“I remember we were saying, ‘What does she want?’ and ‘How the hell did she find us?’ But Cosgrove wasn’t worried. He said she couldn’t prove anything. This whole thing was before DNA and CSI stuff like that, get what’m sayin’?”

“Yeah, I get it. So when did you, personally, actually see her?”

Banks said that once their unit received orders and moved out to Crenshaw Boulevard, he saw Jespersen. She had followed the transport and was taking photographs of the men in the unit as they deployed along the boulevard.

“It was like she was this ghost following us, takin’ pictures of us. It was creepin’ me out. Henderson, too. We thought she was like going to do a story on us or something.”

“Did she speak to you?”

“No, not to me. Never.”

“What about Henderson?”

“Not that I saw, and he was with me most of the time.”

“Who killed her, Reggie? Who took her in that alley and killed her?”

“I wish I knew, man, because I would tell you. But I wasn’t up there.”

“And you five guys never talked about it after?”

“Well, yeah, we talked but it was never said who did what. Drummer took charge and said we had to make a pact never to talk about it again. He said Carl was rich and he would take care of everybody as long as we kept quiet about it. And if we didn’t, he said he’d make sure we all went down for it.”

“How?”

“He said he had the evidence. He said that what happened on the boat was motive and we’d all get charged. Conspiracy to commit murder.”

Bosch nodded. It all fit with his own conspiracy theory.

“So, who actually shot the woman? Was it Carl? Is that what you took from all that?”

Banks shrugged.

“Well, yeah, that’s what I always thought. He pushed her into that alley or lured her in there, and the others kept watch for him. They were together up there. Carl, Frank, and Drummer. But me and Henderson, we weren’t there, man. I’m telling you.”

“And then that night, Frank Dowler goes into the alley to take a leak and just happens to ‘discover’ the body.”

Banks just nodded.

“Why? Why’d he bother? Why didn’t they just leave the body there? It probably wouldn’t have been found for at least a few days.”

“I don’t know. I think they thought that if they found it during the riots, the investigation would be all messed up. You know, like it would be hurried. Drummer was a deputy up here and he knew about cop stuff. We were hearing stories about how nothing was being done about anything. It was crazy out there.”

Bosch stared at him for a long moment.

“Yeah, well, they were right about that,” he said.