two garage doors at the front of the building were closed.
Bosch had to press a button, state his business and hold his badge up to a remote camera before the fence gate automatically rolled open. He parked next to a maroon Lincoln with California tags and they walked across the dusty unpaved lot to the door marked Office. He brushed his hand against the back of his hip and felt the gun under his jacket. A small measure of comfort. The door was opened as he reached for the doorknob and a man wearing a Stetson to shade his acne-scarred and sun-hardened face stepped out lighting a cigarette. He was an Anglo and Bosch thought he might have been the van driver he had seen at the eradication center in L.A.
"Last door on the left," the man said. "He's waiting." "Who's he?"
"Him."
The man in the Stetson smiled and Bosch thought his face might crack. Bosch and Aguila stepped through the door into a wood-paneled hallway. It went straight back with a small reception desk on the left followed by three doors. At the end of the hall there was a fourth door. A young Mexican woman sat at the reception desk and stared at them silently. Bosch nodded and they headed back. The first door they passed was closed and letters on it said USDA. The next two doors had no letters. The one at the end of the hall had a sign that said:
DANGER—RADIATION NO UNAUTHORIZED ADMITTANCE
Harry saw a hook next to the door that had goggles and breathing masks hanging on it. He opened the last door on the left and they stepped into a small anteroom with a secretary's desk but no secretary.
"In here, please," a voice said from the next room. Bosch and Aguila stepped into a large office that was weighted in the center by a huge steel desk. A man in a light blue guayaberra shirt sat behind it. He was writing something in a ledger book and there was a Styrofoam cup of steaming coffee on the desk. Enough light came through the jalousie window behind him so that he didn't need a desk light. He looked about fifty years old, with gray hair that showed streaks of old black dye. He also was a gringo.
The man said nothing and continued writing. Bosch looked around and saw the four-picture closed-circuit television console on a low shelf against the wall next to the desk. He saw the black-and-white images from the gate and front corners. The fourth image was very dark and was an interior look at what Harry assumed was the cargo-loading room. He saw a white van with its rear doors open, two or three men loading large white boxes into it.
"Yes?" the man said. He still hadn't looked up.
"Quite a lot of security for flies."
Now he looked up. "Excuse me?"
"Didn't know they were so valuable."
"What can I do for you?" He threw his pen down on the desk to signal that the wheels of international commerce were grinding to a halt because of Bosch.
"Harry Bosch, Los Angeles po—"
"You said that at the gate. What can I do for you?"
"I am here to talk about one of your employees."
"Name?" He picked up the pen again and went back to work on the ledger.
"You know something? I would think that if a cop had come three hundred miles, crossed the border, just to ask you a few questions, then it might rate a little interest. But not with you. That bothers me."
The pen went down harder this time and bounced off the desk into the trash can next to it.
"Officer, I don't care whether it bothers you or not. I have a shipment of perishable material I must get on the road by four o'clock. I can't afford to show the interest you seem to think you rate. Now, if you want to give me the employee's name—that is, if he was an employee—I will answer what I can."
"What do you mean 'was an employee'?"
"What?"
"You said, 'was,' just then."
"So?"
"So, what's it mean?"
"You said— you're the one who came in here with these questions. I—"
"And your name is?"
"What?"
"What is your name?"
The man stopped, thoroughly confused, and drank from the cup. He said, "You know, mister, you have no authority here."
"You said, 'even if the guy was an employee,' and I never said anything about 'was.' Makes me think, you already know we are talking about an individual that was. Who is dead now."