A Killing in China Basin - By Kirk Russell Page 0,86
a long drive and I want you to talk.’
‘Why don’t you just kill me here?’
‘Because I have a house for us; we’re going to live together. It’s in the mountains and very beautiful, the kind of place you’ll like.’
‘You’re kidnapping me, Cody. That’s what’s happening, and you’re going to kill me.’
‘No, I didn’t search for you to hurt you. I know you got scared that night. I know you did what you did because you were scared.’
‘You shot John.’
‘John got himself killed. He tried to shoot me first. He got his gun out and—’
‘And then you made up that lie.’
‘It was a mistake to have asked you to lie. I admit that.’ He turned and looked through the mesh again. ‘But what you did was worse.’
‘Just admit it, you shot John! You wrecked our lives!’
She yelled and he liked that. It was better to get it out now and get it done. She turned to look at her again and said, ‘I want to know everything about you. I want to know everything that’s happened to you.’
‘What happened is I had to get a new identity to hide from you. You shot John, then you made up a story to try to hide what you did, and when that didn’t work you blamed other people. But you want to know about my life. You want to play out this fantasy, OK, here’s my life, here’s how it’s been.’
It just spilled out of her and he knew she wanted to be with him again. He heard it in her voice. She told him about living in a cabin near a lake and then he told her about the mountains where they were going now.
‘It’s dry and remote but the there’s a creek and a beautiful canyon. There are coyotes and bobcats and some mountain lion. We’re going to start over.’
She didn’t say anything to that, but he meant it. There were three rooms for her, and later, in a year or so, if everything went well, if she was good, he’d let her out on a chain in the yard. There was the room she’d sleep in at night and where he’d visit her. He did not plan to ever tell her where she lived or ever let her talk to anyone else. Or at least not for a very long time and there was no landline phone or even a paved road yet. His cell phone didn’t even work up there. If he was away on a trip she would have the long chain and ankle bracelet, and no knives or anything she could hurt herself with. She would have food and the TV until he got back. The mail already came to the PO Box down in Brantley and there were no neighbors, just the dirt road and the locked gate and the signs warning trespassers.
She’d fall in love with him again. It was a matter of being together and having time, but first things had to be even. She had to make up for the five years he did in prison. She needed to know what it felt like to be locked up. That was important.
He checked the rear-view mirror. Not far from the freeway now and the long drive south. They would need to make a stop at the warehouse for supplies for her first few months, and then they would be on their way.
‘Did you like living at Bucks Lake?’
‘It’s was always pretty, but there wasn’t any real way to make any money and I was always afraid you were going to find me.’
Just like her to be so frank. That was the Erin he remembered and he smiled at that. For the first time it seemed like her.
‘You don’t have to watch out any more, and I took care of Lafaye too. She’s gone.’
‘You killed her?’
‘No, she jumped off my boat and drowned. I drove around looking for her but I couldn’t find her. She was looking for you. That’s how I found you. I found you through her. She told me you were going to meet her at Lake Merced. You were blackmailing her.’ He turned and smiled. ‘So I said I’d meet you instead.’
He thought that was kind of funny but she didn’t and started to cry.
‘Don’t cry. It would spoil everything and we have so many things to talk about.’
‘I’m not going to spoil anything. You were once all I had.’
She moved up to the mesh and he could smell her, the