in his in box, so he must not have seen it yet. I took it back. It's useless now and it might be better if he didn't see it."
Harry glanced at the memo and then folded the page and put it in his pocket.
"Frankly," she said, "I don't think any of the paper was out in the open long enough . . . I mean, I just don't see it. And Rourke . . . he's a technocrat, not a killer. Like they said about you at behavioral sciences, he wouldn't cross the line for money."
Bosch looked at her and found himself wanting to say something to please her, to get her back on his side. He could think of nothing and could not understand this new coldness in her manner.
"Forget it," he said, and then, looking down at the lists, he added, "How far did you people check out these people who reported no losses?"
She looked down at the printouts where Bosch had circled list B. There were nineteen names on the list.
"We ran each name for criminal records," she began. "We did a telephone interview and later a face-to-face. If an agent got weird vibes or somebody's story didn't play well, then another agent would come by unannounced to do a follow-up interview. Kind of get another opinion. I was not part of that. We had a second crew who handled most of the field interviews. If there is a particular name there that you are interested in, I could pull the interview summaries."
"What about the Vietnamese names on the lists? I count thirty-four boxholders with Vietnamese names, four are on the no-loss list, one on the dead-end list."
"What about the Vietnamese? There is also probably a breakout, if you look for it, on Chinese, Korean, whites, blacks and Latinos. These were equal opportunity bandits."
"Yeah, but you came up with a connection to Vietnam in Meadows. Now we have Franklin and Delgado, possibly involved. All three were MPs in Vietnam. We've got Charlie Company, which may or may not have a part in this. So, after Meadows became a suspect and you started pulling military records of tunnel rats, did you do any further checking with the Vietnamese on this list?"
"No—well, yes. On the foreign nationals we ran their names through INS to see how long they'd been here, whether they were legal. But that was about it." She was quiet a moment. "I can see what you are getting at. It's a flaw in the way we handled it. See, we didn't develop Meadows as a possible suspect until a few weeks after the robbery. By then most of these people had already been interviewed. After we started looking at Meadows, I don't think we went back to see if any of the names on the list fit in with him. You think one of the Vietnamese could have somehow been part of this?"
"I don't know what I'm thinking. Just looking for connections. Coincidences that aren't coincidences."
Bosch took a notebook out of his coat pocket and started making a list of the names, DOBs and addresses of the Vietnamese boxholders. He put the four who reported no loss and the name from the dead-end list at the top of his own list. He had just finished the list and closed the notebook when Rourke walked into the squad room, his hair still wet from his morning shower. He was carrying a coffee mug that said Boss on the side of it. He saw Bosch and Wish and then looked at his watch.
"Getting an early start?"
"Our witness, he turned up dead," Wish said, no expression on her face.
"Jesus. Where? They get somebody?"
Wish shook her head and looked at Bosch with a face that warned him not to start anything. Rourke looked at him also.
"Does it relate to this?" he said. "Any evidence of that?"
"We think so," Bosch said.
"Jesus!"
"You said that," Bosch said.
"Should we take the case, from LAPD, add it to the Meadows investigation?" He said this looking directly at Wish. Bosch was not part of the decision-making team here. She didn't answer, so Rourke added, "Should we have offered him protection?"
Bosch couldn't resist. "From who?"
A strand of wet hair dropped out of place and across Rourke's forehead. His face flushed deeply red.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"How'd you know LAPD had the case?"
"What?"
"You just asked if we should take the case from LAPD. How'd you know they had it? We didn't say."