She found two: Horatio Bonner, who retired in 2002, so could not be the one Ballard was looking for but presumably was the father of at least one of the Bonners currently employed by the department; and a Christopher Bonner, who had retired seven years earlier after twenty years on the job. His rank and last assignment were listed as detective first grade in Hollywood detectives. This was curious to Ballard. She had never heard of Christopher Bonner. She had arrived in the division two years after he had left but, still, she could not recall ever seeing or hearing about a case that had his name attached to it. What added to the puzzle was that Bosch had not reacted to the name, and it seemed as though their time working in Hollywood might have overlapped, though she was not sure what year Bosch left Hollywood Division for the Open-Unsolved Unit downtown.
After laying the binder open on the desk, she pulled out her phone and took a photo of the entry for Christopher Bonner. As she did so, she noticed a yellow Post-it pad to the side of the desk’s center work area. Robinson-Reynolds had written “Ballard” on the top sheet and nothing else. It was obviously a note written to remind him to tell Ballard something or get something from her. Or possibly to talk to someone else about her. Ballard could not think of what that might be, since the last time Robinson-Reynolds was in his office to write the note was during the day shift on New Year’s Eve. Nothing she was involved in now had even occurred by then, except for the ongoing investigation of the first two Midnight Men assaults.
She pushed the question aside for the moment, put her phone in her pocket, and then returned the pension book to its spot on the shelf. She left the office as she had found it and locked the door behind her.
At her borrowed desk, Ballard transferred the info on Bonner from her photo to her computer screen. Bonner lived in Simi Valley — at least that was where his pension checks were sent — which was a cop haven outside L.A. in Ventura County. It was close enough that he could have lived there while he was with the LAPD. Many cops did. It also put him close to the San Fernando Valley, where the nexus of the four dentists was centered at Crown Labs Incorporated.
Ballard got up and walked back to the watch office, where Lieutenant Rivera was at his desk, holding a cupcake. There was a tray of cupcakes on a counter nearby. As Ballard approached, he pointed at the tray with the cupcake in his hand.
“Citizen appreciation,” he said. “Help yourself.”
“These days you should have those checked by the lab first,” Ballard said. “Senna glycoside, you know?”
“What the hell is that?”
“A laxative. The active ingredient in Ex-Lax.”
Rivera stared down at the chocolate-frosted cake in his hand, visions of cupcake eaters lining up at the restroom likely playing in his head. He had already peeled off the paper baking cup. Hesitantly, he put it down on a napkin on his desk.
“Thanks a lot, Ballard,” he said.
“Just watching out for you, L-T,” she said. “Want me to call the lab?”
“Why are you here, Ballard? It’s all quiet on the western front.”
“I know. I wanted to ask you about Christopher Bonner.”
“Bonner? What about him?”
“You know him?”
“Of course. He worked here.”
“He supposedly worked here as a detective.”
“Yeah, he had your job.”
“What?”
“Worked the late show right up until the day he pulled the pin.”
Ballard was shocked by the coincidence but it helped explain why his name was unfamiliar to her. Midnight-shift detectives usually turned their cases over to dayside detectives. As a result, they weren’t formally listed as leads on many cases. This could also help explain why Bosch didn’t recognize the name.
“So, you must have known him pretty well then,” she said.
“Yeah, I guess,” Rivera said. “Just like you, he worked for me.” Ballard didn’t bother correcting him about who she actually reported to.
“You said ‘the day he pulled the pin,’ ” she said. “Did something happen with him that made him quit?”
“I don’t know, Ballard,” Rivera said. “He just quit. Maybe he got fed up with all the shit out there. I don’t need to tell you what you see out there on the night shift.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Why are you asking about Chris?”
“Oh, his name came up in the homicide from Thursday night. He knew the family from back in the day. I was just curious about him, is all.”