“Sure, I remember him.”
“Did he ever clear the case?”
“Not as far as I know. At first John thought it might have been connected to the punks who had threatened me.”
“And was it?”
“John told me no. But I was never sure. The burglars really tore the place apart. It wasn’t like they were really looking for stuff to steal. They were just destroying things-my belongings. I walked in this place and, man, I could feel a lot of anger.”
“Why do you say burglars? Did the police think it was more than one?”
“John figured it had to be at least two or three. I was only gone an hour-went to the store. One guy couldn’t have done all that damage in that time.”
“The report lists the gun, a coin collection and some cash that was taken. Anything else come up missing after?”
“No, that was it. That was enough. At least I got the coins back, and that was the most valuable thing. It was my father’s collection from when he was a boy.”
“How did you get it back?”
“John McClellan. He brought them back to me a couple weeks later.”
“Did he say where he recovered them from?”
“He said a pawnshop in West Hollywood. And then, of course, we know what became of the gun. But that was not given back to me. I wouldn’t have taken it anyway.”
“I understand, sir. Did Detective McClellan ever tell you who he thought burglarized your home? Did he have any theories?”
“He thought it was just another set of punks, you know. Not the Chatsworth Eights.”
The mention of the Chatsworth Eights stirred something in Bosch, but he couldn’t place it.
“Mr. Weiss, act like I don’t know anything. Who were the Chatsworth Eights?”
“It was a gang out here in the Valley. They were all white kids. Skinheads. And back in nineteen eighty-eight they committed a number of crimes out here. They were hate crimes. That’s what they called them in the papers. Back then it was the new term for crimes motivated by race or religion.”
“And you were the target of this gang?”
“Yeah, I started getting calls. The typical kill-the-Jew stuff.”
“But then the police told you the Eights did not commit the burglary.”
“That’s right.”
“Strange, isn’t it? They didn’t see any connection.”
“That’s what I thought at the time but he was the detective, not me.”
“What made the Eights target you, Mr. Weiss? I know you are Jewish but what made them pick you out?”
“Simple. One of the little shits was a kid who lived in my neighborhood. Billy Burkhart was four houses away. I put a menorah in my window during Chanukah and that’s when it all started.”
“What happened to Burkhart?”
“He went to jail. Not for what he did to me, but to others. They got him and the others on other crimes. They burned a cross a few blocks from me. In the front lawn of a black family. And they did other things. Mean things, vandalism. They tried to burn a temple, too.”
“But not the burglary at your house.”
“That’s right. That’s what the police told me. You see, there was no graffiti or indication of religious motivation. The place was just torn apart. So they didn’t classify the burglary as a hate crime.”
Bosch hesitated, wondering if there was anything else to ask. He decided he didn’t know enough to ask smart questions.
“Okay, Mr. Weiss, I appreciate your time. And I am sorry to reawaken bad memories.”
“Don’t worry about it, Detective. Believe me, they weren’t asleep.”
Bosch closed the phone. He tried to think of whom he could call about all of this. He didn’t know John McClellan and the chances of his still being in Devonshire Division seventeen years later were slim. Then it hit him: Jerry Edgar. His old partner at Hollywood Division had previously been assigned to Devonshire detectives. He would have been there in 1988.
Bosch called the Hollywood homicide table but got the machine. Everybody had cut out early. He called the main detective bureau number and asked if Edgar was around. Bosch knew that there was a sign-out chart at the front counter. The clerk who answered the phone said Edgar had signed out for the day.
The third call was to Edgar’s cell phone. His old partner answered it promptly.
“You guys go home early in Hollywood,” Bosch said.
“Who the hell is-Harry, that you?”
“That me. How’s it hanging, Jerry?”
“I was wondering when I’d hear from you. You start again today?”
“The world’s oldest boot. And I already got a hot shot. Kiz and I are working a breaking case.”
Edgar didn’t respond and Bosch knew mentioning Rider had been a mistake. The gulf between them not only still existed but was apparently frozen over.
“Anyway, I need to tap into that big brain of yours. This is going back to Club Dev days.”
“Yeah, which day?”
“Nineteen eighty-eight. The Chatsworth Eights. You remember them?”
There was silence while Edgar thought for a moment.
“Yeah, I remember the Eights. They were a bunch of peckerwoods that thought shaved heads and tattoos made them men. They did a lot of shit, then they got stepped on. They didn’t last long.”
“You remember a guy named Roland Mackey? Would’ve been about eighteen back then.”
After a pause Edgar said he didn’t remember the name.
“Who was working the Eights?” Bosch asked.
“Not Club Dev, man. Everything with them went straight down the rabbit hole.”
“PDU?”
“You got it.”
The Public Disorder Unit. A shadowy downtown squad that gathered data and intelligence on conspiracies but made few cases. Back in 1988 the PDU would have been under the aegis of then commander Irvin Irving. The unit was not in existence anymore. When Irving rose to the level of deputy chief he promptly disbanded the PDU, with many in the department believing it was a measure taken to cover up and distance himself from its activities.
“That’s not going to help,” Bosch said.
“Sorry about that. What are you working?”
“The murder of a girl up on Oat Mountain.”
“The one taken out of her house?”
“Yeah.”
“I remember that one, too. I didn’t work it-I had just gotten to the homicide table. But I remember that one. You’re saying the Eights were in on that one?”
“No. Just that a name came up that might have a connection to the Eights. Might. So does Eights mean what I think?”
“Yeah, man, eight for H. Eighty-eight for H-H. And H-H for Heil -”
“- Hitler. Yeah, I thought so.”
Then it struck Bosch that Kiz Rider had been right when she thought the year of the crime might be significant. The murder and the rest of the crimes committed by the Chatsworth Eights had occurred in 1988. It was all part of a confluence of seemingly small things coming together. And now Irvin Irving and the PDU were mixed into the soup as well. A cold hit match of DNA to a loser who drove a tow truck for a living was blossoming into something bigger.
“Jerry, you remember a guy who worked at Devonshire named John McClellan?”
“John McClellan? No, I don’t remember. What did he work?”
“I got his name here on a burglary report.”
“No, definitely not the burglary table. I worked burglary before going over to homicide. There was no John McClellan on burglary. Who is he?”
“Like I said, just a name on a report. I’ll figure it out.”
Bosch knew that this meant McClellan was likely in the PDU at the time and the investigation of the burglary of Sam Weiss’s home was folded into the investigation of the Chatsworth Eights. He didn’t care to discuss all of this with Edgar.
“Jerry, so you were new on the homicide table back then?”
“That’s right.”
“Did you know Green and Garcia very well?”
“Not really. I just got to the table and they weren’t there that long after. Green pulled the pin and about a year after that Garcia made lieutenant.”