“Well, initially, we heard it from dispatch. Then one of the office workers, a lady, she told us when we got there. She led us to the back and told us along the way.”
Bosch thought he had all he was going to get but then thought of something else.
“You didn’t happen to take an exterior air temperature reading for that spot, did you?”
The two paramedics looked at each other and then at Bosch.
“Didn’t think to,” Ticotin said. “But it’s gotta be at least ninety-five with the Santa Anas kicking up like this. I don’t remember a June this hot.”
Bosch remembered a June he had spent in a jungle but wasn’t going to get into it. He thanked the paramedics and let them get back to duty. He put his notebook away and looked at his partner.
“Okay, tell me about the scene,” he said.
“We’ve got to charge this guy, Harry,” Ferras said urgently.
“Why? What did you find?”
“It’s not what I found. It’s because it was just a kid, Harry. What kind of father would let this happen? How could he forget?”
Ferras had become a father for the first time six months earlier. Bosch knew this. The experience had made him a professional dad and every Monday he came into the squad with a new batch of photos. To Bosch, the kid looked the same week to week, but not to Ferras. He was in love with being a father, with having a son.
“Ignacio, you’ve got to separate your own feelings about it from the facts and the evidence, okay? You know this. Calm down.”
“I know, I know. It’s just that, how could he forget, you know?”
“Yeah, I know, and we’re going to keep that in mind. So tell me what you found out over there. Who’d you talk to?”
“The office manager.”
“And what did he say?”
“It’s a lady. She said that he came in through the back door shortly after ten. All the sales agents park in the back and use the back door-that’s why nobody saw the kid. The father came in talking on the cell phone. Then he got off and asked if he’d gotten a fax but there was no fax. So he made another call and she heard him ask where the fax was. Then he waited for the fax.”