Resurrection Walk

“No, I just took this for laughs,” Cisco said.

“Right, sorry. Look, if you want to come in with me, we can do this together. I know Mickey said he—”

“No, you do it. I might scare her off.”

Bosch nodded. It was a reasonable concern. He knew that Haller used Cisco when he wanted an element of intimidation or needed protection himself. Finessing a reluctant witness into talking, one who might have gone so far as to change her name and looks as a protective measure, was not in his wheelhouse.

“Okay, then,” Bosch said. “Here goes. Text me that photo, would you?”

“Will do,” Cisco said. “Good luck.”

Bosch headed to the bookstore, going down a set of steps to a sidewalk where the handprints of various authors had been immortalized in concrete. He entered and nodded to a woman at the checkout counter to his left. The place was huge and on two levels. It also had an exit on the Colorado Boulevard side of the building. Bosch quickly realized he might have an issue finding Landon. It was possible that she was not even in the store and had simply used its parking lot, passed through like a customer, and gone on to any of the nearby shops and restaurants that lined Colorado. It had been almost an hour since Cisco watched her enter. That seemed to Bosch like a long time to spend browsing in a bookstore.

He decided to start on the second floor and quickly search the store before raising an alarm with Cisco. He went up a wide set of stairs in the center and realized that he would not be able to scan the second level from one position. The bookshelves were too high. He moved along the main aisle, looking right and left down each row of shelving. It took him five minutes to cover the entire second level and another five to do the search again. There was no sign of Madison Landon.

He went down the steps to search the first level but spotted the woman from Cisco’s photograph in line at the register, holding a stack of books. Bosch indiscriminately grabbed a book off a bestsellers’ table and got into the checkout line behind Madison Landon.

When he got there, he read the spines of the books she was holding in both hands. They were all books about raising a child. Landon did not appear to be pregnant but judging from the titles, it looked like she was getting ready for motherhood. One of the books was Raising Your Child Alone.

“I raised a child alone,” Bosch said.

Landon turned to look at him. She smiled but not in a way that invited further comment on her reading choices.

“When she was a teenager,” Bosch said. “It’s a tough job.”

She looked at him again.

“And how did she turn out?” she asked.

“Pretty great,” Bosch said. “She went into law enforcement.”

“Then you must worry about her.”

“All the time.”

Landon’s eyes dropped to the book Bosch was holding.

“I loved that book,” she said.

Bosch looked down to see what he had grabbed. It was Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. He had never heard of it. He had not been in a bookstore since before the pandemic.

“I heard it was good,” he said. “I’ll give it a try and then give it to my daughter.”

“She’ll like it,” Landon said. “I’m not so sure about you.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s about three people but it’s also about developing video games and the creativity it involves.”

“Hmm. Well, sounds like something at least Maddie will like.”

He noticed that Landon smiled at the mention of the name but did not reveal that it was also her own name.

“Why don’t you go ahead of me,” she said. “I have a lot here and you just have the one.”

“You sure?” Bosch said. “I don’t mind—”

“No, go ahead, because I’m also going to ask them to order a book for me.”

“Thank you. That’s very nice of you.”

She stepped back and he moved up in the queue just as the customer ahead finished her purchase and left. Bosch put the book down on the counter, and the cashier scanned it. He paid with cash. He turned back to Landon, held up the book, and said, “Thanks.”

“I hope she likes it,” Landon said.

Bosch exited and then took a position leaning against a wall by the stairs up to the parking lot. He opened the book he had just bought and started reading. A few minutes later, Landon came out of the store with a bag containing all her purchases. Bosch looked up from his book and Landon quickly turned away, probably thinking he was going to make an awkward attempt at some sort of pickup.

“You’re Maddy, right?” he said.

Landon stopped in her tracks at the foot of the stairs.

“What?” she said.

“Or is it Madison?” Bosch asked.

He pushed off the wall and closed the book.

“Who are you?” Landon said. “What do you want?”

“I’m a guy trying to get an innocent woman out of prison,” Bosch said. “So she can raise her child.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please leave me alone.” She turned back to the stairway.

“You know what and who I’m talking about,” Bosch said. “And why I can’t leave you alone.”

She stopped. Bosch watched her eyes dart around, looking for an escape route.