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“It goes with the math,” Hatteras said. “The prom was at a hotel. Did you go to your prom?”
“Uh, no, I didn’t.”
“Me neither. But I know that when a prom is at a hotel, the kids—the boys, mostly—get hotel rooms and that’s where they sneak back for alcohol, drugs, and other things.”
“Like sex.”
“Exactly. I think something happened to Mallory at the prom, whether it was consensual or not. I really feel it.”
Ballard nodded. She was impressed by the way Colleen was putting things together. “Then we really need to find Rodney Van Ness,” she said.
“I already did,” Hatteras said. “He’s on LinkedIn. He lives in Las Vegas and is a security supervisor at the Cleopatra Casino.”
“You found him that quick?”
“Almost all these people have LinkedIn accounts. They’re in their early forties and in the business world. LinkedIn’s a better starting point than Facebook or Instagram.”
“What else does it say about him?”
“He’s been there nine years. He worked at Caesars before that.”
“What about a home address?”
“It doesn’t give that. But it has a work phone for him and a second number that I think might be a cell. Should we call him?”
“No, not yet. We have to think about the best approach to him. We might only get one shot. Did it say anything about him being in law enforcement before casino security?”
“Let me pull up his whole résumé and check.”
“If you’re locating a lot of these people, are you making a chart?”
“Oh, yes. I’m writing it all down.”
Ballard raised her voice so Maddie could hear her on the other side of the privacy wall: “Maddie, what about Mallory’s friends? Have you found them?”
“Found one—Jacqueline Todd,” Maddie said. “Has a clean record and is still local. By the way, my prom was at a hotel that was in the Galleria in the Valley. A lot of people got rooms, and all I’m saying is there were a lot of drugs.”
“That was where the prom was inValley Girl,” Hatteras said.
“Love that movie,” Maddie said. “Nicolas Cage was awesome.”
“Okay, so, on the names,” Ballard said, bringing the conversation back to the point. “Let’s go see Mallory’s friend who stayed local.”
“When?” Maddie asked.
“I have a one o’clock appointment for an hour,” Ballard said. “Let’s go after that.”
“What about going to the DA on the Dahlia case?” Maddie asked.
“They’re dark today,” Ballard said. “We’ll think about that tomorrow.”
Ballard’s cell phone buzzed. She looked at the screen and saw that it was Harry Bosch. “I have to take this,” she said.
She grabbed the phone and headed for the evidence room, where her conversation would not be overheard.
“Hey,” she said on her way, purposely not saying his name.
“Can you talk?” Bosch asked.
