Summary

In Chapter 42, Ballard “had to acknowledge, at least to herself, that the plan was evolving from minute to minute as various questions and decisions came to her” (347). Her first question to Stovall is how to open the garage. She asks a lot of other questions, learning important details such as the fact that she usually walks around the neighborhood in the evening. Ballard checks each room as soon as she enters the house. She discovers a small safe room built into a closet. She leaves a back door open as she prepares to leave through the front. Bosch checks in with the name of their hotel, reiterating his concerns. Ballard wears a hat when she goes for a walk around the neighborhood. She makes the first part of the walk at a leisurely pace, then cuts through the back and reenters the...