“I can come out and sit on the neighborhood tonight — not being obvious about it — but I have to get some downtime now. I’m running on fumes. I was thinking your crew could run down who lives in the neighborhood, maybe determine if this Abigail Cena lives alone or if any other women do in this immediate quad of homes.”
“Yeah, we’ll do it. You go get some sleep. And don’t worry about tonight. I know you’re off. If we want to stake the place, we’ll set it up. Maybe I should get Lisa used to working nights.”
That told Ballard that Robinson-Reynolds had not told Neumayer that he was rescinding Moore’s reassignment to the late show. She felt bad about holding it as a secret from a good guy like Neumayer, but she was bound by the order from the lieutenant. And she wanted no part in the command games he was playing.
“Roger that,” Ballard said. “Shoot me an email if you set it up. I’d just like to know what’s happening.”
“You got it, Renée. Pleasant dreams.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about — Oh, wait, did Lisa and Ronin pick up the other Lambkin surveys?”
“They’re out now getting them. They went together rather than split up.”
“Got it. Well, let me know about that too. It would be nice if we found a triple cross with all three of them.”
“Would make our job easier.”
“Roger that.”
Ballard disconnected and decided she had to stop using “Roger that” as a sign-off. It was getting old. As she was leaning forward to turn the key in the ignition, she saw movement to her left and turned to see the garage door at Abigail Cena’s house going up.
There was a silver Mercedes G-wagon in the bay and soon she saw its brake lights flare, followed by its reverse lights. The Mercedes backed out of the garage and then the big door rolled back down. Ballard could only see a silhouette of the driver because of the tinting of the windows, but she thought the hair profile indicated a woman. The Mercedes backed into the street and then headed down to the traffic signal at Franklin two blocks away.
Ballard was dead tired but her investigator’s curiosity — both a blessing and a curse — got the better of her. She made a U-turn and followed the G-wagon. She wanted to get a look at Abigail Cena — if it was her — and see if she fit the victim profile established with the first three victims of the Midnight Men.
She trailed the Mercedes east on Franklin toward Los Feliz. Ballard thought that at least she would be near home when this little exercise ended.
A call came in on her cell from an unknown number. She answered with a simple hello since she was technically off duty.
“Detective Ballard, Ross Bettany, West Bureau Homicide. We need to get together so I can pick up that gangbanger case and see what you’ve got.”
Ballard paused to compose an answer.
“I just left the autopsy and it’s not a gangbanger case.”
“I was told the guy was Las Palmas.”
“Was. He got out of the gang a long time ago. This wasn’t a gang thing.”
“Well, my last two were, so this will be a welcome change. When can we get together? My partner, Denise Kirkwood, is out today — added a vacay day to the weekend — but back tomorrow. Maybe we could come see you then?”
Ballard was relieved. She needed to get some sleep. She saw the Mercedes she was following turn off Franklin into the parking lot of the Gelson’s supermarket at Canyon Drive. A little charge of adrenaline sparked in her exhaustion because she knew from Cindy Carpenter’s Lambkin survey that she shopped at this Gelson’s as did one of the other victims.
“Tomorrow would be good,” Ballard said. “I’m heading home to sleep for the first time in about twenty-four hours. What time? Where?”
“We’ll come see you at Hollywood,” Bettany said. “Then we can go scope things out, pick up where you left off. How is nine at Hollywood Division? Will you have gotten enough sleep?”
He asked the last question good-naturedly but Ballard was stuck on “where you left off.” Those words bothered her, and once again she hesitated in handing the case off. Her good work. Bosch’s good work. She wanted to be there when they hooked up the four dentists and Christopher Bonner. If Bettany and Kirkwood managed to hook them up.
“You still there, Ballard?” Bettany prompted.
“Yeah, nine at the station is fine,” Ballard said. “If you want to do something today, you could write up a search warrant for the victim’s business records. I haven’t had the time to go through his office at the shop.”