Part 60 (2/2)

”I want you two to handle this. .h.i.t,” she said, sitting down and proffering the yellow envelope to Bosch. ”There's something wrong here and I want you to keep quiet about it until you find out what it is. Keep Tim in the loop but make sure it stays low-key.”

The envelope had already been opened. Chu leaned over to look as Bosch opened the flap and pulled out the hit sheet. It listed the case number of the DNA evidence, plus the name, age, last known address and criminal history of the person whose genetic profile matched it. Bosch first noticed that the case number had the prefix 89, meaning it was a case from 1989. There were no details about the crime, just the year. But Bosch knew that cases from that year belonged to the team of Ross Shuler and Adriana Dolan. He knew this because 1989 had been a busy year for him, working murders for the Homicide Special Team, and he had recently checked on one of his own unsolved cases, which was how he learned that jurisdiction over that year's cases belonged to Shuler and Dolan. They were known in the unit as ”the kids.” They were young, pa.s.sionate and skillful investigators, but between them they had less than eight years' experience working homicides. If there was something unusual about this cold hit, it was not surprising that the lieutenant would want Bosch on it. Bosch had worked more killings than everybody else in the unit combined. That is, if you left out Jackson. He had been around forever.

Bosch next studied the name on the hit sheet: Clayton S. Pell. It meant nothing to him. But Pell's arrest record included numerous arrests and three separate convictions for indecent exposure, false imprisonment and forcible rape. He had spent six years in prison for the rape before being released eighteen months ago. He had a five-year probation tail and his last known address came from the state probation and parole board. He was a.s.signed to a halfway house for s.e.x offenders in Panorama City.

Based on Pell's record, Bosch believed the 1989 case was likely a s.e.x-related murder. He could feel his insides beginning to tighten. He was going to grab Clayton Pell and bring him to justice.

”Do you see it?” Duvall asked.

”See what?” Bosch asked. ”Was this a s.e.x killing? It looks like this guy has the cla.s.sic pred-”

”The birth date,” Duvall said.

Bosch looked back down at the hit sheet as Chu leaned closer.

”Yeah, right here,” Bosch said. ”November nine, nineteen eighty-one. What's that got-”

”He's too young,” Chu said.

Bosch glanced at him and then back down at the sheet. He suddenly got it. Clayton Pell was born in 1981. He was only eight years old at the time of the murder.

”Exactly,” Duvall said. ”So I want you to get the book and box from Shuler and Dolan and very quietly figure out what we have here. I'm hoping to G.o.d they didn't get two cases mixed up and send genetic material from a more recent case labeled as if it came from this old one. Like you were about to say, this guy on the hit sheet is no doubt a predator, but I don't think he got away with a killing when he was only eight years old. So something doesn't fit. Find it and come back to me before you do anything. If they screwed up and we can correct it, then we won't need to worry about IAD or anybody else. We'll just keep it right here.”

She may have appeared to be trying to protect Shuler and Dolan from Internal Affairs, but she was also s.h.i.+elding herself and Bosch knew it. There would not be much vertical movement in the department for a lieutenant who had presided over an evidence-handling scandal in her own unit.

”What other years are a.s.signed to Shuler and Dolan?” Bosch asked.

”On the recent side, they've got 'ninety-seven and two thousand,” Marcia said. ”This evidence could have come from a case they were working from one of those two years.”

Bosch nodded. He could see the scenario. Due to reckless handling, genetic evidence from one case cross-pollinates with another. The end result would be two tainted cases and a scandal that would smear anybody near it.

”What do we say to Shuler and Dolan?” Chu asked. ”What's the reason we're taking the case from them?”

Duvall looked up at Marcia.

”They've got a trial coming up,” he offered in answer to her unspoken question. ”Jury selection starts Thursday.”

Duvall nodded.

”I'll tell them I want them clear for that.”

”And what if they say they still want the case?” Chu asked. ”What if they say they can handle it?”

”I'll put them straight,” Duvall said. ”Anything else, Detectives?”

Bosch looked up at her.

”We'll work the case, Lieutenant, and see what's what. But I don't investigate other cops.”

”That's fine. I'm not asking you to. Work the case and tell me how the DNA came back to an eight-year-old kid, okay?”

Bosch nodded and started to stand up.

”Just remember,” Duvall added, ”you talk to me before you do anything with what you learn.”

”You got it,” Bosch said.

He, Chu and Marcia prepared to leave the room.

”Harry,” the lieutenant said, ”hang back a second.”

Bosch looked at Chu and raised his eyebrows. He didn't know what this was about. The lieutenant came around from behind her desk and closed the door after Chu and Marcia had left. She remained standing, looking businesslike.

”I just wanted you to know that your application for an extension on your drop came through. They gave you four years retroactive.”

Bosch looked at her, doing the math. He nodded. He had asked for the maximum-five years nonretroactive-but he'd take what they gave. It wouldn't keep him much past high school but it was better than nothing.

”Well, I'm glad,” Duvall said. ”It gives you thirty-nine more months with us.”

Her tone indicated that she had read the disappointment on his face.

”No,” he said quickly. ”I'm glad. I was just thinking about where that would put me with my daughter. All the way through high school. So that's good.”

”Good then.”

That was her way of saying the meeting was over. Bosch thanked her and left the office. As he stepped back into the squad room he looked across the vast expanse of desks and dividers and file cabinets. He knew it was home and that he would get to stay-for now.

Two.

The Open-Unsolved Unit shared access to the two fifth-floor conference rooms with all other units in the Robbery-Homicide Division. Usually detectives had to reserve time in one of the rooms, signing up on the clipboard hooked on the door. But this early on a Monday, both were open, and Bosch, Chu, Shuler and Dolan commandeered the smaller of the two without making a reservation.

They brought with them the murder book and the small archival evidence box from the 1989 case.

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