on each of the benches.

Above the third bench, there was an overhead rack holding several eight-foot lengths of stainless-steel pipe. Bosch remembered Lourdes saying they used a metal detector to find underground pipes. He assumed the third bench was for plumbing and drainage-related projects and that if there was a metal detector, it would be there.

Lourdes had described the metal detector as something with wheels like a lawnmower and not the kind of handheld detector he had seen used by treasure hunters on the beach.

Bosch didn’t see anything and turned in a circle with his eyes scanning all of the equipment on and surrounding the workbenches. He finally spotted a crossbar handle extending out from under one of the benches. He walked over and pulled out a bright orange device on wheels that was about half the size of a push mower.

He had to study it to know what it was. There was a control panel attached to the crossbar. He pushed the on/off button, and an LED screen lit with a triangular radar display and other controls for scope and depth.

“It’s here,” he said.

His words drew the other three men over from their own fruitless searches.

“Well, if she used it, she brought it back,” Valdez said.

The chief kicked one of his boots against the concrete floor, showing his frustration with another lead that didn’t pan out.

Bosch put both hands on the metal detector’s handle and lifted. He got the two back wheels off the ground but even that was a struggle.

“This thing is heavy,” he said. “If she used it, then she had help getting it out there to the Sahagun house. It wouldn’t have fit in a plain wrap.”

“Should we check inside for her?” Sisto asked.

The chief turned and looked at the door that led to the Public Works offices. Three of them walked over and Bosch followed after parking the metal detector back in its place. Valdez tried the door but it was locked with a dead bolt. Valdez turned to Sisto, the youngest among them.