He was taunting me. The whole idea I had of getting him to tell me her name seemed absurd now.

“She was one of those women, you know.”

“No, I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

“Well, she had that thing, that power. That was why I chose her.”

“What power?”

“You know, she could wound you with just a look. Face like an angel but a body like… Have you ever noticed how red cars look like they’re going fast even if they’re just sitting still? She was like that. She was dangerous. She had to go. If I didn’t do it, she would’ve done it to us. A lot of us.”

He smiled at me and I knew he was still pulling the strings. He was giving me nothing, just trying to get a rise out of me.

“Hey, Bosch?”

“What?”

“If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?”

His smile opened even broader.

“If a woman is murdered in the city and nobody cares, does it matter?”

“I care.”

“Exactly.”

He came back to the bars.

“And you need me to relieve you of that burden by giving you a name, a mommy and daddy who care.”

He was a foot away from me. I could reach through the bars and grab his throat if I wanted to. But that would be what he’d want me to do.

“Well, I won’t release you, Detective. You put me in this cage. I put you in that one.”

He stepped back and pointed at me. I looked down and realized both my hands were tightly gripped on the steel bars of the cage. My cage.

I looked back up at him and his smile was back, as guiltless as a baby’s.

“Funny isn’t it? I remember that day-twelve years ago today. Sitting in the back of the car while you cops played hero. So full of yourselves for saving her. Bet you never thought it would come to this, did you? You saved one but you lost the other.”

I lowered my head to the bars.

“ Seguin, you’re going to burn. You are going to hell.”

“Yes, I suppose so. But I hear it’s a dry heat.”

He laughed loudly and I looked at him.

“Don’t you know, Detective? You have to believe in heaven to believe in hell.”

I abruptly turned from the bars and headed back toward the steel door. Above it I saw the mounted camera. I made an open up gesture with my hand and picked up my speed as I got closer. I needed to get out of there.

I heard Seguin ’s voice echoing off the walls behind me.

“I’ll keep her close, Bosch! I’ll keep her right here with me! Eternally together! Eternally mine!”

When I got to the steel door I hit it with both fists until I heard the electronic lock snap and the guard began to slide it open.

“All right, man, all right. What’s the hurry?”

“Just get me out of here,” I said as I pushed past him.

I could still hear Seguin ’s voice echoing from the death house as I crossed back across the open field.

Michael Connelly

Edward Hopper. Nighthawks