A Killing in China Basin - Kirk Russell [63]
Raveneau nodded. He was aware. He had talked to Stalos for half an hour yesterday. Oakland wanted them to agree before they charged Bates. They didn’t want any blowback from SF Homicide.
‘Where are we at with Cody Stoltz?’ Becker asked.
‘I’ve asked the FBI to get a UFAP warrant on him.’
‘How are they going to do that if we don’t really have anything on him?’
‘They can get a warrant on anybody they want nowadays. They’ll get the warrant.’
‘We’d still need a way to hold him.’
‘Yeah, but we also need help finding him.’
Raveneau told him about the private investigator following Stoltz north after Stoltz left the hotel late at night, but Becker seemed to already know about that. The Feds would get the UFAP and then they’d be all over Stoltz’s phone pen register. With phones, the FBI could track real time and that might be their best chance of locating him. But Becker was right, unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was a probable cause apprehension. If apprehended, they’d need evidence to hold him.
‘There was a phone call made from LA last night,’ Raveneau said. ‘That phone seems to belong to a non-existent person but it may have been him calling here.’
‘Made to where?’
‘Here. Want to hear it?’
Raveneau put the message on speaker phone.
‘I’m ready to go again. Are you?’
He pushed the volume up. With just Becker and him in the office he replayed it several times, then said, ‘The call came from LA. It’s similar to another one I got a day or two after we caught the China Basin killing. That’s something I can’t put together.’
‘What was that message?’
‘Also short, one line with some vehicle noise in the background, a man saying, “So you found her.” That call was made from one of these PCS one month phones where you try out the unlimited local service for forty bucks or whatever it is. The phone owner gave a false ID.’
‘This recent call was from Los Angeles?’
‘Yes.’
‘Could be somebody playing with us.’
‘Sure.’
Becker set the coffee down, still untouched. He squinted up at Raveneau.
‘And la Rosa is fine?’
‘A mild concussion and stitches where the bullet plowed a groove in her scalp, and that’ll be tender this morning, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she showed up here. She wants to strap her gun on and go Volvo hunting.’
‘What does she remember?’
‘Not enough. It happened fast, shooter wore a mask, and she didn’t see much.’
Becker didn’t respond to that, no doubt had heard that already. Raveneau watched him go back into his grief. Becker left the homicide office soon after and returned to the hospital where his brother died just before noon.
FORTY-THREE
That same morning Stoltz walked into a car dealership and test drove a BMW, an older 330i with a sport package, relatively low mileage, and new Michelins. The body was as clean as they had claimed. He handed over a Visa with the name Steven Pullman on it, telling the salesman, ‘This way I get the airline mileage.’
Then he sensed that one of the women working on the paperwork behind a glass barrier was watching him. He turned his back to her, moved out into the showroom, and waited nervously outside on a bench with the feeling that everything was closing in around him. Time was compressing. He needed to move carefully but faster. Twenty minutes later, he signed the papers and the salesman handed him the keys, smiling as he asked, ‘Where are you headed in that beautiful car?’
‘Vegas.’
‘Man, I wish that was me. How long are you going to be there?’
‘Ten days. I just got a bonus that was a long time coming.’
‘Have a great drive. This baby should really run for you.’
Instead of heading toward Vegas, Stoltz went north on I-5, making the same drive he’d made last Sunday morning. For the next three hours he sat in a fast group of cars running at speeds way over the limit, as if somehow a pack mentality protected them from the highway patrol. After three hours he left the freeway to gas up. When he got back on he made a bad mistake,