A Killing in China Basin - By Kirk Russell Page 0,83

kneeling next to John who was lying between two cars in this little back parking lot. He was alive. He might not have died. He was having a very hard time breathing, but he was breathing. He was still alive and we didn’t do anything. Cody leaned over him and he told me what to say about a mugger. If John was conscious he heard it. It was that horrible and you should arrest me, but at least I don’t have to hold it inside any more.’

‘Did Cody ask if you’d seen the shooting?’

‘No, he just told me what to say, and there’s something else I have to tell you. I had nothing to do with John getting murdered, but I did lie afterwards and that’s why Cody has looked for me all these years. He knows I lied.’

‘Let’s go back to the conversation with Cody after John was on the ground shot. What did Cody tell you to do?’

‘He said to tell the police there was a mugger who’d tried to rob them and had shot John and run, and that no matter what to stick with that story.’

‘Did he tell you he’d shot John?’

‘Yes, and he wanted me to get the story right. He was holding the gun he’d shot John with and I was supposed to call 911 and tell the police that he had gone looking for the killer. He said he’d turn up after crashing his car.’

Her voice broke. A gasp came out of her as she said, ‘And then John died. He was telling all this to me in a whisper as John was trying to breath. If I’d run and called 911, maybe he would have lived.’ Tears ran down her face. ‘He made this noise, this sort of sound from his lungs and then he died, and Cody looked at me and said, “He’s over with. He doesn’t exist any more. You don’t ever have to think about him again.” Those were his exact words.’

Her shoulders shook as she wept.

‘I am so sorry. I so wish it had never happened. I wish it had been me. I wish everything that came after never happened. It should have been me instead of John. It should have been me.’

Raveneau waited, then asked quietly, ‘And you didn’t see the shooting?’

‘No.’

‘Is there something more to tell us about that?’

She wept uncontrollably before saying, ‘Yes.’

FIFTY-EIGHT

They brought her back to the homicide office and she made her statement in an interview room.

‘I wasn’t at the window. I never saw Cody shoot him. I was outside on the landing. But everything else was true. Cody shot John and there wasn’t any mugger.’

‘Are you telling us you lied to Inspectors Whitacre and Bates about what you witnessed?’ Raveneau asked.

She nodded and after a pause said, ‘Yes, I lied. I couldn’t do what Cody wanted.’

‘Did Cody know you didn’t see the shooting?’

‘Yes, he knew. When I came down I asked him over and over, what happened, what happened, and he told me John had gotten his gun out and shot at him. The shot missed and he was able to get his own gun out of the glove compartment. He said he didn’t shoot until John raised the gun and started to aim at him. Right after that he asked me, what did you see, and I remember saying, I didn’t see anything, I only heard the shots. I came down because I knew they were gunshots and John had been talking about getting his gun out of the car. I knew something very bad had happened.’

‘How did Cody respond when you told him you hadn’t seen anything?’

‘He said I did see and it was a mugger. He said listen closely because I’m going to tell you what you saw. He was completely calm and John wasn’t even dead yet. He said, this is what we’re going to tell people. There was a mugger.’

She recounted a long back and forth dialogue about the mugger who’d stepped out of the bushes when John and Cody were arguing, and then said, ‘I talked to Alex a lot afterwards but I never told her I’d lied to make sure Cody got locked up. I said I was afraid of him and wanted a new identity, and Alex got me one. She sold my real name and info that goes with it. It seemed like a great idea since I knew Cody wouldn’t hurt whoever bought it. He might question them, but they wouldn’t know