A Killing in China Basin

FIFTY-SIX


Three hours earlier, Lafaye didn’t know her own name. Now she spoke in a forceful if hoarse whisper, her eyes fixed on Raveneau.

‘I’m not afraid of anyone. I publish the names of known traffickers on my website and push the police, and lobby the UN and aid groups. Young men in poor areas are selling their kidneys for eight thousand dollars and I go after those buying.’

Sunlight slanted through the window to her right. High on the wall beyond her feet a TV blared. A nurse came and went. She went on about her foundation and Raveneau read it as stalling, as obfuscation. She didn’t want to talk about how she came to be on a boat with Stoltz. She was fine talking about how he tried to kill her, but not why she was there in the first place.

He found the TV remote and killed the sound as la Rosa went to retrieve a photo of Stoltz they’d left in their car. She shut the door and Raveneau was alone with Lafaye. Until they’d arrived Lafaye hadn’t given the hospital staff her last name, and as he asked her about that she coughed hard and brought a knee up as she rolled away and reached for Kleenex. The sheet slid off exposing her naked back and ass. When she rolled on to her back again she looked at his eyes, gauging him as she said, ‘Sorry, somewhere in the night I lost my clothes.’

‘You must be a pretty good swimmer.’

‘I broke the girls’ breaststroke records in high school, but that was a long time ago and I swallowed a lot of water last night. I don’t like the taste of the sea as much as I used to and I’ve never been so glad to crawl on my knees over rocks.’

‘How did you come to meet Stoltz on a boat on a dock in San Francisco?’

‘He proposed the meeting in an email, though I didn’t know it was him, obviously. I’ve corresponded in a chat room with a person who turned out to be him. That’s because I’ve searched for Erin Quinn. He’s also looking for her and somehow learned that I was Alex’s friend, and that’s probably where he got the idea I knew where the real Quinn is.’

She coughed again and her face reddened as she tried to suppress it, then gave up and spat whatever it was into the Kleenex. She was weaker after that bout. The nurse had warned Lafaye had gotten some water in her lungs. The worry was pneumonia. They didn’t think she could talk for long. Other than the cough, it seemed to Raveneau she was doing pretty good.

‘Inspector, I don’t want your partner shoving a photo in my face, so when she gets back I’d appreciate it if you’d slow her. What’s she doing working anyway? I thought she got shot.’

‘The bullet grazed her.’

‘She’s pretty tough.’

‘So are you.’

‘You bet I am.’

‘You said he wrote you an email. I’d like you to forward those emails to me.’

‘I have to talk with my attorney first.’

‘Why is that?’

‘To make sure I’m not overlooking anything. When will you press kidnapping and attempted murder charges? He tried to run me over with the boat.’

She lifted an arm and as she did the door opened and la Rosa walked back in.

‘I knew he would try to run me over. I dove under the boat. That’s not luck. Then I swam toward lights. I swim nearly every day at a club and I don’t think the distance is much different, and it really wasn’t any colder than the workouts used to feel. I’m tired though, very tired. It’s all I can do to talk to you.’

‘We understand and we’re going to let you sleep. We’ll leave soon, but a few more things first. I went to your office this morning. Remember, we were going to meet.’

‘Oh, yes, of course,’ but her attention was on la Rosa now. ‘Let me see the photo,’ she said, and la Rosa showed her six photos. She pointed at Stoltz immediately.

‘Your office was broken into. Is there something there Stoltz might want to steal?’

‘I don’t think so, but I believe he intends to kill Erin Quinn when he finds her.’

She coughed hard again. When she finished Raveneau asked, ‘Did he say that?’

‘No.’

‘Did he have reason from the emails you’ve exchanged with him to think you knew where she was?’

‘None that I can think of, and clearly I had no idea this person I’ve talked to online for years was this man you’re looking for.’

‘You drove there. You boarded the boat, but you didn’t know it was Cody Stoltz until you were out on the water?’

‘He hid his features.’

‘Like a spy,’ la Rosa offered. ‘He fooled you.’

She smiled at la Rosa, as though smiling at a mildly amusing comment by a child. Raveneau bored in.

‘So this guy was in a disguise and you went for a boat ride with him anyway?’

Lafaye stared, debated, and then said, ‘Correct. For years I’ve exchanged email messages with an unknown someone who had a grudge against Erin Quinn. Online he said she’d stolen thousands of dollars from him. I had the impression they’d planned to get married and she’d cleaned out a joint bank account and run off. Neither of us revealed our true identities, so it wasn’t strange to me that he’d want to keep hiding his on the boat.’

‘You didn’t know who he was, but you figured you were OK to take a boat ride with him.’

‘All right, Ben, I’ll plead guilty to being stupid or eager, or whatever it is you want to charge me with, except anything criminal, which I’m not guilty of. Frankly, I’m lucky to be alive.’

‘We’re glad you’re alive and I’m sure it was very frightening.’

‘Why don’t you find him first and then we’ll talk about the emails.’

They talked another twenty minutes with her and then left unsure if kidnapping could be filed today. As they passed Lafayette on the drive back, Raveneau looked at the field of white crosses on the face of a hill to his right. There were many crosses bright in sunlight on the hillside.

‘What’s that about?’ la Rosa asked.

‘They’re a reminder and a memorial for soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s a cross for each one.’

They lost the sun as they came back through the Caldecott Tunnel to the bay side. Gray clouds sat at horizon.

‘Looks like rain,’ Raveneau said, and then took a call from the office.

‘Inspector, a woman called for you a few minutes ago and said she had new information on the John Reinert murder. Do you want her phone number?’

‘The John Reinert murder?’ La Rosa turned her head immediately. ‘Yes, give me the number.’

When he hung up, la Rosa said, ‘That’s probably another kook, another nut feeding on all this. Why is it the kooks all come here?’

‘Goes back to the Gold Rush, I think. San Francisco was where you went to start all over again. I’m going to call the number.’

He did and a woman answered. She said softly but with some irony, ‘I thought that would get your attention.’

‘John Reinert died thirteen years ago,’ Raveneau said. ‘What can you tell me?’

‘Thirteen years, two months, and sixteen days, but I don’t really keep track like that any more.’

Then he knew. He reached for a pen and something to write on.

‘In those days I was Erin Reinert.’

‘Where are you now, Erin?’

‘In San Francisco, here to talk to you and your partner.’

‘And we’d very much like to talk to you. Can you meet us at the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street?’

‘No, I want to meet you in China Basin. I want you to show me where Alex Jurika died.’

‘Did you know Alex Jurika?’

‘Once, I knew her very well.’

‘We’ll meet you in China Basin. We’ll be there in fifteen minutes.’

He gave her the address and hung up.