The men got up from their stations and Neumayer did lead the way, a white binder tucked under his arm. Clarke quickly caught up to him, perhaps sensing that the tension between the two women was not something he wanted to get in the middle of.
Ballard followed at a ten-yard distance and Moore took fourth position in the parade. She spoke to Ballard’s back as they walked.
“I suppose you want an apology,” she said.
“I don’t want anything from you, Lisa,” Ballard said.
Ballard suddenly stopped short and turned to Moore. They were standing in the back hallway where only the shoeshine guy could hear them.
“You know, you may have fucked yourself but you also fucked me,” Ballard said. “I like my job. I like the dark hours and now I’m going to be dayside thanks to you.”
Ballard turned and continued down the hall, passing by the shoeshine station.
Once all four of them were settled in the TFR, Neumayer asked Ballard to summarize the weekend’s occurrences, since it was now apparent that Moore had played hooky. Ballard gave a concise update and told them about her reaching out to the three victims.
“I have victim three’s Lambkin survey here,” she said. “The other two should be completed by now. You just have to call them today to collect. When you compare them, see if we get any triple matches. Or even double matches.”
Clarke groaned at the idea of desk work.
“Thanks, Ballard,” he said. “Why don’t you stick around to help?”
“Because I’m going to be sleeping, Clarke,” Ballard said. “I worked all night and I’ve been working this case all weekend. I’m out of here as soon as we’re done with this meeting.”
“You’re cool, Renée,” Neumayer said. “We’ll handle it from here.”
“Good, because I’m supposed to have the next three days off,” Ballard said.
“All right,” Neumayer said. “Why don’t you give us victim three’s survey and we’ll take it from there. You can go home.”
“We also may have caught a break,” Ballard said. “These scumbags cut the power to the streetlights near each victim’s house. They wanted it dark.”
“Holy shit,” Clarke said.
“How’d you get that?” Neumayer asked.
“A resident up in the Dell told me the light outside the victim’s house was out the night before the attack. This morning I went to the BSL to check work orders and — ”
“BSL?” Moore asked.
“Bureau of Street Lighting,” Ballard said. “On Santa Monica near Virgil. I checked work orders, and lights on the other victims’ streets were cut around the same time as the attacks. Exact times are not known, because they work off complaints. But the complaint records are in line. I think these guys cut the lights to darken the streets for when they came back to do their evil shit. I asked Forensics to print the posts and access plates on the lights, but my guess is that’s a long shot.”
“That’s good, Renée,” Neumayer said.
“But what’s it get us?” Clarke asked.
“Dipshit, MLK weekend is in, like, two weeks,” Moore said. “We need to wire the BSL, and maybe we get up on them for their next hit.”
Ballard nodded.
“Exactly,” she said. “And they’re already wired. I’ll get a call every time a light is reported out between now and then.”
Clarke looked hurt that he had not put the obvious together.
“Sounds excellent,” Neumayer said. “Maybe we’re getting the upper hand on these guys. But we still have to run with the surveys. Ronin and Lisa, pick a vic. Go get the surveys and then let’s meet back here and start cross-referencing. Renée, good work. You go home and get some sleep now.”
Ballard nodded. She didn’t mention that she had an autopsy to go to.
“Call me if you come up with something,” she said.
“Oh, one thing before we grab and go,” Neumayer said. “I wanted to talk about the media. We’ve been lucky that they haven’t picked up on this. But now, a third case, it’s going to get out. Somehow it always does. Now that we have this streetlight lead, I’m still inclined to try to keep the investigation under wraps. But it’s dangerous.”
It was always a no-win situation. Going public alerted your suspects and allowed them to change the MO being used to track them. Not going public left the department wide open to criticism for not warning people of the menace that was out there. In typically cynical fashion, the decision of whether to go public would be made purely along political lines for the department and with no consideration of the victims who might have been saved from trauma.