Chapters (64)
- PART ONE
- One
- Two
- Three
- PART TWO
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- PART THREE
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- PART FOUR
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Forty-one
- Forty-two
- Forty-three
- Forty-four
- Forty-five
- Forty-six
- PART FIVE
- Forty-seven
- Forty-eight
- Forty-nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-one
- Fifty-two
- Fifty-three
- PART SIX
- Fifty-four
- Fifty-five
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- ALSO BY MICHAEL CONNELLY
Elliot chuckled at the thought of it and poured himself a glass of wine without first tasting from the bottle. A waiter swooped in to take over the operation but Elliot waved him away with the bottle.
“This is a long story, Mickey. Would you like a glass of wine to go with it?”
He held the mouth of the bottle poised over my empty glass. I was tempted but I shook my head.
“No, Walter, I don’t drink.”
“I’m not sure I can trust someone who doesn’t take a drink from time to time.”
“I’m your lawyer. You can trust me.”
“I trusted the last one, too, and look what happened to him.”
“Don’t threaten me, Walter. Just tell me the story.”
He drank heavily from his wineglass and then put it down too hard on the table. He looked around to see if anyone in the restaurant had noticed and I got the sense that it was all an act. He was really checking to see if we were being watched. I scanned the angles I had without being obvious. I didn’t see Bosch or anyone else I pegged as a cop in the restaurant.
Elliot began his story.
“When you come to Hollywood, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from as long as you’ve got one thing in your pocket.”
“Money.”
“That’s right. I came here twenty-five years ago and I had money. I put it in a couple of movies first and then into a half-assed studio nobody gave two shits about. And I built that place into a contender. Another five years and it will no longer be the Big Four they talk about. It will be the Big Five. Archway will be right up there with Paramount and Warner’s and the rest.”
I wasn’t anticipating going back twenty-five years when I told him to start the story from the beginning.
“Okay, Walter, I get all of that about your success. What are you saying?”
“I’m saying it wasn’t my money. When I came here, it wasn’t my money.”
“I thought the story was that you came from a family that owned a phosphate mine or shipping operation in Florida.”
He nodded emphatically.
“All true, but it depends on your definition of family.”
It slowly came to me.
“Are you talking about the mob, Walter?”
“I am talking about an organization in Florida with a tremendous cash flow that needed legitimate businesses to move it through and legitimate front men to operate those businesses. I was an accountant. I was one of those men.”
It was easy to put together. Florida twenty-five years ago. The heyday of the uninhibited flow of cocaine and money.