“What about the FBI, what do they say about the bug?”
“I don’t know and I’m not asking. If I did, they would say, ‘What bug?’ You know that.”
Bosch nodded and was immediately tired of the man. A thought was pushing into his head that he didn’t want to allow in. He looked away from Irving to the window. Irving told him once more to think of the department before he did anything, then walked out. When he was sure Irving had made his way down the hall, Bosch lashed out with his left arm and sent the vase of daisies tumbling into the corner of the room. The vase was plastic and didn’t break. The damage was just spilled water and flowers. Galvin Junior’s ferret face momentarily poked in and then out of the room. He said nothing, but it tipped Bosch that the IAD man was posted outside in the hall. Was that for his protection? Or for the department’s? Bosch didn’t know. He didn’t know anything anymore.
Bosch pushed away an untouched tray containing an institutional meal of turkey loaf with flour gravy, corn, yams, a hard roll that was supposed to be soft, and strawberry shortcake with flat whipped cream.
“You eat that, you might never get out of here.”
He looked up. It was Eleanor. She stood in the open door, smiling. He smiled back. He couldn’t help himself.
“I know.”
“How are you, Harry?”
“Okay. I’ll be okay. Might not be able to do chin-ups anymore, but I’ll survive with that. How are you, Eleanor?”
“I’m fine,” she said, and her smile just slayed him. “They put you through the Veg-O-Matic today?”
“Oh, yeah. Sliced and diced. The best and the brightest of my fine department-a couple of your pals, too-had me on the ropes all morning. There’s a chair on this side.”
She circled the bed but continued standing next to the chair. She looked around and a slight frown creased her brow, as if she knew this room and therefore knew something wasn’t right.
“They got me, too. Last night. They wouldn’t let me come see you till they were through with you. Orders. Didn’t want us going together on the story. But I guess our stories came out all right. At least they didn’t pull me back in after they talked to you today. Told me that was it.”
“They find the diamonds?”
“Not that I’ve heard, but they aren’t telling me much anymore. They’ve got two crews working it today, but I’m out of it. I’m on a desk till it cools off and the shooting team finishes up. They’re still probably at Rourke’s place looking.”
“What about Tran and Binh, they cooperate?”
“No. They aren’t saying one word. I know that from a friend who was on the interrogation. They don’t know anything about any diamonds. Probably got their own people together in a posse. They’ll be out on the treasure hunt, too.”
“Where do you think the treasure is?”
“I don’t have any idea. This whole thing, Harry, it’s kind of thrown me. I don’t know what I think about things anymore.”
That included how she thought about him, he knew. He didn’t say anything and after a while the silence became uneasy.
“What happened, Eleanor? Irving told me Lewis and Clarke intercepted Avery. But that’s all I know. I don’t understand.”
“They watched us watch the vault all night. They must’ve gotten it into their heads that we were lookouts. If you start with the assumption that you were a bad cop, like they did, then you might come to the same conclusion. So when they see you turn Avery away and send the two uniforms home, they figure they know your game. They grab Avery at Darling’s and he tells them about your visit the day before, and all the alarms this week, and then he lets it slip that you didn’t want him to open the vault.”
“And they said, ‘You mean you can open the vault?’ and the next thing is they are sneaking down the alley.”
“Yeah. They had an idea about being heroes. Catching the bad cops and the robbers all at once. Nice plan until the payoff.”
“Poor dumb jerks.”
“Poor dumb jerks.”
The silence came back then and Eleanor didn’t wait for it to settle.
“Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing.”
He nodded.
“And… and to tell you-”
Here it is, he thought, the kiss good-bye.
“-I’ve decided to quit. I’m going to leave the bureau.”
“What about… What will you do?”
“I don’t know. But I’m going to leave here, Harry. I have some money so I’ll travel awhile and then see what I want to do.”
“Eleanor, why?”
“I don’t-it’s hard for me to explain. But everything that happened. Everything about the job has turned to shit. And I don’t think I can go back and work in that squad room again after what has happened.”
“Will you come back to L.A.?”
She looked down at her hands and then around the room again.
“I don’t know. Harry, I’m sorry. It seemed like-I don’t know, I’m very confused about things right now.”
“What things?”
“I don’t know. Us. What’s happened. Everything.”
Silence filled the room again and it seemed so loud that Bosch hoped a nurse or even Galvin Junior would stick a head in to see if everything was all right. He needed a cigarette badly. He realized it was the first time today that he had thought about smoking. Eleanor looked down at her feet now, and he looked over at his untouched food. He picked up the roll and started to toss it up and down in his hand like a baseball. After a while Eleanor’s eyes made their third trip around the room without seeing whatever it was she was looking for. Bosch couldn’t figure it out.
“Didn’t you get the flowers I sent?”
“Flowers?”
“Yes, I sent daisies. Like the ones growing on the hill below your house. I don’t see any in here.”
Daisies, Bosch thought. The vase he had knocked against the wall. Where are my goddam cigarettes, he wanted to yell.
“They’ll probably come later. They only make deliveries up here once a day.”
She frowned.
“You know,” Bosch said, “if Rourke knew we’d found the second vault and were watching it, and if he knew that we watched Tran go in and clear his box, why didn’t he get his people out? That really bothers me about this whole thing. Why’d he go through with it?”
She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. Maybe… well, I’ve been thinking that maybe he wanted them to go down. He knew those guys, maybe he knew it would work out that they’d go down shooting, that without them he’d get to keep all the diamonds from the first vault.”
“Yeah. But you know, I’ve been remembering things all day. About when we were down there. It’s been coming back, and I remember that he didn’t say he’d get it all. He said something about his share being bigger now with Meadows and the other two dead. He still used the word ‘share,’ like there was still someone else to split it with.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Maybe, but it’s just semantics, Harry.”
“Maybe.”
“I’ve got to go. You know how long they’ll keep you?”
“Haven’t been told, but I think tomorrow I’ll take myself out. Thinking about going to Meadows’s funeral over at veterans.”
“A Memorial Day funeral. Sounds appropriate to me.”
“Want to go with me?”
“Mmmm, no. I don’t think I want anything more to do with Mr. Meadows… But I’ll be at the bureau tomorrow. Clearing out my desk and writing up status sheets on the cases I’ll have to pass to other agents. You could come by if you’d like. I’ll brew you some fresh coffee like before. But, you know, I don’t really think they are going to let you out so fast, Harry. Not with a bullet wound. You need to rest. You need to heal some.”
“Sure,” Bosch said. He knew she was saying good-bye to him.
“Okay, then, maybe I’ll see you.”
She leaned over and kissed him good-bye, and he knew it was good-bye to everything about them. She was almost out the door before he opened his eyes.