A Killing in China Basin

FORTY-SEVEN


Heilbron watched the same weird late night press conference with Stoltz. He squatted in front of the TV looking for the inspectors, but the clip was short and it was only the Stoltz guy. What was with this? Trippy f*cking dude and definitely up to something. Definitely in-your-face-type angry, but sounding like he was all rational and reasonable about what had gone on. The newscaster came and Heilbron waited for him to talk about the investigation and Inspector la Rosa. Instead, they skipped to weather and he reached for the remote and went through the other local news, but there was nothing.

Time to check out the night. He left the TV on low and killed the other lights in the house. He watched from a window for a while, then went out the back and to the van. He had a bike in the van, chained so that it stood up. For three days he’d been home and not seen the inspectors, though their cards were in the door. He only kept la Rosa’s card. He had four of hers now and cleaned out an Altoids tin to store them in. Four of her in the little tin box. Four was his lucky number. Of course, if it was really her she would need a bigger box and he’d have to take the bike out of the van for the box to have room. Then he’d be chillin’ with Inspector Elizabeth la Rosa. Driving around or maybe he would drive somewhere special with her that wouldn’t get figured out for a very long time. He drove sort of dreaming of what that would feel like.

He liked the way it felt to think of it, but it was still crazy what he’d done going to the Hall of Justice that morning instead of going to work. He couldn’t believe he did it. But this dude, Stoltz, he knows in his head what he’s doing while he’s doing it, talking to the press, getting filmed, knowing he’s going to be on TV and be famous. He’s got a plan, Heilbron thought. I read the man. Definitely has plans. That’s what I have to do, plan every detail, every small thing just like working on the cars. It’s in the really small details. You have to get everything just right. Plan it, dude. Plan it carefully. Get it right.

Heilbron turned at the next corner. If Stoltz was able to pull something off, then he’d have to also. He thought about that as he drove downtown.