“Chastain,” Bosch said, getting back on track. “Somebody put a cork in him. Complaint unfounded. Then Elias files his suit and eventually subpoenas Chastain. Chastain doesn’t want to testify, why?”

“Maybe he takes the oath seriously. He didn’t want to lie.”

“There’s got to be more than that.”

“Ask him.”

“Elias had a source inside Parker. A leak. I think it was Chastain. I don’t mean just on this case. I mean a longtime leak — adirect conduit inside to records, everything. I think it was Chastain.”

“It’s funny. A cop who hates cops.”

“Yeah.”

“But if he was Elias’s big important conduit, why would Elias put him on the stand and expose him like that?”

That was the question and Bosch had no answer. He was silent for a while, thinking about this. He finally put together the thin beginnings of a theory and said it out loud.

“Elias wouldn’t have known Chastain had been corked unless Chastain had told him, right?”

“Right.”

“So just by putting Chastain on the stand and asking him about it would be revealing Chastain as his source.”

Garwood nodded.

“I can see that,” he said. “Yeah.”

“Even if Chastain sat up there and denied every question, Elias could ask the questions in a way that they would still get the point — and in this case, the truth — across to the jury.”

“It would also make the point at Parker Center,” Garwood said. “Chastain would be exposed. Question is, why would Elias expose his source? Somebody who had been helping him a hell of a lot over the years. Why would he give that up?”

“Because this was Elias’s home run case. The big one that would put him on the national map. It would put him on Court TV, Sixty Minutes, Larry King and everything else. It would make him. He would be willing to burn his source for that. Any lawyer would.”

“I see that, too. Yeah.”

The next part was left unsaid. That being the question of what Chastain would do to prevent being publicly burned on the stand. To Bosch the answer was obvious. If he were exposed not only as Elias’s source but as the investigator who compromised the internal investigation of Michael Harris’s complaint, he would be vilified both inside and outside the department. There would be nowhere for him to go and that would be untenable for a man like Chastain, for any man. Bosch believed Chastain would be willing to kill to prevent that from happening.

“Thanks, Captain,” he said. “I’ve got to go.”

“It doesn’t matter, you know.”

Bosch looked over at him.

“What?”