get out. You find a place to park.”
Sun pulled to the curb and Bosch jumped out. He’d taken the photo print from his backpack and had it ready. Sun then pulled away, leaving Eleanor and Bosch on the sidewalk. It was now midmorning and the streets and sidewalks were crowded with people. Smoke was in the air and the smell of fire. The hungry ghosts were close. The streetscape was replete with neon, mirrored glass and giant plasma screens broadcasting silent images of jerking motion and staccato edits.
Bosch referred to the photo and then looked up and traced the skyline.
“Where’s the Canon sign?” he asked.
“Harry, you’re mixed up,” Eleanor said.
She put her hands on his shoulders and turned him completely around.
“Remember, everything is backwards.”
She pointed almost directly up, her finger drawing a line up the side of the building they were in front of. Bosch looked up. The Canon sign was directly overhead and at an angle that made it unreadable. He was looking at the bottom edge of the sign’s letters. It was rotating slowly.
“Okay, got it,” he said. “We start from there.”
He looked back down and referred to the photo.
“I think we have to go at least another block further in from the harbor.”
“Let’s wait for Sun Yee.”
“Call him and tell him where we’re going.”
Bosch started off. Eleanor had no choice but to follow.
“All right, all right.”
She pulled her phone and started to make the call. As he walked, Bosch kept his eyes high on the buildings, looking for air-conditioning units. A block here was several buildings long. Looking up as he walked, he had a few near misses with other pedestrians. There seemed to be no collective uniformity of walking to your right. People moved every which way and Bosch had to pay attention to avoid collisions. At one point the people moving in front of him suddenly stepped left and right and Bosch almost stumbled over an old woman lying on the pavement, her hands clasped in beseeching prayer above a coin basket. Bosch was able to avoid her and reached into his pocket at the same time.
Eleanor quickly put her hand on his arm.
“No. They say any money you give them is taken by the triads at the end of the day.”
Bosch didn’t question it. He stayed focused on what was ahead of him. They walked another two blocks and then Bosch saw and heard another piece of the puzzle drop into place. Across the street was an entrance to the Mass Transit Railway. A glass enclosure leading to the escalators down to the underground subway.
“Wait,” Bosch said, stopping. “We’re close.”
“What is it?” Eleanor asked.
“The MTR. You could hear it on the video.”
As if on cue the growing whoosh of escaping air rose as a train came into the underground station. It sounded like a wave. Bosch looked down at the photo in his hand and then up at the buildings surrounding him.
“Let’s cross.”
“Can we just wait a minute for Sun Yee? I can’t tell him where to meet us if we keep moving.”
“Once we’re across.”
They hurried across the street on a flashing pedestrian signal. Bosch noticed several ragtag women begging for coins near the MTR entrance. More people were coming up out of the station than were going down. Kowloon was getting more and more crowded. The air was thick with humidity and Bosch could feel his shirt sticking to his back.
Bosch turned around and looked up. They were in an area of older construction. It was almost like having walked through first class to economy on a plane. The buildings on this block and heading further in were shorter-in the twenty-story range-and in poorer condition than those in the blocks closer to the harbor. Harry noticed many open windows and many individual air-conditioning boxes hanging from windows. He could feel the reservoir of adrenaline inside open up.
“Okay, this is it. She’s in one of these buildings.”
He started moving down the block to get away from the crowding and loud conversations surrounding the MTR entrance. He kept his eyes on the upper levels of the buildings surrounding him. He was in a concrete canyon and somewhere up there in one of the crevices was his missing daughter.
“Harry, stop! I just told Sun Yee to meet us at the MTR entrance.”
“You wait for him. I’ll be just down here.”
“No, I’m coming with you.”
Halfway down the block, Bosch stopped and referred to the photo again. But there was no final clue that helped him. He knew