Page 50 of Resurrection Walk

“My car. I don’t want to do this in public.”

“Then your car it is.”

16

HALLER DIDN’T RETURNthe call until Bosch was driving up Woodrow Wilson to his house, where he planned to rest. The flow of adrenaline that had kicked in once Madison Landon started talking about the day Roberto Sanz was murdered had tapered off and left him exhausted. Before leaving the parking lot at Vroman’s, he had texted Cisco to thank him once again for finding Landon and then he’d put in the call to Haller. Forty minutes later, Bosch was almost home and ready to go horizontal for an hour or so, when Haller called back.

“Sorry, was in court. What’s up?”

“Sanz was late bringing his son home to Lucinda because he was with the FBI.”

There was a long moment of silence.

“You there, Mick?”

“Yes, just digesting this. Who told you this, the girlfriend?”

“Yes. Off the record. She wants no part of this. She’s scared.”

“Of who?”

“The Cucos.”

“Who were the agents? Did you get any names?”

“One partial. Agent MacIsaac. It won’t be hard to get a full name and assignment. I’m going to start making calls once I get home.”

“This changes everything, you know.”

“How so?”

“MacIsaac won’t talk to you. I can pretty much guarantee that. And the feds routinely swat state court subpoenas away like Mookie Betts swats fastballs over the plate. Did the girlfriend — what’s her new name again?”

“Madison Landon.”

“Did Madison Landon know what the meeting with Agent MacIsaac was about?”

“No, she just knew it was serious. Sanz told her he was ‘jammed up’ on something — his words — and had to talk to the FBI. The only reason she knew the name MacIsaac was that she heard Sanz say it on a call when they were setting up the meeting that day.”

Haller went silent again. Bosch knew he was thinking of the possible legal scenarios this new information presented. He pulled the Cherokee into the carport of his house. He killed the engine but stayed seated, phone to his ear.

“So, what are you thinking?” he finally prompted.

“The FBI changes things,” Haller said. “I’m thinking I may need to find a way to get this into federal court without first showing our hand in state court.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Well, like I said, we’ll never get MacIsaac into superior court. But we have a good shot at getting him into federal court. The thing is, you’re supposed to exhaust all state appeals before you file in a U.S. district court. But if we go that route, they’ll see us coming a mile away. They’ll be locked and loaded, prepared for us. We don’t want MacIsaac knowing what’s coming when I say, ‘Agent MacIsaac, tell us about this conversation you had with Roberto Sanz a couple hours before his murder.’”

Now Bosch was silent as he considered the path they were on with Lucinda Sanz.

“I think we need to hold up on reaching out to MacIsaac,” Haller said.

“But we need to know why he was with Sanz the day he was killed,” Bosch countered.

“We do. But let’s circle around him a little bit and see what else we can find before we knock on the FBI’s door.”

“Not sure where else to circle.”

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