Page 53 of Resurrection Walk

“I don’t talk to cops or ex-cops,pendejo,” he said.

“That’s not what I heard,” Bosch said.

“Yeah, what did you hear?”

“That you talked to the FBI.”

Acosta’s eyes widened slightly for a moment.

“That’s bullshit,” he said. “I didn’t tell them shit.”

Acosta’s answer confirmed that the Bureau had come to him whether he had talked or not. Bosch’s hunch was looking good.

“Agent MacIsaac’s report says different,” he said. “It says you told him what really went down at Flip’s hamburger stand that day.”

Bosch was still working without a net. But he was staying with his hunch that the shoot-out at Flip’s had not happened the way the sheriff’s department publicly reported it. Based on what he knew so far about Roberto Sanz, he doubted there’d been any heroes that day at Flip’s.

“It was no ambush, was it?” he said.

Acosta shook his head. “I don’t talk to cops, I don’t talk to FBI, I don’t talk topendejoprivate eyes.”

“You talked to MacIsaac and told him that the ambush wasn’t an ambush. It was really a meeting with a corrupt cop that went sideways. That’s how you got your sweetheart deal.”

Acosta took the phone away from his ear again, hesitated, and brought it back.

“‘Sweetheart deal’?” he said. “I’m in here for the rest of my fucking life.”

“But it wasn’t supposed to be like that,” Bosch said. “You were supposed to go away for a little while and get out after cooperating with the Bureau. But then Sanz got killed and that was the end of that. And then, of course, you did a prison hit for La Eme and that got you a teardrop and life without parole.”

“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“Maybe I don’t have the whole picture yet, but I will. I know you talked to MacIsaac and I know you got a deal from the feds.”

“You’re wrong. My lawyer got me that deal. Silver said I didn’t have to cooperate, and I didn’t. I just had to keep my mouth shut like I’m doing right fucking now.”

Bosch stared at Acosta for a long moment before responding. His hunch was paying off but not in any way he had expected.

“Your lawyer was Frank Silver?” he finally asked.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Acosta said. “So go talk to him and you’ll find out I’m no fucking snitch. I didn’t talk to MacIsaac or any of them.”

“But you talked to Silver, right? Your attorney. Everything you told him was confidential. You told him about Flip’s? That’s how he got the deal.”

“This is over, man. I didn’t talk to any of them and I’m not talking to you.”

Acosta abruptly hung up the phone, slamming it down on its hook so hard that the report in Bosch’s ear sounded like a gunshot. Acosta backed off his stool and was gone.

Bosch held steady for a long moment, reviewing in his mind what he had just heard. Attorney Frank Silver had represented Angel Acosta the same year he’d represented Lucinda Sanz. He tried to remember what Lucinda had said about how Silver had come to represent her. He had pushed his way onto the case, volunteering to take it off the public defender’s hands.

Bosch put the phone back on the hook and got up off the stool. He knew there were real coincidences on cases. He didn’t believe this was one of them.

PART FOUR

LADY X

18

I FOUND SILVERwhere I had last seen him, behind his desk in his tiny office in the legal commune on Ord Street. I noticed that he had replaced the business card I had taken from the slot on the wall. The door was open like it had been before, but this time I walked in without knocking. Silver didn’t look up from what he was writing on a legal pad. The room smelled of Chinese takeout.

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