Lawton Cross was asleep in his chair, his mouth open and a spill of medicinal-looking drool curved down his cheek. I didn’t want to look at him. He was too much of a reminder of what could happen. I put the toolbox and the clock box down on the bed. I went back to the door and closed it, making sure it banged in the jamb loud enough to hopefully startle Cross awake. I didn’t want to have to touch him to wake him up.

When I turned back to the chair I noticed his eyes flutter and then go still at half mast.

“Hey, Law? It’s me, Harry Bosch.”

I noticed the green light on the monitor on the bureau and moved behind the chair to turn it off.

“Harry?” he said. “Where?”

I came back around the chair and looked down on him with a frozen smile on my face.

“Right here, man. You awake now?”

“Yeah . . . mmm ’wake.”

“Good. There’s some stuff I need to tell you. And I got you something.”

I went to the bed and started pulling the clock out of the box Andre Biggar had packed for me.

“Black Bush?”

His voice was alert now. Once again I regretted my choice of words to him. I came back into his field of vision holding the clock up.

“I got you this clock for the wall. Now you’ll be able to tell the time when you need it.”

He blew a burst of air out through his lips.

“She’ll just take it down.”

“I’ll tell her not to. Don’t worry.”

I opened the toolbox and pulled out the hammer and a drywall nail from a plastic package that contained a variety of nails for different purposes. I surveyed the wall to the left of the television and picked a spot at center. There was an electrical outlet directly below. I held the nail up high on the wall and drove it halfway in with the hammer. I was hanging the clock when the door opened and Danny looked in.

“What are you doing? He doesn’t want a clock in here.”

I finished hanging the clock, lowered my hands and looked at her.

“He told me he did want a clock.”

We both looked at Law to settle it. His eyes flitted from his wife to me and then back again.

“Let’s try having a clock for a while,” he said. “I’d like to know the time of day so I know when my shows are coming on.”

“Fine,” she said in a clipped tone. “Whatever you want.”

She left the room, closing the door behind her. I leaned over and plugged the clock’s line into the outlet. Then I checked my watch and reached up to set the time and turn on the camera. When I was finished I put the hammer back into the toolbox and snapped the latch.

“Harry?”