he could sit Danny down and tell him the bad news. We were told he did not take it well. Who would?”
“The father told Danny. Did either you or your husband talk directly to Danny?”
“No, but Danny wrote me a long letter about Becky and how much she meant to him. It was very sad and very sweet. Everything was.”
“I’m sure it was. Did he come to the funeral?”
“No, no he didn’t. His, uh, his parents thought it best for him if he stayed there in the islands. The trauma, you know? Mr. Kotchof called and said he wouldn’t be coming.”
Bosch nodded. He turned from the mirror, sliding the photo into his pocket. Muriel didn’t notice.
“What about after?” he asked. “After the letter, I mean. Did he ever contact you? Maybe call and talk to you?”
“No, I don’t think we ever heard from him. Not since the letter.”
“Do you still have that letter?” Rider asked.
“Of course. I kept everything. I have a drawer full of letters we got about Rebecca. She was a well-loved girl.”
“We need to borrow that letter from you, Mrs. Verloren,” Bosch said. “We also might need to look through the whole drawer at some point.”
“Why?”
“Because you never know,” Bosch said.
“Because we want to leave no stone unturned,” Rider added. “We know this is disruptive but please remember what we are doing. We want to find the person who did this to your daughter. It has been a long time but that doesn’t mean anybody should get away with it.”
Muriel Verloren nodded. She had absentmindedly picked up a small decorative pillow off the bed and was clutching it with both hands in front of her chest. It looked like it might have been made by her daughter many years ago. It was a small blue square with a red felt heart sewn across its middle. Holding it made Muriel Verloren look like a target.
13
WHILE BOSCH DROVE, Rider read the letter Danny Kotchof had sent to the Verlorens after Becky’s murder. It was a single page, filled mostly with his fond memories of their lost daughter.
“‘All I can tell you is that I am so sorry this had to happen. I will miss her always. Love, Danny.’ And that’s it.”
“What’s the postmark on it?”
She flipped over the envelope and looked at it.
“ Maui, July twenty-ninth, nineteen eighty-eight.”
“Sure took his time writing it.”
“Maybe it was hard for him. Why are you keying on him, Harry?”
“I’m not. It’s just that Garcia and Green relied on a phone call to clear him. You remember what it said in the book? It said the kid’s supervisor said he was washing cars at the rent-a-car agency the day of and the day after. No time to fly to L.A., kill Becky, and get back home in time for work.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, now we find out from Muriel that his old man ran a rent-a-car. There was nothing about that in the murder book. Did Garcia and Green know that? How much you want to bet that dad was running the place where the son washed cars? How much you want to bet that the supervisor who alibied the son was working for the father?”
“Man, I was kidding about going to Paris. Sounds like you’re jonesing for a trip to Maui.”
“I just don’t like sloppy work. It leaves loose ends. We have to talk to Danny Kotchof and clear him ourselves. If that’s even possible after so many years.”
“AutoTrack, baby.”
“That might find him for us. It won’t clear him.”
“Even if we knock down his alibi, what are you saying, that this sixteen-year-old kid snuck over here from Hawaii, knocked off his old girlfriend and then went back without anybody seeing him?”
“Maybe it wasn’t planned like that. And he was seventeen-Muriel said he was a year older.”
“Oh, seventeen,” she said sarcastically, as if that made all the difference in the world.
“When I was eighteen I got a leave from Vietnam to Hawaii. You were not allowed to go stateside from there. Once I got there I changed clothes, bought a civilian-looking suitcase and walked right by the MPs to get on a plane to L.A. I think a seventeen-year-old could have done it.”
“Okay, Harry.”
“Look, all I’m saying is that it was sloppy work. According to the murder book, Green and Garcia cleared this guy with a phone call. There’s nothing in there about checking airlines and now it’s too late. It bugs me.”
“I understand. But just remember. We have a logic triangle we have to complete.