Текст книги "Mulholland Dive"

Автор книги: Michael Connelly

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Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 6 страниц)

“Well, don’t expect too much outta this one. We call them CRASH boxes. It’s just the shake cards from back then.”

Before the advent of the MDT—the mobile data terminal installed in every patrol car, officers carried FI cards in their back pockets. These were merely 3 x 5 cards for writing down notes from field interviews. They included the date, time, and location of the interview, as well as the name, age, address, aliases, tattoos, and gang affiliation of the individual questioned. There was also a section for the officer’s comments, which was primarily used to record any other observations worth noting about the individual.

The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union had long decried the department’s practice of conducting field interviews, calling them unwarranted and unconstitutional, likening them to shakedowns. Undaunted, the department continued the practice, and the FI cards became known across its ranks as shake cards.

Bosch was handed the box, and opening it, he found it full of well-worn cards.

“How did this survive the purging?” he asked.

Gant knew he meant the department’s shift toward digital data storage. Across the board, hard files were being turned into digital files to make way for an electronic future.

“Man, we knew that if they archived these on computers, they would miss all kinds of stuff. These are handwritten, Harry. Sometimes you can’t figure out the writing to save your life. We knew most of the info on these cards wouldn’t make it across, know what I mean? So we held on to as many of those black boxes as we could. You were lucky, Harry, we still had the Sixties in a box. Hope there’s something in there that helps.”

Bosch pushed back his chair to get up.

“I’ll make sure you get it back.”

Books by Michael Connelly

Featuring Harry Bosch

The Black Echo

The Black Ice

The Concrete Blonde

The Last Coyote

Trunk Music

Angels Flight

A Darkness More Than Night

City of Bones

Lost Light

The Narrows

The Closers

Echo Park

The Overlook

Nine Dragons

The Drop

The Black Box

Featuring Mickey Haller

The Lincoln Lawyer

The Fifth Witness

Featuring Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller

The Brass Verdict

The Reversal

Featuring Jack McEvoy

The Poet

The Scarecrow

Other Novels

Blood Work

Void Moon

Chasing the Dime

Anthologies

Mystery Writers of America Presents The Blue Religion: New Stories about Cops, Criminals, and the Chase (editor)

Nonfiction

Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers

Short Stories

Suicide Run: Three Harry Bosch Stories (e-book only)

Angle of Investigation: Three Harry Bosch Stories (e-book only)

Mulholland Dive: Three Stories (e-book only)

The Safe Man: A Ghost Story (e-book only)

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2007 by Hieronymus, Inc.

Excerpt from The Black Box copyright © 2012 by Hieronymus, Inc.

Author photograph by Terrill Lee Lankford

Cover design by Allison Warner

Cover copyright © 2012 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

“Cahoots,” was originally published in Measures of Poison, edited by Dennis McMillan. “Mulholland Dive,” was originally published in Los Angeles Noir, edited by Denise Hamilton. It also appeared in A Prisoner of Memory, edited by Ed Gorman, and The Best American Mystery Stories 2008, edited by George Pelecanos and Otto Penzler. “Two-Bagger,” was originally published in Murderers’ Row, edited by Otto Penzler, and The Best American Mystery Stories 2002, edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group

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First e-book edition: September 2012

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ISBN 978-0-316-23367-5

Contents

Title Page

Welcome

Cahoots

Mulholland Dive

Two-Bagger

About the Author

A Preview of The Black Box

Snow White

1

2

3

Books by Michael Connelly

Copyright