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Ballard was not sure she believed him. It seemed to her that the feds always had ulterior motives. Her prior experiences with Olmstead made her think that he could be trusted, but if she was wrong about that, it wouldn’t be the first time.
“The other thing is that if your leak is giving me up too, you’re going to have a PR problem,” she said. “Because if I get named, I won’t hold back. I’ll tell theTimesthat I gave you this on a silver platterafterIdid the groundwork and ID’d Dehaven and his merry band of roaming terrorists. The powers that be won’t think you’re walking on water anymore when that comes out.”
There was another silence before Olmstead responded.
“Understood,” he finally said.
“Good,” Ballard said. “Let me know when you’ve shut it down.”
She disconnected without a goodbye to emphasize her anger over the situation. She called Harry Bosch back.
“I just read Olmstead the riot act. He might not care too much about you, but heisworried about keeping this as a big fat FBI and Gordon Olmstead win. All of that goes down the tubes if you and I get pulled into the media on it.”
“I knew you’d know how to handle it.”
“Well, hopefully he’ll take care of it.”
“You think there’s any chance he’s the leak?”
“I thought about that but it doesn’t make sense. Right now he’s a hero. If the whole truth comes out, he doesn’t look as good. It’s probably someone in that office who’s jealous of the attention he’s getting from this.”
“I think so too. But thanks for setting him right, Renée.”
“All in a day’s work.”
After disconnecting, Ballard checked her watch. She needed to get going. She noticed the old-style suitcase on the floor next to the file cabinet holding what was left of the Black Dahlia files. The suitcase, which contained Elizabeth Short’s clothes, had been found in a locker at the bus station in Hollywood several weeks after her murder in 1947. The locker’s rental time had expired and the janitor was cleaning it out. No one knew who had stored the suitcase there—it could have been Elizabeth or her killer.
Forensic analysts at the time had failed to find any fingerprints or other evidence on or in the case that might lead to a suspect. Thesuitcase and its contents had not been pilfered over the decades because the case was stored in the department’s secured evidence archive, whereas the file cabinet containing the investigative files was kept in the homicide unit offices, to which many people had access.
Seeing the suitcase gave Ballard an idea. She decided that she would follow up on it after the appointment with her therapist.
35
BALLARD WAS FIVEminutes late for her appointment with Dr. Elingburg. When she entered the waiting room, the door to the inner sanctum was already open, and she walked right in. Dr. Elingburg was in her usual spot on one of the couches. There were two glasses of water on the coffee table in front of her.
“Sorry I’m late,” Ballard said.
“Busy day?” Elingburg asked.
Ballard sat in her usual spot on the opposite couch. “Wasn’t supposed to be,” she said. “But, yeah, it got busy.”
“No holiday in the pursuit of justice,” Elingburg said.
“Something like that.”
“I see that you’re wearing a badge on your belt. Is that the badge that went missing or a replacement?”
“It’s the badge that was taken, yeah. A little worse for the wear, but I got it back.”
“Without your superiors finding out it had been stolen?”
“As of now they haven’t found out. But that could change. You never know.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t. Before we get started, is there anything you would like to discuss today?”
“Uh, not really. To be honest, I haven’t had a day off since our last session, so I haven’t really had time to think about therapy. But I’m here.”
Elingburg nodded and picked up the notebook she kept on the coffee table during their sessions. “Well, let’s go down our discussion list, then,” she said. “How has your sleep pattern been?”
