Vette’s history didn’t deter retired cop

Despite my fears, the infamous white Corvette that connected Spokane serial killer Robert Yates to one of his victims was not sold over the Internet to some sick freak with a yen for murder memorabilia.

The 1977 sports car was bought in a recent police auction by an ex-cop who loves vintage wheels and who knows a crazy good deal when he sees one.

“The guy did the crimes – this is just a medium of transportation,” said Ed Quist, adding that he has always wanted a Corvette and plans to keep it.

Spokane is such a small world.

I’ve known Quist since our teenage days at Ferris High School. He had a thing for fast cars and big block engines back then. Nothing much has changed in that department. The 52-year-old will soon open his own hot rod shop – Q’s Customs – in Post Falls.

As a retired Spokane police officer, Quist has the emotional resolve needed to accept the Yates Corvette as simply a rare gleaming machine with 16,723 original miles at time of purchase.

Most of us aren’t so logical.

The way Quist tells it, the car’s ick factor had an obvious effect on the sale.

A similar low-mileage Corvette in such pristine condition, he said, books for between $16,000 and $22,000.

Quist said he won the bid at about $4,000. He has spent another couple grand replacing the seats and upholstery that were removed for evidence in the case against Yates.

Few at the auction apparently wanted to take this cream puff home.

Or even touch it.

Quist said he watched people examine the Corvette by leaning forward on their toes with their hands at their sides.

The sign that was placed on the car didn’t exactly bolster buyer confidence:

“Vehicle acquired by Spokane County in connection with the investigation of one or more homicide case(s).”

The T-top headliners still bear a number of black felt pen circles that were drawn around spots where possible DNA evidence was suspected.

“I look at it as a car. I look at it as an investment,” Quist said. “It doesn’t scare me.”

I, too, consider myself a rational, nonsuperstitious kind of guy.

I don’t believe in haunted houses. The only evil auto I’ve heard of is the Plymouth Fury namesake of Stephen King’s novel “Christine.”

My brain tells me to focus my hatred and contempt on the real monster who once sat behind the wheel. While he owned the Corvette, Yates cruised Spokane’s seamier streets like a great white shark searching for prey.

Yates pleaded guilty in 2000 to murdering 13 women in Spokane. A Pierce County jury nailed him for two more killings and then sentenced him to death.

Many of Yates’ victims were sad women driven to peddle their flesh because of drug addiction and other misfortunes.

The Corvette supplied one of the critical clues that led to Yates’ downfall. A shirt button belonging to one of his victims was discovered in the car.

A friend saw the girl getting into the Corvette. Her body was found 10 days later.

She was just 16 years old.

I tried to block these things from my mind Tuesday morning when Quist took me for a ride in the Vette that is now his.

We cruised downtown Spokane and then took a short sprint out on the highway to Pullman. Back in the business core, Quist pulled over and handed me the keys. My turn.

Although I had never before driven a Corvette, it didn’t take me long to get a sense of the attraction. The low-slung vehicle corners like a race car. The raw power under the hood is amazing.

I didn’t experience any weird vibes during the ride. No feelings of dread overwhelmed me. But in the hours afterward, I realized I don’t have the detachment necessary to own an automobile with such a horrific history.

If my 1967 Vista Cruiser is connected to anything creepy, I don’t want to know.

Even Quist admitted to experiencing a fleeting moment of Corvette remorse.

“I thought, ‘Did I do the right thing in buying this?’ ” he told me. “Then I got it home and put in a new interior and I thought, ‘This is great!’ “