Nine Dragons Read online

  “Do we take Chang down?” he asked.

  “You sure he’s flying? Maybe he’s making a delivery or something. How big’s the suitcase?”

  “Big. The kind you pack when you’re not coming back.”

  Gandle sighed as he put on his plate yet another dilemma and decision to be made.

  “Okay, let me talk to some people and I’ll get back to you.”

  Bosch assumed that would be Captain Dodds and possibly someone in the district attorney’s office.

  “There is some good news, Lieutenant,” he said.

  “Holy shit, imagine that,” Gandle exclaimed. “What good news?”

  “Yesterday afternoon we tailed Chang to the other store. The one our victim’s son runs in the Valley. He extorted him, told the kid he had to start paying now that his old man was gone.”

  “What, this is great! Why didn’t you tell me this?”

  “I just did.”

  “That gives us probable cause to arrest.”

  “To arrest but probably not prosecute. The kid is a reluctant witness. He would have to come in to make the case and I don’t know if he’ll hold up. And either way, it’s not a murder charge. That’s what we want.”

  “Well, at the very least, we could stop this guy from getting on a plane.”

  Bosch nodded as the beginning of a plan started to form.

  “It’s Friday. If we hold on to him and book him late in the day, he wouldn’t get a hearing till Monday afternoon. That would give us at least seventy-two hours to pull a case together.”

  “With the extortion being the fallback position.”

  “Right.”

  Bosch was getting another call beeping in his ear and he assumed it was Chu. He asked Gandle to get back to him as soon as he had run the scenario by the powers that be.

  Bosch took the other call without looking at the screen.

  “Yeah?”

  “Harry?”

  It was a woman. He recognized the voice but couldn’t place it.

  “Yeah, who’s this?”

  “Teri Sopp.”

  “Oh, hi, I thought it was my partner calling. What’s up?”

  “I just wanted you to know I convinced them to use the casing you gave me yesterday in the testing program for electrostatic enhancement. We’ll see if we can raise a print off it.”

  “Teri, you’re my hero! Will that be today?”

  “No, not today. We’re not going back to that till next week. Probably Tuesday.”

  Bosch hated to ask for a favor when he had just been given a favor, but he felt he had no choice.

  “Teri, is there any way it can be done Monday morning?”

  “Monday? I don’t think we’ll get to the actual application un—”

  “The reason is, we may have our suspect in jail before the end of the day. We think he’s trying to leave the country and we might need to arrest him. That will give us till Monday to make the case, Teri. We’re going to need everything we can get.”

  There was a hesitation before she responded.

  “I’ll see what we can do. Meantime, if you arrest him, bring me down a print card so I can make the comparison as soon as I have something on this end. If I have something.”

  “You got it, Teri. Thanks a million.”

  Bosch closed his phone and searched the freeway in front of him. He saw neither Chu’s car—a red Mazda Miata—nor Chang’s silver Mustang. He realized he had fallen far behind. He hit Chu on speed dial.

  “Chu, where are you?”

  “South four oh five. He’s going to the airport.”

  Bosch was still on the 10 Freeway and saw the 405 interchange up ahead.

  “Okay, I’ll catch up.”

  “What’s happening?”

  “I’ve got Gandle making the call on whether we take Chang down or not.”

  “We can’t let him go.”

  “That’s what I say. We’ll see what they say.”

  “You want me to get my boss involved?”

  Bosch almost responded by saying he didn’t want to bring another boss into the mix with the possibility that there was a leak in the pipe somewhere.

  “Let’s wait and see what Gandle says first,” he said diplomatically instead.

  “You got it.”

  Bosch hung up and worked his way through traffic in an effort to catch up. When he was on the overpass that took him from the 10 to the 405, he was able to pick out both Chu’s and Chang’s vehicles half a mile ahead. They were caught in the slowdown where lanes merged.

  Switching off lead two more times, Bosch and Chu followed Chang to the LAX exit at Century Boulevard. It was now clear that Chang was leaving the city and they were going to have to stop him. He called Gandle back and was put on hold.

  Finally, after a long two minutes Gandle picked up.

  “Harry, whadaya got?”

  “He’s on Century Boulevard four blocks from LAX.”

  “I haven’t been able to talk to anybody yet.”

  “I say we take him down. We book him for murder and worst-case scenario is on Monday we file on him for extortion. He’ll get bail but the judge will slap no travel on it, especially after him trying to leave today.”

  “Your call, Harry, and I’ll back you.”

  Meaning it would still be Bosch who had made the wrong call if by Monday everything fell apart and Chang waltzed out of jail a free man able to leave L.A. and never come back.

  “Thanks, Lieutenant. I’ll let you know.”

  Moments after Bosch closed his phone Chang turned right into a long-term parking lot that provided a shuttle service to all airport terminals. As expected, Chu called.

  “This is it. What do we do?”

  “We take him. We wait till he parks and he has that suitcase out of the trunk. We take him down then and we’ll get a look in the suitcase with a warrant.”

  “Where?”

  “I use this lot when I go to Hong Kong. There are endless rows and shuttle stations where they come pick you up. Let’s get in there and park. We act like we’re travelers and we get him at the shuttle station.”

  “Roger that.”

  They hung up. Bosch was in the lead at the moment, so he entered the lot directly behind Chang, taking a ticket out of an automatic feeder. The arm rose and he pulled through. He followed Chang down the main parkway and when Chang turned right into a tributary road Bosch kept going, thinking Chu would follow and take the right.

  Bosch parked in the first space he saw, then jumped out and doubled back on foot to where Chang and Chu had turned. He saw Chang one lane over, standing behind the Mustang and struggling to pull his big suitcase out of the trunk. Chu was eight cars past him and parked.

  Apparently realizing he would look suspicious without luggage in a long-term lot, Chu started walking toward a nearby shuttle stop, carrying a briefcase and a raincoat like a man on a business trip.

  Bosch had no props to disguise himself with, so he moved down the center of the parking rows, using the vehicles as cover.

  Chang locked his car and lugged the heavy suitcase to the shuttle stop. It was an old piece of luggage without the wheels that are almost standard on all sizes these days. When he got to the shuttle stop, Chu was already standing there. Bosch cut behind a minivan and came out two cars away. This would give Chang little time to recognize that the approaching man should have luggage in the long-term lot.

  “Bo-Jing Chang,” Bosch said loudly as he got close.

  The suspect jerked his body around to look at Bosch. Up close, Chang looked strong and wide, formidable. Bosch saw his muscles tense.

  “You’re under arrest. Please place your hands behind your back.”

  Chang’s fight-or-flight response never had a chance to kick in. Chu stepped behind him and expertly clipped one cuff to his right wrist while grabbing hold of the left wrist. Chang struggled for a moment, more in response to the surprise than anything else, but Chu cuffed the other wrist and the arrest was complete.
r />   “What is this?” Chang protested. “What I do?”

  He had a strong accent.

  “We’re going to talk about all of that, Mr. Chang. Just as soon as we get you back to the Police Administration Building.”

  “I have flight.”

  “Not today.”

  Bosch showed him his badge and ID, and then introduced Chu, making sure to mention that Chu was from the Asian Gang Unit. Bosch wanted to get that percolating in Chang’s head.

  “Arrest for what?” the suspect asked.

  “The murder of John Li.”

  Bosch saw no surprise in Chang’s reaction. He saw him physically go into shut-down mode.

  “I want lawyer,” he said.

  “Hold on there, Mr. Chang,” Bosch said. “Let us tell you about your rights first.”

  Bosch nodded to Chu, who produced a card from his pocket. He read Chang his rights and asked if he understood them. Chang’s only response was to ask for a lawyer again. He knew the drill.

  Bosch’s next move was to call for a patrol unit to transfer Chang downtown, and a tow truck to take his car to the downtown police garage. Bosch was in no hurry at this point; the longer it took to transport Chang downtown, the closer they were to 2 P.M., the cutoff time in felony arraignment court. If they delayed Chang from getting into court, he could be secured as a guest of the city jail through the weekend.

  After about five minutes of standing in silence while Chang sat on a bench in the shuttle stop’s shelter, Bosch turned and gestured to the suitcase and spoke to him conversationally, as if the questions and answers didn’t matter.

  “That thing looks like it weighs a ton,” he said. “Where were you going?”

  Chang said nothing. There was no such thing as small talk when you were under arrest. He stared straight forward and did not acknowledge Bosch’s question in any way. Chu translated the question and got the same non-response.

  Bosch shrugged his shoulders like it didn’t matter much to him whether Chang answered or not.

  “Harry,” Chu said.

  Bosch felt his phone vibrate twice, the signal that he had received a message. He signaled him a few yards away from the shelter so they could talk without Chang hearing.

  “What do you think?” Chu asked.

  “Well, it’s clear he isn’t going to talk to us and has asked for a lawyer. So that’s that.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “First of all, we slow things down. We take our time getting him downtown and then we take our time booking him. He doesn’t call his lawyer till he’s been processed and with any luck that won’t be till after two. Meantime, we get warrants. His car, suitcase and his cell phone, if he has it on him. After that, we hit his apartment and his place of work. Wherever the judge lets us go. And we hope like hell we come up with something like the gun by noon Monday. Because if we don’t, he’s probably going to walk.”

  “What about the extortion?”

  “It gives us PC but it won’t go anywhere if Robert Li doesn’t step up.”

  Chu nodded.

  “High Noon, Harry. That was a movie. A western.”

  “I never saw it,” he said to Chu.

  Bosch looked down the long row of parked cars and saw a patrol car make the turn toward them. He waved.

  He pulled his phone to check the message. The screen said he had received a video from his daughter.

  He would have to check it later. It was very late in Hong Kong and he knew his daughter should be in bed. She was probably unable to sleep and expecting him to respond. But he had work to do. He put the phone away as the patrol car stopped in front of them.

  “I’m going to ride in with him,” he said to Chu. “In case he decides to say something.”

  “What about your car?”

  “I’ll get it later.”

  “Maybe I should ride with him instead.”

  Bosch looked at Chu. It was one of those moments. Harry knew it would be better for Chu to make the ride with Chang because he knew both languages and he was Chinese. But it would mean Bosch would be ceding some control of his case.

  It would also mean he was showing trust in Chu, just an hour after pointing the finger of blame at him.

  “Okay,” Bosch finally said. “You ride with him.”

  Chu nodded, seeming to understand the significance of Bosch’s decision.

  “But take the long way,” Bosch said. “These guys probably work out of Pacific. Go by the division first, then call me. I’ll tell you there’s a change of plans and we’re going to book him downtown. That ought to add an extra hour to the ride.”

  “Got it,” Chu said. “That’ll work.”

  “You want me to drive your car in?” Bosch asked. “I don’t mind leaving mine here.”

  “No, it’s okay, Harry. I’ll leave mine and come get it later. You wouldn’t want to hear what I’ve got on the stereo, anyway.”

  “The musical equivalent of tofu hot dogs?”

  “To you, probably, yeah.”

  “Okay, then I’ll take mine.”

  Bosch told the two patrol officers to put Chang in the back of the patrol car and to load the suitcase into the trunk. Harry then got serious with Chu.

  “I’m going to put Ferras to work on search warrants for Chang’s property. Any admission from him will help with the PC. Him telling us he had a flight is an admission that goes to his fleeing. Try to make him slip up like that when you’re riding in the back with him.”

  “But he already said he wants a lawyer.”

  “Make it conversational. Not an interrogation. Try to find out where he was going. That’ll help Ignacio. And remember, stretch everything out. Take the scenic route.”

  “Got it. I know what to do.”

  “Okay, I’m going to wait here for the tow truck. If you get to the PAB ahead of me, just put Chang in a room and let him stew. Make sure you turn the video on—Ignacio can show you how. You never know, sometimes these guys sit for an hour in a room by themselves and they start confessing to the walls.”

  “Got it.”

  “Good luck.”

  Chu slipped into the back of the patrol car next to Chang and closed the door. Bosch slapped his palm twice on the roof and then watched the cruiser pull away.

  16

  It was almost one by the time Bosch got back to the squad room. He had waited for the tow truck and then taken his time coming in, stopping at the In-N-Out near the airport for a hamburger on the way. He found Ignacio Ferras in place in his cubicle, working on his computer.

  “Where are we at?” he asked.

  “I’m almost done with the search warrant app.”

  “What are we going for?”

  “I have one affidavit going for the suitcase, the phone and the car. I take it that the car is at the OPG?”

  “Just towed it in. What about his apartment?”

  “I called the DA’s help line and told the woman what we were doing. She suggested two waves. These three first and then we hopefully come up with something that will give us the PC for the apartment. She said the apartment was a stretch with what we have now.”

  “Okay, you got a judge waiting on this?”

  “Yeah, I called Judge Champagne’s clerk. She’s getting me in as soon as I’m ready.”

  It sounded like Ferras had things in order and moving along. Bosch was impressed.

  “Sounds good. Where’s Chu?”

  “Last I knew he was in the video room, watching the guy.”

  Before joining Chu, Bosch stepped into his cubicle and dropped his keys on his desk. He saw that Chu had left Chang’s heavy suitcase there and had bagged the suspect’s other possessions and left them all on the desk. There were evidence bags holding Chang’s wallet, passport, money clip, keys, cell phone and airline boarding pass, which he had apparently printed at home.

  Bosch read the boarding pass through the plastic and saw that Chang had an Alaska Airlines ticket for a flight to Seattle. This gave Harry pause beca
use he was expecting to learn that Chang had been headed to China. Flying to Seattle didn’t exactly sell an allegation of attempting to flee the country to avoid prosecution.

  He put the bag back down and picked up the bag containing the phone. It would have been easy for him to quickly open the phone and scan the call log for the numbers of Chang’s associates. He might even find a call from a number belonging to a Monterey Park cop or Chu or whoever had tipped Chang off to the investigation surrounding him. Maybe the phone had e-mail or texts on it that would help them build the murder case against Chang.

  But Bosch decided to play by the rules. It was a gray area and the department and DA’s office had both issued directives telling officers to seek court approval before viewing data contained in a suspect’s phone. Unless, of course, permission was granted by the suspect. Opening the phone was treated the same as opening the trunk of a car on a traffic stop. You had to do it correctly or whatever you found in that trunk might be taken out of the case by the courts.

  Bosch put the phone down. It might contain the key to the case but he would wait for Judge Champagne’s approval. Just as he did so, the phone on his desk buzzed. The caller ID display said XXXXX, meaning it was a call transferred over from Parker Center. He picked up.

  “This is Bosch.”

  There was no one there.

  “Hello. This is Detective Bosch, can I help you?”

  “Bosch…you can help yourself.”

  The voice was distinctly Asian.

  “Who is this?”

  “You do yourself the favor and you back off, Bosch. Chang is not alone. We are many. You back the fuck off. If not, there will be consequences.”

  “Listen to me, you—”

  The caller had hung up. Bosch dropped the phone into its cradle and stared at the empty ID screen. He knew he could go over to the communications center at Parker and pull up the number the call had come from. But he also knew that someone calling to threaten him would have blocked their number, used a pay phone or a throwaway cell. They would not be so stupid as to use a traceable number.

  Instead of worrying about that, he concentrated on the timing of the call and its content. Somehow, Chang’s triad associates knew already that he had been picked up. Bosch rechecked the boarding pass and saw the flight was scheduled to take off at eleven-twenty. That meant the plane was still in the air and it couldn’t be that someone waiting in Seattle for Chang would know he wasn’t on the plane. Nevertheless, Chang’s people somehow knew that he was in the hands of the police. They also knew Bosch by name.