“The manager saw the kid?”
“No, I mean, always. Since birth. She said it was a big tragedy. The kid was handicapped. Blind, deaf, a bunch of things wrong. Fifteen months old, and he couldn’t walk or talk and never could even crawl. He just cried a lot.”
Bosch nodded as he tried to plug this information into everything else he knew and had accumulated. Just then, another car came speeding into the parking lot. It pulled into the ambulance chute in front of the ER doors. A woman leaped out and ran into the ER, leaving the car running and the door open.
“That’s probably the mother,” Bosch said. “We better get in there.”
Bosch started trotting toward the ER doors, and Ferras followed. They went through the ER waiting room and down a hallway, where the father had been placed in a private room to wait.
As Bosch got close, he did not hear any screaming or crying or fists on flesh – things that wouldn’t have surprised him. The door was open, and when he turned in, he saw the parents of the dead boy embracing each other, but not a tear lined any of their cheeks. Bosch’s initial split-second reaction was that he was seeing relief in their young faces.
They separated when they saw Bosch enter, followed by Ferras.
“Mr. and Mrs. Helton?” he asked.
They nodded in unison. But the man corrected Bosch.
“I’m Stephen Helton, and this is my wife, Arlene Haddon.”
“I’m Detective Bosch with the Los Angeles Police Department, and this is my partner, Detective Ferras. We are very sorry for the loss of your son. It is our job now to investigate William’s death and to learn exactly what happened to him.”
Helton nodded as his wife stepped close to him and put her face into his chest. Something silent was transmitted.
“Does this have to be done now?” Helton asked. “We’ve just lost our beautiful little – ”
“Yes, sir, it has to be done now. This is a homicide investigation.”
“It was an accident,” Helton weakly protested. “It’s all my fault, but it was an accident.”
“It’s still a homicide investigation. We would like to speak to you each privately, without the intrusions that will occur here. Do you mind coming down to the police station to be interviewed?”
“We’ll leave him here?”
“The hospital is making arrangements for your son’s body to be moved to the medical examiner’s office.”
“They’re going to cut him open?” the mother asked in a near hysterical voice.
“They will examine his body and then determine if an autopsy is necessary,” Bosch said. “It is required by law that any untimely death fall under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner.”
He waited to see if there was further protest. When there wasn’t, he stepped back and gestured for them to leave the room.
“We’ll drive you down to Parker Center, and I promise to make this as painless as possible.”
THEY PLACED THE grieving parents in separate interview rooms in the third-floor offices of Homicide Special. Because it was Sunday, the cafeteria was closed, and Bosch had to make do with the vending machines in the alcove by the elevators. He got a can of Coke and two packages of cheese crackers. He had not eaten breakfast before being called in on the case and was now famished.
He took his time while eating the crackers and talking things over with Ferras. He wanted both Helton and Haddon to believe that they were waiting while the other spouse was being interviewed. It was a trick of the trade, part of the strategy. Each would have to wonder what the other was saying.
“Okay,” Bosch finally said. “I’m going to go in and take the husband. You can watch in the booth or you can take a run at the wife. Your choice.”
It was a big moment. Bosch was more than twenty-five years ahead of Ferras on the job. He was the mentor, and Ferras was the student. So far in their fledgling partnership, Bosch had never let Ferras conduct a formal interview. He was allowing that now, and the look on Ferras’s face showed that it was not lost on him.
“You’re going to let me talk to her?”
“Sure, why not? You can handle it.”
“All right if I get in the booth and watch you with him first? That way you can watch me.”
“Whatever makes you comfortable.”
“Thanks, Harry.”
“Don’t thank me, Ignacio. Thank yourself. You earned it.”
Bosch dumped the empty cracker packages and the can in a trash bin near his desk.
“Do me a favor,” he said. “Go on the Internet first and check the LA Times to see if they’ve had any stories lately about a case like this. You know, with a kid. I’d be curious, and if there are, we might be able to make a play with the story. Use it like a prop.”
“I’m on it.”
“I’ll go set up the video in the booth.”
Ten minutes later, Bosch entered Interview Room Three, where Stephen Helton was waiting for him. Helton looked like he was not quite thirty years old. He was lean and tan and looked like the perfect real estate salesman. He looked like he had never spent even five minutes in a police station before.
Immediately, he protested.
“What is taking so long? I’ve just lost my son, and you stick me in this room for an hour? Is that procedure?”
“It hasn’t been that long, Stephen. But I am sorry you had to wait. We were talking to your wife, and that went longer than we thought it would.”
“Why were you talking to her? Willy was with me the whole time.”
“We talked to her for the same reason we’re talking to you. I’m sorry for the delay.”
Bosch pulled out the chair that was across the small table from Helton and sat down.
“First of all,” he said, “thank you for coming in for the interview. You understand that you are not under arrest or anything like that. You are free to go if you wish. But by law we have to conduct an investigation of the death, and we appreciate your cooperation.”
“I just want to get it over with so I can begin the process.”
“What process is that?”
“I don’t know. Whatever process you go through. Believe me, I’m new at this. You know, grief and guilt and mourning. Willy wasn’t in our lives very long, but we loved him very much. This is just awful. I made a mistake, and I am going to pay for it for the rest of my life, Detective Bosch.”
Bosch almost told him that his son paid for the mistake with the rest of his life but chose not to antagonize the man. Instead, he just nodded and noted that Helton had looked down at his lap when he had spoken most of his statement. Averting the eyes was a classic tell that indicated untruthfulness. Another tell was that Helton had his hands down in his lap and out of sight. The open and truthful person keeps his hands on the table and in sight.
“Why don’t we start at the beginning?” Bosch said. “Tell me how the day started.”
Helton nodded and began.
“Sunday’s our busiest day. We’re both in real estate. You may have seen the signs: Haddon and Helton. We’re PPG’s top-volume team. Today Arlene had an open house at noon and a couple of private showings before that. So Willy was going to be with me. We lost another nanny on Friday, and there was no one else to take him.”
“How did you lose the nanny?”
“She quit. They all quit. Willy is a handful… because of his condition. I mean, why deal with a handicapped child if someone with a normal, healthy child will pay you the same thing? Subsequently, we go through a lot of nannies.”
“So you were left to take care of the boy today while your wife had the property showings.”
“It wasn’t like I wasn’t working, though. I was negotiating a sale that would have brought in a thirty-thousand-dollar commission. It was important.”
“Is that why you went into the office?”
“Exactly. We got an offer sheet, and I was going to have to respond. So I got Willy ready and put him in the car and went in to work.”