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“Good point,” Ballard said.
“So, you want me to stay or pick it up in the morning? I justrented a car. I’ll have a different look tomorrow in case you’re worried about the Cherokee.”
“That’s smart. You make the call. Leave if you want to.”
“I saw him holding a bottle of wine in the shop. I could go back and get it, drop it off so you can have them look for a palm print in the morning.”
“Wow, yes. Go get that bottle, Harry, and let’s hope nobody beat you to it.”
Bosch hesitated for a moment but then put words to something else he had been contemplating.
“And, you know, since he’s here with her …”
He stopped.
“What?” Ballard asked.
“I was thinking about his house,” Bosch said. “Maybe I could see if there’s something there.”
“Harry, don’t even think about it. You’re not a private eye anymore and we need to do this by the book. There are rules to surreptitious collection. The item collected must be discarded in public. Don’t go into his house. I mean it.”
“What if I swing by and just check the trash cans? The courts have ruled that trash is fair game.”
“If it’s out on a public street. So Harry, don’t go near his house. I want to hear you say you won’t.”
“I won’t go by his house, okay? It was just a suggestion.”
“A bad one.”
“Okay, so you’ll be home? I’m going to go get that bottle of wine.”
“I’ll be here.”
Twenty-five minutes later, Bosch pulled up in front of Ballard’s apartment complex in Los Feliz. Ballard was waitingin the street because he had given her a heads-up call. She had her dog, Pinto, on a leash at her side.
Bosch handed the bottle of Portlandia Pinot Noir out the window to her. It was in a brown paper bag from Almor Wine & Spirits.
“Tell them there could be a palm print on the front label,” he said. “He held it in his palm when he was reading the back label.”
“Got it.”
She opened the bag, pulled the bottle up by the neck, and studied the front label.
“Looks like good stuff,” she said.
“Must be,” Bosch said. “But too expensive for him. He went with something cheaper.”
“Rita Ford is not worth the good stuff—I wonder if she knows that.”
“There’s probably a lot she doesn’t know about Hastings.”
“Thanks for this, Harry. I’ll see who’s working tomorrow and take it in first thing. Maybe they’ll have something on the campaign button by then.”
“Let me know.”
“And I’ll add this to your expense report.”
She smiled and Bosch nodded.
