The Waiting (Renée Ballard, #6)

by Michael Connelly

as family

Persson as well as she could Hatteras

was identified

abandonment of you both. She handled it poorly, but, you know, some people are not as strong as others. You are strong, Renée. So you have shouldered this weight in your mind, but sometimes

Lights were already on in the house. What

“You know what I mean.” Masser headed into the dining room just as a busboy was moving toward the judge’s table. Masser pulled his phone from his pocket with his ungloved

Ballard watched him go through the doors

“Ballard, you there?” “Yeah, I’m here. Give me his DOB and anything else you came up with.” Beltran grudgingly gave her Delsey’s birth date and added that he had a record of arrests for minor crimes and assaults. No prison time but he was currently on probation for an auto-theft conviction. “Thank you,” Ballard said with zero sincerity. “What I’ll do is talk to Doreen and ask her to put Open-Unsolved cases with a different print tech from now on.” Even though this was an off-the-books investigation, Ballard felt she had to draw a line with Beltran because his attitude could hinder her unit’s legitimate investigations. Doreen was Doreen Hudson, the longtime director of the LAPD crime lab and a woman who had undoubtedly put up with her share of obstructive male tactics in her rise from an entry-level criminalist nearly

hallway that led to the cafeteria. Ballard got a

a quick learner I am and how I react

enforcement authority. The last alert she remembered stated that the number of sovereigns in the country had grown markedly since the twin ideological earthquakes

with extreme caution. Because of this, most

buyer might be headed. She knew that the

admission.

by the time Ballard and Bosch arrived,

wind