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briefcase.
    “Nice hours you guys get to keep over here,” Bosch replied.
    “Yeah, we like to keep it light.”
    Bosch stepped back so Chu could open the door with a card key.
    “Come on in.”
    Chu led the way to a small squad room with about a dozen desks and a lieutenant’s office on the right. Chu went behind one of the desks and put his briefcase down on the floor.
    “What can I do for you?” he asked. “I was already planning to come by RHD at ten when Mrs. Li comes in.”
    Chu started to sit down but Bosch stayed standing.
    “I got something I want to show you. Do you guys have an AV room here?”
    “Yeah, this way.”
    The AGU had four interview rooms at the back of the squad room. One had been converted to an AV room with the standard rolling tower of television stacked on top of DVD. But Bosch saw that the stack also had an image printer and that was something they didn’t have yet in the new RHD squad room.
    Bosch handed Chu the DVD from Fortune Liquors and he set it up. Bosch took the remote and fast-forwarded the playback to 3 P.M. on the time stamp.
    “I wanted you to take a look at this guy who comes in,” he said.
    Chu watched silently as the Asian man entered the store, bought a beer and a carton of cigarettes and got the big return on his investment.
    “Is that it” he asked after the customer left the store.
    “That’s it.”
    “Can we play it again”
    “Sure.”
    Bosch replayed the two-minute episode, then froze the playback as the customer turned from the counter to leave. He then played with it, making slight advances on the playback, until he froze it on the best possible view of the man’s face as he turned from the counter.
    “Know him?” Bosch asked.
    “No, of course not.”
    “What did you see there?”
    “Obviously, a payoff of some kind. He got much more back than he gave.”
    “Yeah, two hundred sixteen on top of his own twenty. We counted it.”
    Bosch saw Chu’s eyebrows rise.
    “What’s it mean?” Bosch asked.
    “Well, it probably means he’s triad,” Chu said matter-of-factly.
    Bosch nodded. He had never investigated a triad murder before but he was aware that the so-called secret societies of China had long ago jumped the Pacific and now operated in most major American cities. Los Angeles, with its large Chinese population, was one of the strongholds, along with San Francisco, New York and Houston.
    “What makes you say he’s a triad guy?”
    “You said the payoff was two hundred sixteen dollars, correct?”
    “That’s right. Li gave the guy his own money back. He also gave him ten twenties, a ten, a five and a one. What’s it mean?”
    “The triad extortion business relies on weekly payments from small shop owners seeking protection. The payment is usually one hundred eight dollars. Of course, two sixteen is a multiple of that. A double payment.”
    “Why one oh eight? They charge tax on top of the tax? They send the extra eight bucks to the state or something?”
    Chu did not register the sarcasm in Bosch’s voice and answered as if lecturing a child.
    “No, Detective, the number has nothing to do with that at all. Let me give you a brief history lesson that hopefully will give you some understanding.”
    “By all means,” Bosch said.
    “The creation of the triads goes back to the seventeenth century in China. There were one hundred thirteen monks in the Shaolin monastery. Buddhist monks. Manchu invaders attacked and killed all but five of the monks. Those remaining five monks created the secret societies with the goal of overthrowing the invaders. The triads were born. But over the centuries, they changed. They dropped politics and patriotism and became criminal organizations. Much like the Italian and Russian mafias, they engage in extortion and protection rackets. To honor the ghosts of the slaughtered monks, the extortion amounts are usually a multiple of one hundred eight.”
    “There were five remaining monks, not three,” Bosch said.