Bosch nodded and I could see that he was working on something inside. I waited and he said nothing.

“How does this help you, Detective?” I finally asked.

“I can’t give out that information but I think it’s an easy guess to make.”

I nodded. He’d nailed me back.

“Look, we both have rules we have to follow,” I said. “We’re flip sides of the same coin. I’m just doing my job. And if there is nothing else I can help you with, I’ll get back to it.”

Bosch stared at me and seemed to be deciding something.

“Who did Jerry Vincent bribe on the Elliot case?” he finally asked.

The question came out of left field. I wasn’t expecting it but in the moments after he asked it, I realized that it was the question he had come to ask. Everything else up until this point had been window dressing.

“What, is that from the FBI?”

“I haven’t talked to the FBI.”

“Then, what are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about a payoff.”

“To who?”

“That’s what I’m asking you.”

I shook my head and smiled.

“Look, I told you. The books are clean. There’s—”

“If you were going to bribe someone with a hundred thousand dollars, would you put it in your books?”

I thought about Jerry Vincent and the time I turned down the subtle quid pro quo on the Barnett Woodson case. I turned him down and ended up hanging a not-guilty verdict on him. It changed Vincent’s life and he was still thanking me for it from the grave. But maybe it didn’t change his ways in the years that followed.

“I guess you’re right,” I said to Bosch. “I wouldn’t do it that way. So what aren’t you telling me?”

“This is in confidence, Counselor. But I need your help and I think you need to know this in order to help me.”

“Okay.”

“Then, say it.”

“Say what?”

“That you will treat this information in confidence.”

“I thought I did. I will. I’ll keep it confidential.”

“Not even your staff. Just you.”

“Fine. Just me. Tell me.”

“You have Vincent’s work accounts. I have his private accounts. You said he paid himself the money from Elliot quickly. He—”

“I didn’t say it was Elliot. You did.”

“Whatever. The point is, that five months ago he accumulated a hundred grand in a personal investment account and a week later called his broker and told him he was cashing out.”

“You mean he took a hundred thousand out in cash?”

“That’s what I just said.”

“What happened to it?”