A Killing in China Basin - Kirk Russell [96]
‘I’ve got something I want to ask you,’ Raveneau said, and Bates tried to find a balance again, waved weakly at the table, said, ‘You should eat. I want to buy you breakfast.’
‘I’m OK, and maybe this goes back to Whitacre worrying so much about Stoltz. I went out to the Reinerts’ old apartment yesterday.’
‘First time you’ve been there?’
‘First time inside.’
‘You got inside their apartment?’
‘Yeah.’
‘What did you do, knock on the door?’
‘No, the building is being renovated. It’s stripped to the studs.’
‘Nice old building, isn’t it?’
Raveneau didn’t care about the building this morning. He watched Bates.
‘The Reinerts’ former apartment has been gutted. At the kitchen sink the cabinets are gone and there’s just the opening where the window was. I stood where she would have been had she seen Stoltz shoot her husband.’
Raveneau didn’t really believe they meant to do anything wrong. He had studied the Reinert murder files and there was no question Stoltz had fled the scene. Not much doubt that Stoltz had shot John Reinert.
‘What do you mean, had she seen?’
‘She lied to you and Whitacre. She told us yesterday that she never saw the shooting. She heard a popping sound she knew was gunfire. She may have seen a flash of light. Then a second shot and she ran down the stairs. She wasn’t afraid to run downstairs because Stoltz had warned her something could happen that night. When I was there I realized it didn’t matter whether she’d been at the window or not. At that distance and angle and at night, no one could have seen the shooting or told who was who.’
‘I stood there and I could tell. So could Ted.’
‘A good defense lawyer would have eaten you up, but it didn’t matter, you had him every other which way.’
‘I don’t like this, Ben.’
‘I’m not really asking for you to like it. The place is being remodeled. Go back and take a look yourself.’
‘I don’t need to. If she lied, then why did she lie?’
‘Because she knew Stoltz had killed her husband. She was supposed to back his mugger story and not only did she not do that, she came up with an eye witness account to help take him down.’
‘And you’re telling me we should have called her on that eye witness account?’
‘What I’m telling you is I stood at that window and I couldn’t see buying her story, and if I had to guess I’d say Stoltz who was in love with her at the time for his own reasons, took the plea bargain and didn’t start his attorney on her. And like you said, he would have gone down anyway. But somewhere later on he probably started dwelling on her lie.’
‘Stoltz had remnants of powder burns on his right hand.’
‘He cleaned his hands. He didn’t have enough on them. It wouldn’t have stood up and you and Ted knew it.’
‘He fired that gun. He should have told us he’d taken shots at the mugger.’
‘Oh, he killed John Reinert. That’s not the question. The question is why you believed she saw it. I know you. You stood at that window.’
‘You can see the parking lot clearly from that window. I can easily remember that.’
‘But you wouldn’t be able to make out who was who, and it was night. Stoltz knew she hadn’t seen it. He—’
‘How do you know that? You don’t know that.’
‘He started to write you letters. He was dwelling on her lie. He wrote about it. It’s in the letters to Whitacre that got filed, but you were more careful. You made sure you lost the letters. I’m betting he brought it up again and again to you.’
‘He killed the man, so what’s your point?’
‘This is what I’m seeing. He shot and killed Reinert, but if he hadn’t had the window testimony to dwell on he’d have only himself and Erin to think about.’
‘You can go fuck yourself, Raveneau. We did it exactly by the book.’
Raveneau got to his feet.
‘Those Oakland detectives were locked on you, but so you know, I never believed any of it, and I’m very sorry about Jacie.’
Raveneau walked out and his face felt flushed as he got out in the cooler air. He knew Bates would go back and look out that window, and he’d probably see