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“What’s that?” Cutler asked cautiously.

“That night you came out to MacLaren after Novak abducted me, you guys collected an old transistor radio as part of the evidence. I want it back. Can you get it for me? I doubt it’s going to be involved in any case now.”

Cutler thought for a moment before answering.

“I don’t think that will be a problem,” he said. “I’ll get it. I guess it must mean something to you.”

Bosch nodded.

“It does,” he said.

50

THE DRIVE TO Lompoc took less than two hours. Bosch and Ballard used the time to discuss how they were going to play it once they arrived. It had been six months since the recovery of the missiles and the full story had not leaked. The public was not informed about the desperate search for weapons that had taken the lives of four federal agents. The fire at the port was publicly reported as an accident caused by the explosion of pressurized oxygen tanks in the cargo container. These tanks were listed on the original cargo manifest, which was leaked to the press to further hide the ball. Because the FBI had suppressed all videos of the explosion captured by security cameras at the port, the media had only the post-explosion helicopter coverage of the burning container, and they did not question the official findings.

Whether the matter was covered up for political or national security reasons, Nikolai Novak retained some leverage. While he didn’t have complete walkaway bargaining power, he did, in Bosch’s view, escape true justice for the many murders and crimes he had committed over the previous six decades.

What Novak did have, he used shrewdly. His attorneys negotiated a deal with Cutler and the federal government in which Novak revealed all to the FBI about the missile heist and the identities of the insiders who committed the actual crime. He also agreed to reveal the inner workings of the Spolu and identify its far-flung members and criminal enterprises. In exchange, he was allowed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The RICO conviction carried a forty-two-year sentence in federal prison.

Novak’s conviction and long sentence was ballyhooed by the FBI as a huge win in the battle against international organized crime. At the press conference, Cutler stood in front of the cameras and microphones and made it clear that the seventy-six-year-old Novak would die in prison for his many crimes.

But Cutler and the accompanying press release were short on the details that actually made the sentence a win for Novak. What was not revealed was the negotiated plea agreement’s guarantee that Novak would be assigned to the federal correctional institution at Lompoc and that the Federal Bureau of Prisons would not release him to state authorities to be tried for any other crimes until he completed his federal sentence.

Because he would not outlive that sentence, this essentially meant Novak would avoid punishment for the murders of Charles Lamb, Lorraine Henderson, the four people killed in the Wonderland case, and the three killed in the house on Lakeridge Drive. There would be no need for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to mount expensive trials in those cases, since Novak was essentially untouchable at Lompoc.

Bosch had attended the sentencing in federal court; Steve Shear had alerted him to the deal that was going down. At the end of the hearing, when Novak was being walked by the marshals back to his holding cell, he turned, smiled at Bosch in the gallery, and winked.

He wanted Bosch to know he was the winner. Yes, he would be in custody for the rest of his life, but Lompoc was a country-club prison, considered to be the plushest prison in the entire federal penal system. Located in Santa Barbara County, where it enjoyed cool winds off the Pacific, the prison was generally reserved for white-collar criminals serving short sentences. There were no walls, no razor-wire-topped fences. Its grounds and structures looked more like a school campus than a prison. The inmates slept in dorms instead of cells. There were all manner of recreational facilities available, including recently installed pickleball courts. In short, Novak wasn’t doing hard time for his crimes. He was doing easy time and would never see the inside of a California state prison.

So while the FBI portrayed the sentence as a victory for justice, Bosch believed it was anything but a victory, and he immediately drew Ballard into a plan to try to undo it.

Ballard had scheduled the visit to FCI Lompoc several days earlier with the request that Novak not be informed of it. She didn’t want him prepping or contacting his lawyer ahead of time. Upon their arrival, Bosch and Ballard were placed in an interview room at a table. Ballard took out a mini-recorder, turned it on, and put it on the table. Novak was brought in uncuffed. He smiled when he saw Bosch and casually sat down, crossing one leg over the other. He was wearing the prison uniform of khaki pants and shirt.

“Bosch, I’m surprised to see you up here,” he said. “I thought you’d want to move on from me.”

“I guess I can’t move on,” Bosch said. “Not yet, at least.”

“And who’s your friend?” Novak said.

“Mr. Novak, we haven’t met,” Ballard said. “I’m Detective Renée Ballard with the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit. We’re here today to talk about several homicides in which you are a suspect. I’m recording this interview and I want to start by reminding you of your constitutional rights.”

Novak smirked.

“You people are wasting your time,” he said. “Did you read the plea agreement?”

“I did, yes,” Ballard said. “I’m here to hopefully clear these cases, whether a prosecution can follow or not. But I need to do it by the book. Let’s start with the rights waiver and then you decide if you want to talk to us.”

“A waste of time, but go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

Ballard had a file with her. She opened it on the table, and the top sheet was a rights-waiver form. She read the rights admonishment and asked Novak if he was willing to talk without an attorney present.

“Might as well,” Novak said. “There’s really nothing you can do to me.”

“If that is a yes, please sign the form,” Ballard said.

She offered Novak a pen. Novak took it and scribbled his signature.