Lori didn’t give the card much of a look before passing it back to Bosch.

“Harry, meet the Triple-L,” Banks said. “Lori Lynn Lukas, the best bartender in the business.”

Bosch nodded his greeting and slid onto the stool next to Banks. It seemed to him that he had pulled it off. Banks was not suspicious of the coincidence. And if he kept drinking, any suspicions would move even farther away.

“Lori, put him on my tab,” Banks declared.

Bosch said thanks and ordered a beer. Soon an ice-cold bottle was in front of him, and Banks brought his glass up to toast.

“To us warriors.”

Banks clinked his glass off Bosch’s bottle and slurped down a third of what looked like a Scotch rocks. When Banks had extended his glass, Bosch saw that he wore a big military watch with multiple dials and a timing bezel. It made him wonder how that fit in with selling tractors.

Banks looked at Bosch with squinted eyes.

“Let me guess. Vietnam.”

Bosch nodded.

“And you?”

“Desert Storm, baby. The first Gulf War.”

They clinked bottle to glass once again.

“Desert Storm,” Bosch said appreciatively. “That’s one I don’t have.”

Banks narrowed his eyes.

“One you don’t have of what?” he asked.

Bosch shrugged.

“I’m sort of a collector. Something from every war, that sort of thing. Mostly enemy weapons. My wife thinks I’m a nut.”

Banks didn’t say anything, so Bosch kept the riff going.

“My prize piece is a tanto taken off the body of a dead Jap in a cave on Iwo Jima. He had used it.”

“What, is that a gun?”

“No, a blade.”

Bosch pantomimed dragging a knife left to right across his stomach. Lori Lynn made a sound of disgust and moved toward the other end of the bar.

“I paid two grand for it,” Bosch said. “It would’ve been less if, you know, it hadn’t been used. Did you bring back anything interesting from Iraq?”

“Never was there, actually. I was based in S-A and made a few runs into Kuwait. I was in transport.”

He finished his drink as Bosch nodded.

“So no real action, huh?”

Banks rapped his empty glass on the bar.

“Lori, you workin’ t’night or what?”

He then looked directly at Bosch.

“Hell, man, we had plenty action. Our whole unit almost got smoked by a SCUD. We kicked some ass, too. And like I said, I was in transpo. We had access to everything and knew how to get it back stateside.”

Bosch turned to him like he was suddenly interested. But he waited until Lori Lynn was finished freshening Banks’s drink and moved away again. Bosch spoke in a quiet, conspiratorial tone.