50

50

BALLARD DROPPED OFF a blood sample drawn from Taylor Weeks during his autopsy at the lab and she had just gotten on the 10 freeway when her phone buzzed and she saw the name Dan Farley on the screen. She braced herself. He had never reached out to her except for the first call when he had introduced himself and said that her inquiry had landed on his desk at the MINT. All the other times, it had been Ballard calling him to check in and see if there had been any progress.

She wished she could pull over to take the call but it would be dangerous to sit on the shoulder of the eight-lane freeway, let alone try to get back into the heavily congested traffic lanes afterward.

She took the call and tried to concentrate on her driving while she spoke.

"Dan? What's up?"

"I found your mother, Renée. And she's alive."

Ballard didn't respond at first. She had prepared herself for a call confirming the opposite news. For months she had assumed the woman who had birthed her but had done little else as a mother would be among the casualties of the fires in Maui. She had prepared herself for losing her without a chance for confrontation or reconciliation. In a moment that had changed, and she wasn't prepared for it.

"Renée?"

"Yes, I'm here. It's just that… I wasn't expecting this. Where is she?"

"Right now she's at Maui Community Correctional in Wailuku. But they are going to ROR her today."

"She was arrested?"

"Yeah, on warrants. Unpaid traffic stuff, I guess a lot of them. I don't know the details. But I had put a BOLO into the system after you filed the missing person report. I got the heads-up a little while ago and I knew you would want to know."

Ballard went silent again.

"Still there?"

"Yes, I'm just thinking. Did she give a home address?"

"She would have had to give something and I can get that for you. I'm here in what's left of Lahaina, and Wailuku is on the other side of the island. I'm not going to be able to go over there today."

"Sure, I understand."

She was in a daze. She couldn't think of what else to say. She thought about Farley having put the BOLO into the system. Be on the lookout—that said it all about her relationship with her mother. All the early years looking for her, hoping to find her.

"Um, I'm going to close this file," Farley said. "But if you come over to see her, you have my number. I don't know, I could show you around, show you what we're doing here. I mean, if you're interested."

"Uh, sure, Dan," Ballard said. "I'll call you."

Ballard snapped out of her fugue and realized that this man had done so much for her.

"And Dan, thank you," she said. "You went all out for her. For me. She might not have been worth it, but cop to cop, I appreciate it."

"Of course," Farley said. "That's what we do here. And this is one of the better endings, believe me. You take care, Renée, and I hope knowing your mother is still alive leads to something good between you two."

"Yeah, me too. Thank you."

She continued the drive west but passed by the transition to the south 405 that would have taken her back to Ahmanson. Instead, she continued west and took the curve through the tunnel where the freeway became the Pacific Coast Highway.

She headed toward the water.