Bosch’s call was put through without delay. Harry explained what and who he was looking for, and Gandle gave him the bad news.

“Yeah, you’re talking about Magnus Vestergaard, but he’s dead at least ten years now. Motorcycle accident.”

“Damn.”

“What did you need him for?”

“He did some Danish translation work on a case I’m looking at. I wanted to see what he remembered that’s not in the book.”

“Sorry about that, Harry.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

As soon as Bosch put down the phone, it rang while still in his hand. It was Lieutenant O’Toole.

“Detective, can you come into my office for a moment?”

“Sure thing.”

Bosch killed his computer screen and got up. A summons to O’Toole’s office was not a good thing. He felt several eyes in the squad room following him as he made his way to the corner office. It was bright inside. The blinds over the windows that looked out on the squad were open as well as the exterior windows that had a view of the Los Angeles Times Building. The previous lieutenant always kept these closed out of fear that the reporters were watching.

“What’s up, L-T?” Bosch asked.

“I’ve got something I want you to run with.”

“What do you mean?”

“A case. I got a call from an analyst named Pran in the Death Squad. He linked an open case from ’oh-six with a case from ’ninety-nine. I want you to handle it. It sounded good. Here’s his direct.”

O’Toole proffered a yellow Post-it with a phone number jotted on it. The Death Squad was the unofficial acronym of the new Data Evaluation and Theory Unit. It was part of a new form of cold case investigating called data synthesizing.

For the prior three years, the Death Squad had been digitizing archived murder books, creating a massive database of easily accessible and comparable information about unsolved killings. Suspects, witnesses, weapons, locations, word constructions—any and all of the myriad details of crime scenes and investigations—were constantly churning through the squad’s telephone booth–size IBM computer. It had provided a whole new line of investigation of cold cases.

Bosch didn’t reach out for the Post-it but his curiosity got the better of him.

“What’s the connection between the cases?”

“A witness. Same witness happened to see the shooter running away. Two contract hits, one in the Valley, one downtown, no seeming connection but the same witness both times. Sounds to me like this witness needs to be looked at from a whole new angle. Take the number.”

Bosch didn’t.

“What going on, Lieutenant? I’ve got momentum going on the Jespersen case. Why are you giving me this?”

“You told me yesterday that Jespersen was stalled.”

“I didn’t say it was stalled. I said it wasn’t a CBO case.”

Bosch suddenly realized what was going on. Something Jordy Gant had said connected with what O’Toole was trying to do. Plus he knew that the afternoon before, O’Toole had attended the weekly command staff meeting on the tenth floor. He turned and headed out of the office.