behind Northstar. He patted the dead man’s pockets, looking for car keys, but he found none and just as quickly as his plan had formed, Bosch began to feel it disappear. Where were the keys? He needed that computer to tell him where to go and how to find his way.
“Harry, what is it?”
“His keys! We need his keys or we-”
He suddenly stopped. He realized he had missed something. When he had made his run on the pier and ducked for cover behind the white Mercedes, he had heard and smelled the car’s diesel engine. The car had been left running.
At the time it meant little to Bosch because he was sure his daughter was on the crane boat. But now he knew different.
Bosch stood up and started moving down the passageway toward the ladder, his mind racing far ahead of him. He heard Sun following behind him.
There was only one reason why Dennis Ho would have left his car running. He intended to come back to it. Not with the girl, because she was not on the boat. But to get the girl once the storage compartment in the hull was ready and it was safe to transfer her.
Bosch charged out of the pilothouse and crossed the gangway to the pier. He ran to the driver’s door of the white Mercedes and flung it open. He checked the backseat and found it empty. He then studied the dashboard, looking for a button that would open the trunk.
Finding none, he turned the car off and grabbed the keys. – Moving to the back of the car, he pushed the trunk button on the ignition key.
The trunk lid lifted automatically. Bosch moved in, and there lying on a blanket inside the compartment was his daughter. She was blindfolded and gagged. Her arms were pinned to her body with several wrappings of duct tape. Her ankles were taped together as well. Bosch cried out at the sight of her.
“Maddie?”
He almost jumped into the trunk with her as he quickly pulled the blindfold up and went to work on the gag.
“It’s me, baby! It’s Dad!”
She opened her eyes and started blinking.
“You’re safe now, Maddie. You’re safe!”
As the gag came loose, the girl let out a shriek that pierced her father’s heart and would stay with him always. It was at once an exorcism of fear, a cry for help and the sound of relief and even joy.
“Daddy!”
She started to cry as Bosch reached in and lifted her out of the trunk. Sun was suddenly there and helping.
“It’s going to be okay now,” Bosch said. “It will all be okay.”
They stood the young girl up and then Bosch used the teeth of one of the keys to start cutting through the tape. He noticed that Madeline was still wearing her school uniform. The moment her arms and hands were free, she grabbed Bosch around the neck and squeezed with all her life.
“I knew you would come,” she said between gasping sobs.
Bosch didn’t know if he had ever heard words that meant more to him. He held her just as tightly in his own arms. He turned his face down to whisper in her ear.
“Maddie?”
“What, Dad?”
“Are you hurt, Maddie? I mean, physically hurt. If they hurt you we need to get you to-”
“No, I’m not hurt.”
He pushed back from her and put his hands on her shoulders as he studied her eyes.
“You sure? You can tell me.”
“I’m sure, Dad. I’m fine.”
“Okay. Then, we need to go.”
He turned to Sun.
“Can you get us to the airport?”
“No problem.”
“Then, let’s go.”
Bosch put his arm around his daughter and they started to follow Sun off the pier. She held on to him the whole way and it wasn’t until they got to the car that she seemed to acknowledge the meaning of Sun’s presence and asked the question Harry had been dreading.
“Dad?”
“What, Maddie?”
“Where’s Mom?”
38
Bosch didn’t answer her question directly. He simply told his daughter that her mother could not be with them at the moment but had packed a bag for her and that they needed to get to the airport to leave Hong Kong. Sun said nothing and picked up his pace, moving in front of them and removing himself from the discussion.
The explanation seemingly bought Harry some time to consider how and when he would give the answer that would alter the rest of his daughter’s life. When they got to the black Mercedes, he put her in the backseat before going to the trunk to grab