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“No worries. Who are they?”
“RHD.”
“Robbery-Homicide? Why would they call him away from dinner?”
“Search warrant. Must be a case that can’t wait.”
“So what do we do?”
“I think we call it a night. He’ll probably stay in after this and we got what we came for.”
“Up to you.”
“Yep.”
“You recognized those two guys, didn’t you?”
“One of them. Gil Perado. He’s an old bull.”
“You have a history with him?”
Ballard didn’t answer, so Masser did.
“That’s right. You have a history with everybody.”
“Used to. Let’s head back downtown. To your car. I want you to take the samples to Darcy Troy first thing tomorrow.”
“Okay. But you usually do that.”
“I have something to do in the morning. And I want no delays in getting that to the lab. I’ll call Darcy. She’ll be ready for it.”
“You got it.”
“After that, I need you to run down Nicholas Purcell’s birth certificate. We need to cover all bases, make damn sure he’s the judge’sson. You might have to go down to Norwalk for that. We’ll need the date the birth certificate was filed to be sure.”
The main offices of the county registrar were down in Norwalk in the south county. While Ballard knew from prior cases that it was difficult and time-consuming to break through the seal on adoption records, the date that a birth certificate was filed with the registrar—meaning how many days after the birth—was a strong indicator of whether an adoption had occurred.
“Sure, I’ll go straight there from the lab,” Masser said.
“Thanks,” Ballard said. “I might not be in till later, but let me know what you get.”
“Of course.”
TUESDAY, 12:14 A.M.
8
BALLARD WOKE TOthe sound of her phone buzzing on the bedside table. She checked the number but didn’t recognize it. She answered anyway.
“Ballard.”
“This is Seth.”
“Okay. Seth who?”
“Dawson. You left me a message, said call anytime. I just got off work.”
Ballard put it together.
