While Bosch worked, he received an email from Henrik Jespersen. He had finally gotten to his storage room and found the details of his sister’s travel in the last months of her life. The information merely confirmed much of what he had told Bosch about Anneke’s trip to the United States. It also confirmed her short trip to Stuttgart.

According to Henrik’s records, his sister had spent only two nights in Germany in the last week of March 1992, staying at a hotel called the Schwabian Inn, located outside Patch Barracks at the U.S. Army Garrison. Henrik could offer nothing further about her purpose there, but Bosch was able to confirm through his own Internet search that Patch Barracks was where the army’s Criminal Investigation Division was located. He also determined that the Stuttgart CID office handled all investigations of alleged war crimes pertaining to Desert Storm.

It seemed obvious to Bosch that Anneke Jespersen had made inquiries at Stuttgart about an alleged crime committed during Desert Storm. Whether what she learned there led her to the United States was unclear. Bosch knew from experience that even his status as a law enforcement officer did little to earn cooperation with the army CID. It seemed to him that a foreign journalist would face an even greater challenge in getting information on a crime that was most likely still under investigation at the time she asked about it.

By noon Bosch had his travel package put together and was ready to go. More so than Chu, it seemed, he was anxious to leave. For Harry, it had nothing to do with overtime pay. He simply had plans for the remainder of the day. He knew his daughter would be waking soon, and the plan was to hit Henry’s Tacos in North Hollywood. It would be lunch for him and breakfast for her. After that, they had preordered tickets for a 3-D movie that Maddie had been waiting to see. This would be followed in the evening with both of them going to dinner with Hannah at a restaurant on Melrose called Craig’s.

“I’m good to go,” Bosch told Chu.

“Then, so am I,” his partner responded.

“Got anything there worth talking about?”

He was referring to Chu’s data sweep on the other names from the 237th. Chu shook his head.

“Nothing to get excited about.”

“Did you get to that search I left a message about last night?”

“Which one?”

“The soldiers interviewed in Jespersen’s story about Saudi Princess.”

Chu snapped his fingers.

“I totally forgot. I got the message late last night and just forgot about it today. I’ll get on it now.”

He turned back to his computer.

“Nah, go home,” Bosch said. “You can hit that tomorrow from home, or back here on Monday. That’s a long shot anyway.”

Chu laughed.

“What?” Bosch asked.

“Nothing, Harry. It’s just that with you, everything’s a long shot.”