A Killing in China Basin - By Kirk Russell Page 0,84

me.’

‘Who did she sell your identity to?’

‘A woman named Deborah Lafaye. She started and runs this international charity and I don’t really know what she’s done with my name. But I wanted to know who was buying it. I’ve never met her but you can google her name and come up with a lot. I thought it was perfect because I figured she was traveling a lot and would leave a trail that went everywhere. When I gave Alex the go-ahead I wanted it to go to someone who needed it for a good purpose. I was thinking of a woman hiding from an abusive ex-husband, but she found Lafaye in a chat room and after she’d gone back and forth with her, Lafaye made it clear she would only use it in foreign countries and that I should never make contact with her, so I haven’t.’

She seemed unaware that Jurika had worked for Lafaye and they left it that way. Maybe Jurika thought that would blow the deal so hadn’t told her. Or maybe she had other motives.

‘How much were you paid for it?’ Raveneau asked.

‘Five thousand dollars.’

‘And then you became someone else?’

‘Yes. Alex got me a new identity.’

Raveneau wrote down $5000, drew a dash and left a zero standing by itself. Lafaye had told them she’d paid fifty thousand dollars to Alex Jurika for the name. Jurika may have pocketed the balance.

‘Do you know if Alex had any continuing contact with Deborah Lafaye?’

‘No, but I didn’t talk to Alex much after that. I had made up my mind to disappear. I think it was probably more than a year before I talked to her again.’

Raveneau accepted that Erin felt she had to come forward now. He understood that. But it felt like something was still missing in her confession. That she had lied to Whitacre and Bates said plenty about her. He was weighing that as well.

Unprompted now, she said, ‘I know how wrong what I did was, but it doesn’t change anything. Cody still killed John.’

Raveneau nodded. ‘We know he did.’ He paused and added, ‘Inspector la Rosa and I are going to step outside for a few minutes.’

‘I don’t want to be left alone in here.’

‘Have you been in an interview room before, Erin?’

‘Yes, I was arrested twice when I was nineteen.’

And once when you were twenty-two, but all three were out of state and we haven’t been able to get the prints, which was what he wanted to talk to la Rosa about. He told her again they’d be back in a few minutes.

Outside, he told la Rosa, ‘I think we ask her for her fingerprints so we can confirm she is Erin Quinn. Then we’ll run her prints and see what happens. But we don’t want to stop her from talking, and it seems to me she’s getting more skittish. But I also think she’s holding something still. What do you think?’

‘I agree.’

‘If we press her about the name she’s living under now she may want to walk out. She’s not going to give us her current alias. Let’s leave that alone for the moment.’

On the screen they saw her start to move around. She looked agitated and Raveneau said, ‘Keep her here. I’m going to run to the bathroom and I’ll be right back.’

Raveneau was standing at the urinal when his cell rang.

‘She walked. She’s at the elevator. Do I let her go down?’

His voice echoed in the bathroom.

‘Stay with her. She needs a ride back to her car so give it to her and I’ll follow.’

La Rosa dropped her on a corner in China Basin and reported that Quinn wouldn’t let her take her to her car.

‘I’ve got her, I see her,’ Raveneau said. ‘She’s walked back up to Third Street and looks like she’s going to cross.’

But it was another forty-five minutes before Quinn unlocked a white Enterprise rental car. He watched her pull away and then trailed her. Ten minutes later he read off the license plate to la Rosa. It took la Rosa another fifteen to find out the car was rented yesterday afternoon in Sacramento by a Corinne Maher.

‘That’s got to be her identity,’ la Rosa said. ‘They required her to show a driver’s license. I’m running Corinne Maher through DMV. Where is she now?’

‘About to cross Van Ness and driving a little erratically, a little bit of speed up and slowdown, but not watching her rear-view mirror, in fact, she’s hardly looking in it. It shouldn’t be