A Killing in China Basin - Kirk Russell [104]
Cody Stoltz died that same morning and late in the afternoon Lafaye’s lawyer called, and she and the lawyer came to the homicide office. There, she recounted the extortion in detail and told of her anguish and suffering, explaining that the risk to the foundation’s credibility had been too great for her to come forward.
She brought a record of almost all the payments she’d made.
‘I don’t have the very earliest,’ she said. ‘I paid those with cash I had saved.’
‘How much were they?’
‘Too much, and I don’t like to think about those first ones. I’ve blocked them from my memory.’
‘Do you think an audit of the foundation’s books would turn them up?’
She smiled at him. She said, ‘You and I are alike. You say just what you’re thinking, but to answer your question, no, I don’t think an audit will ever turn up anything.’
Raveneau didn’t either, but he held her gaze for a while. It rained most of that night but by dawn, when Raveneau went out to the Guadalcanal Memorial, the rain had stopped. He laid flowers at the base of the memorial for the men his father had served with and for Chris, and then stood near the front of the bow section looking out at the ocean. When the sun broke through the water turned from gray to green-blue. He watched a line of pelicans fly from shadow into sunlight and work their way south.
He knew the city would remember the story of Cody Stoltz and those he murdered, but few would remember Alex Jurika or Erin Quinn. Lafaye’s star would continue to rise. She was already walking with celebrities and showing up on bigger TV talk shows. But there was a reason the boy pushed from the helicopter haunted her and maybe her missing fingernails were to remind her not of the evil out there but within, and to keep her focused on what she wanted to be.
And maybe that’s where redemption lies, in what we someday could become. He touched the flowers, felt their soft petals between his fingers, then pressed his palm against the cold steel of the memorial and held it there a long moment before walking back to his car.
Table of Contents
Cover
Further Titles from Kirk Russell
A Killing in China Basin
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four