Page 48 of Desert Star

“If I’m gonna go, I need to get to the airport in an hour,” Bosch said.

“That’s not enough time for you to get home, pack clothes, and get back to the airport,” Ballard said.

“I have a go bag in my car.”

“Harry, what are you, seventy? And you drive around with a go bag?”

“I put it in this week. For this job. You never know where it’s going to take you. So we’re good? I’ll need some gloves, tape, and an evidence bag. Probably a print kit, too.”

“Hold your horses. I want to make sure this is legit.”

Ballard got up and went to the door. She called out to Paul Masser and asked him to come to the interview room.

Masser stepped in and Ballard invited him to take the remaining chair. She then ran the scenario of Bosch going to Chicago past him and asked if he, as a former deputy district attorney, saw any procedural or prosecutorial hiccups in the plan.

“Let me think for a second,” Masser said. “On its face it seems … kosher to me. Harry is a volunteer member of the unit. He has immense experience in cases and the finding and collecting of evidence. If the defense tries to challenge this, I think I’d be able to rely on Harry’s experience to head off any suggestion of impropriety or incompetence. Would you go alone?”

Bosch and Ballard looked at each other and then Ballard nodded.

“Yes,” she said. “Alone. I don’t want to lose two people on this. Frankly, it’s a Hail Mary.”

“Well, then, I’d ask that you document the evidencecollection,” Masser said. “Video it and note the date and time and all of that.”

“Not a problem,” Bosch said.

“Okay, then I think you’re good,” Masser said.

“Great,” Ballard said. “Thanks, Paul.”

Masser got up and left the room.

“I have the gloves and the other stuff in my car,” Ballard said. “I’ll walk out with you.”

Her phone buzzed and she saw on the screen that it was Nelson Hastings.

“Let me take this first,” Ballard said.

“I’ll be at my desk,” Bosch said. “Remember, I need to go.”

Ballard answered as he walked out the door.

“Nelson, I was just about to call you, when I got—”

“The councilman is on his way. Surprise visit.”

Hastings disconnected.

“Shit,” Ballard said.

One of the things that helped Jake Pearlman get elected and then keep his job for a second term was his routine of making so-called surprise visits to people and places in his district. These, of course, were photo ops for the media, which was always invited. And Ballard knew that the heads-up from Hastings was to allow her time to prep for what was actually a no-surprise surprise visit.

She left the interview room to warn the team about what was coming.

20

BECAUSE OF A massive construction project to build Metro train access to the LAX terminal loop, two of the six parking structures were closed and Bosch had to drive out of the loop, park at a garage on Century Boulevard, and take a shuttle bus back to the American Airlines terminal. He then faced a long security line, and by the time he got to his gate, boarding was well underway, and Bosch was the very last passenger allowed on.

He had hoped for some downtime in the terminal to make some calls and reserve a hotel room for that night, as well as check on the lineups of performers in the Chicago jazz clubs.

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