Free Suicide Run by Michael Connelly Page A

asked.
    “What do you mean?”
    “You said there was an emergency. So which client is in the shit?”
    Bosch decided to roll with things.
    “David Blitzstein,” he said.
    Turnbull was about to pour the water into the coffee brewer but paused with the glass pot held above it. He shook his head.
    “Don’t know that name,” he said. “Not my client.”
    “Really? You were working for him last night,” Bosch said.
    Turnbull smiled.
    “You’ve got your facts wrong, Detective.”
    Turnbull poured the water into the brewer and set the glass pot underneath it.
    “You own a weapon, Mr. Turnbull? You know I can find out with one phone call.”
    “You probably already have. Yes, I own a weapon but I almost never carry it. It’s ancient. From my days with the cops. A thirty-eight-caliber Smith and Wesson. A wheel gun. No cop would use one today.”
    A revolver. No ejection of shells. It was the wrong caliber and wrong kind of gun for the Blitzstein killing.
    “We’ll check to make sure. You want to show it to me?”
    Turnbull leaned back against a counter in the kitchen and folded his arms in a gesture of frustration.
    “Sure, I’ll show it to you, just as soon as the bank down the street opens up at nine because it’s in a safe-deposit box. Like I told you, I rarely use the thing. Now, you guys are either seriously running down the wrong alley or I am missing something right in front of my face. I don’t know any David Blitzstein. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Bosch instinctively believed him. He also believed that something was wrong. They were indeed down the wrong alley. He decided to try the direct approach.
    “All right, let’s stop dancing. You were at the casino in Commerce last night. Why?”
    Turnbull raised his eyebrows. It was the first thing that made sense to him.
    “I was working. But not for or against David Blitzstein.”
    “Then let’s start with who hired you.”
    “A lawyer named Robert Suggs. I do a lot of work for him. He’s a divorce lawyer.”
    “All right, then, what were you doing?”
    “I was watching an individual for another individual, a client of Bob Suggs.”
    Bosch nodded that he understood.
    “Mr. Turnbull. I think we have made a mistake here but we need to be sure. The individual you were watching, what was his name?”
    “I would have to call Suggs before I could reveal that.”
    “Was it Douglas Pennington of Brentwood?”
    Bosch saw the tell in Turnbull’s eyes. The name was familiar to him.
    “I can’t say,” Turnbull said.
    “You just did,” Bosch said. “Look, I understand your position. I spent two years working a private ticket myself and I know how that is. But we’re working a homicide here. So let’s find a middle ground where you can help us and help yourself by being done with us. Let’s forget names. We’ll go with individuals. Tell us what you can about the case you were working last night.”
    Coffee started dripping into the pot and its smell began to pervade the apartment. It kicked off a craving in Bosch. The charge from his first cup of the day was dead and gone.
    “An individual hired my employer to begin the marital dissolution process. Only this individual’s husband doesn’t know about it yet. We’re in what we call the hunting-and-gathering stage. She tells us that she thinks her husband’s got a girlfriend on the side. Once or twice a week he stays out almost all night, telling her he’s playing poker. She’s noticed that the bank account has been dropping eight to ten grand a month with withdrawals he has made.”
    “So you were tailing him last night,” Bosch said.
    Turnbull nodded
    “That’s correct.”
    “And it turned out he actually was playing poker.”
    “Correct again.”
    “How much did he lose?”
    “About two grand. He played at a high-stakes table and a woman cleaned him out. In a way, the wife turned out to be right. He gave his money to another woman.”
    Turnbull smiled and then snapped