“Well, we got very lucky that you noticed it. So, while we’re waiting for my colleague, can I ask you about some of your routines?”
Ballard started going through the questions that were contained in the survey given to the other victims of the Midnight Men. She knew most of these by heart and didn’t need an actual copy of the questionnaire. Soon it became clear that Stovall was even more of an outlier than Cindy Carpenter up in the Dell. Though Stovall lived reasonably close to the first two victims, their worlds didn’t seem to intersect anywhere, other than favoring some of the same local restaurants. During the pandemic Stovall was working from home and rarely left the house except to shop for food. She didn’t even pick up food to go from restaurants, choosing instead to get home delivery. Home delivery had been a subject of interest early in the investigation because the first two victims used it from time to time. But the investigators learned they used different services, and a review of their transactions determined that they had never been served by the same driver.
It was when it came to her personal life that Ballard scored a connection between Stovall and the other victims. Stovall had never been married but she had been in a long-term relationship that had ended badly. Her partner had been furloughed from his job, and tensions rose when Stovall had to work from home like most of the rest of the world.
“I was on Zooms and calls all day and it sort of reminded him of what he had lost,” Stovall said. “He started to resent me for not losing my job and for being the one who brought in the money. We argued all the time and soon the house wasn’t big enough for the two of us. I own the house so I asked him to leave. It was awful. And talking about it is awful too.”
“I’m sorry,” Ballard said.
“I just wish this was over.”
“You’re going to get through it. I promise.”
Ballard looked around for Bosch but didn’t see him. She also looked for any man who might be watching them. She saw no one who drew her attention.
“What is your ex’s name?” she asked.
“Really?” Stovall said. “Why do you need to know that?”
“I need all the information I can get. It doesn’t mean it all fits or is important.”
“Well, I don’t feel comfortable giving out my ex-boyfriend’s name. I’m finally in a place where we can text each other without resorting to calling each other names. And this would totally fuck that up if you went knocking on his door to make sure he wasn’t one of the Midnight Men. I can assure you he’s not. He’s not even in town right now.”
“Where is he?”
“Cancún, I think. Somewhere in Mexico.”
“How do you know that?”
“He texted me, saying he was going to Mexico. I assume Cancún, because we went there once and he loved it.”
“So he wasn’t worried about Covid and going to a foreign country?”
“I asked him that. I didn’t even know you could fly in and out of Mexico at the moment. I told him he better not bring Covid back to the company.”
“You mean you work together?”
“Well, we did till the pandemic came. Then he got furloughed and I was kept on. That led to some real brawls.”
“He got physical?”
“No, no, I didn’t mean it that way. Just some knock-down-drag-out verbal fights. We never got physical.”
“But he’s now back in the workplace with you?”
“The department hired him back, yeah. We work at the same place technically, but I’m a designer so I’m working from home. Gilbert is a field engineer and he goes in. That’s why I said you better not bring Covid back with you.”
“Was he trying to make you jealous, telling you he was going to Mexico?”
“No, I don’t think so. He couldn’t find his bathing suit and he was just asking if he had left it at the house.”
“Was it weird that he was taking a vacation after coming back from being furloughed?”
“Yeah, a little. I was surprised. But he told me it was just a long weekend. An impromptu kind of thing because some guys were going and somebody had a place down there. I didn’t really ask questions. I looked for his bathing suit, then texted him that I didn’t have it, and that was it.”
Ballard looked around again, wondering what was taking Bosch so long. But he was there, standing near the pickup counter, waiting to be called into the conversation. Ballard waved him over and introduced him. Bosch pulled a chair away from another table and sat down.
“Okay, so we’re all here,” Ballard said. “Hannah, this is what we want to do. I’m going to be you for the night, and you get to stay at a nice hotel with Harry watching over you. I’m going to borrow your hat and borrow your car and go back to your house. If they’re watching, they’ll think it’s you coming home. Then I’ll be inside waiting and ready if they make a move. I’ll be able to call in backup anytime I need it.”
“Do I have any say in it?” Stovall asked.
“Of course. I need your permission to do this. Is there something wrong?”
“Well, for starters there are two of them, right? And only one of you.”
Bosch nodded. He had voiced the same concern when they had talked on the phone.
“Well, like I said, I can call backup if I need it,” Ballard said. “And we know from the other cases that one always comes in on his own, secures the victim, then lets the other in. So I just have to worry about them one at a time, and I like my chances with those odds.”
“Okay, I guess. You’re the police.”
“I’m going to grab a few things so it will look like I was shopping and then I’m going to leave. I just need the keys to your car and house. You and Harry will wait ten minutes just to be sure and then you two can go as well.”
“Okay.”
“Do you have any night routines I should know about?”
“Not really, I don’t think.”
“What about showering? Do you prefer mornings or nights?”
“Definitely mornings.”
“Okay. Anything else?”
“I can’t think of anything.”
“Do you usually have the TV on?”
“I’ll watch the news. CNN, Trevor Noah, that’s about it.”
“Okay. I’m going to grab a few things to put in the bag and then I’ll go.”
Ballard went to the door, grabbed a handbasket from a stack, and walked into the produce section, where she started selecting apples and oranges in case she needed sustenance while on the vigil ahead. Soon Bosch was standing next to her.
“For the record, I’m not happy about this,” he said.
Ballard looked past him to make sure Stovall was still in place at the table by the Starbucks concession.
“You’re worrying too much, Harry,” she said. “I’m calling backup the moment I hear something. They’ll be there in two minutes.”
“If they come. You’re doing this completely off the books, and coms won’t know what the hell you’re doing if you call for help.”
“I have to work it this way because I am off the books. And I’m not about to hand this off to somebody who deep down doesn’t even care about the case or its victims. Somebody who would rather use the case to get even than solve it.”
“She’s not the only one you can bring in and you know it. You just want to do this on your own, no matter the level of danger it puts you in.”
“I think that’s an exaggeration, Harry.”
“It’s not, but I know you’re not going to change your mind. So I want you calling me every hour on the hour, you copy that?”
“I got it.”
“Good.”
Ballard put a sweet potato in the basket and decided she had enough to make it through the night if necessary.
“I’m going to check out and head over to her house.”
“Okay. Remember, every hour on the hour.”
“Got it. And if you spend any time with her, ask about her ex-boyfriend.”
“What about him?”
“I don’t know — something feels off. I got the same feeling with Carpenter’s ex. Hannah’s ex took a long weekend in Mexico after being laid off for most of last year. Feels kind of convenient to me.”
“Yeah, it does.”
“Anyway, I gotta get going.”
She turned toward the checkout counters, took a few steps, and then turned back.
“Hey, Harry, you remember the other night when we joked about me going private and working with you?”