As they walked toward the store Bosch thought about the orange coveralls and wondered if it was coincidence. He guessed that most of the men working at the car wash were ex-cons or fresh out of county lockup — institutions in which they also had to wear orange coveralls.

Inside the store Bosch bought a cup of coffee and asked for the manager. The cashier pointed down a hallway to an open door. On the way down the hall, Edgar said, “I feel like a Coke but I don’t think I can drink a Coke after what I saw last night in that bitch’s closet.”

A man was sitting at a desk in the small, windowless office with his feet up on one of the open drawers. He looked up at Bosch and Edgar and said, “Yes, Officers, what can I do for you?”

Bosch smiled at the man’s deduction. He knew he had to be part businessman, part parole officer. If the polishers were ex-cons, it was the only job they could get. That meant the manager had seen his share of cops and knew how to pick them out. Either that or he saw them pull up in the slickback.

“We’re working a case,” Bosch began. “The Howard Elias case.”

The manager whistled.

“A few weeks ago he subpoenaed some of your records. Receipts with license plate numbers on them. You know anything about that?”

The manager thought about it for a few moments.

“All I know is that I was the one who had to go through everything and get it copied for his guy.”

“His guy?” Edgar asked.

“Yeah, what do you think, a guy like Elias comes get the stuff himself? He sent somebody. I got his card here.”

He lowered his feet to the floor and opened the desk’s pencil drawer. There was a stack of business cards with a rubber band around it. He took it off and looked through the cards and chose one. He showed it to Bosch.

“Pelfry?” Edgar asked.

Bosch nodded.

“Did his guy say exactly what they were looking for in all that stuff?” he asked.

“I don’t know. You’d have to ask them. Or, I mean, ask Pelfry.”

“Did Pelfry come back with the stuff yet?”

“No. It was copies, anyway. I mean, he came back but not to bring back the receipts.”

“Then why’d he come back?” Edgar asked.

“He wanted to see one of Michael Harris’s old time cards. From when he worked here.”

“Which one?” Edgar asked, a tone of urgency in his voice.

“I don’t remember, man. I gave him a copy. You go talk to him and maybe he — ”

“Did he have a subpoena for the time card?” Bosch asked.