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“Okay. What did you do?”

“I went and grabbed him. He was the one who’d started it.”

“Who started it?”

“Stokely.”

“You grabbed him?”

“I took him out of there. Put him in the QR.”

Sears glanced at Bosch again and he nodded, encouraging her to continue.

“What is the QR?” she asked.

“The quiet room,” Bishop said.

“Where was the quiet room?”

“The space under the stairs.”

“Was that the place the kids called the hollow?”

“They called it that.”

“So you put Stokely in there?”

“He didn’t want to go. He wanted to fight me. But I shoved him.”

“Then what happened?”

“I went to the hospital to get stitches on my mouth. There was a lot of blood.”

Bosch wrote a note on the pad and handed it to Sears. She nodded.

“Let’s talk about the next day now,” she said. “Were you back at work?”

“Yes, I came back,” Bishop said.

“And what do you recall seeing that day?”

“A kid died.”

Sears involuntarily looked at Bosch before continuing.

“Who died, Vernon?”

“One of the colored kids.”

“A Black child?”

“Yes.”

“What was his name, Vernon?”

“He was called Chops.”

“How did he die?”