it if they hadn’t turned the killer. There were too many places to hide a body in those hills.
It had been a big case, the kind that made your name in the department. I imagined that both Cross and Dorsey thought that they were golden after that. They had no idea what the future was holding for them.
I closed the drawer. There were no other files that seemed connected to my investigation. The bottom drawer, the last one, was empty. I took the file I had pulled over to the Malibu. I put the file down on the hood and opened it. I should have just put it under my arm and left with it. But I was excited. I was anticipating something. A new lead maybe, a break. I wanted to see what Lawton Cross had kept in the file.
As soon as I opened it I knew the file was incomplete. Cross had copied some of the working documents of the case for use at home or on the road. The basic case reports were missing. There were no reports that specifically related to the investigation of the murder of Angella Benton. The file mostly contained reports relating to the movie set robbery and shoot-out. There were witness reports-including my own-and forensic reports. There was a DNA comparison between the blood found in the stolen movie van and the semen found on Angella Benton’s body; no match. There were interview summaries and a time and location spread sheet-a document on which the locations of various players in the case are charted at different times important to the case. These T amp;L reports were also known as alibi sheets. It was a way of sifting through multiple players in a case and possibly coming up with a suspect.
I quickly went through the pages of this report and determined that Cross and Dorsey had been charting eleven different people and not all of the names were familiar to me. The T amp;L report was a good find. I put the document to the side because I would put it at the top of the stack in the file when I was finished my review.
I moved on and had just picked up a copy of the currency report, which contained the serial numbers taken at random from the stolen money, when I heard Danny’s voice behind me. She had remained in the doorway to the house watching me and I hadn’t realized it.
“Find what you were looking for?”
I turned and looked back at her. The first thing I noticed was that the belt of her robe was untied and the robe had fallen open to reveal the light blue nightgown beneath.
“Uh, yes, it’s here. I was just taking a quick look. I can go now if you want.”
“What’s your hurry? Lawton is still asleep. He won’t wake up until the morning.”
She held my eyes as she said the last line. I was trying to read what was said and what was meant. Before I could respond, the moment was broken by the sound and the lights of a car pulling quickly into the driveway.
I turned and saw a standard government car-a Crown Victoria-pulling into the light from the open garage. Two men were in the car and I recognized the one in the passenger seat. With as little noticeable movement as I could manage I lowered the currency report onto the T amp;L report. I then picked them both up and slid them into the crack between the Malibu ’s hood and fender. I heard the pages fall through the slot into the engine compartment. I then stepped back from the car, leaving the rest of the file open on the hood, and around into the open bay of the garage.
A second Crown Vic pulled into the driveway. The two men from the first car were already out and entering the garage.
“FBI,” said the man I recognized as Parenting Today.
He held up an ID case with a badge affixed to it. He just as quickly closed it and put it away.
“How are the kids?” I asked.
He seemed confused for a moment and it put a pause in his step. But then he pressed on and took a position in front of me while his partner, who had not shown a badge, stood a few feet to my right.
“Mr. Bosch, we are going to need you to come with us,” said Parenting Today.
“Well, I’m kind of busy at the moment. I’m trying to