Re: Shirt Pieces
Norse wrote:QT: The shirt business is clearly puzzling. But I personally don't think Z had planned in advance to a) hail a cab, b) have the driver take him to a quite spot, c) kill him and d) take a piece of his shirt.
If this had been his plan, why Presidio Heights? Smack in the middle of a residential area? Nice and quiet neighborhood, certainly, but still - there would have been MANY places which would have suited this plan better, even locations within the same general area. Secondly, he would have brought along a pair of scissors for the job. He didn't, though - the shirt was TORN off, not cut.
I think some of the Stine elements were happenstance. To a certain extent Z improvised. The idea to grab a piece of Stine's shirt may have occurred to him there and then.
The whole business of wiping down the cab is troubling too, by the way. If he planned the attack carefully, he surely wouldn't have left prints all over the place which needed wiping. The wiping down part seems to suggest two possibilities to me: 1) He didn't plan to kill Stine in just that fashion. Part of it was planned, part of it was happenstance and/or a blunder of some kind. 2) He was telling the truth in his letter. He WAS leaving "fake clews" of one kind or another.
The whole "wiping down the cab" bit certainly flies in the face of his whole airplane-glue-on-the-fingertips hoohah.
The shirt makes all the sense in the world as a trophy. The keys and his wallet aren't quite as piquant as a bloodstained shirt. He obviously planned on doing something with a gun, since he had it on him. Maybe he skulked around SF for a while with that gun in his pocket waiting for that feeling that it was right, that it was time. Which is a terrifying thought.
I have always wondered if perhaps he didn't leave his car at some distance simply because parking in SF SUCKS. Its the WORST place I have been for parking.