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.We can turn it all against him.”O’Shea was standing by the coffee table behind where Bosch and Rider sat.Bosch turned again, to watch him take in the suggestion.The prosecutor was grinding it over and nodding.“I don’t see where it could hurt,” he finally said.“Just get it on the record but let it go at that.Real subtle and routine.We can come back to him on it later—if we find out more about this.”Bosch looked at Rider.“You’ll be the one starting out with him, asking about the first case.Your first question can be about his name.”“Fine,” she said.O’Shea came back around the desk.“Okay, then,” he said.“Are we ready? It’s time to go.I will try to stay with it as long as my schedule allows.Don’t be offended if I jump in from time to time with a question.”Bosch answered by standing up.Rider followed suit and then Olivas.“One last thing,” Bosch said.“We picked up a Maury Swann story yesterday that maybe you guys ought to know.”Both Bosch and Rider took turns telling the story Abel Pratt had told them.By the end, Olivas was laughing and shaking his head and Bosch could tell by O’Shea’s face that he was trying to count how many times he had shaken Maury Swann’s hand in court.Maybe he was worrying about potential political fallout.Bosch headed to the door of the office.He felt a mixture of excitement and dread rising.He was excited because he knew he was finally about to find out what had happened to Marie Gesto so long ago.At the same time, he dreaded finding out.And he dreaded the fact that the details he would soon learn would place a heavy burden on him.A burden he would have to transfer to a waiting mother and father up in Bakersfield.11TWO UNIFORMED SHERIFF’S DEPUTIES stood at the door to the interview room in which sat the man who called himself Raynard Waits.They stepped aside and allowed the prosecutorial entourage to enter.The room contained one long table.Waits and his defense attorney, Maury Swann, were sitting on one side of it.Waits was directly in the middle and Swann was to his left.When the investigators and the prosecutor entered, only Maury Swann stood.Waits was held to the arms of his chair with plastic snap cuffs.Swann, a thin man with black-framed glasses and a luxurious mane of silver hair, offered his hand but no one shook it.Rider took the chair directly across the table from Waits, and Bosch and O’Shea sat on either side of her.Since Olivas would not be up in the interview rotation for some time, he took the last remaining chair, which was next to the door.O’Shea handled the introductions but again nobody bothered shaking anybody else’s hand.Waits was in an orange jumpsuit that had black letters stenciled across the chest.L.A.COUNTY JAILKEEP AWAYThe second line was not intended as a warning but it was just as good as one.It meant that Waits was on keep-away status within the jail, indicating he was housed by himself and not allowed into the general inmate population.This status was taken as a protective measure for both Waits and the other inmates.As Bosch studied the man he had been hunting for thirteen years he realized that the most frightening thing about Waits was how ordinary he looked.Slightly built, he had an everyman’s face.Pleasant, with soft features and short dark hair, he was the epitome of normality.The only hint of the evil that lay within was found in the eyes.Dark brown and deeply set, they carried an emptiness that Bosch recognized from other killers he had sat face-to-face with over the years.Nothing there.Just a hollowness that could never be filled, no matter how many other lives he stole.Rider turned on the tape recorder that was on the table and started the interview perfectly, giving Waits no reason to suspect he was stepping into a trap with the very first question of the session.“As was probably explained to you already by Mr.Swann, we are going to record each session with you and then turn the tapes over to your attorney, who will hold them until we have a completed agreement.Is that understood and approved by you?”“Yes, it is,” Waits said.“Good,” Rider said.“Then let’s begin with an easy one.Can you state your name, birth date and place of birth for the record?”Waits leaned forward and made a face like he was stating the obvious to schoolchildren.“Raynard Waits,” he said impatiently.“Born November third, nineteen seventy-one, in the city of angles—oh, I mean angels.The city of angels
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