A Killing in China Basin - By Kirk Russell Page 0,23

pick it up this afternoon?’

Raveneau nodded. ‘Tell them we’ll come get it right now.’

EIGHTEEN

After the ride Stoltz drank a beer with the two patent attorneys he regularly cycled with. They’d pushed it this afternoon. It was good ride, just under two hours. The bikes were loaded and they’d taken over one of the picnic tables outside Guthrie’s, a local haunt where they always parked before riding the loop. Not that he saw these guys that often, maybe once a month. Usually, he rode alone. It felt good now though to lose the helmet and kick back together in the last sunlight with a beer.

Both Jonathan and Steve were in tight physical shape, same as he was, middle-aged guys but eating up much younger riders and having fun with that. But among the three of them, Stoltz easily dominated. He was just stronger.

Stoltz saw their expressions change as he said, ‘I’ve never talked about this with you guys because I’ve wanted to bury it and forget it ever happened to me, but now I’m going to ask your advice.’

Neither responded, wariness entering as he fucked everything up by bringing personal problems to the after-ride beer. Stoltz started with Steve who at least looked curious and was also the softest so easiest to get to.

‘You guys know I went to prison. Obviously, you know that. I had this good friend named John Reinert, a software engineer, a great one. You both would have liked him. He married a woman named Erin he’d only known for about three months.’

‘Bad news,’ Jonathan said.

‘You got that right, and I was best man at the wedding. She moved into his apartment in San Francisco and the three of us hung out a lot together. Then sometime in the spring she fell in love with me, only I didn’t really know it. I mean, I knew she was attracted, but hey, all women are attracted to me.’

Jonathan and Steve chuckled.

‘The night John got killed we’d gone back to their apartment, and I don’t know how well you guys know San Francisco—’

‘I read about it,’ Jonathan said. ‘We both googled you before we started riding with you.’

‘Right, you didn’t want to fuck up your careers, but now that I’m back there’s a pretty good chance I’m going to come up with some stuff that makes you some money. So you talked it over with your wives. Yeah, I’ve got you guys figured out.’

This time they giggled like little girls. Stoltz smiled.

‘Want me to shut up?’

‘No, keep going,’ Jonathan said.

‘OK, well, everything you read was wrong, or almost all of it, and I had a real hard time dealing with that. It took me a long time to get my head on straight.’

‘But you took a plea bargain,’ Steve said.

‘I did, but the way they set it up you don’t really have much choice. The DA’s office isn’t there for justice. They’re just about putting points on the board. Anyway, back to that night. I’d just broken off a long relationship and wasn’t seeing anybody, and that was probably part of the problem with Erin the night John got killed. She thought I was available.’

‘But she was married,’ Steve said, and got a little prim look on his face.

‘Young man, it happens even when they’re married.’

Jonathan laughed hard at that and Steve looked away. But Stoltz needed both of them.

‘She was awesome,’ Stoltz said, ‘but she was married to my best friend so I avoided ever being alone with her. That night we went back to their apartment after dinner. Erin had some great tequila she’d bought in Mexico and some good dope.’

As soon as he said dope, he knew he’d made a slight miscalculation. He saw a little twitch under Jonathan’s right eye and remembered Jonathan had a problem with marijuana.

‘She and John liked to get high, but I don’t do any drugs, so I went down to my car to get something after they lit up. I had a BMW in those days, an M5—’

‘What color?’

With the car he had Jonathan back, nodding at him, ready to cut in with his own car story.

‘Dark blue.’

‘I bet you thought you were some hot shit.’

‘I did, and I wasn’t.’

‘I had one of those too.’

‘Did you?’

‘Same car.’

‘No wonder we’re riding together. Anyway, I was a geek with new money.’

They both smiled. They saw a lot of guys get self-important when they hit it big.

‘If I hadn’t gone to my car, none of it would have happened.’ He stopped there and