The Reversal

His statement confirmed what I had thought all along. While Williams had never once showed his face in the courtroom, he had a plant in the gallery watching.

“Well, I hope so. I think we’ll know more about which way this will go after lunch.”

“Are you considering a disposition?”

“Well, not yet. I haven’t heard from opposing counsel, but I assume that we may soon enter into discussions. He’s probably talking to his client about it right now. I would be if I were him.”

“Well, keep me in the loop on that before you sign off on anything.”

I paused as I weighed this last statement. I saw Bosch put his hand inside his jacket and pull out his own phone to take a call.

“Tell you what, Gabe. As independent counsel I prefer to stay independent. I’ll inform you of a disposition if and when I have an agreement.”

“I want to be part of that conversation,” Williams insisted.

I saw some sort of darkness move into Bosch’s eyes. Instinctively, I knew it was time to get off my call.

“I’ll get back to you on that, Mr. District Attorney. I’ve got another call coming in here. It could be Clive Royce.”

I closed the phone just as Bosch closed his and started to stand up.

“What is it?” Maggie asked.

Bosch’s face looked ashen.

“There’s been a shooting over at Royce’s office. There’s four on the floor over there.”

“Is Jessup one of them?” I asked.

“No… Jessup’s gone.”

Forty

Thursday, April 8, 1:05 P.M.

Bosch drove and McPherson insisted on riding with him. Haller had split off with Gleason to head back to court. Bosch pulled a card out of his wallet and got Lieutenant Stephen Wright’s number off it. He handed the card and his phone to McPherson and told her to punch in the number.

“It’s ringing,” she said.

He took the phone and got it to his ear just as Wright answered.

“It’s Bosch. Tell me your people are on Jessup.”

“I wish.”

“Damn it! What the hell happened? Why wasn’t SIS on him?”

“Hold your horses, Bosch. We were on him. That’s one of my people on the floor in Royce’s office.”

That hit like a punch. Bosch hadn’t realized a cop was one of the victims.

“Where are you?” he asked Wright.

“On my way there. I’m three minutes out.”

“What do you know so far?”

“Not a hell of a lot. We had a light tail on him during court hours. You knew that. One team during court and full coverage before and after. Today they followed him from the courthouse to Royce’s office at lunchtime. Jessup and Royce’s team walked over. After they were in there a few minutes my guys heard gunshots. They called it in and then went in. One was knocked down, the other pinned down. Jessup went out the back and my guy stayed to try CPR on his partner. He had to let Jessup go.”

Bosch shook his head. The thought of his daughter pushed through everything. She was at school for the next ninety minutes. He felt that she would be safe. For now.

“Who else was hit?” he asked.

“As far as I know,” Wright said, “it was Royce and his investigator and then another lawyer. A female. They were lucky it was lunchtime. Everybody else in the office was gone.”

Bosch didn’t see much that was lucky about a quadruple murder and Jessup out there somewhere with a gun. Wright kept talking.

“I’m not going to shed a tear over a couple of defense lawyers but my guy on the floor in there’s got two little kids at home, Bosch. This is not a good goddamn thing at all.”

Bosch turned onto First, and up ahead he could see the flashing lights. Royce’s office was in a storefront on a dead-end street that ran behind the Kyoto Grand Hotel on the edge of Japantown. Easy walking distance to the courthouse.

“Did you get Jessup’s car out on a broadcast?”

“Yes, everybody has it. Somebody will see it.”

“Where’s the rest of your crew?”

“Everybody’s heading to the scene.”

“No, send them out looking for Jessup. At all the places he’s been. The parks, everywhere, even my house. There’s no use for them at the scene.”

“We’ll meet there and I’ll send them out.”

“You’re wasting time, Lieutenant.”

“You think I can stop them from coming to the scene first?”

Bosch understood the impossibility of Wright’s situation.

“I’m pulling up now,” he said. “I’ll see you when you get here.”

“Two minutes.”

Bosch closed the phone. McPherson asked him what Wright had said and he quickly filled her in as he pulled the car to a stop behind a patrol car.

Bosch badged his way under the yellow tape and McPherson did the same. Because the shooting had occurred only twenty-five minutes earlier, the crime scene was largely inhabited by uniformed officers-the first responders-and was chaotic. Bosch found a patrol sergeant issuing orders regarding crime scene protection and went to him.

“Sergeant, Harry Bosch, RHD. Who is taking this investigation?”

“Isn’t it you?”

“No, I’m on a related case. But this one won’t be mine.”

“Then I don’t know, Bosch. I was told RHD will handle.”

“Okay, then they’re still on their way. Who’s inside?”

“Couple guys from Central Division. Roche and Stout.”