bodyguard. Eleanor made a small gesture with her hand in case Harry hadn’t noticed her. He saw the mixture of pain and hope on her face and had to drop his eyes to the floor as he approached.
“Eleanor. I didn’t-”
She grabbed him in a quick and awkward embrace that abruptly ended his sentence. He understood that she was telling him that blame and recriminations were for later. There were more important things now. She then stepped away and gestured to the man in the suit.
“This is Sun Yee.”
Bosch nodded but then put out his hand, a gesture he hoped would help him figure out what to call Sun Yee.
“Harry,” he said.
The other man nodded back and gripped his hand tightly but said nothing. No help there. He would have to take Eleanor’s cue with the name. Bosch guessed Sun Yee was in his late forties. Eleanor’s age. He was short but powerfully built. His chest and arms pressed the contours of the silk suit jacket to the limit. He wore sunglasses although it was still before dawn.
Bosch turned to his ex-wife.
“He’s driving us?”
“He’s helping us,” she corrected. “He works in security at the casino.”
Bosch nodded. That was one mystery solved.
“Does he speak English?”
“Yes, I do,” the man answered for himself.
Bosch studied him for a moment and then looked at Eleanor and saw in her face a familiar resolve. It was a look he had seen many times when they had been together. She wasn’t going to allow an argument on this. This man was part of the package or Bosch was on his own.
Bosch knew that if circumstances dictated it, he could split off and make his way alone through the city. It was what he had anticipated doing, anyway. But for now he was willing to go with Eleanor’s plan.
“You sure you want to do this, Eleanor? I was planning on working on my own.”
“She’s my daughter, too. Where you go I go.”
“Okay, then.”
They started walking toward the glass doors that would lead them outside. Bosch let Sun Yee take the lead so he could talk privately with his ex-wife. Despite the obvious strain playing clearly on her face, she was just as beautiful as ever to him. She had her hair tied back in a no-nonsense manner. It accented the clean line and determined set of her jaw. No matter how infrequently or what the circumstances, he could never look at her without thinking about the could-have-beens. It was an overworked cliché, but Bosch had always believed that they were meant to be together. Their daughter gave them a lifelong connection, but to Bosch it was not enough.
“So tell me what’s happening, Eleanor,” he said. “I’ve been in the air for almost fourteen hours. What’s new on this end?”
She nodded.
“I spent four hours at the mall yesterday. When you called and left a message from the airport, I must’ve been in security. I either didn’t have a signal or just didn’t hear the call.”
“Don’t worry about it. What did you find out?”
“They have surveillance video that shows her with the brother and sister. Quick and He. It’s all from a distance. They’re not identifiable on it-except for Mad. I’d be able to pick her out anywhere.”
“Does it show the grab?”
“There was no grab. They were hanging out together, mostly in the food court. Then Quick lit up a cigarette and somebody complained. Security moved in and kicked him out. Madeline walked out with them. Voluntarily. And they never came back in.”
Bosch nodded. He could see it. It could all have been a plan to lure her out. Quick lit up, knowing all along that he would be ejected from the mall and that Madeline would go out with him.
“What else?”
“That’s it from the mall. Quick is familiar to security there but they had no ID or file on him.”
“What time was it when they walked out?”
“Six-fifteen.”
Bosch did the math. That was Friday. His daughter had walked off the mall videotape almost thirty-six hours ago.
“When’s it get dark here? What time?”
“Usually by eight. Why?”
“The video that was sent to me was shot in daylight. So less than two hours after she walked out of the mall with them she was in Kowloon and they made the video.”
“I want to see the video, Harry.”
“I’ll show you in the car. You said you got my message. Did you find out about helicopter pads in Kowloon?”
Nodding, Eleanor said, “I called the head of client transportation at the casino. He told me that