The Concrete Blonde (hb-3)

Westside Strangler Task Force. After the media got wind of it, the killer became known as the Dollmaker-because he used the victims’ own makeup to paint their faces like dolls. I had eighteen detectives assigned to the task force. We broke them up into two squads, A and B. Squad A worked a day shift, B took the nights. We investigated the killings as they occurred and followed the call-in leads. After it hit the media, we were getting maybe a hundred calls a week-people saying this guy or that guy was the Dollmaker. We had to check them all out.”
    “The task force, no matter what it was called, was not successful, is that correct?”
    “No, ma’am, that is wrong. We were successful. We got the killer.”
    “And who was that?”
    “Norman Church was the killer.”
    “Was he identified as such before or after he was killed?”
    “After. He was good for all of them.”
    “And good for the department, too?”
    “I don’t follow.”
    “It was good for the department that you were able to connect him to the murders. Otherwise you’d-”
    “Ask questions, Ms. Chandler,” the judge interrupted.
    “Sorry, Your Honor. Lieutenant Lloyd, the man you say was the killer, Norman Church, was not killed himself until there were at least six more murders following the establishment of the task force, is that correct?”
    “Correct.”
    “Allowing at least six more women to be strangled. How is that considered successful by the department?”
    “We didn’t allow anything. We did the best we could to track down this perpetrator. We eventually did. That made us successful. Very successful, in my book.”
    “In your book. Tell me, Lieutenant Lloyd, had the name Norman Church come up at any time in the investigation before the night he was shot to death while unarmed by Detective Bosch? Any reference at all?”
    “No, it hadn’t. But we connected-”
    “Just answer the question I ask, Lieutenant. Thank you.”
    Chandler referred to her yellow pad on the lectern. Bosch noticed that Belk was alternately taking notes on one pad in front of him and writing down questions on another.
    “Okay, Lieutenant,” Chandler said, “your task force did not catch up with a supposed perpetrator, as you call it, until six deaths after you started. Would it be fair to say you and your detectives were under severe pressure to catch him, to close this case?”
    “We were under pressure, yes.”
    “From who? Who was pressuring you, Lieutenant Lloyd?”
    “Well, we had the papers, TV. The department was on me.”
    “How so? The department, I mean. Did you have meetings with your supervisors?”
    “I had daily meetings with the RHD captain and weeklies-every Monday-with the police chief.”
    “What did they tell you about solving the case?”
    “They said get the thing solved. People were dying. I didn’t need to be told that but they did anyway.”
    “And did you communicate that to the task force detectives?”
    “Of course. But they didn’t need to be told it either. These guys were looking at the bodies every time one showed up. It was hard. They wanted this guy bad. They didn’t need to read it in the papers or hear it from the chief or even me, for that matter.”
    Lloyd seemed to be getting off on his cop-as-a-lonely-hunter tangent. Bosch could see that he didn’t realize he had walked into Chandler’s trap. She was going to argue at the end of the trial that Bosch and the cops were under such pressure to find a killer that Bosch killed Church and then they fabricated his ties to the killings. The fall-guy theory. Harry wished he could call time out and tell Lloyd to shut the hell up.
    “So everyone on the task force knew there was pressure to find a killer?”
    “Not a killer.
The
killer. Yes, there was pressure. It’s part of the job.”
    “What was Detective Bosch’s role on the task force?”
    “He was my B squad supervisor. He worked the night shift. He was a detective third grade so he kind of ran things when I wasn’t there, which was often. Primarily, I was a floater but I usually worked the day shift with squad A.”
    “Do you recall saying to Detective Bosch, ‘We’ve gotta get this guy,’ words to that effect?”
    “Not specifically. But I said words to that effect at squad meetings. He was there. But that was our goal, nothing wrong with that. We had to get this guy. Same situation, I’d say it again.”
    Bosch began to feel that Lloyd was paying him back for having stolen the show,