Time Expired (34 page)

I called the pizza takeout. The delivery boy was at Herman Ott’s door when I arrived. Ott opened at the first knock. He had heard about the collar, of course. He looked as drawn as if he’d watched the whole operation from the sidelines, unable to help or even holler.

I told him about Michael, gave him a moment to ponder what other seamy scenes Michael might have orchestrated in nursing homes before, and to realize what he would never do in places like that again. Then I said, “I don’t know how much Madeleine was motivated by memories of her mother, but she more than evened the balance—for both of you.”

I can’t swear that I saw Ott’s eyes water, he turned away too fast. But he did pay for the pizzas, both of them. Then we ate them, every bit, and talked about Madeleine. I think it was a wake she’d have liked.

A
GREAT DEAL OF
research is necessary for a book like this, and the author is indebted to the generosity of:

Sergeant Michael Holland of the Berkeley Police Department Hostage Negotiations Team, who gave of his time and knowledge. The highly regarded HNT has careful and specific personnel and guidelines to protect everyone involved in every hostage situation. It was not possible to include them all in this work of fiction;

Sergeant Kay Lantow of the Berkeley Police Hostage Negotiations Team for her gracious, forthright, and clear explanations;

Officer Karan Alveraz of the Albany Police, for her never-failing goodwill and her ability to track down information that I needed right away;

Berkeley Senior Parking Enforcement Representative Vickie Frasier, one of life’s true diplomats;

Dr. Elise Blumenfeld, LCSW, for her insights into motivation and behavior;

Dr. Robert Stebbins, for his expertise on canyons and their inhabitants—four-legged, two-legged, and rooted;

Jennie Arndt, for her unique perspective.

Although some characters in this book have jobs or positions which do exist in real life, all the characters are entirely fictional.

Susan Dunlap (b. 1943) is the author of more than twenty mystery novels and a founding member of Sisters in Crime, an organization that promotes women in the field of crime writing.

Born in New York City, Dunlap entered Bucknell University as a math major, but quickly switched to English. After earning a master’s degree in education from the University of North Carolina, she taught junior high before becoming a social worker. Her jobs took her all over the country, from Baltimore to New York and finally to Northern California, where many of her novels take place.

One night, while reading an Agatha Christie novel, Dunlap told her husband that she thought she could write mysteries. When he asked her to prove it, she accepted the challenge. Dunlap wrote in her spare time, completing six manuscripts before selling her first book,
Karma
(1981), which began a ten-book series about brash Berkeley cop Jill Smith.

After selling her second novel, Dunlap quit her job to write fulltime. While penning the Jill Smith mysteries, she also wrote three novels about utility-meter-reading amateur sleuth Vejay Haskell. In 1989, she published
Pious Deception
, the first in a series starring former medical examiner Kiernan O’Shaughnessy. To research the O’Shaughnessy and Smith series, Dunlap rode along with police officers, attended autopsies, and spent ten weeks studying the daily operations of the Berkeley Police Department.

Dunlap concluded the Smith series with
Cop Out
(1997). In 2006 she published
A Single Eye
, her first mystery featuring Darcy Lott, a Zen Buddhist stuntwoman. Her most recent novel is
No Footprints
(2012), the fifth in the Darcy Lott series.

In addition to writing, Dunlap has taught yoga and worked for a private investigator on death penalty defense cases and as a paralegal. In 1986, she helped found Sisters in Crime, an organization that supports women in the field of mystery writing. She lives and writes near San Francisco.