A Killing in China Basin - Kirk Russell [95]
‘We’re looking at us, the homicide detail, our patterns of habits. He mapped our lives.’ Raveneau spread some of the maps and looked at the notations. ‘Looks to me like he studied all of us at one point, I mean, look at this, that’s Jacobi’s house and McKinley right there, Stewart, Garcia, I’ll be damned.’
They found a big stainless-faced Sub-Zero refrigerator with beer and some fresh vegetables, and a photo board in the office off the apartment that had seven or eight photos of a well maintained ranch house, and varying shots of the driveway sloping up to it and a carport.
‘That’s Becker’s brother’s house in Walnut Creek,’ he said.
‘But he didn’t shoot Becker’s brother. They got a DNA hit and charged the kid.’
‘They want to revisit their case.’
Before leaving they returned to the blue Volvo wagon and la Rosa stood in front of it with her arms crossed. ‘I didn’t think we’d find this. I didn’t expect to see it again, and I’m surprised it affects me so much. I thought it was Heilbron.’
Raveneau nodded.
‘And I didn’t know seeing the car would be this emotional.’
‘It was that close.’
When they left it was three in the morning and raining. It rained harder as they drove back and they were too tired to talk any more. He fell into bed and asleep to the sound of rain against the windows. At dawn he woke to a phone call from an exuberant Bates.
‘Where you at, Ben? I’m coming into the city ready to buy you breakfast. I want to thank you in person.’
He met Bates at a place on Potrero Hill that Bates and Whitacre used to frequent. The sidewalk in front of the café and the sliding door to the patio was plastered with dry plane leaves that were sodden with last night’s rain. It was the morning after the first true storm off the Pacific and you could feel the change. He found Bates inside at a corner table, a plate of home fries, eggs, bacon, and sourdough toast in front of him.
‘I take twenty milligrams of Lipitor every day so the eggs don’t hurt me. Man, these are good. I miss this place. You know, Ted and I used to come here all the time.’
‘I remember.’
‘I wanted to thank you in person because they were right on the edge of charging me. They’d already gotten a warrant and gone through my house. I came home to that two days ago. How’d you get him? I heard he showed up.’
‘He did but I don’t know how he knew to be there.’
‘So it’s not over?’
‘Not quite, but pretty close. We’ve got everything we need to charge him for three murders. We got a lot off a laptop.’
Raveneau watched to see how he reacted to that and Bates stopped eating. One of the three was Jacie and he laid the toast he’d bitten into back down on the plate.
‘Jacie, too?’
‘Yeah, it was Stoltz.’
‘How sure are you?’
‘Everything about the truck is there. We got enough off the laptop and from photos and diagrams out of a warehouse in San Jose to charge him. He did a lot of planning, but do you really want to hear this?’
‘Pictures of Jacie?’
Should he tell Bates that? Was it really necessary?
‘Hey, hand me that menu.’
Bates reached across the table and gripped Raveneau’s wrist. ‘I want to know.’
‘There were photos. He studied his targets, recorded what happened, and analyzed his mistakes. He killed her, Charles.’
A waitress showed and Raveneau ordered coffee and toast. The waitress wasn’t the one clearing tables but Bates handed her his plate, and then seemed to forget where he was and stared at the wall behind Raveneau.
‘How long did he follow her?’
‘I don’t know, a couple of months, a year, longer, and there’s no way to say whether he was really after you or Jacie, or evaluating both of you. Given Becker’s brother I’d say he was after Jacie.’
‘So Ted was right and I was wrong.’
‘Ted was right.’
‘Fucking Ted was always right.’
‘Not always.’
Raveneau watched him pick up the coffee cup and then set it back down. His face seemed to have aged in the ten minutes