Bosch waved her on with his hand.

“How long did this relationship last?”

“About a year.”

“Marriage?”

“No.”

“Was it talked about?”

“No, not really. Never out in the open.”

“Did you live together?”

“Sometimes. We both kept our places.”

“Is the separation final?”

“I think so.”

Saying it out loud seemed to be the first time Bosch acknowledged that Sylvia Moore was gone from his life for good.

“Was this separation by mutual agreement?”

He cleared his throat. He didn’t want to talk about this but he wanted it over with.

“I guess you could say it was mutual agreement, but I didn’t know about it until she was packed. You know, three months ago we were holding each other in bed while the house was shaking apart on the pad. You could say she was gone before the aftershocks ended.”

“They still haven’t.”

“Just a figure of speech.”

“Are you saying the earthquake was the cause of the breakup of this relationship?”

“No, I’m not saying that. All I’m saying is that’s when it happened. Right after. She’s a teacher up in the Valley and her school got wrecked. The kids were moved to other schools and the district didn’t need as many teachers. They offered sabbaticals and she took one. She left town.”

“Was she scared of another earthquake or was she scared of you?”

She looked pointedly at him.

“Why would she be scared of me?”

He knew he sounded a little too defensive.

“I don’t know. I’m just asking questions. Did you give her a reason to be scared?”

Bosch hesitated. It was a question he had never really touched on in his private thoughts about the breakup.