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“We know that. But this will be in a busy parking lot. They won’t want to make a scene.”
“How can you be sure? I don’t like this, Gordon. You have Dehaven on murder and sedition. You don’t need more charges.”
“Look, Renée, it’s not about the charges on him. He’s not in this alone if he needs four machine guns. We let him take the guns back to the group, then we get the group. You know how it works. The weapons are like ant bait. He takes it back and poisons the nest. We grab him and all the others involved.”
Ballard knew the strategy and knew it was right, but too many things could go wrong.
“I still don’t like it,” she said.
“Well, Bosch does,” Olmstead said. “He’s agreed and he’s ready to go. He wanted to go tomorrow, in fact, but we need another day for the setup. We’re going to have cameras hidden all over that lot. We’ll have snipers on the roof of the condo across from it. Bosch says the word and they’ll drop Dehaven in his tracks.”
“Where will you be?”
“We’ll have a command post up on Ocean. A van. It looks like an Amazon delivery van.”
“I’ll be there too.”
“Renée, you can’t do that.”
“I’m there or I’m parking in the lot where I can put eyes on Bosch. Your choice.”
“You want this to go down, right? You want your badge back?”
“Fuck my badge. I don’t want Bosch to get hurt and I don’t think you guys really care about him.”
“And, what, you being in the command post is going to keep him safe? Your logic doesn’t add—”
“I’ll be able to make sure you guys don’t screw up.”
There was a long silence, and when Olmstead’s voice came back, it was angry but tight and controlled.
“Fine,” he said. “We’ll make room in the CP for you.”
“Thank you, Gordon,” Ballard said. “What time?”
“We set the meet for oh-eight-hundred. Before the parking lot gets too crowded with civilians but still busy enough to get our cars and people in there. We’ll be on-site at six.”
“Then so will I. Have you picked up Lionel Boden?”
Olmstead had said that Boden had to be taken out of circulation to ensure he didn’t reach out to Dehaven and warn him. After using Boden’s phone to set up the initial meeting between Dehaven and Bosch, Ballard had deleted the contact from the device and allowed Boden to return to the Eldorado. She knew it would be bad for business and his personal safety for him to warn Dehaven,since it was Boden who had snitched him off. But Olmstead had said that wasn’t good enough for operational integrity. Boden had to be kept under wraps.
“Yes, we quietly picked him up and moved him to our luxurious accommodations downtown,” Olmstead said. “We’ll keep him till this goes down. And probably then some.”
“Good,” Ballard said. “What else?”
“You covered it all. But one other thing.”
“What?”
“Thank you for dropping this in my lap. After we take these guys down, are you sure you don’t want to be there when we hold the press conference? We’re happy to share the credit.”
“I appreciate that, Gordon, but no, thanks. I’ll just see you Saturday at six.”
“You got it.”
Ballard disconnected and started the engine.
23
