A Killing in China Basin

TWENTY-EIGHT


‘We understand Ted Whitacre asked you for help. Is that correct?’

Raveneau nodded.

‘When you met with him what did he ask you to do?’

‘Knock on Stoltz’s door and let him know we knew he was following Ted.’

‘Warn him off?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you?’

‘Ted died before I got to Stoltz. I was on-call that week. I had planned to go see him as soon as I was off.’

‘Did you tell Charles Bates that you were going to visit Cody Stoltz?’

‘Sure. The day I met with Whitacre I called Charles on my way back to the Hall.’

‘How did he respond?’

‘He was skeptical Whitacre had been followed by Stoltz. He said he was getting regular calls from Ted at night about old cases and guessed it had something to do with the cocktail of cancer drugs, Ted wanting to clean up the unsolved cases before dying. I’m sure you’ve asked Bates – what’s he told you?’

Stalos checked it with his partner before answering. Hendricks gave the faintest nod.

‘Basically, he told us what you just said.’

‘Whitacre was a pretty reliable guy. I took him at his word that he’d seen Stoltz.’

‘After Ted Whitacre’s body was found did you ask Mr Bates to drive with you to Los Altos where Stoltz lives?’

‘No, I went alone.’

‘What was the point?’

‘I wasn’t convinced Ted’s death was suicide.’

‘What do you think now?’

‘I think he was murdered.’

Hendricks spoke for the first time, saying, ‘We agree with you,’ and Stalos added, ‘The Burlingame detective, I can never remember his name—’

‘Choy.’

‘Yeah, Ed Choy said you came in the door calling it a murder.’

‘That’s not quite right, but I was upset at how fast he was moving and I was upset anyway. I’d worked with Ted for twenty years.’

‘We hear you. We understand.’

Stalos leaned forward a little more, setting up to confide. Raveneau had done this many times himself.

‘Detective Choy gave us a look at what he’s got so far. Seems to us he just made an assumption about suicide. I’ve got a copy of his report. Do you want to take a look at it?’

‘Not right now. Why don’t you tell me why you’re here? I understand that Bates doubled the life insurance on his wife three months ago, or you think he did. So start there.’

Hendricks stepped in on that one, saying emphatically, ‘He did double it.’

‘Here’s what we have,’ Stalos said. ‘We’ve got a significant bump in the life insurance coverage on both Charles and Jacie Bates that was done six months ago, not three months. That’s unusual for a man with heart and prostate problems and a police pension to pay for it. It ramped their payments way up. Jacie had her own medical troubles, and then there’s the girlfriend thing. Bates has been seeing a younger woman who works for the Alameda DA. We got a tip about that and it checked out. So now we’re wondering what we’ve got.’

‘Who bumped the insurance coverage?’

‘Jacie Bates did, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t talk her into it.’

‘Go on.’

‘He missed the walk that night and neighbors say he was pretty good about making the walks with her. He didn’t miss many of them.’

‘But he missed some or did you find a neighbor keeping track on a calendar?’

‘We know they mostly walked together.’

‘He was home when the pickup burned. How do you explain that?’

‘He had her hit. Hired somebody to run her down and burn the truck. It has started to look like a different investigation. So we’re here to talk to you. Did he have a girl on the side when he worked the detail here?’

‘Not that I ever heard about.’

‘Did he ever talk about problems with his marriage?’

‘Not to me and I always had the impression that he and Jacie were very close. My wife and I divorced years ago. I used to look at Bates and think he had a really strong, good thing with Jacie.’

‘Do you want to hear the whole wild ass theory?’

‘Go ahead.’

‘OK, Bates killed his former partner so that he could then kill his wife and make it look like Stoltz did it. He knew Whitacre would talk to other people about being followed and he saw an opportunity. Stoltz wouldn’t know where the key was under the flagstone in Whitacre’s backyard, but Bates did. He told us he did. His old partner was starting to have Stoltz sightings, and was dying anyway, so he starts thinking about a way to free Whitacre from his cancer and deal Jacie out of the game so he can be with his girlfriend.’

Hendricks held up his left hand, the fingers long and thin as a pianist’s. ‘How many days has it been since Jacie was killed?’ He counted them off on his fingers. ‘Damn if I can’t almost count them on one hand. He was with the girlfriend last night. What’s that say about his grief?’

He waved his hand as if erasing everything said.

‘But we admit we don’t know much yet and obviously we don’t want our theory to be right.’

‘I can tell how.’

‘No, I mean it, Raveneau. We’d like to be wrong on this. That’s why we’re looking to you. We want you to prove we’ve got our heads up our asses.’

‘Maybe I can help you with that part either way.’

That got a smile from Hendricks.

‘You say he never mentioned this girlfriend to you and you don’t know him as a man with girls on the side.’

‘That’s true.’

‘What do you think about him spending the night with the girlfriend this close to Jacie’s death? We haven’t even released the body.’

‘It surprises me, but I don’t know what he’s feeling and having a girlfriend doesn’t mean he killed his wife.’

He felt both watching him and then it was Hendricks who put the question to him.

‘If we need it, would you be willing to wear a wire?’

‘No.’

‘What if we have solid proof?’

‘If you’ve got that kind of proof, arrest him.’

They didn’t like that and it kind of quietened the room. Raveneau figured they must have been counting on selling the wire idea.

‘We’ve got some questions we want you to ask him. We think you’re the one to talk to him since you’re the one with the Whitacre murder investigation, and you and your partner are looking at this Cody Stoltz. We think Bates will want to know what you learn and monitor your progress.’

Raveneau didn’t answer.