11th Hour (Women's Murder Club 11)

“It means number six. As in number six Ellsworth Place.”

I sucked in a breath. Cindy was referring to one of the four brick buildings adjacent to the main Ellsworth house, the detached houses that backed onto the garden.

“We didn’t have a warrant to search number six,” I said.

“Cindy spoke to Yuki,” Rich said. “Yuki thinks she can make a case that the original warrant should have included those buildings. That the compound is all one property.”

“I’m coming with you to the compound,” said Cindy.

Rich and I turned to her and in unison said, “No.”

“Yes,” she said. “The numbers are mine. Lindsay, you gave them to me and asked me to solve them, and I think I did it. If you want me to ever talk to you again, either of you, I’m coming with you. The answer is yes.”

Chapter 75

YUKI AND I were in her cubicle at the DA’s offices in room 325, third floor of the Hall of Justice. I sat in a side chair, my white-knuckled hands clasped on her desk.

Yuki hooked her glossy black hair behind her ears, dialed the phone, and spoke to several people before she got Judge Stephen Rubenstein on the line.

Yuki explained to the judge precisely and urgently that a credible tip had come in referring to a suspicious location adjoining the Ellsworth house. She told Rubenstein that this location had not been included in the original search warrant because the authorities hadn’t realized that the two properties were connected.

Yuki stopped talking and listened. She spoke, apologized for interrupting, and listened some more.

She signaled to me to bring my chair closer, which I did, then Yuki held out her phone so that I could hear the judge.

“Let me get this straight. You want me to expand the search warrant because you got an anonymous tip that there’s some evidence — you can’t even tell me exactly what. And based on that, you want to go rummaging around in this other house, which isn’t even the crime scene?”

“Yes, Your Honor, but a person of interest owns the entire property. Number six is in close proximity to the crime scene, almost touching it.”

“Oh, that’s supposed to make a difference? Ms. Castellano, go Google the Fourth Amendment and brush up on it. Highlight the part about unreasonable search. No warrants shall be issued without a probable cause.”

“Okay, Your Honor. Thanks anyway.”

Yuki put down the phone and said to me, “So maybe if I’d told him about the numerology, it would’ve helped us,” she said.

“You never know.”

Yuki laughed. “I’m sorry, Linds.”

If I wanted to get into 6 Ellsworth Place, and I did, I had to call Harry Chandler and ask permission.

I used Yuki’s phone and got him on the first try. I stopped short of begging, but I was extra nice. At first.

Chandler said, “Why should I let you track your gum-shoes through my property again?”

“Mr. Chandler, it’s no accident that those heads were buried in your backyard. Someone wants you to be tried for murder again. But until we find that someone, you’re our primary suspect. Do you understand?”

Chapter 76

THE FOG FRIZZED my hair as Conklin, Cindy, and I huddled together on Ellsworth Place. The street was short and narrow, kind of romantic, and unusual in that it met up with Pierce at one end, Green on the other, forming a right triangle.

The west side of Ellsworth was lined with newer houses in various styles. The houses across the street, the ones that were part of the Ellsworth compound, were all no-frills brick, built as servants’ quarters in the late 1890s at the same time the main house was constructed. I could almost hear the sound of horses pulling buggies up the street.

While I gazed around, Conklin tightened the straps on Cindy’s Kevlar vest, helped her into an SFPD windbreaker.

I waited until Cindy was cinched up, then gave her a summary of Harry Chandler’s minor houses.

“Nicole Worley, the caretakers’ daughter, lives in number two. She’s in her midtwenties, works in animal rescue. Stays here to keep an eye on her folks. Harry’s driver, T. Lawrence Oliver, lives in number four, rent free. It’s an employment perk. Numbers six and eight had tenants at one time but are empty now.”