“Uh, yeah, but last I heard, she went to the Washington bureau. That was, like, I don’t know, a long time ago. Years. I’m surprised she’s still around.”

“Yeah, well, she is, and she’s in L.A. now, and she laid the whole thing out. Rawls being in the unit, and that the councilman’s office put him there. That’s why I’m in early—because Nelson Hastings called me at six this morning.”

“I bet he was hot. Is that the box from Rawls’s car?”

“He was hot and he still is. And don’t change the subject. Whoever fed Russell that story really put me in deep shit.”

The copy machine finished its job and the room was silent.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Bosch finally said. “There was nobody named in the story?”

“ ‘Sources said’—that was it for attribution,” Ballard said. “And Nelson thinks I’m one of those sources. I mean, she did call me. Three times, in fact. But I never talked to her, didn’t even return the calls to say, how’d you get my number and no fucking comment. Nothing like being blamed for something you didn’t do.”

“I know how that is. I’m sorry. But maybe it’s good that it’s out there and the public knows. Don’t you think?”

“Not if they shutter the unit again. What Pearlman gives, he can also take away. And why not? His sister’s case is solved. He already got what he wants out of it.”

“You really think they’d shut the thing down because of Rawls?”

“You and I have both seen worse decisions made. That’s why you can forget about Gallagher for now.”

“What do you mean?”

Ballard picked up the box again and turned toward the door.

“Rawls is still priority one,” she said. “If we connect him to other cases and start clearing them, then maybe they won’t cut us. And if they try, maybe somebody will leak that to Keisha Russell. Then they’ll look bad and have to back the fuck off.”