“No need to rub it in,” Lansing said, pacing in front of Shaw’s desk.
“The defense attorneys and the media certainly will,” she said, “so you might as well get used to it.”
Shaw cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “There’s another alternative.”
Everyone looked at him. “We arrest Green and tell him his only hope for leniency is if he gets Mumford to implicate himself.”
Lansing stood in front of Shaw’s desk and looked at him. “You want Green to meet with Mumford and wear a wire?”
Shaw leaned back in his chair. “We have nothing to lose.”
Eve thought about it a moment, then said, “We don’t know who else at Green’s company is involved in the robberies. What if Grayson gets word that Green has been arrested from someone in his office or among his landscaping crew?”
“We raid Green’s Greenery tomorrow,” Shaw said, “when they are closed and his crew isn’t around, and we arrest him at home. We make the deal and have Green set up the meet right away.”
“And if he doesn’t take the deal?” Eve asked.
Burnside answered before Shaw could. “He’ll take it. Guaranteed.”
Lansing turned and addressed the room. “It was all an elaborate charade.”
Eve said, “With all due respect, sir, I think Grayson was improvising as he went along.”
“I’m talking about the Medal of Valor ceremony,” Lansing said. “That’s how we explain it. We say we suspected Mumford was involved in the robberies from the start. But if we hadn’t acknowledged his heroism, he would have suspected we were onto him. It was all a charade on our part. We wanted to lull him into a false sense of security, and the Medal of Valor did that spectacularly.”
Burnside chuckled. “Do you really think the media will believe that?”
Lansing glared at her. “Do you have a better idea, Counselor?”
“Tell the truth. It’s a lot more convincing.”
Eve had to give Burnside credit for backbone, but the ADA could afford to be blunt with the sheriff. She didn’t work for him.
“The DA would love it if I did that,” Lansing said. “It would give him one more thing to embarrass me with when he runs against me for mayor.”
Burnside stood up and brushed imaginary wrinkles from her tennis shorts. “Politics aren’t my concern, Sheriff. Let me get to work on the warrants.” She turned to Eve. “What do you hope to find at Green’s place of business?”
“Stolen goods, the phony Amazon van, weapons, ammunition, and the cars belonging to the three dead assailants.”
“Why would their cars be there?”
Duncan explained what they’d learned from tracking the cell phones of all three assailants and how each man had turned off his phone before leaving home on the days of the invasions. He told her their theory that it was done so nobody, if one of them was caught, would be able to track where they’d left their cars.
“Very clever,” Burnside said. “You’ll have the warrants by the end of the day.” She looked at Shaw. “When do you think you’ll make your move?”
Shaw, in turn, looked at Duncan. “Where’s his office?”
“Here in Calabasas.”
“Where does Green live?”
“Out in Oak Park.”
“So we’ll have to bring in the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department with us on the arrest,” Shaw said, then addressed Burnside. “We’ll handle Green’s arrest and the searches of his properties in the morning and set up the sting for the afternoon.”
Eve was still worried about word of Green’s arrest spreading, and possibly reaching Grayson Mumford, if they apprehended him at home and searched it.
“I think we can avoid arresting him at home and get him to come to us,” Eve said. “I met him at Oakdale and he gave me his card. I could ask him to drop by my house to give me an estimate.”
Lansing nodded. “I like that idea. Go back to the Realtor who found the sting house and see if he can find you another one that’s remote and easy for us to control. We can search Green’s house afterwards, and not make a multijurisdictional show out of it.”
Burnside said, “After we have Green in custody, and I’ve made him cry, then I’ll pursue the warrant for the wire.”
Lansing nodded and got to his feet. “Good luck tomorrow. Keep me informed.”
Eve and Duncan left the office. They were halfway down the hall to the squad room when Lansing caught up with them.