A Killing in China Basin - By Kirk Russell Page 0,40
don’t you tell me why you’re here? I understand that Bates doubled the life insurance on his wife three months ago, or you think he did. So start there.’
Hendricks stepped in on that one, saying emphatically, ‘He did double it.’
‘Here’s what we have,’ Stalos said. ‘We’ve got a significant bump in the life insurance coverage on both Charles and Jacie Bates that was done six months ago, not three months. That’s unusual for a man with heart and prostate problems and a police pension to pay for it. It ramped their payments way up. Jacie had her own medical troubles, and then there’s the girlfriend thing. Bates has been seeing a younger woman who works for the Alameda DA. We got a tip about that and it checked out. So now we’re wondering what we’ve got.’
‘Who bumped the insurance coverage?’
‘Jacie Bates did, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t talk her into it.’
‘Go on.’
‘He missed the walk that night and neighbors say he was pretty good about making the walks with her. He didn’t miss many of them.’
‘But he missed some or did you find a neighbor keeping track on a calendar?’
‘We know they mostly walked together.’
‘He was home when the pickup burned. How do you explain that?’
‘He had her hit. Hired somebody to run her down and burn the truck. It has started to look like a different investigation. So we’re here to talk to you. Did he have a girl on the side when he worked the detail here?’
‘Not that I ever heard about.’
‘Did he ever talk about problems with his marriage?’
‘Not to me and I always had the impression that he and Jacie were very close. My wife and I divorced years ago. I used to look at Bates and think he had a really strong, good thing with Jacie.’
‘Do you want to hear the whole wild ass theory?’
‘Go ahead.’
‘OK, Bates killed his former partner so that he could then kill his wife and make it look like Stoltz did it. He knew Whitacre would talk to other people about being followed and he saw an opportunity. Stoltz wouldn’t know where the key was under the flagstone in Whitacre’s backyard, but Bates did. He told us he did. His old partner was starting to have Stoltz sightings, and was dying anyway, so he starts thinking about a way to free Whitacre from his cancer and deal Jacie out of the game so he can be with his girlfriend.’
Hendricks held up his left hand, the fingers long and thin as a pianist’s. ‘How many days has it been since Jacie was killed?’ He counted them off on his fingers. ‘Damn if I can’t almost count them on one hand. He was with the girlfriend last night. What’s that say about his grief?’
He waved his hand as if erasing everything said.
‘But we admit we don’t know much yet and obviously we don’t want our theory to be right.’
‘I can tell how.’
‘No, I mean it, Raveneau. We’d like to be wrong on this. That’s why we’re looking to you. We want you to prove we’ve got our heads up our asses.’
‘Maybe I can help you with that part either way.’
That got a smile from Hendricks.
‘You say he never mentioned this girlfriend to you and you don’t know him as a man with girls on the side.’
‘That’s true.’
‘What do you think about him spending the night with the girlfriend this close to Jacie’s death? We haven’t even released the body.’
‘It surprises me, but I don’t know what he’s feeling and having a girlfriend doesn’t mean he killed his wife.’
He felt both watching him and then it was Hendricks who put the question to him.
‘If we need it, would you be willing to wear a wire?’
‘No.’
‘What if we have solid proof?’
‘If you’ve got that kind of proof, arrest him.’
They didn’t like that and it kind of quietened the room. Raveneau figured they must have been counting on selling the wire idea.
‘We’ve got some questions we want you to ask him. We think you’re the one to talk to him since you’re the one with the Whitacre murder investigation, and you and your partner are looking at this Cody Stoltz. We think Bates will want to know what you learn and monitor your progress.’
Raveneau didn’t answer.
TWENTY-NINE
Raveneau didn’t inform the Oakland detectives, nor had Becker, but for the past two days an undercover team from San Francisco’s Special Investigation Division, SID, had covered Stoltz. Right now, a black limo was in the driveway with the