“He wanted to know the same thing. Who was the girl, where did she come from? He told me you gave her a name back then, during the trial. Cielo Azul. That’s really very pretty, Detective Bosch. Blue Sky. Why did you choose that?”

“He told you that?”

“Yes, standing right where you are standing. That’s unprofessional, isn’t it, Detective Bosch? To get close like that. That could be dangerous to let a woman in like that. Dead or alive.”

I wanted to go, to get away from him.

“Look, Seguin, are you going to tell me or not? Or are you just going to take it with you?”

He smiled and stepped back from the bars. He walked over to the chessboard and seemed to look down at it to consider a move.

“You know, they used to let me keep a cat in here. I miss that cat.”

He picked up one of the plastic game pieces but then hesitated and returned it to the same spot. He turned and looked at me.

“You know what I think? I think that you two can’t stand the thought of that girl not having a name, not coming from a home with a mommy and a daddy and a little baby brother. The idea of no one caring and no one missing her, it leaves you hollow, doesn’t it?”

“I just want to close the case.”

“Oh, but it is closed. You’re not here because of any case. You are here on your own. Admit it, Detective. Just as McCaleb came on his own. The idea of that pretty little thing-and by the way, if you thought she was beautiful in death then you should have seen her before-the idea of her lying unclaimed in an unmarked grave all this time undercuts everything you do, doesn’t it?”

“It’s a loose end. I don’t like loose ends.”

“It’s more than that, Detective. I know.”

I said nothing, hoping that if he kept on talking he would make a mistake.

“Her face was like an angel’s,” he said. “And that long brown hair… I was always a sucker for that kind of hair. I can still remember its smell. She told me she used a strawberry and cream shampoo. I didn’t even know they put that stuff in shampoo, man.”