“Why is that?”
“He’s sleeping with my girlfriend,” he said. “Well, she was my girlfriend, now she’s his.”
“Ouch,” Eve said.
She opened each car and checked the glove compartments. No phones. Green was stuck with the cars but wisely disposed of the phones, which were easy to destroy and throw away.
Eve left Dale with the cars, went over to the van, and opened the back doors. The interior was full of empty Amazon boxes and several uniforms and hats for Amazon, Southern California Gas Co., Pacific Bell, and Edison.
Pay dirt.
She went back and checked the office. Green was too smart to leave any stolen goods in plain sight or even in closets or drawers, but Fred did find a gun, a box of ammo, a carton of unopened burner phones, and three license plates in a shoebox. The plates belonged to the cars of the dead assailants.
“This is helpful,” Eve said. “It’s none of my business, but did you really have an affair with your colleague’s girlfriend?”
Fred shrugged. “She’s freaky for forensics guys. I’m the third one she’s dated in the unit. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s already looking for her fourth.”
“But you’re staying with her until then?”
“Never had so much action in my life. Five, six days a week. The downside is she gets off on me being dressed for work—Tyvek suit, gloves and masks, the whole outfit—and processing her body for evidence as foreplay. At least she’s naked. Then she—”
“TMI,” Eve interrupted, holding up her hands, signaling him to stop.
“So why’d you ask?”
Eve stepped outside and called Duncan, who was out at Green’s house in Oak Park. “Guess what I found.”
“Three cars, the Amazon van, and Amelia Earhart’s plane.”
“Two out of the three. There were no cell phones in the cars but the van was full of utility company uniforms and empty boxes. We also found a gun, ammo, and burner phones,” she said. “Have you had any luck?”
“Nope. If he had any stolen goods, he’s already unloaded them. Unlike his crew, he didn’t keep any bling for himself. But you’ve found enough to convict him several times over.”
“And he knows it.”
“By the way, I met his attorney.”
“He came to the house?”
“He’s Green’s next-door neighbor,” he said. “Millard Himmel. He’s primarily a divorce attorney, but he has some experience in criminal defense. He’s on his way to the station.”
Eve ended the call, left the CSU team to process the cars and the Amazon van, and headed back to the station.
Eve and Burnside sat across a table from Himmel and Green in the interrogation room. Burnside was dressed for court, even though it was Sunday, in a suit that accentuated her figure rather than exploiting it. Himmel was a round-faced, pale, chubby man in a polo shirt, pleated shorts, and slip-on loafers and he seemed a bit disoriented. This wasn’t how he’d planned to spend his day.
Burnside took charge. “This is an open-and-shut case, Mr. Green. A slam dunk. A no-brainer. A lawyer just out of school, who has never tried a real case before, could effortlessly win this one. We don’t even need to question you.”
Himmel harrumphed. “So why are you here on a Sunday instead of working on your bikini tan?”
Burnside nailed him with a sharp look. “Is that a sexist remark, Mr. Himmel?”
“I’m genuinely admiring your tan, speaking as someone who sunburns easily, and making an observation. I’m not a criminal defense attorney by trade, but I know nobody likes working on Sundays. So if what you say is true, you must want something from my client.”
Burnside glanced at Eve to answer the implied question.
“Grayson Mumford,” Eve said.
“What makes you think my client knows this individual?”
Burnside took that one. “Mr. Mumford, like the three dead men, was on the soccer team Green coached, and he was a floating security guard at every gated community Green’s home invasion crew hit in Calabasas. He eased their way in and picked the homes that they robbed.”
Eve looked at Green, who was slumped over the table, examining the scratches as if they were ancient Sanskrit he was attempting to decode. “But this time he sent your crew into a trap and got Dalander and Nagy killed. Colter was so mad, he fled to the grocery store where Mumford was working security to confront him. Mumford gunned him down to save himself.”