The concrete blonde - By Michael Connelly Page 0,136
to Parker and book him on assault on a police officer, unlawful sex with a minor, pandering, anything you can think—”
“We gotta deal,” Mora blurted. “But I've got no insurance.”
Bosch turned back to look at him.
“That's right, you don't. The name?”
Mora looked from Bosch to Rollenberger.
“Unhook me.”
“The name, Mora,” Rollenberger said. “This is it.”
“It's Locke. The fucking shrink. You assholes, you put the finger on me and the whole time he's the one pushing the buttons.”
Bosch was jolted but in that same moment he began immediately to see how it could be. Locke knew the Dollmaker's program, he fit the Follower's profile.
“He was the Tom?”
“Yeah, it was him. Got'm ID'd by a producer today. He went around saying he was writin' a book so he could get close to the girls. Then he killed them, Bosch. The whole time he's been playing doctor with you, Bosch, he's been out there … killing.”
Rollenberger turned to Bosch and said, “What do you think?”
Bosch left the room without answering. He went down the stairs and trotted out the door to his car. Locke's book was on the back seat where Bosch had left it the day he bought it. As he headed back into the house with it he noticed that the first etchings of dawn's light were in the sky.
On Mora's dining room table, Bosch opened the book and began leafing through it until he came to a page marked Author's Note. In the second paragraph, Locke wrote, “The material for this book was gathered over the course of three years from interviews with countless adult film performers, many of whom requested that they remain anonymous or be identified only by their stage names. The author wishes to thank them and the film producers who granted him access to the sets and production offices at which these interviews were conducted.”
The mystery man. Bosch realized Mora could be right that Locke was the man whom the video performer Gallery had reported as a suspect when she called the original task force tip number four years earlier. Bosch next flipped to the index of the book and ran his fingers down the names. Velvet Box was listed. So were Holly Lere and Magna Cum Loudly.
Bosch quickly reviewed in his mind Locke's involvement in the case. He would definitely fit as a suspect for the same reasons Mora had fit. He had had a foot in both camps, as Locke himself had described it. He had access to all information about the Dollmaker deaths and, at the same time, was conducting research for a book on the psychology of female performers in the pornography industry.
Bosch became excited, but more so he was angry. Mora had been right. Locke had punched his buttons, to the point that he had helped set the cops on the path to the wrong man. If Locke was the Follower, he had played Bosch perfectly.
Rollenberger dispatched Sheehan and Opelt to Locke's house to put him under immediate surveillance. “This time don't fuck it up,” he said as he recovered some of his command presence.
Next he announced there would be a meeting of the task force at noon Sunday, little more than six hours away. He said they would then discuss seeking a search warrant for Locke's home and office and decide what moves to make. As he headed to the door, Rollenberger looked at Bosch and said, “Go cut him loose. Then, Bosch, you better go get some sleep. You're going to need it.”
“What about you? How're you going to handle Irving on this?”
Rollenberger was looking down at the gold detective's shield he held in his hand. It was Mora's. He closed his hand over it and put it in his sport coat pocket. Then he looked at Bosch.
“That's my business, isn't it, Bosch? Don't worry about it.”
After the others had left, Bosch and Edgar went up the stairs to the gym room. Mora was silent and refused to look at them as they removed the handcuffs. They said nothing and left him there, the towel still around his neck like a noose, staring at his fractured image in the wall mirror.
Bosch lit a cigarette and looked at his watch when he got to his car. It was 6:20 and he was too wired to go home to sleep. He got in the car and pulled the rover from his pocket.
“Frankie, you up?”
“Yo,” Sheehan responded.
“Anything?”
“Just got here. No life showing. Don't know whether he's here or not. Garage door is down.”