chemotherapy or radiation. It may have been undiagnosed at this point. But he would have known soon enough.”
Bosch thought about his own lungs. He had not smoked in years but they say the damage is done early. Sometimes in the mornings his lungs felt heavy and full in his chest. He’d had a case a few years before that resulted in his being exposed to a high-level dose of radiation. He’d cleared medical on it but always sort of thought or hoped that the blast had knocked down anything that might be growing in his chest.
Bosch took out his cell phone again and once more put it on camera function. He leaned over the bowl and shot a photo of the ravaged organs.
“What are you doing?” Laksmi asked.
“I want to send it to somebody.”
He checked the photo and it was clear enough. He then sent it off in an e-mail.
“Who? Not the family, I hope.”
“No, my daughter.”
“Your daughter?”
There was a tone of outrage in her voice.
“She needs to see what smoking can do.”
“Nice.”
She said nothing else. Bosch put his phone away and checked his watch. It was a double display watch that gave him the time in L.A. and Hong Kong-a present from his daughter after too many miscalculated middle-of-the-night phone calls. It was just past three o’clock in L.A. His daughter was fifteen hours ahead and sleeping. She’d get up for school in about an hour and would get the photo then. He knew it would bring a protest call from her but even a call like that was better than none.
He smiled at the thought of it and then refocused on the work. He was ready to get moving again.
“Thank you, Doctor,” he said. “For your records, I’m taking the ballistic evidence over to forensics.”
“Did you sign for it?”
She pointed to a clipboard on the counter and Bosch found she had already filled out the chain-of-evidence report. Bosch signed the line acknowledging he was now in possession of the evidence listed. He headed toward the autopsy suite’s door.
“Give me a couple days on the hard copy,” Laksmi said.
Meaning the formal autopsy report.
“You got it,” Bosch said as he went through the door.
10
On the way to forensics Bosch called Chu and asked about the tattoos.
“I haven’t translated them yet,” Chu said.
“What do you mean, did you look at them?”
“Yeah, I looked at them but I can’t translate them. I’m trying to find somebody who can.”
“Chu, I saw you talking to Mrs. Li. You translated for her.”
“Bosch, just because I speak it doesn’t mean I can read it. There are eight thousand Chinese symbols like these. All my schooling was in English. I spoke Chinese at home. Never read it.”
“Okay, then is there somebody there that can get me a translation? It is the Asian Crimes Unit, isn’t it?”
“Asian Gang Unit. And, yes, there are people here who can do it, but they don’t happen to be here right now. As soon as I have it I will call you.”
“Great. Call me.”
Bosch hung up. He was frustrated by the delay. A case had to move like a shark. It could never stop its momentum because that could be fatal. He checked his watch for the time in Hong Kong, then pulled to the curb and sent the photo of the ankle tattoos to his daughter in an e-mail. She would get it on her phone-right after she saw the photo of the lungs he had sent her.
Pleased with himself, Bosch pulled back into traffic. He was becoming more and more adept at digital communication thanks to her. She had insisted that they communicate on all modern levels: e-mail, text, video-she had even tried unsuccessfully to get him onto something called Twitter. He insisted in return that they also communicate the old-fashioned way-verbal conversation. He made sure their phones were covered by international call plans.
He made it back to the PAB a few minutes later and went straight to the Tool Marks and Ballistics unit on the fourth floor. He took his four plastic evidence bags to a technician named Ross Malone. His job was to take bullets and casings and use them to attempt to identify the make and model of the firearm they came from. Later, in the event that a gun was recovered, he would be able to match the bullets to it through ballistic testing and analysis.
Malone began with the casing, using a set of tweezers to take it from its packaging and then hold it under