put his hand down on the counter for balance he would be able to reach the row and take one of the bottles easily.
“Harry?”
Bosch straightened back up and turned to his partner.
“The sergeant was right,” Ferras said. “The camera system records to disc. There’s no disc in the machine. It was either pulled or he wasn’t recording to disc and the camera was just for show.”
“Are there any backup discs?”
“There’s a couple back there on the counter but it’s a one-disc system. It just records over and over on the same disc. I worked Robbery way back when and we saw a lot of these. They last about a day and then it records over it. You pull the disc if you want to check something but you have to do it in the same day.”
“Okay, make sure we get those extra discs.”
Lucas came back in through the front door.
“ACU is here,” he said. “Should I send him in?”
Bosch looked at Lucas for a long moment before answering.
“It’s AGU,” he finally said. “But don’t send him in. I’ll be right out.”
3
Bosch stepped out of the store into the sunlight. It was still warm though getting late in the day. The dry Santa Ana winds were passing through the city. Fires in the hills had put a pallor of smoke in the air. Bosch could feel the sweat drying on the back of his neck.
He was almost immediately met outside the door by a plainclothes detective.
“Detective Bosch?”
“That’s me.”
“Detective David Chu, AGU. Patrol called me down. How can I be of help?”
Chu was short and slightly built. There was no trace of an accent in his voice. Bosch signaled him to follow as he ducked back under the tape and headed to his car. He took off his suit jacket as he went. He took the matchbook out and put it in his pants pocket, then folded the jacket inside out and put it in a clean cardboard box he kept in the trunk of his work car.
“Hot in there,” he told Chu.
Bosch opened the middle button of his shirt and stuck his tie inside. He now planned to get fully involved in the crime scene investigation and didn’t want it to get in the way.
“Hot out here, too,” Chu said. “The patrol sergeant told me to wait until you came out.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. Okay, what we’ve got is, the old man who has run this store for a number of years is dead behind the counter. Shot at least three times in what looks like a robbery. His wife, who does not speak English, came into the store and found him. She called their son, who then called it in. We obviously need to interview her and that’s where you come in. We may also need help with the son when he gets here. That’s about all I know at the moment.”
“And we’re sure they’re Chinese?”
“Pretty sure. The patrol sergeant who made the call knew the victim, Mr. Li.”
“Do you know which dialect Mrs. Li speaks?”
They headed back to the tape.
“Nope. Is that going to be a problem?”
“I am familiar with the five main Chinese dialects and proficient in Cantonese and Mandarin. These are the two we most often encounter here in L.A.”
This time Bosch held the tape up for Chu so he could go back under.
“Which are you?”
“I was born here, Detective. But my family is from Hong Kong and I was raised speaking Mandarin at home.”
“Yeah? I have a kid who lives in Hong Kong with her mother. She’s getting good at Mandarin.”
“Good for her. I hope it will be useful to her.”
They entered the store and Bosch gave Chu a quick view of the body behind the counter and then walked him to the rear of the store. They were met by Ferras and then Chu was used to make introductions to Mrs. Li.
The newly widowed woman appeared to be in shock. Bosch saw no indication that she had shed a single tear for her husband so far. She seemed to be in a dissociated state that Bosch had seen before. Her husband was lying dead in the front of the store. She was surrounded by strangers who spoke a different language. Bosch guessed she was waiting for her son to arrive, and then the tears would fall.
Chu was gentle with her and conversational at first. Bosch believed that they were speaking Mandarin. His daughter had told him that Mandarin was more singsong and less guttural than