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“Yeah, hold on,” Ballard said.
Bosch heard her fingers on her keyboard as she pulled up the DMV database and ran Sheila Walsh’s name and birth date.
“Her current license has the same address,” she reported.
“Thanks,” Bosch said.
He got up and leaned over the partition.
“You going to go see her?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Bosch said. “Thought I’d start there.”
“You okay going alone?”
“Of course. But I have a question. Back in the day, I sent a lot of stuff we collected at the family’s house and at the office to property. Do I have the authority to have it sent out here, or do you need to do that?”
“Probably me. But it will be faster if we tell them to pull it and then you or I go pick it up. Depends on how soon you want it. Picking up, you can probably get it tomorrow. Delivery out here may take up to a week.”
“I’ll pick it up—if I’m allowed. I still don’t have any credentials.”
“I have the case number. I’ll order it and tell them you’ll be by in the morning to pick it up. Just show them your retired ID. That will work for now. You need to go to the front office here and make an appointment to give photo and prints. Then you’ll get an ID.”
“Okay. Thanks. Another question: Do I have access to the locker room here? I want to clean up, change my shirt.”
“You still carry backup clothes in your car?”
“I did today. I knew I was going out to the desert.”
“You have access to the locker room and showers. I can’t promise they’ll have a free locker for you.”
“Well, they’re police cadets in there, right? I don’t carry a gun, and who’s going to steal my wallet?”
The primary use of the Ahmanson Center was as a secondacademy for the training of police recruits. Most field training remained at the original academy at Elysian Fields. The Ahmanson was for classroom training—and retraining in some cases. The murder book archive occupied only a small part of the campus.
“You could leave your wallet here and come back for it after you clean up,” Ballard said.
“I’ll be fine,” Bosch said.
“Then, happy hunting.”
“You, too.”
Bosch headed for the door, walking along the endcaps of the murder-book shelves. Taped to the end of each row was a 3 x 5 card showing the range of files by case number, which always began with the year the crime took place. It was a Dewey decimal system of the dead.
Bosch ran a hand along the endcaps as he walked. He didn’t believe in ghosts or the dead reaching out from the dark beyond. But he felt a reverence and empathy as he passed by on his way out.
9
BALLARD WAS JUST finishing the case summary that she had compiled as part of a request to the Ahmanson Foundation for grant money for a genealogical case Tom Laffont had put together and would work with Hatteras.
“Colleen, Tom’s not here, so I’m sending you this grant app,” she said without taking her eyes off her screen. “Read the case summary and make sure I have it right.”
“Send it, I’ll read it,” Hatteras said.
“I want to get it in today. Maybe get a quick answer so you and Tom can go to work.”
“I’m ready. Send it.”
