A Killing in China Basin - By Kirk Russell Page 0,6
I’m thinking about it. About your other questions, let me talk to my attorney and get back to you on who I’ve showed the building to. I’m not sure it’s ethical to provide a list. Some of these clients aren’t going to like a call from the police, let alone a homicide detective. You have to understand that if a prostitute breaks into the building at night there’s not much we can do. We’ve got a ten foot fence up with razor wire on top and “No Trespassing” signs posted everywhere.’
Raveneau learned now what he’d suspected last night, that the ‘For Lease’ sign was up only to demonstrate to the Port Authority and the city that the owners were serious about utilizing the property. That it had no power and smelled of rat droppings and human urine, and that the homeless, runaways, and drug users treated it as a hostel, or that prostitutes in the area were familiar with the building but avoided it because it wasn’t clean enough, that didn’t matter. The investors were playing a longer game that required a certain kind of negotiation with the Port Authority.
Raveneau was still on the phone with the realtor when Lieutenant Becker came to get him.
‘You’ve got a walk-in. There’s a man named Carl Heilbron in the second interview room. He says he’s here to see you and la Rosa about your China Basin victim. He claims to have information and knows you and la Rosa are assigned the case.’
‘When did he get here?’
‘Five minutes ago.’
Raveneau followed Becker to the interview room where they’d parked the guy. He looked like he was in his early thirties with long pencil-thin sideburns and short hair. Black shirt, canvas pants, lime-green tennis shoes, an ornate red tattoo on his right forearm, dressed like an artist but doing auto body work. A Diet Coke sat on the table in front of him and he stared at his right hand resting on the table near the Coke as if it was a phone and he was waiting for it to ring. Physical energy and nervousness emanated from him. He glanced up at the glass several times and brought the hand on the table down to his knee as his knee jiggled, then looked abruptly up at the glass again and smiled, as if spotting Raveneau and Becker standing there.
‘Looks like a nice normal guy,’ Becker said.
‘Let’s keep him in there while I find la Rosa.’
SIX
Raveneau and la Rosa studied Carl Heilbron through the one-way glass and Raveneau made sure the audio and video feeds were working before they went in. Heilbron focused immediately on la Rosa, showing her a face that was pleasant and attentive as he said, ‘I killed her.’
Raveneau hadn’t even sat down yet. He slid a chair out and asked, ‘Who did you kill?’
‘The one in the building in China Basin and I don’t know her name. I never asked her name. I picked her up on Eddy Street. She was there with a couple of other whores. I offered her forty bucks, and after she got in the van I told her we were going to a building I know and that I wanted special sex. But she had a big problem with that. I freaked her out.’
‘What’s special sex?’ la Rosa asked softly.
‘Come on, Elizabeth, I know you know what I mean.’
‘Inspector la Rosa,’ she said, ‘and I don’t know what you mean. I need you to explain to me.’
It meant binding her wrists and ankles and slipping a piece of wire, not rope, around her neck. He told them he had a key to the padlock at the front gate but evaded telling them how he got the key. Kept answering, ‘It’s just a common Master Lock.’ He claimed he used the building another time with a young girl, a runaway he’d picked up, and gotten drunk before having sex with her. He talked about driving through the city at night. He liked to drive around at night. He talked about his job at Boyle’s Auto Body Shop and then touched the side of his neck and turned to Raveneau.
‘Would you mind getting me another Coke?’
Raveneau got him the Coke. When he returned Heilbron had shifted slightly in his chair so he faced la Rosa more directly. He licked his lower lip. He frowned as he explained.
‘I told her I was going to cut off her wind for a little while, then release the wire again, but she didn’t want