Dark Sacred Night (Harry Bosch Universe #31)(74)

“Maybe he thought the car could be tracked. Look, I’m not trying to downplay this. If you’re saying this looks involuntary, then we’ll call out the troops on this end. Have you talked to his daughter?”

Ballard suddenly realized that Bosch had revealed something to her during the course of the week that might be helpful.

“No,” she said. “But I will now.”

She disconnected the call.





34



Ballard moved back into the house to conduct a different kind of search. She needed a phone number for Bosch’s daughter. In the master bedroom, she had seen a small desk like is found in a hotel room. She went there and started looking through drawers until she found one containing checkbooks and rubber-banded stacks of envelopes.

One stack was all telephone bills. She quickly opened the envelope on top and saw that Bosch had a family plan where he paid for two cell phones on one account. One she recognized as his number, and the other she assumed was his daughter’s. She next opened the checkbook and looked through the registry until she came upon a record of a check for four hundred dollars to Madeline Bosch.

She had what she needed and made the call. It rang through to a message, which didn’t surprise her, since Bosch’s daughter would have no reason to recognize her number.

“Madeline, this is Detective Ballard with the LAPD. It’s very important that you call me back as soon as you hear this. Please call me back.”

She gave her number even though the girl’s phone would have captured it. She then disconnected, put everything back in the drawer, and got up from the desk. Bosch had mentioned in passing that his daughter went to Chapman down in Orange County and was just an hour or so away. She was considering a call to the school’s security office to see if Madeline Bosch could be located, but then her phone buzzed and the screen showed the number she had just called.

“Madeline?”

“Yes, what’s going on? Where’s my father?”

“We’re trying to find him and we need your help.”

“Oh my god, what happened?”

“Don’t panic, Madeline. Is that what you go by? Madeline?”

“It’s Maddie. Tell me what happened.”

“I’m not sure. He missed two appointments with me and I can’t reach him. I’m at his house now and his car is in the carport and there’s food on the table but he’s not here. When did you hear from him last?”

“He, uh, texted me last night. He asked about getting together this weekend.”

“Are he and your mother divorced? Would he be in touch with—”

“My mother’s dead.”

“Okay, sorry, I didn’t know. This is where I need your help. Your dad told me that you two had a deal. He could track your phone if you could track his. I think his phone is off at the moment but I want you to pull up your tracker and tell me where the last tracking point on it is. Can you do that?”

“Yes. I just need to—I’ll put you on speaker while I…”

“Go ahead.”

Ballard waited and eventually Maddie spoke.

“Okay, it only goes up to eleven forty-two last night. Then it stops.”

“Okay, that’s good. What’s the location of the phone.”

There was silence as Maddie checked the location. Ballard hoped it wasn’t the house. That would not advance things at all.

“Uh, it’s up in the Valley. A place called the Saddletree Open Space.”

Ballard’s heart sank. It sounded like a place to dump a body.

“Can you be more specific?” she asked, trying not to reveal her thoughts in the tone of her voice. “Can you widen the screen or something?”

“Hold on,” Maddie said.

Ballard waited.

“Um, it’s, like, near Sylmar,” Maddie said. “The nearest road to the spot is Coyote Street.”

“Can you hang up, take a screenshot, and text it to me?”

“Yes, but why was he up there? What is—”

“Maddie, listen to me. We need to hang up so you can send me the screenshot. I need to get that to the right people so we can see if your father is there. I know you’re scared and this is an awful kind of call to get. But I need to go now. I will call you back as soon as I know something. Okay?”

Ballard thought she could hear the girl crying.

“Maddie?”

“Yes, okay. I’m hanging up.”

“One other thing. I know that if you are anything like your dad, you’re going to send me the screenshot and then get in a car and head up here. Don’t do that. You have to stay away from your house, okay? It may not be safe.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No, I’m not. I need you to stay away until you hear from me or your father, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good. Send me the screenshot.”

Ballard disconnected. She knew that Heather Rourke was probably sleeping, but that didn’t matter. She called her friend and, surprisingly, the call was answered right away.

“What are you doing awake, Renée?”

“Still working, and I have a situation. I need a flyover up in the Valley. Who do you think would do it for me?”