The Concrete Blonde

by Michael Connelly

“What?” he whispered.

  She held her hand up, signaling him not to interrupt. He didn’t. He just watched her on the phone.

  “I’ll be there, Mrs. Fontenot, just call me with the time and address . . . yes . . . yes, I will. Once again, I am so very sorry. Beatrice was such a fine young woman and student. I was very proud of her. Oh, my gosh . . .”

  A strong gush of tears came as she hung up. Bosch came to her and put his hand on her neck.

  “A student?”

  “Beatrice Fontenot.”

  “What happened?”

  “She’s dead.”

  He leaned down and held her. She cried.

  “This city . . . ,” she began but didn’t finish. “She’s the one who wrote what I read to you the other night about Day of the Locust.”

  Bosch remembered. Sylvia had said she worried about the girl. He wanted to say something but he knew there was nothing to say. This city. It seemed to say it all.

  • • •

  They spent the day around the house, doing odd jobs, cleaning up. Bosch cleared the charred logs out of the fireplace and then joined Sylvia in the backyard, where she was working in the garden, pulling weeds and cutting flowers for a bouquet she was going to take to Mrs. Fontenot.

  They worked side by side but Sylvia spoke very little. Every now and then she would offer a sentence. She said it had been a drive-by shooting on Normandie. She said it happened the night before and that the girl was taken to Martin Luther King, Jr., Hospital, where she was determined to be brain-dead. They turned the machine off in the morning and harvested the organs for donating.

  “That’s weird, that they call it harvesting,” she said. “Sounds like a farm or people growing on trees or something.”

  In the midafternoon she went into the kitchen and made an egg salad sandwich and a tuna fish sandwich. She cut them in half and they each had a half of both sandwiches. He made iced tea with slices of orange in the glass. She said that after the huge steaks they’d eaten the night before, she never wanted beef again. It was the day’s only attempt at humor, but nobody smiled. She put the dishes in the sink afterward but didn’t bother to rinse them. She turned and leaned on the counter and stared down at the floor.

  “Mrs. Fontenot said the funeral would be sometime next week, probably Wednesday. I think I’m going to bring the class down. Get a bus.”

  “I think that’d be nice. Her family would appreciate it.”

  “Her two older brothers are dealers. She told me they sell crack.”

  He didn’t say anything. He knew that was probably the reason the girl was dead. Since the Bloods-Crips gang truce, the street dealing in South Central had lost its command structure. There was a lot of infringement of turfs. A lot of drive-bys, a lot of innocents left dead.

  “I think I’ll ask her mother if I could read her book report. At the service. Or after. Maybe they’d know then what a loss this was.”

  “They probably know already.”

  “Yes.”

  “You want to take a nap, try to sleep?”

  “Yes, I think I will. What are you going to do?”

  “I have some stuff to do. Make some calls. Sylvia, I’m going to have to go out tonight. Hopefully, not for long. I’ll get back as soon as I can.”

  “I’ll be all right, Harry.”

  “Good.”

  • • •

  Bosch looked in on her at about four and she was sleeping soundly. He could see where the pillow was wet from her crying.

  He went down the hall to a bedroom that was used as a study. There was a desk with a phone on it. He closed the door so as not to disturb her.

  The first call he made was to Seventy-seventh Street Division detectives. He asked for the homicide table and got a detective named Hanks. He didn’t give a first name and Bosch didn’t know him. Bosch identified himself and asked about the Fontenot case.

  “What’s your angle, Bosch? Hollywood, you said?”

  “Yeah, Hollywood, but there’s no angle. It’s private. Mrs. Fontenot called the girl’s teacher this morning. The teacher’s a friend of mine. She’s upset and I was, you know, just trying to find out what happened.”

  “Look, I don’t have time to be holding people’s hands. I’m working a case.”

  “In other words, you’ve got nothing.”

  “You’ve never worked the seven-seven, have you?”

  “No. This the part where you tell me how tough it is?”

  “Hey, fuck you, Bosch. What I’m gonna tell you is that there is no such thing as a witness south of Pico. Only way we clear a case is we get lucky and pull some prints, or we get luckier and the dude walks in and says, ‘I’s sorry, I did it.’ You wanna guess how many times that happens?”

  Bosch didn’t say anything.

  “Look, the teacher ain’t the only one upset, okay? This is a bad one. They’re all bad but some are bad on bad. This is one of those. Sixteen-year-old girl home reading a book, babysittin’ her younger brother.”

  “Drive-by?”

  “Yeah, you got it. Twelve holes in the walls. It was an AK. Twelve holes in the walls and one round in the back of her head.”

  “She never knew, did she?”

  “No, she never knew what hit her. She must’ve caught the first one. She never ducked.”

  “It was a round meant for one of the older brothers, right?”

  Hanks was quiet for a couple of seconds. Bosch could hear a radio squawking in the background of the squad room.

  “How you know that, the teacher?”

  “The girl told her the brothers sell crack.”

  “Yeah? They were walking around MLK this morning boo-hooing like they was altar boys. I’ll check it out, Bosch. Anything else I can do you for?”

  “Yeah. The book. What was she reading?”

  “The book?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It was called The Big Sleep. And that’s what she got, man.”

  “You can do me a favor, Hanks.”

  “What’s that?”

  “If you talk to any reporters about this, leave the part about the book out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just leave it out.”

  Bosch hung up. He sat at the desk and felt ashamed that when Sylvia had first talked of the girl, he had been suspicious of her fine school work.

  After a few minutes thinking about that, he picked the phone up again and called Irving’s office. The phone was picked up on half a ring.

  “Hello, this is Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Irvin Irving’s office, Lieutenant Hans Rollenberger speaking, how can I help you?”

  Bosch figured Hans Off must be expecting Irving himself to call in and therefore trotted out the full-count official telephone greeting that was in the officer’s manual but was roundly ignored by most of the people who answered phones in the department.

  Bosch hung up without saying anything and redialed so the lieutenant could go through the whole spiel again.

  “It’s Bosch. I’m just checking in.”

  “Bosch, did you just call a few moments ago?”

  “No, why?”

  “Nothing. I’m here with Nixon and Johnson. They just came in and Sheehan and Opelt are with Mora now.”

  Bosch noticed how Rollenberger didn’t dare call them the presidents when they were in the same room with him.

  “Anything happen today?”

  “No. The subject spent the morning at home, then a little while ago he went up to the Valley, visited a few more warehouses. Nothing suspicious.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “At home.”

  “What about Edgar?”

  “Edgar was here. He went over to Sybil to interview the survivor. He found her last night but she apparently was too dopey to talk to. He’s giving it another try, now.”

  Then in a lower voice, he said, “If she confirms an ID of Mora, do we move?”

  “I don’t think it would be a good idea. It’s
not enough. And we’d tip our hand.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” he said louder now, so the presidents would know he was clearly in command here. “We stick to him like glue and we’ll be there when he makes his move.”

  “Hopefully. How’re you working this with the surveillance teams? They giving you blow by blow?”

  “Absolutely. They’re on rovers and I’m listening here. I know every move the subject makes. I’m staying on late tonight. I have a feeling.”

  “About what?”

  “I think t’night’s the night, Bosch.”

  • • •

  Bosch woke Sylvia at five but then sat on the bed and rubbed her back and neck for a half hour. After that, she got up and took a shower. Her eyes still looked sleepy when she came out to the living room. She wore her gray cotton T-shirt dress. Her blonde hair was tied in a tail behind her head.

  “When do you have to go?”

  “A little while.”

  She didn’t ask where he was going or what for. He didn’t offer to tell her.

  “You want me to make you some soup or something?” he asked.

  “No, I’m fine. I don’t think I’m going to be hungry tonight.”

  The phone rang and Harry answered it in the kitchen. It was a reporter from the Times who had gotten the number from Mrs. Fontenot. The reporter wanted to speak with Sylvia about Beatrice.

  “About what?” Bosch asked.

  “Well, Mrs. Fontenot said Mrs. Moore said several nice things about her daughter. We are doing a major story on this because Beatrice was such a good kid. I thought Mrs. Moore would want to say something.”

  Bosch told her to hold on and went to find Sylvia. He told her about the reporter and Sylvia quickly said she wanted to talk about the girl.

  She stayed on the phone fifteen minutes. While she was talking, Bosch went out to his car, turned on the rover and switched it to Symplex five, the DWP frequency. He heard nothing.

  He pressed the transmit button and said, “Team One?”

  A few seconds passed and he was about to try again when Sheehan’s voice came back on the rover.

  “Who’s that?”

  “Bosch.”

  “What it be?”

  “How’s our subject?”

  The next voice was Rollenberger’s coming in over Sheehan.

  “This is Team Leader, please use your code designations when on the air.”

  Bosch smirked. The guy was an ass.

  “Leader of the team, what’s my designation?”

  “You are Team Six, this is Team Leader, out.”

  “Rrrrrogaaahhhh that, dream leader.”

  “Say again?”

  “Say again?”

  “Your last transmission, Team Five, what was that?”

  Rollenberger’s voice had a frustrated quality to it. Bosch was smiling. He could hear a clicking sound over the radio and he knew it was Sheehan punching his transmit button, showing his approval.

  “I asked who was on my team.”

  “Team Six, you are solo at this time.”

  “Then should I have another code, Team Leader? Perhaps, Solo Six?”

  “Bo—uh, Team Six, please keep off the air unless you need or are giving information.”

  “Rrrogaahhh!”

  Bosch put the radio down for a moment and laughed. He had tears in his eyes and he realized he was laughing too hard at something that was mildly humorous at best. He figured it was the release of some of the tension of the day. He picked up the radio again and called Sheehan back.

  “Team One, is the subject moving?”

  “That’s affirmative, Solo—I mean, Team Six.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He is code seven at the Ling’s Wings at Hollywood and Cherokee.”

  Mora was eating at a fast-food restaurant. Bosch knew that would not give him enough time to do what he planned, especially since he was a half hour’s drive from Hollywood.

  “Team One, how’s he look? Is he staying out tonight?”

  “Looking good. Looks like he is going cruising.”

  “Talk to you later.”

  “Rrrrrogah!”

  • • •

  He could tell Sylvia had been crying again when he came inside but her spirits seemed improved. Maybe it was past her, he thought, the initial pain and anger. She was sitting in the kitchen drinking a cup of hot tea.

  “Do you want a cup, Harry?”

  “No, I’m fine. I’m going to have to go.”

  “Okay.”

  “What’d you tell her, the reporter?”

  “I told her everything I could think of. I hope she does a good story.”

  “They usually do.”

  It appeared that Hanks hadn’t told the reporter about the book the girl had been reading. If he had, the reporter would definitely have told Sylvia to get her reaction. He realized that Sylvia’s returning strength was due to her having talked about the girl. He had always marveled about how women wanted to talk, to maybe set the record straight about someone they knew or loved who had died. It had happened to him countless times while making next-of-kin notifications. The women were hurt, yes, but they wanted to talk. Standing in Sylvia’s kitchen, he realized that the first time he had met her was on such a mission. He had told her about her husband’s death and they had stood in the same room they were in now, and she had talked. Almost from the start, Bosch had been hooked deeply in the heart by her.

  “You going to be all right while I’m gone?”

  “I’ll be fine, Harry. I’m feeling better.”

  “I’ll try to get back as soon as I can, but I can’t be sure when that will be. Get something to eat.”

  “Okay.”

  At the door, they hugged and kissed and Bosch had an overwhelming urge not to go, to stay with her and hold her. He finally broke away.

  “You are a good woman, Sylvia. Better than I deserve.”

  She reached up and put her hand on his mouth.

  “Don’t say that, Harry.”

  27

  Mora’s house was on Sierra Linda, near Sunset. Bosch pulled to the curb a half block away and watched the house as it grew dark outside. The street was mostly lined with Craftsman bungalows with full porches and dormer windows projecting from the sloping roofs. Bosch guessed it had been at least a decade since the street was as pretty as its name sounded. Many of the houses on the block were in disrepair. The one next to Mora’s was abandoned and boarded. On other properties it was clear the owners had opted for chain-link fences instead of paint the last time they had the money to make a choice. Almost all had bars over their windows, even the dormers up top. There was a car sitting on cinderblocks in one of the driveways. It was the kind of neighborhood where you could find at least one yard sale every weekend.

  Bosch had the rover on low on the seat next to him. The last report he had heard was that Mora was in a bar near the Boulevard called the Bullet. Bosch had been there before and pictured it in his mind, with Mora sitting at the bar. It was a dark place with a couple of neon beer signs, two pool tables, and a TV bolted to the ceiling over the bar. It wasn’t a place to go for a quick one. There was no such thing as one drink at the Bullet. Bosch figured Mora was digging in for the evening.

  As the sky turned deep purple, he watched the windows of Mora’s house but no light came on behind any of them. Bosch knew Mora was divorced but he didn’t know if he now had a roommate. Looking at the dark place from the Caprice, he doubted it.

  “Team One?” Bosch said into the rover.

  “Team One.”

  “This is Six, how’s our boy?”

  “Still bending the elbow. What are you up to tonight, Six?”

  “Just hanging around the house. Let me know if you need anything, or if he starts to move.”

  “Will do.”

  He wondered if Sheehan and Opelt understood what he was saying and he hoped Rollenberger did not. He leaned over to the glove compartment and got his bag of picks out. He
reached inside his blue plastic raid jacket and put them in the left pocket. Then he turned the rover’s volume control knob to its lowest setting and put it inside the windbreaker in the other pocket. Because it said LAPD in bright yellow letters across the back of the jacket, he wore it inside out.

  He got out, locked the car and was ready to cross the street when he heard a transmission from the radio. He got his keys back out, unlocked the car and got back in. He turned the radio up.

  “What’s that, One? I missed it.”

  “Subject is moving. Westbound on Hollywood.”

  “On foot?”

  “Negative.”

  Shit, Bosch thought. He sat in the car for another forty-five minutes while Sheehan radioed reports of Mora’s seemingly aimless cruising up and down Hollywood Boulevard. He wondered what Mora was doing. The cruising was not part of the profile of the second killer. The Follower, as far as they knew, worked exclusively out of hotels. That’s where he lured his victims. The cruising didn’t fit.

  The radio was quiet for ten minutes and then Sheehan came up on the air again.

  “He’s dropping down to the strip.”

  The Sunset Strip was another problem altogether. The strip was in L.A. but directly south of it was West Hollywood, sheriff’s department jurisdiction. If Mora dropped down south and started to make some kind of move, it could result in jurisdictional problems. A guy like Hans Off was completely frightened of jurisdictional problems.

  “He’s down to Santa Monica Boulevard now.”

  That was West Hollywood. Bosch expected Rollenberger to come up soon on the radio. He wasn’t wrong.

  “Team One, this is Team Leader. What is the subject doing?”

  “If I didn’t know what this guy was into, I’d say he was cruising Boystown.”

  “All right, Team One, keep an eye on him but we don’t want any contact. We’re out of bounds here. I’ll contact the sheriff’s watch office and inform.”

  “We’re not planning any contact.”

  Five minutes passed. Bosch watched a man walking his guard dog down Sierra Linda. He stopped to let the animal relieve itself on the burned-out lawn in front of the abandoned house.

  “We’re cool,” Sheehan’s voice said. “We’re back in the country.”

  Meaning back inside the boundaries of Los Angeles.