A Killing in China Basin

TWENTY


Everyone on the homicide detail attended the service for Whitacre at a Catholic church in Burlingame. When it ended and Raveneau and la Rosa were outside talking in the church lot, Bates approached, wanting to talk alone with Raveneau. Bates’s face was dusty, ashen. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. He’s truly hurting, Raveneau thought, and then walked far enough away to talk alone with him.

‘I lied to you and Ted. I told you I sat on Stoltz and watched him, but I didn’t. I lied and I can’t stop thinking about it. Ted kept calling me. He called almost every night. I just figured he was breaking down, coming apart, and imagining things.’

‘You already told me that and I understand.’

Raveneau said that slowly. He didn’t want to dismiss the apology, but there was also nothing gained in Bates rationalizing it.

‘I caused everything that’s happened. It all could have been prevented. Ted, my sweet Jacie, my God, I got Jacie killed.’

‘No, you didn’t.’

‘You don’t know what I’m saying, Raveneau. I got my Jace killed when I lied to Ted and you. Most nights we’d make that walk together. I was supposed to be there. I told her I’d be there and I wasn’t because I was with a friend having a drink. If I’d been there, it wouldn’t have happened. Same way I lied to Ted and you. Came easy and now Jacie is gone.’

Raveneau had known cops with strong marriages but few like the Bateses who seemed to just naturally belong together. Anyone watching them knew they didn’t have to work at it.

‘I don’t know if I can make it without her. I don’t know if I want to, and I’m going to tell you that if Stoltz killed her, I’m going to take him out.’

‘We don’t have anything that ties Stoltz to this, not a single thing.’

‘I heard you came up with a twelve hour window from when he finished dinner to when he checked out of the hotel in Carmel. Tell me if that’s true.’

Raveneau felt shocked as he realized that was why Bates wanted to talk, and he took a step closer to him.

‘Charles, listen to me, you’re hurting but you’re going too far too fast here. I don’t have anything on Stoltz. Yes, there’s a window of time he could have acted in, but that’s it. You’ve been through a terrible thing, but you’ve got to step back.’

Bates couldn’t be convinced. His grief blocked his view of the outside world. He turned from Raveneau and walked to his car. La Rosa was waiting as Raveneau returned.

‘Still want to stop at Heilbron’s?’ she asked.

‘I think so.’

‘What are you hoping to get out of it?’

‘We make our presence felt.’

‘Like the guy who works at the golf course?’

Raveneau was still thinking about Bates but he was listening. La Rosa didn’t want to hitch on to a potential harassment claim and he didn’t see it that way at all. He saw Heilbron as confessing to a rape he almost certainly did and a murder he wished he’d done, and might have.

‘We want to keep the conversation going with him. We want to keep an element of the unexpected in our presence.’

‘OK, but I’m going to throw this out there. I don’t think this is smart. We’ve been to a memorial service. I think we should head back to the Hall and go home.’

Heilbron’s van was out front of the house in South San Francisco. He didn’t open the door until Raveneau knocked a second and a third time. When the door opened Heilbron looked like he’d just awakened.

‘We’ve been looking over the video you took,’ Raveneau said. ‘OK if we come in and talk about it?’

Heilbron didn’t answer and for a moment the only noise was the TV in the background. He wore gray sweat pants, a long-sleeved T-shirt and sandals. His breath was terrible, and it didn’t look like he’d shaved or bathed since they’d released him.

‘We’re not here to take you back in. We looked at what you caught with your camera. You filmed two people outside the building the night of the murder. We’re trying to figure out if our victim was one of the people.’

Heilbron stepped back and waved them in. Raveneau sat down on a couch. La Rosa took a chair, and Heilbron turned off the TV. This time he didn’t turn and stare at la Rosa. He looked at something behind them and said, ‘I hate police.’

Raveneau nodded as if that was normal and asked, ‘Didn’t we treat you fairly? We went down to the building with you. We took you seriously about the San Jose rape and called the detectives who handled the case. If we could have charged you after you confessed to the murder, we would have. We just didn’t have the evidence and then you recanted. You made our job even tougher when you recanted. Now we need your help.’

La Rosa shot him a look of disbelief, but Raveneau was determined to try this.

‘You were there when two people went through the gate.’

‘They were already through.’

‘When you drove up?’

‘No, I was already parked down the street when they got there and I didn’t want to follow them in. One of them was hurt, probably her. She was walking funny and he was helping her.’

‘It was a man helping her?’

‘Yes.’

‘Could you tell anything about him?’

‘He was too far away. They were around the corner by the time I got up to the gate.’ He turned toward la Rosa and made eye contact as he added, ‘They moved into the darkness before I reached the gate.’

‘What about a car?’ Raveneau asked.

‘I saw a white Camry or maybe it was a Ford pickup truck with a crushed right front fender.’

Raveneau knew the type of truck that struck Jacie Bates was public knowledge. Heilbron no doubt got it from the TV. He didn’t react, didn’t show Heilbron anything, and neither did la Rosa.

‘You saw a Camry?’

‘Might have been a Honda Civic.’

‘Did you see the man leave the building?’

‘I left after twenty minutes.’

‘Do you feel pretty sure it was around twenty minutes?’

‘Might have been twenty-one and a half or twenty-two minutes. Let me think about it and get back to you.’

Raveneau nodded and said, ‘So twenty-two minutes and you don’t know what kind of car. But here’s the part I don’t understand, you say they were going around the corner when you got up to the gate. Is that right?’

‘Did I say that?’

He smiled at them and Raveneau said, ‘Yes, that’s what you said but your film shows them right at the corner and you’re not in the film, so I guess like the car you’ve got it a little screwed up.’

‘They were already around the corner.’

‘There’s a way that could work and you tell me if I’m wrong. You were in the van when they went around the corner. You didn’t get out like you said. You filmed from the van.’

‘Now you’re getting it.’

‘And there were no lights on the building so you didn’t have much of a view.’

Heilbron smiled. ‘You’ll never catch him. He’ll do another one and another and another and another and you’ll never catch him.’

‘We might with your help. Can you describe the man at all?’

‘Did I say I saw a man?’

‘You did earlier.’

‘Do you really think I would help you?’

He laughed. He turned and looked at la Rosa.

‘Elizabeth, I don’t know how you got stuck with Inspector Clouseau, but I would still like to go out with you. I know we could have a lot of fun. Why don’t you ditch him and stay here tonight?’

La Rosa got to her feet. She spoke only to Raveneau, ‘See you outside.’