“Got something,” Chu said.

Bosch rotated in his chair to look at his partner’s back.

“Give it to me. I need something.”

“Charles William Washburn, AKA Two Small—but with the number two—has a long arrest record. Drugs mostly, assaults. . . . He’s got a child endangerment on there, too. Let’s see, two installments in the penitentiary and right now out free but wanted since July on a child-support warrant. Whereabouts unknown.”

Chu turned and looked at him.

“Who is he, Harry?”

“Somebody I gotta look at. Can you print that?”

“On the way.”

Chu sent the NCIC report to the unit’s community printer. Bosch keyed the password into his phone and called Jordy Gant.

“Charles ‘Two Small’ Washburn, the two like the number two. You know him?”

“‘Two Small’ . . . uh, that sounds—hold on a second.”

The line went silent and Bosch waited almost a minute before Gant came back on.

“He’s in the current intel. He’s a Sixties guy. First row of the pyramid type of guy. He’s not your shot caller. Where’d you get his name?”

“The black box. In ’ninety-two he lived on the other side of the fence from the Jespersen crime scene. He was sixteen at the time and probably looking to get in with the Sixties.”

Bosch heard typing over the phone as he talked. Gant was doing a further search.

“We have a bench warrant issued from department one-twenty downtown,” he said. “Charles wasn’t paying his baby mama like he was supposed to. Last known address is the house on Sixty-sixth Place. But that’s four years old.”

Bosch knew a bench warrant for a deadbeat dad in South L.A. was almost meaningless. It would hardly draw the attention of a Sheriff’s Department pickup team unless there was some sort of media attention attached. Instead, it was a warrant that would sit in the data banks waiting to rise up the next time Washburn intersected with law enforcement and his name was run through the computer. But as long as he stayed low, he stayed free.

“I’m going to swing by the old homestead and see if I get lucky,” Bosch said.

“You want some backup?” Gant asked.

“No, I’ve got it covered. But what you can do is bump up the heat on the street.”

“You got it. I’ll put the word out on Two Small. Meantime, happy hunting, Harry. Let me know if you get him or you need me out there.”

“Yeah, will do.”

Bosch hung up and turned to Chu.

“Ready to take a ride?”

Chu nodded but with a reluctant frown.

“You coming back by four?”

“You never know. If my guy’s there, it might take some time. You want me to get somebody else?”

“No, Harry. I just have something to do tonight.”

Bosch was reminded that he was under explicit orders from his daughter not to be late for dinner.

“What, hot date?” he asked Chu.

“Never mind, let’s go.”

Chu stood up, ready to go rather than answer questions about his private life.