Just as the boarding of their flight was announced in the lounge, Madeline came down the hallway, her dark hair slicked back and wet. She was wearing the same clothes she had changed into in the car but had added a hooded sweatshirt. Somehow she was cold.

“Are you all right?” Bosch asked.

She didn’t answer. She just stopped in front of Bosch with her head down.

“I know, stupid question,” Harry said. “But are you ready to fly? They just called our flight. We need to go.”

“I’m ready. I just wanted a long, hot shower.”

“I understand.”

They left the lounge and made their way to the gate, and while approaching, Bosch saw no more than the usual gathering of security. Their tickets were taken, their passports checked and they were allowed to board.

The plane was a large double-decker with the cockpit on the upper level and the first-class cabin right below in the nose of the craft. A flight attendant informed them that they were the only ones flying first class and that they could pick their seats. They took the two seats in the front row and it felt like they had the plane to themselves. Bosch wasn’t planning on taking his eyes off his daughter until they were in Los Angeles.

As the loading of the plane neared completion, the pilot came on the speaker and announced that they would spend thirteen hours in the air. That was shorter than the flight over because the winds would be with them. However, they would be flying back against the grain of time. They would land in Los Angeles at 9:30 Sunday night, two hours before they had taken off in Hong Kong.

Bosch did the math and knew that it would add up to a thirty-nine-hour day before it was over. The longest day of his life.

Eventually, the big plane was cleared for an on-time takeoff and it trundled down the runway, picked up speed and climbed loudly into the dark sky. Bosch breathed a little easier as he looked out the window and saw the lights of Hong Kong disappear below the clouds. He hoped never to be back again.

His daughter reached across the space between their seats and grabbed his hand. He looked over and held her eyes. She had started to cry again. Bosch squeezed her hand and nodded.

“It’s going to be all right, Maddie.”

She nodded back and held on.

After the plane leveled off, the flight attendant came around and offered them food and drink but both Bosch and his daughter declined. Madeline watched a movie about teenage vampires and then folded her seat down flat-one of the perks of first class-and went to sleep.

Soon she was soundly asleep and he envisioned some sort of internal healing process taking place. The armies of sleep charging through her brain and attacking the bad memories.

He bent down and kissed her lightly on the cheek. As the seconds, minutes and hours moved backwards, he watched her sleep and wished for the impossible, that time would move backwards far enough for him to begin the whole day again. That was the fantasy. The reality was that his life was almost as significantly altered as hers was. She was with him now. And he knew that no matter what he had done or caused to happen until this point in his life, she would be his ticket to redemption.

If he could protect and serve her, he had the chance to make up for everything. For all of it.

His plan was to keep watch on her through the night. But his exhaustion eventually defeated him and he closed his eyes as well. Soon he dreamed of a place by a river. There was an outdoor table with a white tablecloth ruffled by the wind. He sat across the table from both Eleanor and Madeline and they smiled at him. It was a dream of a place that had never been and would never be.

PART THREE:To Protect and Serve

39

The last hurdle was customs and immigration in Los Angeles. The agent at the entry booth swiped their passports and was ready to routinely stamp them when something on the computer caught his eye. Bosch held his breath.

“Mr. Bosch. You were in Hong Kong for less than a day?”

“That’s right. I didn’t even need to pack a bag. I just went to pick up my daughter.”

The agent nodded as though he understood and had seen it before. He stamped the passports. He looked at Madeline and said, “Welcome to L.A., young lady.”

“Thank you,” she said.

It was almost midnight by the time they got to the house on Woodrow Wilson Drive. Bosch carried the backpack into the guest room and his daughter followed. She was familiar with the room, having used it on several visits.

“Now that you’ll be living here full-time, we can fix up this room any way you want,” Bosch said. “I know you had a lot of posters and stuff back in Hong Kong. You can do whatever you want here.”

There were two cardboard boxes stacked in the corner that contained old case files Bosch had copied.

“I’ll get these out of here,” he said.

He moved them one at a time into his bedroom. He continued to talk to her as he moved up and down the hall.

“I know you don’t have a private bathroom but the guest bathroom in the hall is all yours. I don’t get many guests here, anyway.”

After moving the boxes, Bosch sat down on the bed and looked at his daughter. She was still standing in the middle of the room. The look on her face cut Bosch deeply. He could see the reality of the situation hitting her. It didn’t matter that she had repeatedly voiced a desire to live in L.A. She was now here permanently and grasping that fact was a daunting task.

“Maddie, I just want to tell you something,” he said. “I’m used to being your father four weeks a year. That was easy. This is going to be hard. I am going to make mistakes and I’m going to need you to be patient with me while I learn. But I promise you I will do the best I can.”

“Okay.”

“Now, what can I get you? Are you hungry? Tired? What?”

“No, I’m fine. I guess I shouldn’t have slept so much on the plane.”

“Doesn’t matter. You needed the sleep right then. And sleep is always good. It heals.”

She nodded and looked awkwardly around the room. It was a basic guest room. A bed, bureau and a table with a lamp.

“Tomorrow we’ll get you a TV to put in here. One of those flat screens. And also a computer and a desk. We’ll need to go shopping for a lot of things.”

“I think I need a new cell phone. Quick took mine.”

“Yeah, we’ll get you a new phone, too. I have your memory card from the old one, so you won’t lose your contacts.”

She looked over at him and he realized he had made a mistake.

“You have the card? Did you get it from Quick? Was his sister there?”

Bosch held his hands up in a calming gesture and shook his head.

“I never met Quick or his sister. I found your phone but it was broken. All I got was the memory card.”

“She tried to save me. She found out that Quick was going to sell me and tried to stop it. But he kicked her out of the car.”

Bosch waited for her to say more but that was it. He wanted to ask her many questions about the brother and sister and everything else but his role as father overtook his role as cop. Now wasn’t the right time. He had to get her calmed and situated. There would be time later to be a cop, to ask about Quick and He and to tell her what happened to them.

He studied her face and she seemed to be drained of emotion. She still looked tired, even after all the sleep on the plane.

“Everything’s going to be okay, Maddie. I promise.”

She nodded.

“Um, do you think I can just be alone for a little while in here”

“Sure you can. It’s your room. I think I should make some calls, anyway.”

He got up and headed to the door. He hesitated as he was closing it behind him and looked back at her.

“You’ll tell me if you need anything, right?”