Epilogue The Kula Lodge

EPILOGUE: THE KULA LODGE

BALLARD'S PHONE STARTED buzzing before sunrise. It was dark in her room but the glow from the phone's screen helped reacquaint her with the lines of the cottage. She had been in a deep sleep after a long journey. Five hours on a plane followed by three hours in a rented Jeep bouncing along dark roads.

She grabbed her phone off the night table, checked the screen, and accepted the call. It was Maddie Bosch.

"Did you see the Times ?" she asked.

"Uh, no, not yet," Ballard said. "I've been sleeping."

"Oh, shit. I forgot you're three hours behind over there."

"We used to say three hours, three thousand miles, and three decades behind. What's in the Times ?"

"They did a story on the Black Dahlia case. They laid the whole thing out. There's going to be a shitstorm."

"What does it say?"

"I'll send you the link. It's all about the DA not filing on our package."

"Well, that's good, isn't it? Maybe it will change Ernesto's decision."

"It names me. They're going to think I leaked this."

"Did you?"

"No way."

"Then you have nothing to worry about. They can't prove it happened if it didn't happen."

"Was it you? Did you—no, wait, never mind, I don't want to know."

Ballard smiled; Maddie understood that it would be best for her not to have any further knowledge of the leak. Ballard swung her legs off the bed and sat up. The deal she'd made with Scott Anderson was that he had to mention prominently in the story that Officer Madeline Bosch was responsible for the break in the Black Dahlia case. Ballard had trusted him, and it appeared that he had made good on his promise.

"Who's on the byline?" she asked, pretending she didn't know.

"It's that Scott Anderson," Maddie said. "He's the one who was asking all the questions at the press conference."

"Right. Is there anything factually wrong in the story as far as you can tell?"

Maddie laughed.

"No, it's right on. It makes the DA look like a petulant asshole holding out on the chief because he didn't endorse him."

"Sounds pretty accurate, then. What's it say about—"

Ballard got a call-waiting buzz and checked her screen. It was Captain Gandle, most likely calling about the same thing.

"I've got another call I have to take," she said. "Send me the link when you get a chance."

"Will do," Maddie said. "And Renée—thanks."

Ballard didn't respond before she switched over to the other call.

"Captain?"

"Ballard, have you seen the Times ?"

His voice was almost shrill.

"Uh, no, Captain, I'm in Hawaii and not really looking at any news."

"Hawaii? What are you doing in Hawaii when all hell is breaking loose here?"

"I told you I was taking the week. I gave everyone on the unit the week as well. What hell is breaking loose?"

"Somebody leaked the Black Dahlia case to the Times. It's all over the front page, the website's home page, everywhere. Now we've got TV people in the courtyard waiting for the chief to make a statement."

"What does the Times say?"

"It says we solved Black Dahlia but the DA won't stamp the case closed. It actually says Maddie solved it, and that puts us in a big fucking bind. Did you fire her yet?"

"Uh, no. I was going to wait until I got back next week."

"Thank Christ."

Ballard could hear the relief in his voice.

"So you don't want me to drop her now?"

"Hell no. Just keep her on. We'll look like shit if we fire the officer who broke the case."

You mean you will look like shit, Ballard thought.

"Fine with me," Ballard said. "We need the second badge and she obviously does good work."

"Now, Ballard, I'm going to ask you something," Gandle said. "And don't fucking lie because the tenth floor is going to ask me the same thing."

"Okay, ask."

"Did you give this story to them? It cites unnamed sources and you better not be one of them."

"Is it written by Scott Anderson?"

"It sure is."

"Well, he called me about it and all I said was ‘No comment.' I even turned on my phone recorder because I knew somebody was feeding him stuff on the case and I didn't want to be blamed. You want me to send the recording to you?"

"Yes, I do. It might be helpful when the chief comes to me and says, ‘What the fuck?'"

"The story—it makes us look bad?"

"No, it makes us look good and that can be bad. You understand? O'Fallon's going to shit a brick and he'll know it came from us."

"Tell you what, Cap. If it makes us look good and him look bad, then my guess is that the leak's in the DA's office. It went up the chain over there and they all wanted to close the case, but O'Fallon rejected it. Half the people in that office are working on a recall."

"I don't know. You're probably right."

Ballard nodded as a silence ensued, and she thought she was going to skate on this one.

"Where in Hawaii, Ballard?" Gandle said. "Hope you're on a beach."

"I'm in Maui, up-country near a town called Kaupo."

"That doesn't sound like a vacation. What are you doing?"

"I grew up here. For a while. And today I'm going to see someone I haven't seen in a long, long time."

"Well, good luck with that, Ballard. I'll see you when you get back. If they track you down, don't talk to any reporters. Understand?"

"Yes, sir. I understand."

She disconnected and switched over to her email account. Maddie Bosch had sent the link, as promised. Ballard opened the Times story on the tiny screen.

LAPD: BLACK DAHLIA CASE SOLVED DISTRICT ATTORNEY: NOT SO FAST

By Scott Anderson, Times Staff Writer

The Los Angeles Police Department is ready to close the book on the infamous Black Dahlia murder case, but the district attorney's office has refused twice to accept newfound evidence and mark the city's most gruesome case as finally closed, the Times has learned.

The LAPD's cold-case team used new evidence and technology to make the case that a recently deceased photographer was the killer of Elizabeth Short, the so-called Black Dahlia, whose body was found cleanly cut in half in a south-side field in 1947.

The murder of Short became a headline-grabbing story across the nation and has remained unsolved despite efforts over the decades by police and amateur detectives alike. It has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries, films, and television shows.

Short, 22, was described as a Hollywood hopeful who frequented bars and dance clubs in Hollywood and downtown. On January 15, 1947, her severed body was found on Norton Avenue in the Leimert Park area. During the initial investigation, detectives questioned several suspects but charged no one. Taunting letters from an unknown individual claiming to be the killer were sent to local newspapers and the police.

It is not clear if Emmitt Thawyer was ever one of those suspects. Thawyer was named as the killer in the case presented to the district attorney's office last week. Though Thawyer died six years ago, it is LAPD policy that the Open-Unsolved Unit submit all murder cases involving a deceased suspect to prosecutors for review and agreement to close.

However, the Times has learned that the review process involving Thawyer was rejected twice for insufficient evidence, even after investigators used a new technology to further substantiate the case against Thawyer.

The latest turn in what may be the city's most famous unsolved case began when Officer Madeline Bosch was given access to a set of photos from Thawyer's abandoned storage unit in Echo Park. Bosch is assigned to patrol in Hollywood Division and is also a one-day-a-week volunteer on the Open-Unsolved team. Bosch had a unit at the rental facility where Thawyer's property was stored. When operators of the business were cleaning out Thawyer's unit, they came across a file containing gruesome photos of several women who appeared to have been tortured and murdered; they turned them over to Bosch. Among these Bosch recognized photos of Elizabeth Short, both before and after she was viciously assaulted and murdered.

According to sources, the LAPD's photo unit confirmed that the paper stock the photos were printed on was from the same era as the murder and that the photos were not props for a Hollywood film. Technicians in the unit concluded that there was a "90+ percent probability" that one of the victims in the photos was Elizabeth Short.

Cold-case investigators also identified another woman who appeared in the photos in both life and death. She was an actress who was reported missing in 1950. Investigators also confirmed that all the photos were taken in the basement of a house in Angeleno Heights where Thawyer lived in the 1940s and 1950s.

Thawyer was a commercial photographer who primarily took photos for equipment catalogs. However, sources theorize that he also ran a side business taking headshots and other photos for would-be Hollywood entertainers. It was likely this work that brought Short and other young women into his orbit.

The cold-case team submitted a charging package to prosecutors a week ago. It was rejected by district attorney Ernest O'Fallon as having insufficient evidence to win a conviction had the case been filed against a live suspect. The stumbling block was confirming without doubt that it was Elizabeth Short in the photos from Thawyer's storage unit.

Investigators then sought to bolster the case by using a technology new to law enforcement involving ear comparison. Earlier photos of Elizabeth Short in which her ears were visible were compared to the Thawyer photos. Paul Buckley, an analyst with the Film Forensics Institute who conducted one of the comparisons, said the tests proved that Short and the woman in the Thawyer photos were the same person.

"No doubt," Buckley said. "Elizabeth Short is the woman in the photos the police found. Ear identification is as good as fingerprints, and one day law enforcement will accept that."

But when the "ear evidence" was presented to prosecutors, O'Fallon rejected the case again, claiming ear comparison was an unproven technique.

Reached at his office Monday, O'Fallon declined to comment on his rejection of the case. He also denied that his decision was linked to the ongoing friction between him and LAPD chief Carl Detry, who endorsed O'Fallon's opponent in the 2022 election.

"We make our decisions based on the law," O'Fallon said. "Nothing else."

But Jacqueline Gaither, who operates a blog called LAPD-watch, said the top prosecutor and police chief are locked in a political battle that is detrimental to the cause of justice in the city.

"These guys don't like each other and this Black Dahlia case is a perfect example of how their issues affect the community," Gaither said. "Luckily, the suspect in this case isn't alive and can't hurt anybody else. But there's no doubt that O'Fallon rejected this case because he doesn't want to give the LAPD and its chief the headlines. It's petty and beneath his office."

Gaither, a lifelong resident of Los Angeles, said she was disappointed that the city's most notorious criminal case remains open. "Some say it's a mystery that is part of the fabric of the city and that it should never be solved," she said. "I don't think so. This city has waited a long time for answers. I think we all need answers."

Chief Detry did not return multiple calls for comment on the case and its rejection by the district attorney's office.

Ballard put the phone aside. Anderson had done a good job with the story and she was pleased. It had done the trick as far as keeping Maddie Bosch on the Open-Unsolved team.

Morning light was beginning to creep around the drawn shades of the cottage. Ballard reached over to the table for the map she had bought at the airport the night before. It had been a long time since she was up-country and she wasn't sure of the route. She couldn't rely on her GPS app because cell service was always spotty there. She had to go the old-fashioned way, with a map. She opened it on the bed and smoothed out the sharp creases with her hand.

She found Kaupo and then used a finger to trace the Hana Highway out to Keawa Bay. The address Makani gave when arrested on traffic warrants was there on Haou Road. It looked like an hour's drive, depending on the terrain. Ballard knew there were mostly growers out there, some legal, some not. Some surfers. Few tourists. She saw that she would pass by the stables where her horse, Kaupo Boy, had been boarded thirty years before.

She got up to get dressed for the final destination of the trip. She decided she would head out before she changed her mind. She would go find the woman who had brought her into the world and then had left her behind.