“I don’t know. If you want me to pursue it as a priority I will. I was thinking that other things would be the priority. The cops he dragged into court in the past, the ones he was going to pull in starting Monday. Also, there was a second thing we found in the office before we got kicked out.”

“What was that?”

“It actually branches into two more avenues of investigation.”

He quickly told Irving about the photo printout of Mistress Regina and the indication that Elias might have been involved in what Chastain had called rough trade. The deputy chief seemed to take a keen interest in this aspect of the investigation and asked Bosch what his plans were in regard to pursuing it.

“I’m planning on attempting to locate and interview the woman, see if Elias ever actually had any contact with her. After that, we see where it goes.”

“And the other branch of investigation this leads to?”

“The family. Whether it was this Regina woman or not, it looks like Elias was a philanderer. There are enough indications in his downtown apartment to suggest this. So if the wife knew about all of this, then we have a motivation right there. Of course, I’m just talking. At the moment we have nothing that indicates she even knew, let alone arranged or carried out the kill. It also flies in the face of the psychological read on the killings.”

“Which is what?”

“It doesn’t look like the dispassionate work of a hired killer. There is a lot of rage in the killing method. It looks to me like the killer knew Elias and hated him — at least at the moment of the shooting. I would also say it looks like it was a man.”

“How so?”

“The shot up the ass. It was vindictive. Like a rape. Men rape, women don’t. So my gut instinct tells me this clears the widow. But my instincts have been wrong. It’s still something we have to follow up on. There’s the son, too. Like I told you before, he reacted pretty hot when we gave them the news. But we don’t really know what his relationship with his father was like. We do know that the kid has been around weapons — we saw a picture in the house.”

Irving pointed a finger of warning at Bosch.

“You be careful with the family,” he said. “Very careful. That has to be handled with a lot of finesse.”

“It will be.”

“I do not want that blowing up in our faces.”

“It won’t.”

Irving checked his watch once more.

“Why have your people not answered the pages?”

“I don’t know, Chief. I was just thinking the same thing.”

“Well, page them again. I need to meet with the chief. At eleven I want you and your team in the press conference room.”