A Killing in China Basin

FIFTEEN


‘It was a hit-and-run. Bates is at home right now. Some neighbors are with him and his daughter is on her way,’ Becker said. ‘I want you and la Rosa to go to the scene. We can’t ignore the possibility of connection.’

Raveneau stepped out into the street to wave la Rosa down before she drove away and asked, ‘What do we know so far?’

‘White pickup truck, male driver, and that Oakland PD is treating it as a hit-and-run.’

‘We’ll have to tell them why we’re there, and level with them. That may put it out to the media.’

‘I know, but ask them to hold tight.’

Jacie Bates’s body lay on the street under a blanket. Raveneau saw Oakland PD collecting debris and it wasn’t hard to spot the detectives. He and la Rosa introduced themselves to a detective named Hendricks, a tall, thin, taciturn man, and a second detective, Pete Stalos, who questioned them and took notes after Hendricks returned to the gash in the slope.

‘Does this Stoltz drive a pickup?’

‘If he does, we don’t know about it. We know about a white Lexus and we know he’s got other cars registered to the same corporation, but I’ve also got to say we don’t have anything at all on him. This all comes from the inspector who died, Whitacre, believing that he was being tailed by Stoltz.’

‘So you literally have nothing?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Yet you’re here, so I gather you’re not telling me what you do have.’

‘What we have is an improbable series of events.’

‘What is an improbable series of events? What we have here is an apparent hit-and-run and I’m not sure what an improbable series of events is. Your inspector probably ate his gun because he was given a fatal diagnosis and was distraught and in pain. That’s probable, right? What’s improbable? Fill in the gaps for me.’

Raveneau understood where Stalos was coming from, but was unfazed.

‘Nothing connects to anything yet, but it was Whitacre and Bates who took Stoltz down. Stoltz wrote a number of angry letters from prison and Whitacre believed Stoltz was following him in the days before he either shot himself or was murdered. That was last Thursday night. The victim here was the wife of Inspector Charles Bates.’

Stalos looked down the street at his partner and then back at Raveneau.

‘What else?’

‘I’m working on an alibi that Stoltz gave me.’

‘So you believe he followed your inspector?’

‘I’m not one way or the other yet.’

‘You’re here and you want cooperation, and so do we. Where do we find this Stoltz so we can talk to him?’

‘Why don’t you let us help you with that?’

‘Right, except that this is an Oakland investigation and whereas Stoltz may have stalked Whitacre, there’s no proof. Isn’t that what you’re saying? Whitacre believed he was being followed, but it was never determined.’

‘Something like that.’

‘Whereas this, at a minimum, is manslaughter, that is to say, it’s an active investigation and it doesn’t sound like you have one, unless there is more you haven’t told me.’

Raveneau glanced at la Rosa. He was going to leave her with Stalos, guessing she’d have better luck with him.

‘Is it OK if I take a look first and then we can talk about how to work together on this?’

‘Go ahead, but watch out for my partner. He doesn’t like people and he hasn’t had any good inter-departmental experiences.’

Raveneau walked up to the gash in the hillside where she was hit. Under the lights the grasses on the hill were brown and thin, and the road narrow, barely wide enough for two cars to pass, so maybe it was accidental and the driver fled. Driver figures out the road is a dead-end, turns around, and then races back making up for lost time. It could easily have been that. He walked up to the other detective, Hendricks.

‘Can I look at her?’

‘What?’

‘I’d like a look at her body.’

‘Did you know her?’

‘Socially.’

‘You work with her husband?’

‘Yeah, but he stepped off the desk several years ago.’

‘What do you know about the marriage?’

‘They also struck me as close. Married a long time.’

‘Follow me.’

Hendricks lifted the sheet and Raveneau registered that Jacie’s neck was broken and that her right arm and side may have taken the impact. He saw something else he couldn’t make sense of until he asked Hendricks to move the sheet just a little so he could see more. Then he could read the marks on her neck, collarbone, and across her sweatshirt. One of her running shoes was missing. He realized she faced the truck at an angle as it hit her. But that didn’t fit with these other marks. Then he got it.

He stepped back and looked at Hendricks. ‘The driver wanted to make sure or it was personal, or both.’

‘You are good,’ Hendricks said. ‘Yeah, he drove over her again. He crushed her chest. I think he let the truck rest on top of her.’ He added, ‘I’m going to find this guy.’

Hendricks draped the sheet carefully. He didn’t drop it. He watched Raveneau study the flattened grass and tire marks on the slope, then added, ‘We got a decent casting of his tires. He lost control, bounced up on the slope and cut into grass. Those marks there are his tires. What we have so far is we may be looking for a late model white pickup and a male driver, possibly Caucasian. Could this Stoltz do that?’

‘I don’t know. Doesn’t really fit. This guy is from a well-to-do family and a bright light in some computer coding circles.’

‘You said he wrote threatening letters.’

‘Threatening, yeah, but the kind of stuff meant to seem threatening without being overt. Cautious.’

‘Have you been to see him?’

‘I have.’

‘Did you tell my partner that?’

‘Not yet.’

‘You got sent over here. Would you have come anyway?’

‘Probably.’

Raveneau and la Rosa were still there when word came that a 2009 Ford 150 pickup was torched between warehouses just west of 880. They left the Oakland detectives and drove there. Fire vehicles and two police cruisers sat close to the burned chassis. Heat still radiated off the truck. The air stank of melted plastic, gasoline, and burning rubber, but they saw the crumpled right front fender and they left there with the name of the registered owner, a Thanh Nguyen with a Van Nuys address in southern California.

Later they’d learn that address didn’t exist when Nguyen or someone using that name bought the vehicle. The house address had existed but was demolished for a road expansion project in 2008. What that meant Raveneau didn’t know yet.