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25
BALLARD WAS BACK at her workstation, writing up notes on her conversation with Kramer, when Bosch came up behind her chair and put down the evidence bag with the campaign button sealed in it.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Evidence,” Bosch said. “You need to get that into the print lab as soon as you can.”
“I know what it is. How did you get it?”
“I didn’t want to wait for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn. I went to Chicago and got it.”
Now Ballard raised her voice.
“You went to Chicago?”
“I just said I did.”
Ballard threw the pen she was holding down on the desk. It was a move that, along with her raised voice, was certain to draw attention in the pod.
“Harry, follow me.”
She got up and walked to the interview room for a private conversation. Bosch followed, head down, like a condemned man. They entered and Ballard closed the door loudly. She immediately brought a hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh.
“That was so good,” she whispered. “They were all watching.”
“Well, you do need to get that button into forensics,” Bosch said.
“I will. Did you call your guy in St. Louis?”
“I did but he’s not there anymore. It’s a she now. I talked to her and she promised to get back within twenty-four hours. We’ll see. My other guy would have dropped everything, and he trusted me enough not to redact stuff. We’ll see with this new one.”
“Okay, let me know what you hear. You ready to go back out there?”
“Yeah. But you should raise your voice one more time, don’t you think?”
Ballard smiled and brought her hand up again before it turned into a laugh. Then she dropped the hand and spoke loud enough to be heard through the door.
“Go home. Now!”
Bosch nodded and whispered.
“That should work.”
He opened the door and walked out, adopting the same head-down countenance. Ballard watched from the doorway as he bypassed his workstation and headed straight for the exit. She shook her head as though frustrated to the limit by Bosch’s infraction.
After Bosch was gone, she returned to her workstation but stayed standing as she put her laptop and the evidence bag in her backpack. She was aware that Colleen Hatteras was watching her.
“Colleen, if anybody’s looking for me, I’m going downtown to the lab,” she said.
“Okay,” Hatteras said. “Are you coming back?”
“Probably not.”
“I wanted to give you an IGG update.”
“Did you make a connection?”
“No, not yet.”
