A Killing in China Basin

SEVEN


Raveneau surfed through the local news stations and then left the TV on Channel 4. Near an armchair facing the TV, six porno magazines were stacked under a copy of Sports Illustrated. Three of the magazines featured women on women.

‘Bed is a like a rat’s nest,’ la Rosa called. ‘Come look at this.’

When he did, Raveneau saw only the rumpled sheets of a man living alone. The oddest thing was how clean the bathroom was. In his medicine cabinet was a prescription for antidepressants. He took a photo of the prescription label and they worked their way slowly through the bedroom again.

When a TV station anchor announced a murder in China Basin they moved out to listen.

‘Police are seeking help identifying the body of a woman found in China Basin Wednesday night . . .’

Pretty good coverage, thirty-five, forty seconds, more than he’d hoped for. Raveneau clicked to Channel 5, listened to part of a report of a three-alarm fire underway in the Richmond, and then started in on a hall closet. They didn’t find anything in Heilbron’s house, but his van looked promising. The crime lab would go through it on Monday. La Rosa wrote out a receipt for the address book and computer they bagged to take with them. She left the receipt in the kitchen on an ancient Formica counter trimmed in chrome. On the ride back she seemed frustrated.

Raveneau pulled in behind her car outside the Hall of Injustice, as his defense lawyer friends were so fond of saying. He got out as she did.

‘Where are you going?’ la Rosa asked. ‘I thought you were going home.’

‘I’m going upstairs for a few minutes first.’

‘Is that so you can be the last to leave?’

He didn’t pick up on her seriousness and said, ‘Yeah, I’ve always got to be the one to turn the lights out.’

‘Not with me.’

‘Come, again?’

‘I said, not with me. That might have been your style with former partners, but that’s not the way it’s going down with us. You’re not going to paint me as always first out the door.’

This really sideswiped him and he heard his voice rising as he answered, ‘Look, I’ll leave when I’m ready. I don’t need you to tell me when.’

He walked away angry, and upstairs in the office tried to push it aside and studied a sketch of the China Basin crime scene CSI had dropped off. La Rosa’s comment surprised him enough to make him lose focus. He was ready to call it a night, ready to leave when water started dripping on to one of the desks nearby. That would be the prisoners on the sixth floor plugging up the toilets.

He phoned upstairs. He found a wastebasket to catch the water and on the way out he took a seat at one of the computers up front and replayed the last part of the interview with Heilbron. He did one final check of his messages before turning out the lights.

There was one new message and he thought it might be la Rosa. But it wasn’t. The message began with traffic noise and what sounded like a large truck downshifting on a freeway. A muffled voice, as though speaking with the phone held at a distance, said quietly, ‘So you found her.’

Raveneau sat at his desk and listened to it half a dozen times. ‘So you found her.’ He listened to it again from his car before driving away from the Hall. He swallowed his pride and called la Rosa, but she didn’t pick up. It went to voice mail.