the middle of it, Bosch called the station on the second line listed in the phone book. As expected Rider was put on hold. Bosch’s call was answered and he said, “Do you have a number I can reach Ro on? He’s coming here to give me a jump and I got it started already.”
Mackey’s harried co-worker said, “Try him on his cell.”
He gave Bosch the number and Bosch flashed the thumbs-up across the desk to Rider. She finished her call without breaking the act and hung up.
“One down, one to go,” Bosch said.
“You got the easy one,” Rider said.
With Mackey’s number in hand, Rider took over while Bosch listened on an extension. Putting a disinterested bureaucratic glaze over her voice she called the number and when Mackey answered-presumably while looking for a stalled ’72 Camaro in a shopping center parking lot-she announced that she was his AT amp;T Wireless provider and that she had some exciting news for savings over his current long-distance minutes plan.
“Bullshit,” Mackey said, interrupting her in the middle of her spiel.
“Excuse me, sir?” Rider replied.
“I said bullshit. This is some sort of scam to make me switch.”
“I don’t understand, sir. I have you listed as an AT amp;T Wireless customer. Is that not the case?”
“Yeah, that’s not the fucking case. I’m with Sprint and I like it and I don’t even have or want long-distance service. So fuck off. Can you hear me now?”
He hung up and Rider started laughing.
“This is an angry guy we’re dealing with,” she said.
“Well, he just drove all the way across Chatsworth for nothing,” Bosch said. “I’d be angry too.”
“He’s with Sprint,” she said. “I’m ready to rock and roll on the paper. But maybe you should call him, so he won’t be suspicious about you not calling when the guy in the shop tells him he gave out his number.”
Bosch nodded and called Mackey’s number. Thankfully it went to a message; Mackey was probably on the phone angrily telling the guy in the shop he could not find the car he was supposed to tow. Bosch left a message saying he was sorry but he was able to get his car started and was trying to get it home. He closed his phone and looked at Rider.
They talked some more about scheduling and decided that she would work exclusively on the warrant that night and the next day and then babysit it through the approval stages. She said she wanted Bosch with her when it got to the final approval. Having both members of the team in the judge’s chambers would help cement the deal. Until then, Bosch would continue to work the field, tracking the remaining names on their list of people to be interviewed and putting the newspaper story in motion. Timing was going to be the issue. They didn’t want a story about the case in the newspaper until they had taps in place on the phones Mackey used. Finessing all of this would be the key maneuver.
“I’m going home, Harry,” Rider said. “I can get this started on my laptop.”
“Have a good one.”
“What will you do?”
“I’ve got a few things I want to get done tonight. Maybe go down to the Toy District, I think.”
“By yourself?”
“They’re only homeless people.”
“Yeah, and eighty percent of them are homeless because they’ve got faulty wiring, faulty plumbing, the whole bit. You be careful. Maybe you ought to call Central Division and see if they’ll send a car with you. Maybe they can spare the U-boat tonight.”
The U-boat was a single-officer car primarily used as a gopher for the watch commander. But Bosch didn’t think he needed a chaperone. He told Rider he would be all right and that she could go as soon as she showed him how to use the AutoTrack computer.
“Well, Harry, first you have to have a computer. I did it right from my laptop.”
He came around to her side and watched as she went to the AutoTrack website, entered password information and arrived at a template for a name search.
“Who do you want to start with?” she asked.
“How about Robert Verloren?”
She typed in the name and set parameters for the search.
“How fast does this work?” Bosch asked.
“Fast.”
In a few minutes she had located an address trail for Rebecca Verloren’s father. But it stopped short at the house in Chatsworth. Robert Verloren had not updated his driver’s license, bought property, registered to vote, applied for a credit card or had a utilities account in over ten