A Killing in China Basin

TWENTY-SEVEN


They took an outdoor table at the coffee house in the mall across from the ferry landing. The table was in sunlight, the fall morning pleasant. When the coffees came Lafaye didn’t touch hers.

‘Alex worked for me in 1997 after I started the foundation. She was very good at getting people to pledge money, and I don’t mean the rich or the corporate, but the average person. She had that touch. She could get a guy who couldn’t make his rent to give a hundred dollars. I would sit in a chair sometimes and just listen to her on the phone trying to figure out why she was so successful at it.’

She watched Raveneau now as she added, ‘I still see her about once a year.’ She touched her face. ‘Or I did. I really am in shock over this.’

‘I understand.’

‘I hope you do. I saw her a week ago, Tuesday or Wednesday. She wanted to pitch an idea to me so I went over to her apartment to have a glass of wine and listen.’

‘Was it a good idea?’

‘Oh, yes, and many of her ideas were great ideas, but I would never consider bringing Alex back into the foundation.’ She reached across the table and touched his arm. ‘I don’t want to say anything bad about Alex.’ She looked up suddenly. ‘You haven’t told me how she died.’

‘She was strangled in an empty building in China Basin. What did she pitch you?’

‘Strangled. What was she doing there?’

‘We don’t know yet.’

‘She said she was moving to Phoenix. She proposed setting up a facility there for my foundation. Her idea was to consolidate all the monthly pledges made all over the world via credit cards. She wanted me to hire her to oversee that aspect and run it from Arizona.’

‘Was she qualified?’

‘Well, it’s funny you ask that because she was the farthest thing from the type you’d expect to run something like that, but I’d say she was way above the level of your basic MBA. She was remarkable with numbers. She could have organized anything numerical.’

‘But you were reluctant to pursue the idea with her.’

‘Is that what we’re here to talk about?’

‘No, but we have questions about how she earned a living, so anything you can tell me helps.’

‘She only talked about this idea of a consolidated credit facility. We had our yearly glass of wine and I left town the next day. I didn’t get home until yesterday so maybe that’s how I missed hearing that she’d been killed.’

‘Where did you go?’

‘Washington. Do you want the names of the senators I met with?’

He thought about that a moment. ‘Sure.’ He wrote down their names.

‘Why wouldn’t you rehire her?’

‘I’d rather not discuss that.’

‘Then let me say this, we believe she may have been involved in a credit card theft ring.’

Lafaye shook her head. She looked dismayed. She looked past him.

‘When she left us the foundation received complaints regarding credit card charges. Obviously, if it had tied to Alex I wouldn’t have been drinking wine with her a week ago, but it was a factor in not talking her out of resigning. A private investigator suspected her. I decided to keep the friendship but never mix it with business again.’

La Rosa walked up now, took her sunglasses off, introduced herself and handed Lafaye a card. Lafaye looked surprised, even nervous that a second inspector had showed up.

‘I’m pleased to meet you,’ Lafaye said to la Rosa, ‘but I’m afraid I’m out of time. I wish I knew more about Alex’s life. I’m truly sick at heart that she was killed and I’d like to do anything I can to help you catch her murderer, but I have no idea how to help. But please call me if you think I can.’

‘Before you go I want to say I’m a great admirer of your foundation,’ la Rosa said. ‘You’ve really made a difference.’

‘I hope to continue to. I appreciate you saying that.’

She stood and picked up her purse but left la Rosa’s card on the table. The inspectors stood as well and Raveneau said, ‘I need to take a couple of notes.’ He opened his notebook with la Rosa alongside him now as a witness. ‘Did you say it was a week ago Wednesday that you were with Alex Jurika in her apartment?’

‘I believe it was Wednesday but it may have been Tuesday. You can double-check my memory of it being Wednesday by finding the tenant in her apartment complex that just had back surgery. I rode up the elevator with him and we chatted about his surgery. You might try him.’

‘Did you call her before coming by?’

‘We had set it up a month or so before. She was in touch with my secretary. I can ask him. What am I missing here, Inspector? Why does it matter how we organized a glass of wine?’

‘So far you’re the only person we know of who was in communication with her just before she was murdered.’

‘And, again, I’ll do everything I can to help, but please reassure me you aren’t even vaguely imagining that I know something about her murder.’

‘I thought we had covered that.’

‘Well, it’s the way you’re asking things, and this business of opening your notebook as we’re getting ready to say goodbye.’

‘I’m a great admirer,’ la Rosa said. ‘Honestly, I just wanted to meet you.’

Lafaye’s cell rang and as she retrieved it she said, ‘You’ve heard my phone ring while we’ve been here. Hasn’t it rung at least ten times?’

It probably had.

‘That’s what my life is like,’ she said as she looked at the screen but didn’t answer.

‘You must be so organized,’ la Rosa said.

‘No, I’m the opposite but I have people around me who are very efficient.’ She turned her attention back to Raveneau. ‘It was Wednesday because Thursday I was on a plane to London. If I had to guess, I’d say I left her apartment at around seven thirty. I’ll try to remember more before we speak again.’

This time as her phone rang she answered it and waved goodbye as she walked off.

‘Now what?’ la Rosa asked.

‘We go back and regroup. She’s hiding something.’

They went back to the homicide office and Raveneau got a call from Lieutenant Becker.

‘There are a couple of Oakland detectives who’d like to talk to you today,’ Becker said. ‘Are you available?’

‘Are they named Hendricks and Stalos?’

‘Yes.’

‘Tell them to come to the office. I’m here with Elizabeth following up on a new lead on the China Basin killing.’

‘Stay there. I’ll be coming in too. The Oakland detectives have new questions about Bates. They want your opinion. They’re wondering why he doubled the life insurance payout on his wife three months ago.’

‘Is that right?’

‘That’s what they claim.’

Forty minutes later Becker arrived. The Oakland inspectors were right behind him. They were all charged up and it was written large on their faces. They had it all figured out.