Desert Star (Renée Ballard, #5; Harry Bosch Universe, #36) (72)
Ballard sat down and Rivera gave her a copy to read. The statement included the case details Ballard had given Rivera in an earlier phone call. It was a strict recitation of the facts of the case. That would be the easy part of the press conference. The difficult part would be anticipating what questions would be asked and deciding how to answer them.
A year earlier, the chief of police had urged Ballard to return to the department after she had resigned in frustration. It was his promise to give her the assignment of her choosing that had resulted in her getting the job running the reconstituted Open-Unsolved Unit. He now asked her the questions he anticipated the gathered media would hurl at him when he was finished reading the statement.
“Why was Bosch following Rawls by himself?” he asked.
“Following him wasn’t the plan, actually,” Ballard said. “But he had no choice. Bosch saw Rawls’s car outside his place of business. He was keeping watch while I went to see a judge to get a search warrant signed. When Rawls took off before I got there, Bosch had no choice but to attempt a one-car follow. It’s unclear whether Rawls knew he had a tail from the start or spotted Bosch’s car while he was in transit.”
“And you recruited Bosch for the Open-Unsolved Unit?”
“I did. He’s the most experienced detective on the team.”
“Did you know about his issues when he was with the department?”
“Issues, sir?”
“He’d been involved in several previous shootings. He didn’t leave the department on good terms. Some might say he retired before the department retired him.”
“Some of that I knew, yes. But I wanted to put together the best team of volunteers I could find, and he was at the top of my list. We solved this case largely because of moves he made.”
“How would you feel if we had to remove him from the team?”
“I don’t understand. It was his work that led us to Rawls, and now you want to kick him to the curb?”
“I’m not saying that. At least not yet. But we will have a perception problem with the unit when it is revealed that one of your selections was a killer. I’m sure you will agree that it’s not a good look, Detective Ballard. And I’m wondering if we want to start over.”
“You mean clean house?”
“For lack of a better term.”
“First, I want to say that Rawls was not my selection. He was pushed on us by the councilman’s office. I didn’t want Rawls, but Councilman Pearlman’s chief of staff made me take him. I talked to Captain Gandle about it and we agreed to take him on to keep the support of the councilman. But I still don’t see why this should result in cleaning house. We have a good team. We have a former deputy D.A. who is our legal sounding board, an IGG expert, and other capable investigators, with Harry Bosch being the best of the bunch.”
“Well, let’s put that decision aside for now and go down and talk to the media. We’ll see how things go before making any decisions.”
Somehow Ballard felt that a decision had already been made. The chief stood up and Rivera did as well.
“Let me get the handouts from the printer,” he said.
After Rivera left the room, Ballard stood and faced the chief of police.
“Sir, if you decide you need to start over with the unit, then you will have to do that without me. If Harry Bosch goes, I go.”
The chief looked at her for a long moment before responding.
“Are you threatening me, Detective Ballard?” he said.
“Not at all,” Ballard said. “I’m just telling you the facts, sir. If he goes, I go.”
“Understood. But let’s take things one step at a time. Let’s see how this thing goes and then we can decide the future.”
“Yes, sir.”
40
THE LAPD PRESS conference was carried live on KCAL’s 4 p.m. newscast. Bosch watched from his home and had to sit and marvel at how the chief of police managed to tell the story of Ted Rawls with such command authority and yet leave out so many salient details of the story. He spun a tale of a serial killer being identified through DNA by members of the newly re-formed cold case squad and then killing himself as members of the unit closed in. Not mentioned was the fact that the killer was a member of the unit that was closing in on him, or that he had been placed on it by Councilman Jake Pearlman, his longtime friend. Rawls was simply described as a man who made a living from a chain of small businesses. No names of the Open-Unsolved Unit investigators were mentioned, and Renée Ballard, who stood behind the chief at the podium, was not called upon to speak. The chief finished his five-minute reading of a prepared statement by lavishing praise on the unit and Ballard, its lead detective. The upshot of the whole thing was that another serial killer was taken out of play thanks to the hard work and dedication of the OU team as well as the foresight of the administrators who had reconstituted the previously shuttered unit.
Apparently feeling confident in his spinning of half-truths, the chief said he would take a few questions. That was when things didn’t go so well for him. The first question was a softball about why he had decided to reboot the cold case unit. But the second question was a curveball that tailed right into the strike zone.
“My sources tell me that the investigator who exchanged fire with Rawls before he killed himself was none other than Harry Bosch. Bosch was involved in numerous shootings before he retired from the department. Now he’s back, and my question is, were you consulted, and did you approve of Bosch being added to the team?”