There was a pause before there was a response.
“That was me. How do you know about that case?”
“What was your name again?”
“Detective Lourdes. How do you—”
“Listen to me. I think something’s happened to Harry. I’m at his house now and he’s not here and it looks... it looks like he might have been taken.”
“Taken?”
“We were supposed to meet early this morning. He didn’t show. His phone’s turned off and he’s not here. He’s got uneaten food on the table from last night, the bed is still made, and his back door was open.”
“Okay, okay, you need to listen to me now. We got intel yesterday that the SanFers had put a hit out on Harry because they know he was building a case against one of their OGs. Today we were working on it. But last night I warned Harry. I told him. So, is there any chance that he just went into hiding?”
A sharp pressure started building in Ballard’s chest. It was dread.
“I — No, that’s not what it looks like here. His keys are on the table. And his car’s here.”
“Maybe he thought the car could be tracked. Look, I’m not trying to downplay this. If you’re saying this looks involuntary, then we’ll call out the troops on this end. Have you talked to his daughter?”
Ballard suddenly realized that Bosch had revealed something to her during the course of the week that might be helpful.
“No,” she said. “But I will now.”
She disconnected the call.
34
Ballard moved back into the house to conduct a different kind of search. She needed a phone number for Bosch’s daughter. In the master bedroom, she had seen a small desk like is found in a hotel room. She went there and started looking through drawers until she found one containing checkbooks and rubber-banded stacks of envelopes.
One stack was all telephone bills. She quickly opened the envelope on top and saw that Bosch had a family plan where he paid for two cell phones on one account. One she recognized as his number, and the other she assumed was his daughter’s. She next opened the checkbook and looked through the registry until she came upon a record of a check for four hundred dollars to Madeline Bosch.
She had what she needed and made the call. It rang through to a message, which didn’t surprise her, since Bosch’s daughter would have no reason to recognize her number.
“Madeline, this is Detective Ballard with the LAPD. It’s very important that you call me back as soon as you hear this. Please call me back.”
She gave her number even though the girl’s phone would have captured it. She then disconnected, put everything back in the drawer, and got up from the desk. Bosch had mentioned in passing that his daughter went to Chapman down in Orange County and was just an hour or so away. She was considering a call to the school’s security office to see if Madeline Bosch could be located, but then her phone buzzed and the screen showed the number she had just called.
“Madeline?”
“Yes, what’s going on? Where’s my father?”
“We’re trying to find him and we need your help.”
“Oh my god, what happened?”
“Don’t panic, Madeline. Is that what you go by? Madeline?”
“It’s Maddie. Tell me what happened.”
“I’m not sure. He missed two appointments with me and I can’t reach him. I’m at his house now and his car is in the carport and there’s food on the table but he’s not here. When did you hear from him last?”
“He, uh, texted me last night. He asked about getting together this weekend.”
“Are he and your mother divorced? Would he be in touch with—”
“My mother’s dead.”
“Okay, sorry, I didn’t know. This is where I need your help. Your dad told me that you two had a deal. He could track your phone if you could track his. I think his phone is off at the moment but I want you to pull up your tracker and tell me where the last tracking point on it is. Can you do that?”
“Yes. I just need to — I’ll put you on speaker while I...”
“Go ahead.”
Ballard waited and eventually Maddie spoke.
“Okay, it only goes up to eleven forty-two last night. Then it stops.”
“Okay, that’s good. What’s the location of the phone.”
There was silence as Maddie checked the location. Ballard hoped it wasn’t the house. That would not advance things at all.
“Uh, it’s up in the Valley. A place called the Saddletree Open Space.”
Ballard’s heart sank. It sounded like a place to dump a body.
“Can you be more specific?” she asked, trying not to reveal her thoughts in the tone of her voice. “Can you widen the screen or something?”
“Hold on,” Maddie said.
Ballard waited.
“Um, it’s, like, near Sylmar,” Maddie said. “The nearest road to the spot is Coyote Street.”
“Can you hang up, take a screenshot, and text it to me?”
“Yes, but why was he up there? What is—”
“Maddie, listen to me. We need to hang up so you can send me the screenshot. I need to get that to the right people so we can see if your father is there. I know you’re scared and this is an awful kind of call to get. But I need to go now. I will call you back as soon as I know something. Okay?”
Ballard thought she could hear the girl crying.
“Maddie?”
“Yes, okay. I’m hanging up.”
“One other thing. I know that if you are anything like your dad, you’re going to send me the screenshot and then get in a car and head up here. Don’t do that. You have to stay away from your house, okay? It may not be safe.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No, I’m not. I need you to stay away until you hear from me or your father, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good. Send me the screenshot.”
Ballard disconnected. She knew that Heather Rourke was probably sleeping, but that didn’t matter. She called her friend and, surprisingly, the call was answered right away.
“What are you doing awake, Renée?”
“Still working, and I have a situation. I need a flyover up in the Valley. Who do you think would do it for me?”
“That’s easy. Me.”
“What?”
“I’m working an OT shift and have the Valley today. We’re about to go up. Where in the Valley?”
“Sylmar area. How long until—”
“Thirty minutes. What exactly are you looking for?”
“We’re looking for a missing police officer. I’m going to text you a screenshot of the location we have on a map. The area’s called the Saddletree Open Space. I need to know what’s there. Any houses, structures, whatever. And if there’s nothing there... look for a body.”
“You got it. Get that screenshot to me.”
“As soon as I have it, I’ll send. Keep this off the radio if you can. Use my cell to make contact.”
“Roger that.”
Ballard disconnected just as the screenshot from Maddie Bosch came through. She forwarded it to Heather Rourke and started moving through the house, realizing that it might become a crime scene. She left the back slider open and went out the front door and locked it behind her.
She didn’t get a clear signal on her phone until she took Woodrow Wilson back down into the pass and started north on the 101 freeway. Then she called Lourdes at San Fernando PD.
“Do you know anything about the Saddletree Open Space?”
“Uh, I don’t even know what that is.”
“It’s just north of Sylmar off a road called Coyote Street. We traced Bosch’s phone to a spot there last night about midnight. Then it went dead. I have an airship about to fly over and tell us what’s there. I’m on my way.”