The Dark Hours (Harry Bosch #23)(89)

“Yeah, I did that, but they said no go.”

“Who was the filing deputy?”

“Some stiff named Donovan. Thinks he’s F. Lee Bullshit.”

“What’s wrong with the package?”

“Your taping Hoyle without his knowledge. Hoyle already has a lawyer — this hotshot guy Dan Daly — and he’s screaming entrapment. So Donovan looks at the tape and has a problem with it. First of all, who were you talking to when you put down the window and said you might need to transport Hoyle?”

Ballard froze for a moment. She realized she had lowered the window and talked to Bosch while recording Hoyle. It was part of the play but it had been a mistake.

“Ballard?” Bettany prompted.

“It was Bosch, the guy who worked the original case. The Albert Lee murder.”

“Isn’t he retired?”

“Yeah, he’s retired, but I went to him about the case because the murder book’s gone. I needed him to tell me about that investigation and we were together when the Hoyle thing went down.”

There was a silence while Bettany digested this incomplete explanation.

“Well, that’s not a good look, but that’s not the problem here,” he finally said. “The problem is you told Bosch you might need a transport, and Donovan says that’s a threatening and coercive tactic that could get the whole tape tossed. He told me to walk Hoyle through it again, but Hoyle says he will only talk to you. And that’s kind of funky, because you tricked the guy but he only trusts you. That’s where we stand.”

Now Ballard was silent as she considered this change of fortune. A mistake she had made was now working in her favor.

“They have to reinstate me if they want me to do the interview,” she said.

“That’s about the size of it, yes,” Bettany said. “Meantime, Donovan is working on a qualified immunity deal with Daly.”

“Have you told anybody about this?”

“My L-T knows, and he’s been talking to yours, I guess. Somebody at Hollywood.”

Ballard almost smiled, thinking about the jam Robinson-Reynolds was in, having doubled down on her suspension that morning with his terse reply to her text and now needing her back on the job to salvage a multiple-murder case.

“Where is Hoyle?” she asked.

“He’s home, I guess,” Bettany said. “Or wherever Daly has him stashed.”

“Okay, I’ll call my L-T and get back to you.”

“Make it quick, Ballard, okay? We don’t want to kick this guy Abbott loose. He has the funds and the connections to disappear, if you ask me.”

Ballard disconnected and immediately called Robinson-Reynolds on his cell. He didn’t bother with any sort of greeting and Ballard wasn’t expecting one.

“Ballard, you talk to Bettany?”

“Just did.”

“Well, it looks like you fell into the shit with your antics the other night and are coming out smelling like a rose.”

“Whatever. Am I reinstated or what? We have to get to Hoyle tonight. Our forty-eight on Jason Abbott is up in the morning.”

“I’m working on it. Set up the interview tonight. You’ll be reinstated by the time you get in the room.”

“Is that permanent reinstatement or temporary.”

“We’ll see, Ballard. It won’t be my call.”

“Thanks, L-T.”

She said it with cheery sarcasm. She disconnected and then called Bettany back.

“It’s a go,” she said. “Set it up for tonight and then call me.”

“Roger that,” Bettany said.





38


The reinterview of Dennis Hoyle took place at 8 p.m. at the Van Nuys Division detective bureau. Bettany, Kirkwood, and Donovan were on hand and prepped Ballard on key points that she needed to get on the record. Hoyle was accompanied by his attorney, Daniel Daly, who vetted the immunity deal his client signed. Hoyle was getting off easy, agreeing to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud in exchange for his testimony against Abbott and possibly others. He would take his chances in front of a judge as far as sentencing went. The deal was predicated on his honesty and his claim that he had never engaged in the planning of or had foreknowledge of the murders of people who had accepted loans from the consortium. It was the sweetheart of all sweetheart deals on paper, but Donovan and his superiors had made the call. The unspoken plan most likely included an effort to break the agreement by catching him in a lie. And barring that, the sentencing judge could always be informed of the extent of the crimes Hoyle had engaged in with his cohorts and max out the sentence for the conspiracy plea.

Ballard told Bettany and the others to stay outside the interrogation room and watch the interview on a screen. Since Hoyle claimed he would talk only to her, she didn’t want him to think she and Bettany were a team. She entered the small gray room and sat across from Hoyle and his attorney. She put her phone on her thigh, a concession to Donovan that would allow him to message her if he didn’t like what he saw on the screen.

“First off, I have to make the legal boundaries of this interview clear,” Ballard said. “You need to acknowledge that if you lie directly to me or lie in any way by omission, then the deal is off and you will be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit murder.”