It was a good question because the video image was too grainy to make out the denominations on the currency being exchanged.

“There are four slots in the drawer,” Bosch said. “So you’ve got ones, fives, tens and twenties. I slowed this down last night. He puts the customer’s bill in the fourth slot. A carton of smokes and a beer, we assume that is the slot for twenties. If that is the case, he gives him a one, a five, a ten and then eleven twenties. Ten twenties if you don’t count the one the customer put in first.”

“It’s a payoff,” Ferras said.

“Two hundred thirty-six dollars?” Gandle asked. “Seems like an odd payoff and you can see there’s still money in the drawer. So it was like a set amount.”

“Actually,” Ferras said, “two sixteen if you subtract the twenty the customer gives in the first place.”

“Right,” Bosch said.

The three of them stared at the frozen screen for a few moments without speaking.

“So, Harry,” Gandle finally said. “You got to sleep on this for a couple hours. What’s it mean?”

Bosch pointed to the time stamp on the top of the screen.

“This payoff was made exactly one week before the murder. Three o’clock on Tuesday a week ago. This Tuesday at about three Mr. Li gets shot. Maybe this week he decided not to pay.”

“Or he didn’t have the money to pay,” Ferras offered. “The son told us yesterday that business has been way down and opening the store in the Valley has nearly bankrupted them.”

“So the old man says no and gets popped,” Gandle said. “Isn’t that a bit extreme? You kill the guy and as they say in high finance, you’ve lost your funding stream.”

Ferras shrugged.

“There’s always the wife and the son,” he said. “They’d get the message.”

“They’re coming in at ten to sign statements,” Bosch added.

Gandle nodded.

“So how are you going to handle this?” he asked.

“We’ll put Mrs. Li with Chu, the guy from AGU, and Ignacio and I will talk to the son. We find out what it’s about.”