“Is there anything else you want to add to the story?” he asked.

Helton let out a deep breath and slowly shook his head.

“That’s the whole sad story,” he said. “I wish to God it never happened. But it did.”

He looked directly at Bosch for the first time during the entire interview. Bosch held his gaze and then asked a question.

“Do you have a good marriage, Stephen?”

Helton looked away and stared at the invisible window again.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean do you have a good marriage? You can say yes or no if you want.”

“Yes, I have a good marriage,” Helton responded emphatically. “I don’t know what my wife told you but I think it is very solid. What are you trying to say?”

“All I’m saying is that sometimes when there is a child with challenges, it strains the marriage. My partner just had a baby. The kid’s healthy but money’s tight and his wife isn’t back at work yet. You know the deal. It’s tough. I can only imagine what the strain of having a child with William’s difficulties would be like.”

“Yeah, well, we made it by all right.”

“The nannies quitting all the time…”

“It wasn’t that hard. As soon as one quits we put an ad on Craigslist for another.”

Bosch nodded and scratched the back of his head. While doing it he waved a finger in a circular motion toward the camera that was in the air vent up on the wall behind him. Helton could not see him do this.

“When did you two get married?” he asked.

“Two and a half years ago. We met on a contract. She had the buyer and I had the seller. We worked well together. We started talking about joining forces and then we realized we were in love.”

“Then William came.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“That must’ve changed em"ve chathings.”

“It did.”

“So when Arlene was pregnant, couldn’t the doctors tell that he had these problems?”