Serpentine

Chapter 41

Milo had expected a warrant by noon Tuesday but the day passed without my hearing from him. Probably tied up with the shooting board.

When radio silence stretched to Wednesday, I began to wonder if complications had set in. Bureaucracy’s like untreated cancer: Once it takes hold, it ravages.

I searched for media coverage of Du Galoway’s shooting, was surprised to find nothing but a page-32 squib in the Times about “the death of a gun-wielding felony suspect.”

The department pulling up the drawbridge. That said nothing about how it would treat Jen Arredondo, Alicia, and Milo.

Wednesday at nine forty p.m., he finally called.

“I was starting to wonder.”

“Yeah, it’s been interesting. As in a pain. Fortunately, once we got through the bullshit, the people assigned to evaluate turned out to be sane and the kid’s connections didn’t hurt.”

“Dad’s well thought of.”

“Big-time. Top of that, Mom’s a dispatcher at Hollenbeck, there’s a brother in Burbank PD, and an uncle is a robbery D in Saugus.”

I said, “Police aristocracy.”

He said, “Nothing like blue blood when you need a transfusion. What also helped was I told them about Galoway’s lies, what he was suspected of. Nothing pisses off good cops more than bad cops. So no doubt about the kid being ruled justified. I managed to put in for the phone subpoena, no guarantee when the data dump will come in. In terms of the warrant for the house, you know how it is: time-limited so I waited until today to apply, just got it. Moe’s been checking out Galoway’s street, no movement, I’m starting to think she’s somewhere else. The goal is to enter the house Friday morning, planning session’s tomorrow. Nine work for you?”

“Tied up until ten, I can be there by twenty after.”

“Then that’s when we’ll start.”

The whiteboards were filled with the same shots of Galoway’s street and house. Galoway’s DMV photo had been removed.

In the first row was an empty chair for me, flanked by Milo, Reed, and Sean Binchy returned from vacation and sporting a sunburn.

A couple of years ago I’d saved Sean’s life. Terrifying near-miss as a psychopath tried to toss him off a skyscraper. Tough thing to come to grips with but for the most part, we’d dealt. Still, sometimes he avoided eye contact.

This morning he waved and smiled. Let’s hear it for sand and surf.

In the second row sat six uniformed officers from the SWAT team, the lieutenant a six-four, brush-cut, heavy-jawed stereotype named Mackleroy Bain.

Milo had prepped them. They stood, nodded, shook my hand.

Bain was the last to greet me, smiling warmly and offering just enough pressure in his grip to imply power. “Really great to meet you, Dr. Delaware. You taught my wife in grad school.”

Soft, boyish voice.

I said, “Who’s that?”

“Laurie Trabuco.”

“Great student.”

“She had wonderful things to say about your seminar,” said Bain. “Got her Ph.D. last year, works for the V.A. Long Beach doing PTSD therapy.”

“That’s terrific. Give her my best.”

“Will do, Doctor.”

Milo said, “Good morning to all concerned,” and people hustled to their seats. “Alex, let’s start with your thoughts about approach.”

I said, “Is your warrant no-knock?”

“Yup.”

“Then I think you should take advantage. Go in with force and clear the place as quickly as possible.”

Milo eyed Bain and the SWAT leader got up and pointed to an aerial of the house. “We lucked out on layout, not much square footage and only two doors, front and back. A fenced-in yard and a driveway gate means limited space for escape. I’m figuring an officer stationed outside on each door and four of us doing the entry in pairs.”

Milo said, “You planning on getting all military?”

Bain smiled. “We’ll bring the toys — gas, concussion grenades — but I really don’t see using them unless you think she’ll be waiting for us with a firearm.”

Milo looked at me.

I said, “Suicide by cop? Nothing in her background suggests it but there are always surprises. She could be extremely edgy because Galoway left on Monday night and still hasn’t returned. On top of that, there was a brief mention in yesterday’s paper about an armed suspect going down and if she put it together, my guess would be she’d plan her escape rather than seek confrontation. But no guarantees.”

Bain frowned. “Thought there was a media blackout.”

Milo said, “So did I, amigo. I called Public Affairs and got a runaround. At least there were no details but sure, she could’ve figured it out.”

Bain said, “What else can you say about her psychological makeup, Doctor?”

I said, “Criminally antisocial from a young age. At fifteen she hooked up with a felon in his thirties and they embarked on a multistate crime spree. Burglary, robbery, kidnapping, several murders. He was executed, she got reform school, was released no later than at twenty-one. She changed her identity and nothing surfaces over the next few years other than a job in Texas. Which she left to come to L.A., traveling with and dominating a younger woman named Benicia Cairn. The working assumption is she stole money from the man they lived with and shot Cairn in order to fake her own death. At some point after that, she hooked up with Galoway and they’ve been together since.”

“Long-term relationship,” said Bain. “She finds out he’s dead at our hands, that’s a big deal.”

“It could be but she’s emotionally shallow and self-serving to the point of abandoning a daughter she claimed as her own and as of Monday night, trying to have her murdered or at least terrorized. Also, other than murdering Cairn, she’s been more director than actor. And the crimes we know about are well planned not impulsive. If I had to bet, I’d say trying to escape was more likely than confrontation. But if cornered, she could be volatile.”

“The spree when she was a kid sounds pretty impulsive,” said Bain.

“Fifteen isn’t sixty. Her partner claimed it was all him, she was just along for the ride. But it was a long ride, so who knows?”

Milo said, “The fact that she hasn’t been spotted over the last few days makes me wonder if she’s already escaped.”

“Even with you guys watching?”

Moe Reed said, “The layout made it too risky to do a sit-around, all we managed were intermittent drive-bys. Then, after the shooting, I had to go solo so she had plenty of opportunity to split.”

Bain said, “Bottom line: mean but not stupid and crazy.”

Milo said, “Mean as they come.”

I said, “In any event, the psychology doesn’t matter.”

All eyes on me.

“Play it safe,” I said. “Go in fast and with force.”