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“Hey, everybody,” he said.
“Oh, yes,” Ballard said. “This is Harry Bosch.”
As Bosch moved to his workstation, Ballard went around the pod, introducing Masser, Rawls, and Hatteras. Masser and Rawls nodded to him, while Hatteras stood and extended her hand over the privacy partition to shake his. She held it after the shake for an awkward two seconds like she was trying to get some sort of read off him, then released it. This prompted Rawls to stand and extend a hand.
“That was smart thinking on the palm print,” he said.
“Oh, I bet somebody here would have thought of it,” Bosch said.
“The councilman will be impressed,” Rawls said.
“Well,” Ballard said, “let’s not get ahead of ourselves till we see where the matching goes.”
Bosch remembered that Rawls was the one Ballard hadn’t chosen for the team. He quietly sat down at his station, and Rawls and Hatteras did the same as Ballard continued.
“So, we were sort of having a team meeting, Harry,” she said. “What I like to do is talk about the cases we’re all working, because we all come from different places and departments and agencies, and I think it’s good to put everything on the table. You never know where a good idea might come from. Like you with the palm print.”
“Okay,” Bosch said.
He felt uncomfortable with all eyes still on him. It felt like he was about to get called on in class and hadn’t done the homework.
“So,” Ballard said, “I know you haven’t started yet on the Gallagher case, but why don’t you give a general summary of the earlier investigation and your thoughts on where you might want to go with it.”
“Uh, okay,” Bosch said hesitantly. “I guess, first of all, I don’t call it the Gallagher case. I call it the Gallagher Family case because it’s a quadruple killing, a whole family: mother, father, nine-year-old daughter, and thirteen-year-old son.”
“How awful,” Hatteras said.
“Yeah, it gets pretty bad,” Bosch said. “It takes a certain kind of killer to take out a whole family like that.”
Bosch paused for a moment to see if there were any other comments, then continued.
“The Gallaghers lived in the Valley—sort of on the borderbetween Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys. And it was thought at first that their disappearance was voluntary. None of the neighbors saw them go, but once it was established that they were gone, it was thought that they just up and left because of business and financial issues. You know, pulled up stakes and just split.”
“A family business?” Masser asked.
“Not really,” Bosch said. “Mr. Gallagher—Stephen Gallagher—was an industrial contractor. He had a couple of pretty big warehouses and an equipment yard up on San Fernando Road in Sylmar, and he rented out cranes and hydraulic lifts and all kinds of equipment used in heavy construction. One of the warehouses was just for scaffolding and that sort of stuff.”
“And then they were found dead,” Hatteras said. “I remember this now. Out in the desert. And that’s where you’ve been this morning.”
Bosch looked at her for a moment and then nodded.
“Yeah, a year later they were found. A geologist from Cal State Northridge and his students were up there in the Mojave on some kind of climate change study and they found the boy’s body. What was left of it. The grave had been disturbed by animals. Coyotes or whatever. That led to all four being discovered and eventually identified as the Gallaghers. They used dental records—the boy, Stephen Jr., had braces.”
“So wouldn’t it be a San Bernardino County case?” Masser asked.
“Actually, the location was Inyo County and it was a joint investigation,” Bosch said. “I was on the first Open-Unsolved Unit back then, and we got the case because it was believed that after a year, the trail was cold. I was the lead. I worked itpretty hard but never broke it open. Then I retired and the case basically went on a shelf …
“But now I’m back and on it again. And, yes, I went up there this morning.”
Bosch looked at Ballard to see if he had said enough.
“Why did you go up there?” she asked.
He knew that she already knew the answer. He didn’t like being put on the spot like this—discussing or justifying his moves.
“I just thought it was the place to start,” he said. “To try to get momentum going again. While I was there, the investigator I worked with from the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department showed up. There’s been nothing happening on it from their end either.”
“Can you tell us about Finbar McShane?” Ballard asked. “The more the group knows, the more we might be in a position to have ideas.”
