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It had been years since Bosch was at the LAPD’s Van Nuys Division, but it looked like it had not changed. It anchored one end of the Van Nuys Civic Center, which included two courthouses, a federal building, and a satellite city hall. Public access to the division was up a steep flight of stairs with no elevator option. Bosch didn’t want to stress his knee, so when he got there, he called Ballard and told her he was waiting on a bench in the plaza. Five minutes later she came down the steps with Laffont and Masser.

“SIS is going in,” Ballard said. “We’ll go over when we get the all-clear.”

“Search warrant?” Bosch asked.

“Yes. We’re going to separate them but keep them there while we search. We’ll try to impress upon Gloria the seriousness of her situation.”

Bosch nodded his approval of the plan even though he wasn’t enthusiastic about making a deal with Gloria. She wasn’t the actual killer of Jennifer Talbot, but there was blood on her hands, no doubt, and Bosch didn’t think she should get a free pass.

“So what was in Glendale?” Ballard asked.

“Interview with an ex-Poe I used to know,” Bosch said.

“The MacLaren case? How’s that going?”

“Uh, slow. But I think I got a lead off him. We’ll see.”

Ballard’s phone rang and she raised a finger to pause the conversation and stepped away. She spoke on the phone briefly and then came back.

“Okay, we’re good to go,” she said. “Harry, you want to ride with us?”

“You might be there for the long haul with the search and stuff,” Bosch said. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Tom, you ride with Harry,” she said. “Show him the way.”

“Sure,” Laffont said.

Bosch knew Laffont was ex-FBI but little else about him. He expected the ride over to Vesper to be short on conversation, but he was wrong.

“Renée told me a little bit about that case you’re working on,” Laffont said.

“She did?” Bosch responded.

“Yeah, because when I was with the Bureau, there was an investigation of that place after some of the abuses came to light.”

“When was that?”

“Late eighties. I know that was after your time, but there was a whistleblower who came into the Bureau and it wasn’t my case but I remember hearing about it. It was a guy who knew all the secrets because he’d been there a long time.”

“I don’t remember there being any case with the feds.”

“I don’t think they ever made a case, so it never leaked. I actually don’t know what happened. I just remember the office was handling it.”

“You think the whistleblower might still be around?”

“That I don’t know. But I was thinking maybe the records are still around. You know, transcripts of what he told the agents. Maybe there’d be something connected to your thing.”

“Maybe. I don’t know if Renée told you, but the FBI and I have never really gotten along. Nothing personal.”

“No, I get it. But I was thinking if you wanted me to, I could check around and see if there was anything on it that was still, you know, within reach. I’m not guaranteeing anything, but the Bureau has a long memory, if you know what I mean. It doesn’t purge anything. There were still J. Edgar memos from the 1930s floating around the office when I was there.”

“I know that about the Bureau, and sure, anything you can find on MacLaren, I’d be interested in looking at.”

“Okay, I’ll make a few calls. Must have been tough — Renée told me you kind of grew up there.”

“It wasn’t a nice place but I survived it. Kids there had no choice.”

“I was reading about the lawsuits they just settled. Holy Mother, what a house of horrors.”