AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re not disturbing me. Did Detective Ballard call you?”
“She did. She told me what happened, that the man who killed my Laura is dead.”
“Yes, he killed himself when we were closing in on him. I’m sorry. I wanted … we wanted to take him alive so he could be punished.”
“Don’t be sorry. I believe he is being punished. He’s in Hell.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Call me Juanita.”
“Juanita.”
“I called because I want to thank you for what you did. Detective Ballard told me. I hope you’re okay and will heal quickly.”
“I’m fine, Juanita.”
“And I want to thank you for the answers. I told you I was holding on for answers.”
“I understand.”
“Thanks to you and Detective Ballard, I can let go now … and I can join Laura and my husband.”
Bosch wasn’t sure what to say. He knew that almost everybody believed in something, holding a hope that there wasn’t just an empty void at the end.
“I understand,” he said.
He looked out across the Cahuenga Pass to his sideways view of the Hollywood sign. He felt the inadequacy of his response to her.
“I’ll let you go now,” Juanita said. “Once again, thank you, Detective Bosch.”
“Harry.”
“Thank you, Harry. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye, Juanita.”
Bosch clutched the phone in his hand as he thought about Juanita waiting years for answers and then not even getting the full truth of things. A deep font of anger started to well up inside him.
Bosch limped back inside the house and used his laptop to search for a phone number. He called it and asked by name for the reporter whose voice he had heard at the LAPD press conference. As he waited for the transfer, he went back out to the deck. He was staring out across the pass when the voice with a slight Caribbean accent came into his ear.
“Keisha Russell, how can I help you?”
“You called me a gunslinger on live television.”
“Harry Bosch. It’s been a while.”
He remembered how she said his name. It sounded to him like she was taking a bite out of a crisp apple.
“I thought you were in D.C., covering politics.”
“I got tired of the winters. Plus, I almost got killed at the Capitol last year. Decided it was time to come home to my first love, covering crime.”
“I thought covering politics was covering crime.”
“Funny. And funny that you called me. I wanted to call you but couldn’t find anybody around here who would share your number. Did you call just to complain, or is there something you want to say?”
Bosch gave one last thought to holding back, but quickly the images he carried from the case—Sarah Pearlman, Laura Wilson, and even Juanita Wilson—crowded such consideration out.
