20

20

LILIA AGHZAFI, PAUL Masser, and Colleen Hatteras were in their places on the raft when Ballard arrived at the unit. Ballard felt compelled to explain her long absences during the week, though without revealing what she had actually been up to. She stood at the end of the raft and addressed the group.

"Hey, everybody," she began. "I just want to say that I have not been here a lot this week because I've been involved in a case that doesn't come out of this unit. I got pulled into it and it's about to wrap up and things should get back to normal."

"What's the case?" Hatteras asked. "Maybe we can help."

"It's a sensitive case, Colleen, so I can't really talk about it," Ballard said. "Basically, I got a tip from a CI who'd fed me intel before we started the unit. I had to run with it but now it's been handed off and I'm back here. And speaking of being here, we have a new team member who was supposed to come in today. Has anybody seen Maddie Bosch?"

"She's here," Masser said. "She's in the lockdown room looking at the old cases."

The lockdown room was what they called the interview room that had been converted to a storage room for murder books and evidence from sensitive cases. It was locked but everyone in the unit knew where Ballard hid the key—beneath the calendar on her desk.

"Who let her in there?" Ballard asked.

"She wanted to see the old cases," Hatteras said. "I thought it would be okay, so I gave her the key."

"That's fine," Ballard said. "Why don't you go get her, Colleen, and we'll go over the boards. I know it's not Monday but we won't be meeting Monday because of the holiday and I think it will be good for Maddie to see how we track cases."

Ballard knew that it was also a way for her to spend time with the unit, make everyone feel like it was business as usual, when her mind was elsewhere and business was anything but usual.

Hatteras went to get Maddie. Ballard turned her attention to Masser. "Paul, I don't suppose we've heard anything from Darcy or the DOJ?" she asked.

"Not yet," Masser said. "Hopefully tomorrow. It's like that old Tom Petty song."

"What song?"

"‘The Waiting.' You know, the bit about it being the hardest part."

He sang the lyrics but Ballard shook her head like she didn't recognize it.

"Oh, come on," Masser said. "It was a huge hit."

He sang some more, then stopped when he realized Ballard was playing him.

"Ah, fuck you," he said.

Ballard and Aghzafi started laughing.

"You know they have an all-unit talent show every year in the auditorium at the PAB," Ballard said. "I think you'd have a shot at a trophy."

"Like I said, F you," Masser said.

His face was turning red and Ballard decided to lay off and change the subject.

"I was talking to this guy on the Maui fire task force," she said. "You know, about the fires and all the unidentified dead they have. He told me they have this mobile DNA lab that they take into the fields of ash that is all that's left of Lahaina. They put in what they can find of the human remains and they get DNA comparisons done in ninety minutes."

"Oh, wow," Masser said.

"And here we are, and it takes days or weeks to get anything done," Ballard said. "I'm going to apply for a grant to get one of those labs to use right here."

"That would be cool," Aghzafi said. "We'd really start kicking ass."

"Well, I think we already do kick ass," Masser said.

Ballard nodded as she realized that Masser probably wanted to ask her about why she was talking to an investigator in Maui. He was the only one in the unit she had confided in about her missing mother.

The awkward moment ended when Hatteras returned with Maddie.

"Hey, Maddie," Ballard said. "Welcome to the unit."

"Glad to be here," Maddie said. "Exciting."

"You see anything in the lockdown room you can solve?"

"Uh, not yet."

"Okay, well, did you pick a desk yet? We've got two openings on the raft."

"Uh, not yet. The raft?"

Ballard pointed to the interconnected desk modules. "That's what we call the setup here," she said. "All the desks joined together like a raft."

"Floating on a sea of cold cases," Masser said.

Ballard walked Maddie around to the side of the raft where there were two unused desks.

"Either one of these," she said. "Your dad used this one when he was here. You'd be across from Colleen, who is going to teach you the IGG work we do."

"Okay," Maddie said.

She looked down at the two chairs and hesitated. Ballard understood what that was about and pointed to the desk that Harry had not used.

"Why don't you start your own path?" she said.

Maddie nodded, and the decision was made. She stepped into the pod and pulled the chair back so she could sit down.

"The terminal is old but basically the same program you use at Hollywood Station," Ballard said. "Use the same password. In these first few weeks, coordinate with Colleen on when you'll both be in so she can start you with the IGG procedures. I think having two people with those skills, especially one with a badge, will be great."

"Good," Maddie said. "Um, I also wanted to ask you about something."

"Sure."

"Well, I was just in the lockdown room and I noticed that the Elizabeth Short case has its own file cabinet but it's locked."

Ballard smiled and nodded. It wasn't the first time a member of the unit had asked about the Black Dahlia case. The savage 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short was the most famous unsolved murder in the history of Los Angeles.

"Yeah, it's locked because those cabinets are almost empty," Ballard said. "Over the years a lot of the files have disappeared. Most of the evidence is gone too. I guess it doesn't matter. That one will never be solved."

"The evidence is gone how?" Maddie asked.

"Pilfered by cops who had access to the files. The original letters, witness statements—they're all gone. No physical evidence except the suitcase in there that was hers—she kept it in a locker at the bus station. But you can find most of the missing information on the internet. More there than what's in that file cabinet."

"Oh."

"If you still want to look, I'll give you the key. But be prepared for disappointment."

"I'll take a look anyway. I've always been fascinated by that case. My dad has too."

"Really? Harry never mentioned it."

"I think it sort of reminds him of his mother."

"Got it. I should have thought about that."

An awkward silence ensued as Maddie realized she had overshared about her father in front of the group. Ballard broke it.

"Well, we're going to start going over our active cases," she said. "I thought it might be good for you to see how we do it. Usually we do it on Mondays, but you're here for the first time and this coming Monday is a holiday, so I thought we'd do it now."

"Sounds good," Maddie said.

Ballard took her position in front of the whiteboards and started the review of the cases the team was working on. They brought Maddie up to date on the Pillowcase Rapist case, but after that there was not much new to report, largely because Ballard's pursuit of her stolen badge had hijacked most of the week. The one high point of the round-robin came from Masser.

"I just heard from John Lewin at the DA's office, and Maxine Russell's lawyer has reached out," Masser said. "She wants to deal."

"And she'll give up her ex on the convenience-store shooting?" Ballard asked.

"I assume so," Masser said. "There's no deal if she doesn't. They're meeting tomorrow morning."

"Good," Ballard said. "Let us know."

The rest of the review went quickly after that. "We're expecting results from the DOJ tomorrow on our DNA capture from Monday," Ballard said. "If it goes the way we expect it to, we're going to have to set up a surveillance on the judge while I go to the PAB and get the okay for an arrest. Who's coming in?"

All hands rose in response. Everybody wanted to be in on the kill, so to speak. Even Maddie Bosch raised a hand, although she would be working her patrol shift Friday night. Ballard appreciated the team's enthusiasm but told them that it was highly unlikely that they would be involved in the arrest.

"For something like this—big case and big suspect—they'll tell us to stand down, and SIS will come in, take over surveillance, and make the arrest," she said.

That got a round of boos. SIS was the Special Investigation Section, which handled major-case arrests.

"Don't worry, we'll still get the credit for it," Ballard said. "It's still our case."

She went on to thank the team for their dedication and hard work. As the meeting broke up, she invited Maddie to have a cup of coffee.

The cafeteria was largely empty except for a table full of men Ballard knew were academy instructors. Ballard got a coffee and Maddie got a bottle of sparkling water.

"Your dad is switching from coffee to tea," Ballard said.

"Really?" Maddie said. "You saw him recently?"

Ballard realized her mistake.

"Uh, yeah, I asked him for some help on a case," she said. "Advice. Did you tell him about joining the unit?"

"Not yet," Maddie said. "Now that it's official, I'll call him."

"Good. You should. But I sort of sense that there's something else going on with you. Something in play you haven't told me about. And so I just wanted to give you the chance to tell me now rather than later."

"Wow. I guess you can really read people."

"Comes with the territory. So what's going on, Maddie?"

"Well—you have to hear me out, because this is going to sound… weird, I guess. And don't laugh, but I think I might have solved the Black Dahlia case."

Ballard had no urge to laugh at all. The fervency with which Maddie had said this told her that she was deadly serious.

"Tell me about it," Ballard said.