A Killing in China Basin - Kirk Russell [21]
‘Can I look at her?’
‘What?’
‘I’d like a look at her body.’
‘Did you know her?’
‘Socially.’
‘You work with her husband?’
‘Yeah, but he stepped off the desk several years ago.’
‘What do you know about the marriage?’
‘They also struck me as close. Married a long time.’
‘Follow me.’
Hendricks lifted the sheet and Raveneau registered that Jacie’s neck was broken and that her right arm and side may have taken the impact. He saw something else he couldn’t make sense of until he asked Hendricks to move the sheet just a little so he could see more. Then he could read the marks on her neck, collarbone, and across her sweatshirt. One of her running shoes was missing. He realized she faced the truck at an angle as it hit her. But that didn’t fit with these other marks. Then he got it.
He stepped back and looked at Hendricks. ‘The driver wanted to make sure or it was personal, or both.’
‘You are good,’ Hendricks said. ‘Yeah, he drove over her again. He crushed her chest. I think he let the truck rest on top of her.’ He added, ‘I’m going to find this guy.’
Hendricks draped the sheet carefully. He didn’t drop it. He watched Raveneau study the flattened grass and tire marks on the slope, then added, ‘We got a decent casting of his tires. He lost control, bounced up on the slope and cut into grass. Those marks there are his tires. What we have so far is we may be looking for a late model white pickup and a male driver, possibly Caucasian. Could this Stoltz do that?’
‘I don’t know. Doesn’t really fit. This guy is from a well-to-do family and a bright light in some computer coding circles.’
‘You said he wrote threatening letters.’
‘Threatening, yeah, but the kind of stuff meant to seem threatening without being overt. Cautious.’
‘Have you been to see him?’
‘I have.’
‘Did you tell my partner that?’
‘Not yet.’
‘You got sent over here. Would you have come anyway?’
‘Probably.’
Raveneau and la Rosa were still there when word came that a 2009 Ford 150 pickup was torched between warehouses just west of 880. They left the Oakland detectives and drove there. Fire vehicles and two police cruisers sat close to the burned chassis. Heat still radiated off the truck. The air stank of melted plastic, gasoline, and burning rubber, but they saw the crumpled right front fender and they left there with the name of the registered owner, a Thanh Nguyen with a Van Nuys address in southern California.
Later they’d learn that address didn’t exist when Nguyen or someone using that name bought the vehicle. The house address had existed but was demolished for a road expansion project in 2008. What that meant Raveneau didn’t know yet.
SIXTEEN
Before dawn the next day Raveneau drove to Lincoln Park Golf Course, paid the fee, and rented a cart. On the first tee three old boys cut the chill by spiking their coffee with brandy. Cigar smoke mingled with the smells of newly mown grass and alcohol. One gaffer pointed a glowing cigar tip at Raveneau.
‘Tee off,’ he said. ‘Play through us; we’re just marking time until the end.’
Raveneau had brought a handful of his old clubs, a three-wood and some rusted irons, but he wasn’t here to play. A groundskeeper who worked here remained a prime suspect in one of his unsolved cases, one that pre-dated la Rosa. He hoped to find the man, Ray Bryce, cutting grass. Not that he had any new reason to interview Bryce. He was only here to let Bryce know he hadn’t forgotten.
He teed off and as his first shot sliced into the trees the old boys hooted and offered to spike his coffee. The cigar smoker gave him some free advice as he got in the cart to leave.
‘Don’t count the first two shots and slow down.’
Bryce migrated west after serving six years in a Virginia prison for attempted rape. He’d arrived