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“That’s good,” Bosch said.
“It wasn’t something they pursued back in the day.”
“They were probably just happy to get the DNA out of it.”
“Well, their oversight could be to our benefit. Obviously, the technology has advanced since 2005, and we might be able to detect things they couldn’t.”
“Let me know about that.”
“Roger that, I will. Shit—nowIsaid it!”
Bosch smiled while Ballard got up and dumped her empty cup in the trash. They went down the stairs and back to the pod. As they approached, Bosch saw that the property box Ballard had left on her desk had been opened and Colleen Hatteras was standing over it, holding up what looked like a pink nightgown. There was no one else in the pod.
“Colleen, what are you doing?” Ballard asked.
“I just needed to see it,” Hatteras said. “To feel it.”
“First of all, you shouldn’t have done that after what we talked about before. And second, and most important of all, you should have worn gloves.”
“Gloves don’t work.”
“What?”
“I need to be able to feel her.”
“Put it back in the box. Now.”
Hatteras did as instructed.
“Go back to your workstation,” Ballard ordered.
Hatteras sullenly stepped back from Ballard’s station. She turned and went back to her own.
Ballard threw a glance at Bosch. She looked as upset as he had ever seen her. He moved to his workstation, checked the red tape on the boxes from the Gallagher Family case, and saw that they had not been tampered with. He sat down but noticed that Ballard was still too agitated to sit down.
“Colleen, I want you to go home,” she said.
“What?” Hatteras said. “I’m right in the middle of the ancestry search on this.”
“I don’t care. I don’t want to see you anymore today. You need to go and I need to think about this.”
“Think about what?”
“I told you this morning I didn’t want to go down that road, but you went there anyway. This is a team, but I’m in charge of the team, and you directly ignored my order.”
“I didn’t think it was an order.”
“It was. So, go. Now.”
Ballard dropped out of Bosch’s sight as she sat down. He couldn’t see Hatteras but heard her open and sharply close a desk drawer and then roughly pull a zipper closed on what he assumed was a purse. She then popped up into view and headed toward the exit. Ballard said nothing as she passed the end of the pod.
Hatteras was halfway to the aisle that led to the exit when she pirouetted and came back toward Ballard.
“For what it’s worth, he’s close,” she said. “Her killer is very close.”
“Yeah, you said that about McShane, too,” Ballard said. “I’ll take it under advisement.”
“I didn’t say McShane was close. This is so typical.”
