The Closers

placed or received on any phone numbers in the county, including cell phones. There was even a cafeteria with fresh coffee and vending machines. Pizza could be delivered if needed.
    ListenTech could service as many as ninety taps at a time. Rider had told Bosch that the company was spawned in 2001 when law enforcement agencies began taking increasing advantage of the widening laws governing wiretaps. A private company that saw the growing need stepped in with regional wiretap centers, also known as sound rooms. They made the work easier. But there were still rules to follow.
    “We’re going to hit a bit of a snag in the sound room,” Pratt said. “The law still requires that each line be monitored by a single individual-no listening to two lines at once. But we need to monitor three lines with two cops because that’s all we got. So how do we do this and still stay within the law? We alternate. One line is Roland Mackey’s cell. We monitor that full-time. But the other two lines are secondary. That’s where we alternate. They come from the property where he lives and the place where he works. So what we do is we stay with the first line when he is home and then from four to midnight, when he is at work, we switch to the work line. No matter what lines we are actually listening to, we will still get twenty-four-hour pen registers on all three.”
    “Can’t we get one more loaner from RHD to cover the third line?” Rider asked.
    Pratt shook his head.
    “Captain Norona gave us four bodies and that’s it,” Pratt said. “We won’t miss much. Like I said, we have the pen registers.”
    Pen registers were part of the telephone monitoring process. While the investigators were allowed to listen in on phone calls on the monitored lines, the equipment also registered all incoming and outgoing calls on all the lines listed in the warrant, even if they were not being monitored. This would provide the investigators with a listing by time and length of call, as well as the numbers dialed on outgoing calls and the originating numbers for incoming calls.
    “Any questions?” Pratt asked.
    Bosch didn’t think there would be any questions. The plan was simple enough. But then an OU detective named Renner raised his hand and Pratt nodded at him.
    “Is this thing OT authorized?”
    “Yes, it is,” Pratt replied. “But as was said before, as of now we only have seventy-two hours on the warrant.”
    “Well, let’s hope it goes the whole seventy-two,” Renner said. “I gotta pay for my kid’s summer camp in Malibu.”
    The others laughed.
    Tim Marcia and Rick Jackson volunteered to be the other street team working with Bosch and Rider. The other four got the sound-room detail, with Renner and Robleto taking the day shift and Robinson and Nord taking the same shift as Bosch and Rider. The ListenTech center was nice and comfortable, but some cops didn’t want to be cooped up no matter what the circumstances. Some would always choose the street and, like Marcia and Jackson, Bosch knew he was one of them.
    Pratt ended the meeting by handing out copies of a piece of paper with everyone’s cell phone number on it as well as the radio channel they would use during the surveillance.
    “For you teams in the field, I’ve got rovers on hold down in the equipment shed,” Pratt said. “Make sure you have the radio on. Harry, Kiz, did I miss anything?”
    “I think you got it covered,” Rider said.
    “Since our time is short on this one,” Bosch said, “Kiz and I are working something up to sort of push the action if we don’t see any signs by tomorrow night. We have the newspaper article and we have to make sure he sees it.”
    “How’s he going to read it if he’s dyslexic?” Renner asked.
    “He got a GED,” Bosch said. “He should be able to read it. We just have to make sure it somehow gets in front of him.”
    Everybody nodded their agreement and then Pratt wrapped things up.
    “Okay, gang, that’s it,” Pratt said. “I will be checking with everybody through the days and nights. Stay loose and be careful with these guys. We don’t want anything turning back on us. You people taking the first shift might want to head home now and get a good night. Just remember, the clock’s ticking on the warrant. We have till Friday night and then it’s pumpkins. So let’s get out there and get what’s to be got. We’re the closers. So let’s close this one out.”
    Bosch and Rider stood and small-talked