Milton came around in front of the chair. He looked down upon his victim and nodded.

“You see? That’s how easy it is. You want to cooperate now?”

“What do you want?”

“What did you tell Bosch?”

Cross’s eyes flicked up toward the camera for a moment and then back to Milton. In that moment I didn’t think he was checking the time. I suddenly thought that maybe Lawton knew about the camera. He’d been a good cop. Maybe he knew what I had been doing all along.

“I told him about the case. That’s all. He came to me and I told him what I knew. I don’t remember it all. I got hurt, you know. I got hurt and my memory isn’t so good. Things are just starting to come back to me. I —”

“Why did he come here tonight?”

“Because I forgot I had some files. My wife called for me and I left him a message. He came for the files.”

“What else?”

“Nothing else. What do you want?”

“What do you know about the money that was taken?”

“Nothing. We never got that far.”

Milton reached forward and held the breathing tubes again. He didn’t crimp them this time. The threat was enough.

“I’m telling you the truth,” Cross protested.

“You better be.”

The agent let go of the tubes.

“You are finished talking to Bosch, is that understood?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, I’m finished talking to Bosch.”

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

When Milton moved away from the chair I saw Cross’s eyes were downcast. As the agents were leaving, one of them—probably Milton—hit the wall switch and the room and screen dropped into darkness.

We stood there staring at the screen and in the minute before the camera cut off we could hear but not see Lawton Cross crying. They were the deep sobs of a wounded and helpless animal. I did not look at the two men with me and they didn’t look at me. We just watched the dark screen and listened.

The camera finally—thankfully—cut off at the end of the minute but then the screen came alive again when the room’s light was flicked back on and Danny entered the room. I checked the time on the screen and saw this was only three minutes after the agents had left the room. Her husband’s face was streaked with tears. Tears he could do nothing to hide.

She crossed the room to him. Without a word she climbed onto the chair in front of him, her knees alongside his thin thighs. She lowered her hips onto his lap. She opened her bathrobe and pulled his face forward to her breasts. She held him there and he cried again. No words were spoken at first. She quietly and tenderly shushed him. And then she started to sing to him.