“Any more reporters come around?”

“A couple. I gave them a sound bite and they went on their merry way. They all think the city’s going to cut loose over this.”

“What do you think?”

“I think if a cop did this, there’s no telling what’s going to happen. And if a cop didn’t do it, there will be people who just won’t believe it. But you already know that.”

Bosch nodded.

“One thing you should know about the trial map.”

“What’s that?”

“Despite what you said about Frank Sheehan a moment ago, Howard was out to prove Harris innocent.”

Bosch hiked his shoulders.

“I thought he already was in the criminal trial.”

“No, he was found not guilty. There’s a difference. Howard was going to prove his innocence by proving who did it.”

Bosch stared at her a long moment, wondering how he should proceed.

“Does it say in that trial map who that was?”

“No. Like I said, there was just an outline of the opener. But it’s in there. He was going to tell the jury that he would deliver the murderer to them. Those were his words. ‘Deliver the murderer to you.’ He just didn’t write who that was. It would have been a bad opener, if he did. It would give it away to the defense and make for an anticlimactic moment later in trial when he revealed who this person was.”

Bosch was silent as he thought about this. He didn’t know how much weight to give what she had told him. Elias was a showman, in and out of court. Revealing a killer in court was Perry Mason stuff. It almost never happened.

“I’m sorry but I probably shouldn’t have told you that,” she said.

“Why did you?”

“Because if others knew this was his strategy, it could have been a motive.”

“You mean the real killer of that little girl came back to kill Elias.”

“That’s a possibility.”

Bosch nodded.

“Did you read the depos?” he asked.

“No, not enough time. I’m giving all depositions to you because the defense — in this case the city attorney’s office — would have been furnished copies. So I’m not giving you something you wouldn’t already have access to.”

“What about the computer?”

“I looked through it very quickly. It appears to be depositions and other information out of the public file. Nothing privileged.”

“Okay.”

Bosch started to get up. He was thinking about how many trips down to the car it would take him to move the files.

“Oh, one other thing.”

She reached down to the box on the floor and came up with a manila file. She opened it on the desk, revealing two envelopes. Bosch leaned over the desk to see.

“This was in the Harris stuff. I don’t know what it means.”