“What’s that mean?”

“You know that feeling you get when you pull up on a new case? That little thrill you get when you’re back in the hunt? You know what I’m talking about. Well, I don’t have that anymore. And the closest thing I’ve found to it is when I pick those five cards up off the felt and see what I’ve got. It is hard to explain and even harder to understand, but I feel like I’m alive again then, Harry. We’re all junkies. It’s just different drugs. I wish I had yours, but I don’t.”

Bosch just stared at her a moment. He wasn’t sure he could say anything without his voice betraying him. He moved to the door, looking back at her once he had it open. He moved through it but then stepped back.

“You break my heart, Eleanor. I always hoped that I could make you feel alive again.”

Eleanor closed her eyes. She looked as though she might cry.

“I’m so sorry, Harry,” she whispered. “I should never have said that.”

Bosch stepped silently through the door and closed it behind him.

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

BOSCH was still feeling emotionally bruised when he got to Howard Elias’s office a half hour later. The door was locked and he knocked. He was about to use the keys to open it when he saw movement behind the glazed glass. Carla Entrenkin opened the door and allowed him in. He could tell by the way she appraised him that she noticed he was wearing a different suit.

“I got to take a little break,” he said. “I think we’ll be working a good part of the night. Where’s Miss Langwiser?”

“We finished and I sent her home. I said I would wait for you. It’s only been a few minutes.”

She led him back to Elias’s office and took the seat behind the huge desk. Bosch could see Anthony Quinn through the window though it was getting dark out. He also saw that there were six file cartons on the floor in front of the desk.

“Sorry you were waiting,” he said. “I thought you were going to page me when you were done.”

“I was about to. I was just sitting here thinking . . .”

Bosch looked at the boxes.

“This is the rest?”

“That’s it. Those six are more closed cases. These back here are current cases.”

She rolled her chair back and pointed to the floor behind the desk. Bosch stepped over and looked down. There were two more full boxes.

“This is mostly Michael Harris stuff. Most of it is the police file and depo transcripts. There are also files on lawsuits that haven’t proceeded past the initial claims. And there is a file containing general threats and crank mail — I mean unrelated specifically to the Harris case. Mostly just anonymous stuff from racist cowards.”