“Yeah, sure.”
“What if it wasn’t a joke?”
“Uh … well, that would be good with me.”
Ballard nodded.
“Okay,” she said.
42
On her drive back to the house on North Citrus Avenue, Ballard had to call Hannah Stovall with more questions. She knew that this risked undercutting Stovall’s confidence in her, but Ballard had to acknowledge, at least to herself, that the plan was evolving from minute to minute as various questions and decisions came to her.
Stovall was with Bosch in his car when she took the call.
“Hannah, how do I open the garage? I don’t see any clicker.”
“It’s programmed into the car. There’s a button on the bottom of the rearview mirror. There are actually three buttons but you want the first one.”
“Okay, got it. And I forgot to ask, is there an alarm?”
“There is but I never use it. Too many false alarms. And there isn’t one on the door from the garage to the kitchen anyway, since that is sort of indoors already.”
“And would it be unusual for you to take a walk at night? Like if I want to just get the lay of the land?”
“I should have mentioned that. I usually take a walk when I finish work. To sort of clear my head. I just go a couple blocks around the neighborhood.”
“Okay.”
Ballard dropped into thought about how she would handle this. The walk time was right now.
“Detective?”
“Yes, uh, this is all good. What do you wear when you walk?”
“Well, I don’t change or anything, so whatever I have on.”
“Okay, good. What about a hat?”
“Every now and then I wear a hat.”
“Okay, good.”
“You’ll let me know if anything happens, right?”
“Of course. You’ll be the first to know.”
Three minutes later Ballard pulled the Audi into the driveway of Stovall’s house and pushed the button to open the garage. She held her phone to her left ear, posing as though she were on a call so her face would be partially obscured to anyone watching. It was now almost six and the sun had dropped from the sky. The day was slipping toward the dark hours.
She pulled into the garage, hit the button again, and waited for the garage door to close before she got out of the car.
She used a key on the ring Stovall had given her to open the door from the garage to the kitchen. Ballard entered, hit the wall switch to turn on the lights, and then stood still in the kitchen, listening to the house. She heard only the low hum of the refrigerator. She put the bag of produce from Pavilions on the counter, took out the apples and oranges and placed them on a shelf in the refrigerator, and put the sweet potato on the counter. She then bent down to the cuff of her jeans and pulled Bosch’s gun out of an ankle holster.
Ballard slowly moved through the house, checking each room. The kitchen had one arched entrance to a dining room and a second one that led to a hallway that ran to the back of the house. She walked through the dining room into a living room. There was a fireplace with a flat-screen TV mounted above it. Ballard checked the front door and it was locked.
She next moved down the hallway, checking out a guest bedroom, another bedroom, which had been converted to an office during or before the pandemic, and a bathroom. Her last stop was the master bedroom, which included a walk-in closet and a large bathroom. The master suite took up the whole back of the house, and there was a back door in the bathroom. It was double-locked but Ballard opened it to check the yard before it got too dark. Stovall had created a sitting area on a wooden deck off the bathroom door. There was an ashtray on a table that needed to be emptied.
The rest of the yard was surrounded by a plank fence that included an enclosure for the city garbage and recycling containers. The enclosure had a locked wooden gate that led to a rear service alley.
Ballard tucked the gun into her pants at the small of her back and flapped her hoodie out over it. She stepped into the alley and looked north and south but saw no vehicles or anything else that raised suspicion or concern. Her phone buzzed and she saw that it was Bosch calling.
“We’re in place at the W, two rooms next to each other. We’re staying in and ordering room service.”
“Good. I’m at the house.”
“I still don’t like this, you being there by yourself. I should be there, not here.”
“I’m going to be fine. I’m about to call Hollywood and put them on standby.”
“You know they’re not going to like this.”
“But they’re not going to have a choice.”
There was a pause while Bosch thought before replying.
“Why are you doing this, Renée? It’s kind of crazy. It didn’t sound like you had a solid plan. Why don’t you just give it to them to run with?”
“Harry, you don’t know what the department’s like now. I couldn’t trust them not to screw it up.”
“Well, remember to check in with me too.”
“I know, every hour on the hour. You’ll hear from me.”
Ballard disconnected and stood in the alley for a few moments considering a plan. Stovall’s house was just two homes from the cross street at Oakwood. She realized she could walk out the front door, proceed on her walk posing as Stovall, and come back around to the house through the alley very quickly — and then be inside waiting and ready if the Midnight Men made a move.
She went back into the yard, leaving the door to the trash enclosure unlocked. She entered the house through the door off the smoking deck and left that unlocked as well.
In the walk-in closet she found a small collection of hats. She wanted something that would hide her face better than the Dodgers cap. She found a cloth hat with a wide, floppy brim probably used for gardening or other chores outside. Her hair was a bit darker and longer than Stovall’s so she twisted it into a ponytail before putting on the hat. She was also thinner than Stovall. She looked through the hangers until she found a windbreaker that was bulky but acceptable for a walk on a winter evening. She took off her hoodie and put on the windbreaker and she was good to go.
When she turned to leave, Ballard saw a slide bolt on the inside of the closet door. She closed the door, slid the bolt, and then tested the security of the door. The door locked tight and she realized Stovall had made the closet a safe room. It was a smart move.
She looked around inside the closet and found a Wi-Fi router on a shelf as well as a backpack survival kit. Stovall had prepared well and it was good to know there was this space to retreat to if necessary.
Before leaving, Ballard walked through the house once more to decide what lights to turn on. She would not be able to turn anything on once she snuck back inside, since that might alert anyone watching that she was in the house. She left the master closet light on as well as the lights in the kitchen, and one in the living room.
At the front door, she pulled her mask up over her nose to further her disguise, put in earbuds, and then stepped out of the house. She locked the door behind her and put the key ring she had taken from Stovall into the pocket of the windbreaker.