Bosch felt a kick of adrenaline as he put the work boot aside to look at the card. He had finally found something.
It was a two-sided card. Chinese on one side and English on the other. Bosch, of course, studied the English side.
JIMMY FONG
FLEET MANAGER
CAUSEWAY TAXI SERVICE
The card had an address in Causeway Bay and two phone numbers. Bosch sat down for the first time since starting the suitcase search and continued to study the card. He wondered what he had—if he had anything at all. Causeway Bay was not far from Happy Valley and the shopping mall from which his daughter was most likely abducted. And the fact that a business card for a taxi service fleet manager had been hidden in Chang’s work boot was cause to ask why.
He flipped the card over and studied the Chinese side. There were three lines of copy just like on the English side, plus the address and phone numbers in the corner. It appeared that the card said the same thing on both sides.
Bosch made a copy of the card and put the original in an evidence envelope so that Chu could take a look at it. He then moved on to the other pair of shoes. In another twenty minutes he was finished and had found nothing else. He remained intrigued by the business card but disappointed in the lack of returns from the search. He put all the belongings back in the suitcase as close to the way he found it all as he could. He then closed it and pulled the zipper.
After placing the suitcase back on the floor he called his partner. He was anxious to know if the search of Chang’s car had gone better than the search of his phone and suitcase.
“We’re only about halfway through,” Ferras said. “They started with the trunk.”
“Anything?”
“Not so far.”
Bosch felt his hopes beginning to ebb away. Chang was going to come up clean. And that meant he was going to walk the following Monday.
“Did you get anything out of the phone?” Ferras asked.
“No, nothing. It was wiped. There wasn’t much in the suitcase either.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, like I said, we haven’t even gotten inside the car yet. Just the trunk. We’ll check the door panels and the air filter, too.”
“Good. Let me know.”
Bosch closed the phone and then immediately called Chu.
“You still at booking?”
“No, man, I cleared booking a half hour ago. I’m in the courthouse, waiting to see Judge Champagne and get the PCD signed.”
After booking a suspect for murder it was required that a judge sign a Probable Cause Detention document, which contained the arrest report and laid out the evidence that led to the suspect’s incarceration. The threshold for probable cause to arrest was much lower than the requirement to file charges. Getting a PCD signed was usually routine but nonetheless Chu had made a good move in going back to the judge who had already signed their search warrant.
“Good. I wanted to check on that.”
“Got it covered. What are you doing there, Harry? What’s going on with your daughter?”
“She’s still missing.”
“I’m sorry. What can I do?”
“You can tell me about the booking.”
It took Chu a moment to make the jump from Bosch’s daughter to Chang’s booking into the L.A. City Jail.
“There’s nothing really to tell. He never spoke a word. He grunted a few times and that was it. He’s booked into high power and that’s hopefully where he’ll stay till Monday.”
“He’s not going anywhere. Did he call a lawyer?”
“They were going to give him access to the phone after he was inside. So I don’t know for sure but I assume he did.”
“Okay.”
Bosch was just fishing around, looking for anything that might be a direction and would get the adrenaline flowing.
“We got the search warrant,” he said. “But there was nothing on the phone and nothing that helps in the suitcase. There was a business card hidden in one of his shoes. It’s got English on one side and Chinese on the other. I want to see if they match up. I know you don’t read Chinese, but if I faxed it over to the AGU could you have someone there take a look?”
“Yeah, Harry, but do it now. That place is probably clearing out.”
Bosch looked at his watch. It was four-thirty on a Friday afternoon. Squad rooms across the city were turning into ghost towns.
“I’ll do it now. Call over there and tell them it’s coming.”
He closed the phone and left the cubicle for the copy office on the other side of the squad room.
Four-thirty. In six hours Bosch had to be at the airport. He knew that once he was on the plane his investigation would go on hold. For the next fourteen-plus hours while in flight, things would continue to happen with his daughter, and with the case, but Bosch would be in stasis. Like a space traveler in the movies who is put into hibernation during the long journey home from the mission.
He knew that he couldn’t get on that plane with nothing. One way or another he had to make a break.
After he faxed the business card over to the Asian Gang Unit, he went back to his cubicle. He had left his phone on his desk and he saw that he had missed a call from his ex-wife. There was no message but he called her back.
“You find something?” he asked.
“I’ve had very long conversations with two of Maddie’s friends. This time they were talking.”
“He?”
“No, not He. I don’t have a full name or a number for her. Neither of the other girls did either.”
“What did they tell you?”
“That He and her brother are not from the school. They met up with them at the mall but they’re not even from Happy Valley.”
“Do they know where they came from?”
“No, but they knew they weren’t local. They said Maddie seemed to get really tight with He and that brought her brother into the picture. This is all in the last month or so. Since she came back from her visit with you, in fact. Both girls said she had put some distance between her and them.”
“What’s the brother’s name?”
“All I got was Quick. He said his name was Quick but like with his sister, they never got a last name.”
“That’s not a lot of help. Anything else?”
“Well, they confirmed what Maddie told you, that Quick was the one who smoked. They said he was sort of rough trade. He has tattoos and bracelets and I guess…well, I guess they sort of were attracted to the element of danger.”
“They or Madeline?”
“Maddie mostly.”
“Did they think she might have gone with him Friday after school?”
“They wouldn’t say so but, yes, I think that’s what they were trying to say.”
“Did you ask if Quick ever talked about triad affiliation?”
“I asked that and they said that never came up. It wouldn’t have, anyway.”
“Why not?”
“Because you don’t talk about that here. The triads are anonymous. They’re everywhere but anonymous.”
“Okay.”
“You know, you haven’t really told me what you think is going on. I’m not stupid. I know what you’re doing. You’re trying not to upset me with the facts but I think I need to know the facts now, Harry.”
“Okay.”
Bosch knew she was right. If he wanted her best effort, then she had to know all he knew.
“I’m working the murder of a Chinese man who owned a liquor store in the south end. He made regular protection payments to the triad. He was killed on the same day and during the same hour that the weekly payments were always made. That put us onto Bo-Jing Chang, the triad bagman. The trouble is, that’s all we’ve got. No evidence directly connecting him to the murder. Then today we had to take Chang down because he was about to get on a plane and flee the country. We had no choice. So what it comes down to is we have the weekend to get enough evidence to suppo
rt the charge or we let him walk and he gets on a plane, never to be seen again.”
“And how does this connect to our daughter?”
“Eleanor, I’m dealing with people I don’t know. The Asian Gang Unit in the LAPD and the Monterey Park Police. Somebody got the word to Chang directly or to the triad that we were onto him and that’s why he tried to bolt. They could just as easily have backgrounded me and zeroed in on Madeline as a way to get to me, to send the message that I need to stand down. I got a call. Somebody told me there would be consequences if I didn’t back off Chang. I never dreamed that the consequences would be…”
“Maddie,” Eleanor said, finishing the thought.
A long silence followed and Bosch guessed that his ex-wife was trying to control her emotions, hating Bosch at the same time she had to rely on him to save their daughter.
“Eleanor?” he finally asked.
“What?”
Her voice was clipped but very obviously filled with dark rage.
“Did Maddie’s friends give you an age on this kid Quick?”
“They both said they thought he was at least seventeen. They said he had a car. I spoke to them separately and they both said the same thing about all of this. I think they were telling me what they knew.”
Bosch didn’t respond. He was thinking.
“The mall opens in a couple hours,” Eleanor continued. “I plan to be there with photos of Maddie.”
“That’s a good idea. There might be video. If Quick was a problem in the past, mall security might have a jacket on him.”
“I thought about all of that.”
“Sorry, I know.”
“What does your suspect say about all of this?”
“Our suspect won’t talk and I’ve just been through his suitcase and his phone and we’re still working on the car. So far nothing.”
“What about where he lives?”
“As of now we don’t have enough for a search warrant.”
That hung out there for a few moments, both of them knowing that with their daughter missing, legal formalities like search warrant approvals were not going to matter to Bosch.
“I should probably get back to it. I have six hours before I have to be at the airport.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll talk to you as soon—”
“Harry?”
“What?”
“I am so upset I don’t know what to say.”
“I understand, Eleanor.”
“If we get her back, you may never see her again. I just need to tell you that.”
Bosch paused. He knew she was entitled to her anger and everything else. Anger might make her sharper in her efforts.
“There is no if,” he finally said. “I’m going to get her back.”
He waited for her to respond but got only silence.
“Okay, Eleanor. I’ll call you when I know something.”
After closing the phone Bosch turned to his desktop computer and pulled up Chang’s booking photo. He then sent it over to the color printer. He wanted to have a copy of it with him in Hong Kong.
Chu called back after that and said he had gotten the PCD signed and was leaving the courthouse. He said he had spoken to an officer at the AGU who had taken Bosch’s fax and could confirm that both sides of the business card said the same thing. The card came from a manager of a taxi fleet based in Causeway Bay. Completely innocuous on its face, but Bosch was still bothered by the card being secreted in Chang’s shoe and by it being from a business located so close to where his daughter had last been seen by her friends. Bosch had never been a believer in coincidence. He wasn’t going to start now.
Bosch thanked Chu and hung up just as Lieutenant Gandle stopped by his cubicle on the way out.
“Harry, I feel like I’m leaving you in the lurch. What can I do for you?”
“There’s nothing that can be done that is not already being done.”
He updated Gandle on the searches and the lack of solid findings so far. He also reported that there was nothing new on his daughter’s whereabouts or abductors. Gandle’s face turned sour.
“We need a break,” he said. “We really need a break.”
“We’re working on it.”
“When do you leave?”
“In six hours.”
“Okay, you have my numbers. Call me anytime, day or night, if you need anything. I’ll do whatever I can.”
“Thanks, Boss.”
“You want me to stay here with you?”
“No, I’m fine. I was about to head over to the OPG and let Ferras go home if he wants to.”
“Okay, Harry, let me know when you find something.”
“Will do.”
“You’ll get her back. I know you will.”
“I know it, too.”
Gandle then awkwardly put his hand out and Bosch shook it. It was probably the first time since they had met three years earlier that they shook. Gandle left then and Bosch surveyed the squad room. It looked like he was the only one left.
He turned and looked down at the suitcase. He knew he had to lug it to the elevator and get it down to evidence lockup. The phone had to be booked into evidence, too. After that, he would leave the building as well. But not for a leisurely weekend at home with the family. Bosch was on a mission. And he would stop at nothing to see it through. Even under Eleanor’s last threat. Even if it meant that saving his daughter might mean he’d never see her again.
22
Bosch waited until dark to break into Bo-Jing Chang’s home. It was a town house with a shared entry vestibule with the adjoining apartment. This offered him cover as he used his picks to turn the dead bolt and then the doorknob lock. As he worked, he felt no guilt and had no second thoughts about the line he was crossing. The searches of the car, suitcase and phone had all been busts and now Bosch was desperate. He wasn’t searching for evidence to make a case against Chang. He was searching for anything that would help him locate his daughter. She was missing for more than twelve hours now and breaking and entering, putting his livelihood and career on the line, seemed like minimal risks compared with what he would face within himself if he didn’t get her back safe.
Once the final pin moved into place, he opened the door and moved quickly into the apartment, closing and relocking the door behind him. The search of the suitcase had told Bosch that Chang had packed for good, that he wasn’t coming back. But he doubted Chang had fit everything into that one suitcase. He had to have left things behind. Things of less personal meaning to him, but possibly of value to Bosch. Chang had printed his boarding pass out at some point before heading to the airport. Since Chang had been under surveillance, Bosch knew he had made no other stops. He was sure there had to be a computer and printer in the apartment.
Harry waited thirty seconds for his eyes to adjust to the darkness before moving from the door. Once he could see reasonably well, he moved into the living room, banging into a chair and almost knocking over a lamp before managing to find the switch and turn it on. He then stepped quickly to a pair of open drapes and pulled them closed across the front window.
He turned from the window and surveyed the room. It was a small living room and dining room combination with a pass-through window to a kitchen in the back. A stairwell on the right went up to a bedroom loft. On initial view, Bosch saw nothing of a personal nature left behind. No computer, no printer. It was just furniture. He quickly searched the room and then moved into the kitchen. Again, the place was barren of personal effects. The cabinets were bare, not even a cereal box left behind. Under the sink was a trash can but it was empty and freshly lined with a plastic garbage bag.
Bosch moved back into the living room and headed for the stairs. There was a light switch at the bottom of the staircase that had a dimmer and controlled a ceiling light in the loft. He turned it on low and then went back to the living room lamp and turned it off.
The loft was sparely furnished with just a queen-size bed and a bureau. The
re was no desk and no computer. Bosch quickly moved to the bureau and opened and closed every drawer, finding each had been cleared out. In the bathroom, the wastebasket was empty and medicine cabinet bare. He lifted the lid off the toilet tank but found nothing hidden there either.
The place had been cleaned out. It must have been after Chang had left, drawing the surveillance away. Bosch thought about the call from Tsing Motors that had been logged on the suspect’s phone. Maybe he had given Vincent Tsing the all-clear sign and the apartment had been cleared out and cleaned.
Disappointed and feeling that he had been expertly played, Bosch decided to locate the apartment complex’s refuse bin and attempt to find the trash bags that had been taken from the apartment. Maybe they had slipped up and left Chang’s trash behind. A thrown-away note or a scribbled phone number would be helpful.
He was three steps down the stairs when he heard a key hit the front door lock. He quickly turned around and moved back up into the loft and hid behind a support column.
Lights below were turned on and the apartment immediately filled with Chinese voices. His back to the column, Bosch counted the voices of two men and one woman. One of the men was dominating the conversation and whenever the other two spoke, they seemed to be asking questions.
Bosch moved to the edge of the column and risked a look down. He saw the dominant male gesturing to the furnishings. He then opened a closet door beneath the staircase and made a sweeping hand movement. Bosch realized he was showing the place to the couple. It was already for rent.
This told him that sooner or later the three people below would be coming up to the loft. He looked at the bed. It was a bare mattress on top of a thick box spring sitting on a frame a foot off the ground. He decided it was the only place he could possibly hide and not be discovered. He quickly got down to the floor and shimmied under the bed, his chest scraping on the underside of the box spring. He moved to the center and waited, tracking the apartment tour by the voices.
Finally, the entourage headed up the steps to the loft. Bosch held his breath as the couple moved around the room and both sides of the bed. He waited for someone to sit on the bed but that never happened.
Nine Dragons Page 15