A Killing in China Basin

TWELVE


Raveneau called Becker and asked for approval to make a trip to Carmel. After Becker gave him the nod, he called la Rosa.

‘This is an out and back to Carmel. I won’t be gone long, but if you catch a homicide while I’m in Carmel, Inspector Adler will go out with you.’

‘When are you coming back?’

‘Should be late tonight.’

‘You’re driving all the way down there and back and checking out his alibi at the same time?’

‘Hotel, restaurant, and where he got gas.’

‘And I’m supposed to go out with Adler if there’s a call?’

She seemed uncomfortable with that which surprised him.

‘We’ve got fifteen tips off the TV report,’ she said.

‘Yeah, I know, I’ve got the list with me.’

He split the list with her and made a series of calls as he drove south on 101. Then he just drove, and looking west at the foothills remembered a summer afternoon twenty-five years ago when he picked up his ex-wife Angie at the San Francisco apartment in the Marina that she shared with two friends. That day they drove from summer bay fog into the heat of the Central Valley and in the dry foothills swam in Rollins Lake before continuing on to Lake Tahoe. He remembered the feel of the cold clean water of Tahoe, sitting on a granite slab at the water’s edge talking and laughing as they dried in the mountain sunlight. He saw the blade-like blue of Tahoe and the radiance of Angie’s face as if it were yesterday.

In Carmel he met with the hotel manager of the La Playa first and read the young man as wanting to assist and help the police. Raveneau showed him his gold homicide star and learned that Stoltz had reserved at the La Playa two and a half weeks ago. So it wasn’t an impulse trip. He stayed in room twenty-one, checked in at six fifteen p.m., and more importantly, checked out the next morning at seven.

The one night he was in Carmel Stoltz ate at a French restaurant, Anton & Michel. A waitress had no trouble remembering him.

‘He was weird. He asked if we could make scrambled eggs with truffles and I think he knew we wouldn’t have any truffles right now and that the chef couldn’t just do something off the menu. We were very busy that night. What was weird was he was so insistent. I went back to the chef twice.’

‘What else did he do?’

‘He ordered an expensive bottle of Pinot Noir and gave most of it to staff. He wanted me to sit and have a glass with him. Our management likes us to know all the wines, so I did, but I don’t think he really cared about the wine.’ She smiled a half-smile. ‘Weird but good looking, I mean, he wasn’t a bad guy, but it was like he really wanted to make a point.’

‘What do you think his point was?’

She laughed. ‘You know, I’m not sure. But what’s going on, why are you here?’

‘I want to make sure he was really here.’

‘Oh, he was definitely here.’

Raveneau spent hours watching video at the Chevron in Sand City before spotting Stoltz standing outside his Lexus gassing up. The time on the tape read 7:42. Stoltz had left the station at 7:48 after using the bathroom and paying cash for gas and water just as he’d claimed. It was lucky the video hadn’t already looped over itself, lucky the video system had been recently upgraded to carry more videotape capacity, the manager explaining earlier they had a problem with people gassing up with stolen credit cards.

Raveneau called la Rosa from Salinas as he got back to 101 and turned north. He worked through Stoltz’s chronology on the drive home.

Checked in at La Playa at 6:15 p.m.

Dinner at Anton & Michel 7:30 p.m. reso, paid by Visa, first drink at bar 7:21, bill rung out at 8:50.

Checks out of La Playa at 7:00 a.m. next morning.

Gas at Sand City Chevron 7:42 a.m.

Maid cleans room at La Playa, 11:00 a.m. Remakes bed. Replaces shampoo and soap samples.

Two of the times mattered: when the dinner bill was closed out and when he checked out of La Playa the next morning. The window between was a little under twelve hours, more than enough time to leave the restaurant, drive three hours north, murder Whitacre, and return to the hotel to check out at 7:00 a.m. So the alibi was valid, but not solid and digging deeper would have to wait.

He drove home and didn’t walk in the door until two in the morning. He ate a sandwich and drank a flat half bottle of beer sitting in the refrigerator. He left his notes on a counter in the kitchen. He showered. As he lay down he reached for his phone and sent a text to la Rosa, ‘I’m back.’