Page 64 of Resurrection Walk

Bosch had seen the photos in the discovery material Haller got after filing the habeas petition, and he knew that at first glance they weren’t helpful to the case for Lucinda Sanz’s innocence. He wasn’t sure how Arslanian’s re-creation would work, but he knew that Haller had full trust in her. And he remembered Haller talking about taking adverse evidence and finding ways to own it, make it work for you rather than against you. The photos of Lucinda at the range had seemed damning. But maybe now, not so much.

“I’m going out to Chino tomorrow to show Lucinda some photos,” Bosch said. “Do you need me to ask her anything?”

“I don’t think so,” Arslanian said. “I think we’re covered. And I’ve got what I need here. We can head back to the city and I’ll get to work on it.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Bosch said. “I’m just going to tell the owners we’re done.”

Bosch walked up the stoop to the front door and knocked. A woman quickly answered, and Bosch got the idea that she had been watching them through a window.

“Mrs. Perez, we’re all done here,” Bosch said. “Thanks for letting us use the front yard.”

“Is okay,” Perez said. “Uh, you said you work for the lawyer?”

“Yes, we both do.”

“Do you think the woman is innocent?”

“I do. But we have to prove it.”

“Okay, I see.”

“Do you know her?”

“Oh, no, I don’t. I just… I just wondered what would happen.”

“Okay.”

Bosch waited to see if she would say more, but she didn’t.

“Well, thank you,” he said.

He went down the two steps and joined Arslanian in the yard. She had collapsed her tripod and was stowing it in a carrying bag.

“When she bought the house, did she know what happened here?” she asked.

“She’s just renting,” Bosch said. “Her landlord didn’t tell her.”

“Was she freaked out when you told her?”

“Not so much. It’s L.A., you know. There’s probably a history of violence wherever you go.”

“That’s sad.”

“That’s L.A.”

22

ON THE DRIVEback from the desert, Arslanian didn’t have to be told to sit up front. She took the seat next to Bosch but focused her attention on her notes and a laptop she opened once they were on the smooth surface of the Antelope Valley Freeway. She spoke without taking her eyes off the screen or interrupting the input of data into her computer program.

“Funny that they call it the Antelope Valley,” she said.

“Why is that?” Bosch asked.

“I did my research on the plane. There haven’t been any antelope here in over a century. The species was hunted out by the Indigenous people before it was ever called the Antelope Valley.”

“Didn’t know that.”

“I was thinking I might see antelope roaming free. But then I looked it up.”

---