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Challenge Coin
Photo By Wendy Werris
Excerpt From Echo Park
Thinking quickly, Bosch came up with what he thought was a way out.
"Look, I'm not investigating anything. I'm looking for something. I lost my challenge coin out here yesterday. I was just looking for it."
"What?"
"My RHD chip. It must've come out of my pocket when I was sliding down the embankment or something. I got home last night and it wasn't in my pocket."
As he spoke Bosch reached into his pocket and pulled out the coin he was claiming to have lost. It was a heavy metal coin about the size and width of a casino chip. On one side it showed a gold detective's badge and the other side showed the caricature of a detective—suit, hat, gun and exaggerated chin—set against an American flag background. It was known as a challenge coin or chip and was a carry over from the practice of elite and specialized military units. Upon acceptance to the unit you are given a challenge coin and are expected to carry it always. At any time and any place a fellow unit member can ask you to produce your coin. This most often would take place in a bar or canteen. If you fail to be carrying the coin, then you pick up the tab. The tradition had been observed for several years in the RHD. Bosch had been given his coin upon returning from retirement.
Echo Park
In 1993 Marie Gesto disappeared after walking out of a supermarket in Hollywood. Fearing the worst, the case was elevated by LAPD commanders from the missing persons squad to the Homicide Division, where Harry Bosch was assigned the case. But the young woman never turned up - dead or alive - and it was a case Bosch couldn't crack. This is Michael Connelly's eleventh Harry Bosch thriller. Find out more about Echo Park.
