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Ballard told him that one of the first cases she, as head of the unit, had sent to the lab for familial DNA comparison had just produced ahit. And that hit led to the presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Laffont whistled, loud enough that Ballard had to pull her cell away from her ear.
“Did you ever appear before Purcell?” he asked.
“Not that I remember,” Ballard said. “I think he was mostly in civil. And now he’s the chief judge, but that’s primarily an administrative position.”
“Too bad he’s not in court. I’d like to get a look at him.”
“Well, you will. I want to get some DNA off him as soon as possible.”
“Surreptitiously?”
“Unless you know another way. I don’t think going to the courthouse, knocking on the door of his chambers, and saying, ‘Hey, Judge, mind if we take a swab?’ is going to work.”
“Nah, I don’t think so either. So what are you thinking?”
With a solid lead in a very big unsolved case, Ballard did not want to delay the investigation for a day, an hour, or even a minute. This was a case she had prioritized from the day she’d rebooted the unit. “Well, I haven’t thought too much about it, but judges get to park in a garage under the CCB. I’m thinking we pick him up as he’s coming out at the end of the day and go from there.”
“Sounds like a plan. You sure I can keep my lunch date and come back after? We won’t need to get downtown till four or so, right?”
“Yes, but I want you to be familiar with the case. I just pulled the box.”
“I’ll be back by two, how’s that?”
“Good. I have a lunch scheduled too. See you this afternoon.”
“We aren’t going to do this by ourselves, are we?”
“No, I’ll try to get Paul and Lilia to come back in.”
“Good. See you at two.”
“Right.”
Ballard disconnected and checked her watch. She had a half hour before she had to leave for her appointment. She opened her laptop and went online to check recent purchases on the credit cards that had been in her wallet. She was hoping that at least one card had been used and she’d be able to track that purchase back to the thief, but there’d been no new activity on either.
She leaned back and thought about this. Usually stolen cards and their numbers were sold off quickly by thieves to a second tier of criminals who worked furiously in a race against time before the victim of the theft canceled the cards. That apparently had not happened yet. Disappointed, she considered the possible reasons for this and wondered whether she should cancel the cards or leave them live with the potential of generating a clue trail.
Hatteras popped her head up over the divider but didn’t say anything.
“What is it, Colleen?”
“Just wondering if there’s anything you need me to do.”
“No, I’m going out for an appointment. You don’t need to stay.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Okay, then.”
Ballard looked back at the screen and started the procedure for reporting her credit cards stolen and requesting new ones.
5
DR. CATHY ELINGBURG’Soffice was north of the airport in Playa Vista, an area known as Silicon Beach because of all the tech companies and start-ups located there. Elingburg’s practice was largely made up of young tech types with competition paranoia and sleep disorders. As far as Ballard knew, she was the only law enforcement officer on Elingburg’s roster of clients, and that was how Ballard preferred it. She wanted no one with a badge to possibly know she was seeing a therapist on a weekly basis. It might be well into the twenty-first century, but a cop seeing a therapist was still viewed by other cops as a sign of weakness.
