guessed that they were secured inside by padlocks.
Bosch stood up and looked at Rachel. He shook his head and pointed upward, meaning it was time to go up to the house.
They moved to the concrete stairs and quietly started up. Bosch led the way and stopped four steps from the top. He crouched and tried to catch his breath. He looked at Rachel. He knew they were winging it. He was winging it. There was no way to approach the house but to go directly to the front door.
He turned from her and studied the windows one by one. He saw no movement, but he thought he could hear the sound of a television or radio coming from inside. He pulled his gun-it was a backup he had gotten out of the hallway closet that morning-and went up the final steps, holding the weapon down at his side as he quietly crossed the porch to the front door.
Bosch knew that a search warrant was not at issue here. Waits had abducted a woman, and the life-and-death nature of the situation assuredly pushed them into no-warrant, no-knock territory. He put his hand on the knob and turned. The door was unlocked.
Bosch slowly pushed the door open, noticing that a two-inch ramp had been placed over the threshold to accommodate a wheelchair. As the door came open the sound of the radio became louder. An evangelical station, a man talking about the impending rapture.
They stepped into the house’s entry area. To the right it opened into a living room with a dining area to the back. Directly ahead through an arched opening was the kitchen. A hallway to the left led to the rest of the house. Without looking back at Rachel he pointed to the right, meaning she would go that way while he moved forward and cleared the kitchen before taking the hallway to the left.
As he reached the archway Bosch glanced at Rachel and saw her moving through the living room, weapon up in a two-handed grip. He stepped into the kitchen and saw that it was clean and neat, without a dish in the sink. The radio was on the counter. The speaker was telling his listeners that those who did not believe would be left behind.
There was another archway leading from the kitchen to the dining room. Rachel came through it, pointed her gun up when she saw Bosch and shook her head.
Nothing.
That left the hallway leading to the bedrooms and the rest of the house. Bosch turned and went back through the archway to the entry area. When he turned toward the hallway he was startled to see an old woman sitting in a wheelchair in the threshold to the hallway. On her lap she was holding a long-barrel revolver. It looked like it was too heavy for her frail arm to hold up.
“Who’s there?” she said forcefully.
Her head was turned at an angle. Though her eyes were open they were focused on the floor instead of Bosch. It was her ear that was trained toward him and he knew she was blind.
He raised his gun and pointed it at her.
“Mrs. Saxon? Take it easy. My name is Harry Bosch. I’m just looking for Robert.”
A look of puzzlement played on her features.
“Who?”
“Robert Foxworth. Is he here?”
“You’ve got the wrong place, and how dare you come in here without knocking.”
“I-”
“Bobby uses the garage. I don’t let him use the house. All those chemicals, it smells awful.”
Bosch started edging toward her, his eyes on the gun the whole time.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Saxon. I thought he was up here. Has he been here lately?”
“He comes and goes. He comes up here to give me the rent, that’s all.”
“For the garage?”
He was getting closer.
“That’s what I said. What do you want him for? Are you his friend?”
“I just want to talk to him.”
Bosch reached down and took the gun out of her hand.
“Hey! That’s my protection.”
“It’s all right, Mrs. Saxon. I’ll give it back. I just think it needs to be cleaned up a little. And oiled. This way it will be sure to work in case you ever really need to use it.”
“I need it.”
“I’m going to take it down to the garage and get Bobby to clean it. Then I’ll bring it back.”
“You better.”
Bosch checked the gun. It was loaded and appeared operational. He put it into the waistband at the back of his pants and looked at Rachel. She was standing three feet behind him in the