the Prostitutes' Ball (2010) by Stephen - Scully 10 Cannell

wife moved out on him, he lost his apartment in Hollywood. She was paying for it. They think he's living in his van."

    Chapter 15.
    We flagged the outstanding warrants so if the warrant delivery team finally pulled up an existing address on the guy, we would be on their contact list. Then I called in a new firearms check, giving them the correct name and spelling.
    When we got back to the office, guess what? No Brooks Dunbar. Stender Sheedy was there with his little jar of Vaseline, trying to get another six hours. I jammed the warrant into his hand.
    "That's a copy. If your client even makes an illegal turn, he's gonna end up in jail. You want my opinion, we should let it happen. He's got too many people protecting him. Next time he falls, you oughta let his ass hit the dirt instead of always shoving a feather pillow under him. Maybe some jail time will straighten him out."
    "Don't do this," Stender pleaded.
    "Already did."
    After he left, we were pulled into Jeb s office. We'd been working the whole night and for us, it seemed like forever since we'd gotten the case. Jeb, on the other hand, had gone home to bed, and since Scott Berman's death was blasting out of every radio and TV speaker when he awoke, he was complaining about how quickly the press had gotten it.
    We brought him up to date on Karel Sladky, who was a definite person of interest. The fact that we had a name to chase after seemed to please our captain.
    "This is good progress," he said. "Good stuff. You've made me happy."
    "We live for those moments, Skipper," Hitch said. I couldn't tell if he was kidding or just in the midst of a monumental ass kiss.
    "You guys now have a prosecutor assigned to work with you," Jeb continued.
    "Already?" Hitch moaned. "Aren't we supposed to arrest somebody before they assign a prosecutor?"
    "District Attorney Chase Beal wants to make sure none of the evidence is compromised. He put one of his best gunslingers on this."
    "Uh-oh," I said. "Who'd we get?"
    "The Black Dahlia."
    "Dahlia Wilkes?" we both said, simultaneously groaning.
    "She wants to meet with you before the end of the clay to be briefed. In the meantime, she gave instructions that she wants you to personally get back out to Skyline Drive with an evidence collection team and some metal detectors to locate every single slug that was fired from that Bizon.
    "So far CSI got no prints off the cartridges they found," Jeb continued, "but they only picked up twenty casings and fourteen slugs. The Bizon's got a sixty-four-shot clip, so there's a lot still out there. It's a big job. Sorry."
    "Do you think there'll be time for us to wash and wax Miss Wilkes's car before we go?" I said.
    "Look, Shane, you're the one who wanted to work on high-profile hits."
    We left the captain's office and sat at Hitch's cubicle because Sally still hadn't cleaned out her desk. I looked up at Hitch's cork divider. He had put up pictures of different clothing ads from GQ and Vanity Fair. The men in the shots had sculpted chins and moussed hair. They stood in poses that could get you killed in a biker bar.
    "These are nice." I frowned.
    "Hey, Shane, 'til I was assigned to partner up with you I had no fucking cases. I was working on my spring look."
    We arranged for an evidence team to meet us at the crime scene. I walked over to my desk, unlocked the bottom drawer, and switched guns. I left the Ultra-Lite .38 revolver with its ankle holster in favor of a bigger-bore 9 mm automatic. Something told me I might want to pack heavy. Then, because I was still separated from my vehicle, we were back in the Porsche Carrera. Hitch gunned the engine.
    "Can we at least put the top up?" I suggested.
    "Sure, homes." He hit a button and a mechanical hardtop lifted out of the trunk deck and cantilevered forward, snapping down and locking itself into the brackets.
    "Pretty sweet, huh?" he said.
    I nodded because it was, and we were out of there.
    We parked down the hill from 3151 Skyline Drive and walked up. The