The Crossing

28

Long got back into the car and surveyed Sunset Boulevard.

“Where’d he go?” he asked.

From behind the wheel Ellis pointed east.

“Probably back home,” he said. “What did Nguyen say?”

“Bosch asked about the watch and he asked about the phone call Parks made. Nguyen played dumb, said his brother dealt with it. But Bosch will definitely be back. This is getting serious, partner. He’s getting close.”

Ellis considered that. He still hadn’t started the car.

“What else?” he asked.

“He says that’s all,” Long said. “He was scared of me. If there was more, he would’ve given it up.”

Ellis was reaching to the ignition but let his hand drop.

“Where the fuck is his brother?”

“He says he doesn’t know. Thinks Mexico.”

“What did you hear when you got in there?”

“I just got the tail end. Bosch wasn’t buying what he was selling, that’s for sure. I’m thinking we need to close this thing down. Zip it up. This isn’t like the motorcycle guy — a precautionary move. Bosch is zeroing in.”

“We’d have to wait until the brothers are together. That Mexico story is bullshit.”

“What I was thinking. You want to wait?”

Silence filled the car when Ellis didn’t speak. Eventually Long pushed it.

“So, then when?”

“Check your phone. Where’d Bosch just go to?”

“You said probably back home.”

“Yeah, well, make sure.”

Long opened the app on his phone. It took him a few moments to locate Bosch.

“Actually, he’s going down La Cienega toward the ten.”

“He could be going anywhere.”

Ellis turned the key and started the car.

“So, what do we do about him?” Long asked. “We take him out, we end the problem.”

Ellis shook his head.

“Not that easy,” he said. “He has friends. And if Haller loses his second investigator on this, there’ll be questions. We don’t want that kind of heat.”

Ellis checked his mirror and was about to pull away from the curb.

“It’s going to come to a point,” Long said, “where we don’t have a choice.”

“Maybe,” Ellis said. “But we’re not there yet.”

He saw a familiar figure cross Sunset in the mirror.

“Good things come to those who wait,” he said. “There’s the brother.”

“Where?” Long asked.

“Behind us. Coming up to the shop. I knew it was a lie.”

Ellis turned off the ignition. Both brothers together changed things.