but your film shows them right at the corner and you’re not in the film, so I guess like the car you’ve got it a little screwed up.’
‘They were already around the corner.’
‘There’s a way that could work and you tell me if I’m wrong. You were in the van when they went around the corner. You didn’t get out like you said. You filmed from the van.’
‘Now you’re getting it.’
‘And there were no lights on the building so you didn’t have much of a view.’
Heilbron smiled. ‘You’ll never catch him. He’ll do another one and another and another and another and you’ll never catch him.’
‘We might with your help. Can you describe the man at all?’
‘Did I say I saw a man?’
‘You did earlier.’
‘Do you really think I would help you?’
He laughed. He turned and looked at la Rosa.
‘Elizabeth, I don’t know how you got stuck with Inspector Clouseau, but I would still like to go out with you. I know we could have a lot of fun. Why don’t you ditch him and stay here tonight?’
La Rosa got to her feet. She spoke only to Raveneau, ‘See you outside.’
TWENTY-ONE
La Rosa was quiet as they drove away. Her fingers drummed on the seat and she squinted as they passed through some of the last of the day’s sunlight. She stared at a couple holding hands standing talking on a corner as they waited for the light to change.
‘There are a lot of things one can do with one’s life,’ she said. ‘There are people like Heilbron in the world, but the world isn’t about them. They’re the abnormals. Don’t you ever get sick of just being in the same room as someone like him? Do you ever wonder at your decision to spend your best years chasing the worst of humanity?’
‘It’s about justice and protecting people. It’s about speaking for the dead.’
‘Yeah, sure, all that, but we just came from Heilbron’s house. Do you know what it smelled like to me in there? It smelled like someone took a quart of vomit and heated it slowly on a stove for an hour in a tight space. I can barely stand to be around him, let alone sit in his living room. You wanted to go there and he took you up on your challenge. He pushed the taunting up a notch because we showed weakness by asking for his help. Or ostensibly asking for it, and that makes him feel stronger and it may make him more dangerous.’
‘He witnessed something.’
‘And he’s going to hold it over us forever. He’ll never tell us. He was there in his Stalker-mobile and saw them go in, and later put two and two together. Now he’s got information and he’s in control.’
‘He wants the dialogue. He wants to tell us.’
‘I don’t think so. I think he lives to fuck with us. I think I could waste my life talking to people like him, but I have another idea also, which is he did kill her and you’re right, he’s feeding us information gradually. He knew a search of his house and van would turn up nothing except for the video and the video would bring us back. But what’s your real feeling? What’s your gut? Are you after what he videotaped or after him?’
‘I think he’s still riding a thrill but with some regrets. If he had it to do over again, he probably wouldn’t come in and confess. He got all lit up the night of the murder and chatted up the responding officers, but it’s probably vicarious. He wishes it were him and has fantasized about killing a woman in that way, and when this live action came along he couldn’t resist claiming it.’
‘That’s what you said before, but now you’re working him for what he saw. Are you hoping he’ll make a mistake? And what about the fact his key worked in the padlock?’
‘Looks like a lot of people can get into the building.’
La Rosa didn’t believe that. Her fingers returned to drumming on the seat.
Early the next morning Raveneau fielded a call from a woman who said she was calling because she’d just seen the sketch of their China Basin victim and recognized her as someone she used to work with at a pottery wholesaler in Hollister. She gave a name, Alex Jurika. Raveneau got the caller’s name, phone number, and place of work. He thanked her and said he’d try to come see her today.
Then he ran Alex