Hunter nodded again. ‘But I had no time to come back to the PAB and file a request for a surveillance team. I had no grounds to justify that request, either. All I had were suspicions and a nickname.’

‘So you decided to break protocol again and become the surveillance team yourself,’ Captain Blake said; but there was no harshness in her tone.

‘For twenty-four hours,’ Hunter agreed.

‘So what did she do?’ Alice asked.

‘Olivia didn’t leave her house for most of the day.’

‘She was probably re-planning,’ Captain Blake said.

‘When she left, she drove straight to Woodland Hills, where she met up with Scott Bradley in a parking lot. He left his car and jumped in with her.’

Everyone frowned.

‘My guess,’ Hunter said, ‘is that Olivia had already made contact with Scott in the last few days. He is married, but he has a weakness for pretty women, especially if they tell him they are submissive. Olivia knew how to entice him. I’m sure she’d been grooming him for days.’

‘And that explains her change in MO,’ Garcia said. ‘All the previous murder scenes had been a place where the victim felt comfortable and secure – Nicholson’s house, Nashorn’s boat, and Littlewood’s office. Scott Bradley had a wife and two daughters, which made using his house that much harder. He didn’t have a private office either. He was a market broker, working from a large open-plan floor with tens of other people.’

Hunter agreed.

‘So all she had to do was call him and tell him she wanted to meet him tonight,’ Alice said. ‘I’m sure he would’ve dropped whatever he had planned for the evening.’

‘She never intended to walk out of this alive, did she? Even if she hadn’t been caught,’ Captain Blake said. ‘She knew she wasn’t going to prison. She knew she wasn’t going to carry on living either.’

Hunter said nothing.

‘When Derek Nicholson told her the truth,’ Alice said. ‘He condemned her psychologically, giving her much more than she could cope with. If you were suddenly told you’d been lied to your entire life, that your mother was brutally murdered, dismembered, and disposed of like unwanted trash – if you were told the names of everyone responsible, but knew that they’d never been punished, and that they never would be, what would you do? How could you ever have a normal life again with that knowledge swinging back and forth in your head? For her, to carry on living would’ve been a torture, in prison or not.’

‘Olivia gave up her life so her mother could have justice,’ Hunter said. ‘A justice that our system would never have given either of them. In the end, those men killed mother and daughter.’

Thorned silence spiked the air.

‘I know we did what was expected of us,’ Captain Blake said, shaking her head. ‘But maybe we should’ve moved a little slower. If Olivia Nicholson had succeeded in taking out all four victims, I wouldn’t have minded it. Not in the least. That scumbag Scott Bradley got away easy, minus a finger. He deserves worse. And he’s saying that you knocked him out cold.’

Hunter stayed silent.

‘Well, the way I see it,’ the captain proceeded. ‘He was under immense stress. Things can easily get distorted under those circumstances. What happened was that he simply imagined you punching him.’ She paused and her eyes moved around the room. ‘Yep, that answer sounds great to me.’

Garcia then told Hunter what had happened in Pomona. Ken Sands had been arrested, and Garcia would now contact Detective Ricky Corbí, the detective running the investigation into Tito’s murder. Sands was the prime suspect.

One Hundred and Nineteen

It was the middle of the night by the time Hunter finished all the paperwork. He went downstairs and placed everything on Captain Blake’s desk, ready for her the next morning.

His cellphone rang in his pocket and he reached for it.

‘Detective Hunter.’

‘Robert, it’s Alice.’

Hunter had been so busy filling out reports, he hadn’t seen Alice pack all her things and leave hours earlier.

‘I’m just calling to say that it was nice seeing you again,’ she said. ‘And that it was quite an experience working with you.’

‘Yeah, it was great seeing you again too.’

‘Even though you didn’t remember me at all.’

Hunter was quiet for a couple of seconds. ‘Hey, you’re not going to be a stranger, are you? You’re still working for the Los Angeles DA, right?’

‘Yeah, I’m still working for the DA.’

Awkward silence.

Hunter checked his watch. ‘Are you busy? Would you like to go get a drink?’

‘Now?’ The surprise in Alice’s voice wasn’t due to the late hour.

‘Yeah. I’m almost done here. And I could really use a drink.’

Hesitation.

‘And the company,’ Hunter added.

‘Yes, I’d love to get a drink.’

Hunter smiled. ‘How about we meet at the Edison in the Higgins Building on 2nd and Main?’

‘Yes, I know the place. Give me half an hour?’

‘See you there.’ Hunter disconnected.

Outside the PAB, Hunter paused at the corner of South Broadway and West 1st Street, and observed the traffic for a moment. He touched the flesh wounds on his cheek, before looking down at the envelope he had in his hands. It was addressed to Michelle Howard, the Chief Editor for the LA Times. She’d made the news herself a few years ago when she revealed that she had been a victim of gang rape when she was a teenager. The offenders were never caught.

Hunter hadn’t told Garcia, Captain Blake, Alice or anyone else about the recording device Olivia had given him. He retrieved the device from his pocket and stared at it for a long moment before placing it inside the envelope, sealing it, and dropping it inside the postbox he was standing in front of.

Now his job was done.

He started walking towards 2nd and Main.