That was a mental image Eve didn’t need.
Green explained that Eve was right, that Mumford’s job was picking the houses to hit, checking out the homeowners, and running interference on security issues, while Green did the close-up surveillance of the target homes, then planned and executed the jobs. Most of the bags, wallets, shoes, and watches they stole were sold online and the jewelry was fenced through a shop in Sherman Way run by another former soccer coach. The split was 60 percent for Green, 10 percent each for the other four participants.
He got the lion’s share because he was carrying the operating expenses, like creating the Amazon van and offering his landscaping services to homeowners at well below cost just so he could stay in the gated community. By the time he covered all the costs, he walked away with a little over 10 percent himself. Or at least that’s what he told the other four and they believed him.
Green was aware that his three men skimmed some for themselves, but he wasn’t going to jeopardize the operation over it.
Mumford picked the sting house and said the old man and his jailbait girlfriend would be easy pickings.
“Of course, it all went to hell,” Green said. “I was about to shit my pants when I saw Colter run out of the house and carjack an Escalade. I’m just glad he had the good sense not to come to me.”
Now Eve knew that Green had lied when he’d told her before that he wasn’t in Vista Grande that day, but she let that go for now. “Colter was running for his life. But when he saw he couldn’t escape, he changed his plans. He decided to use his last few minutes of freedom to confront Mumford instead.”
“I can’t blame him for that or Mumford for shooting him first.”
“Did you call Sherry Simms and warn her?”
Himmel cleared his throat. Eve and Green both looked at him. “That wasn’t an objection. You can answer her question.”
“Yeah, I called her the second after it happened,” Green said. “I knew you’d be showing up at her place and she needed to ditch her computer. Instead, she ditched herself, too.”
“There’s just one thing I don’t get,” Eve said. “After things went so spectacularly, violently wrong, why were you casing Oakdale a day later in your fake Amazon van?”
“I was looking for another house to hit. We had a good thing going and I couldn’t afford to give it up.”
“But you didn’t have a crew.”
Green dismissed her comment with a shrug. “There are a lot of guys I coached whose lives have gone nowhere. I even found the perfect house to hit.”
“Which one?”
“You’ll like this. The McCaigs’。” He smiled ruefully. “This just isn’t my week.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Eve went with Green to his office, where the LASD technical team installed hidden cameras in the front office but didn’t bother with the warehouse. Green insisted he and Mumford wouldn’t have any reason to go in back. Green was given a cell phone that would constantly broadcast to the LASD mobile command center, which was parked among the mobile homes and campers at a recreational vehicle rental facility down the street and around the corner from Green’s office.
Shaw was in the command center, where the video and audio would be recorded and he could coordinate the operation. Two deputies were hiding in a van parked at the muffler repair shop next door. Eve and Duncan would be parked in her Subaru at the storage facility across the street, watching and listening to everything going down in Green’s office on her phone. Once Mumford arrived, an LASD patrol car would arrive to block the end of Douglas Fir Road, just to be safe.
It was 4:00 p.m. The technical team had just gone, leaving Eve alone with Green in his cluttered, filthy office.
“Give him a call,” Eve said.
Green picked up the phone and dialed. Before Green could utter a greeting, Mumford said, “Are you insane? What are you calling me for?”
Eve figured Green’s name came up on Mumford’s caller ID.
“Why do you think?” Green said. “To congratulate you on your Medal of Valor, of course. You must be so proud of yourself.”
“What do you really want?”
“We have unfinished business,” Green said.
“Our business is finished. In fact, it’s dead and buried.”
“That’s exactly what we need to discuss. Face-to-face.”
“Forget it. We’re done. You’re welcome. Have a—”
Green interrupted him. “Come to my office in an hour, you smug motherfucker, or I’ll burn your family’s house down with them in it.”