The discussion might have continued, and become a lot more heated, but deputies Tom Ross and Eddie Clayton came in, and that shut everybody up. The deputies approached Duncan and Eve.
Like Lansing’s driver Rondo, Clayton always wore sunglasses, earning him the nickname Shades. Unlike Rondo, Clayton was gregarious and not the least bit invisible. He was also the one other Lost Hills deputy who Eve completely trusted.
Tom took a seat at the cubicle beside Eve’s. “The captain says me and Eddie are deployed to you and Duncan this shift.”
“Which captain?” Duncan asked.
“Captain Roje Shaw. He just transferred over from Compton. Some friends of mine down there say he’s a good man, comes from a family of cops in Jamaica.”
Eddie leaned against the cubicle where Tom sat. “I heard that he was in here at five a.m. I sure hope he’s not gonna make that a regular thing.”
“Why?” Eve asked.
“Because then everybody else will start coming in early for their shifts so they don’t look like laggards.”
Duncan smiled. “Laggard. There’s a word I haven’t heard in a while.”
Eddie shrugged. “My dad called me that so often when I was a kid that I thought it was my first name.”
Eve assigned the two deputies the task of trying to match the recovered goods with items stolen from homes, and just as they were all about to get to work, the new captain came in. Shaw was black, tall, broad shouldered, and bald. A linebacker in a captain’s uniform.
Everyone stood up to show their respect, which made him smile. “Please, sit down, this isn’t the military. I wanted to introduce myself. I’m Captain Roje Shaw. There will be time later for us to get to know one another but right now”—he pointed to Biddle and Garvey—“you two need to go. There’s been a hit-and-run on Pacific Coast Highway. One man is dead. Dispatch has the details.”
“Yes, sir,” Biddle said. He and Garvey got up and rushed out of the squad room.
Shaw looked back at Eve and Duncan. “I read up on the home invasion case. Where are we, Detectives?”
“No further than last night, sir,” Duncan said. “Give us until lunch and we may know a lot more.”
Shaw nodded. “I’m buying. Pizza work for you?”
“Always,” Duncan said.
“If you need extra manpower, or a push with any warrants, let me know. The sheriff wants this closed yesterday.”
“Will do,” Eve said. “Thank you, sir.”
“See you at lunch,” he said and walked out.
Once the door closed, Duncan looked at Eve. “I think I’m going to like him.”
“You’re a dog,” Eve said. “You love anyone who gives you food.”
“Woof, woof,” Duncan said, then swiveled to face his desk and get to work.
CHAPTER TEN
Captain Shaw came back into the squad room at 1:00 p.m. with two large thin-crust sheet pizzas from Barone’s in Westlake Village. He set the boxes on the conference table and opened them up. The smell immediately drew Eve, Duncan, Ross, and Clayton away from their cubicles to eat. The pizzas, a Meat Lovers and a Fire Roasted Veggie, were sliced into rectangular pieces and rested on plastic screens that kept the crust from touching the bottom of the cardboard boxes and the dripping grease.
Duncan took a slice of the Meat Lovers. “I’m impressed, Captain. This is the good stuff. Frankly, I was expecting a delivery from Domino’s.”
Shaw took a slice of Fire Roasted Veggie. “My first priority when assuming a new post is to find the best pizza in the vicinity.”
“You succeeded,” Eve said and took the smallest slice of the Meat Lovers she could find and then got as far away from the boxes as she could without leaving the room. Her fear was that if she stayed within reach of the boxes, she’d eat half the pizza herself.
The two deputies went out to the break room and brought back paper plates, napkins, and soft drinks. Everyone spent a moment eating in comfortable silence, then Duncan grabbed another slice and went over to the dry-erase board, where he’d filled in more details on the three assailants and had added a new column under the DMV photo of Sherry Simms.
“I did a deep dive into Joel Dalander, Paul Colter, and Greg Nagy,” he said. “But here’s the executive summary: They all are from the West Valley. They are all the same age. And they are all white.”
“So they definitely wouldn’t have drawn any attention in Calablackless,” Deputy Clayton said, then seemed to remember that Shaw was black, and added, “No offense intended, sir.”