A Killing in China Basin - Kirk Russell [15]
‘I’d like to get on his computer. I want to see if he put his things in order, paid his bills, or whether he left that for his younger sister in Florida.’
Which was something Whitacre wouldn’t do. He was very protective of her.
It took an hour to go through the computer files and Bates arrived as Raveneau turned from the screen. Bates was in tears, unashamed to show what he felt. Raveneau walked out to Whitacre’s car with him.
‘I’m going to give the detective here what I have on Cody Stoltz and we’re going to approach this as a joint investigation. But this Choy already settled on suicide. He’s seen other suicides. He’s a suicide expert.’
Bates didn’t seem to hear. He exhaled hard and said, ‘God help me if it was Stoltz. I blew off everything Ted said about him. Tell me he just killed himself because he knew it was over. Tell me that.’
It took Raveneau a moment to get what Bates was saying.
‘You didn’t watch Stoltz those two days?’
Bates shook his head.
‘So you lied to Ted, and to me?’
Bates nodded and then turned away.
ELEVEN
From a second floor window of the guest house Stoltz watched the car sweep beneath the big oaks on the long curved drive in front of his mother’s house. The knock on his door came less than ten minutes later, but by then he’d turned the music on and was out back starting the gas grill. Beer iced in a galvanized tub on the garden terrace. A second knock now and it brought back a lot of bad stuff and made him angry. He didn’t want to deal with this. Before answering the door he pulled sausages from the refrigerator and laid them carefully on the counter.
When he opened the door a San Francisco homicide inspector named Benjamin Raveneau introduced himself and in that cop way, said, ‘I’d like to talk with you.’
Fuck you, Stoltz thought, and said, ‘Sure.’
Raveneau handed him a card and without looking at the card, Stoltz took in the man. Neither tall nor short, but at least six feet and unconcerned about his size, no gym muscles, no weight lifting bullshit, nothing faked, but obviously comfortable and quick. His stance wasn’t confrontational, but there he was, a square-shouldered presence, shoulders that probably had been in his family thousands of years, eyes neither afraid nor flat, but light-hearted and deadly. This guy was the real deal.
‘Thought you were a salesman,’ Stoltz said. ‘You look like a salesman who works in my office and I’m not kidding, you look exactly like him. Do you have a brother in sales?’
‘I’m here to talk with you about two San Francisco homicide inspectors, Ted Whitacre and Charles Bates. Do you remember them?’
‘Remember them? You’re joking, right?’
‘When is the last time you saw either one of them?’
‘When I saw your car I knew you were police and I was wondering why you were here. I couldn’t think of a reason.’
‘I’m asking because Inspector Whitacre was shot and killed last night and we’re going to talk to anyone who has ever threatened him. You’re on that list.’
Stoltz was surprised and said, ‘Let me get this straight. He was killed last night and you’re here to question me today?’
‘Is it OK if I come in?’
‘No, because I’ve got friends coming over to watch the Stanford game and these are people I’ve invited. It’s kind of a party and they’re going to be here soon.’
Stoltz didn’t move to let Raveneau in. He felt flustered.
‘Look, I was very angry when I went to prison, but that’s a long time ago. I got over it. You’ve got to understand I lost a lot of my future to the incompetence of Bates and Whitacre. That was very hard to swallow at the time.’
‘OK, you’ve got friends coming over so let’s make this easy. Where were you last night?’
‘I was in Carmel and I’ve got receipts. Do you want me to prove it?’
‘You do that and I’ll leave.’
‘Wait here and I’ll make copies of the hotel and restaurant bills.’
Stoltz was angry and scared as he went upstairs. He used the printer to make copies of his receipts and handed those to Raveneau.
‘When did you drive to Carmel?’
‘Yesterday afternoon. I took a ride with some cycling friends and then drove down.