A Killing in China Basin - Kirk Russell [58]
The waiter returned now with the check. She waited until he left before saying, ‘Now it’s time for your guess.’
Raveneau put down his water glass. He made sure he had eye contact and he saw the tiny flinch at the corner of her eyes as he said, ‘Her name is Erin Quinn. She returned to her maiden name after the murder of her husband. The man she’s afraid of is Cody Stoltz and you’re seeing his name in the news so much it’s making you nervous.’
Now she looked like she’d been slapped, but she covered it well, smiling, her eyes lighting up, grabbing the check, laughing as she said, ‘Wow, I insist on buying. How did you do that?’
‘I’ve got a feeling you have more to tell me. Now would be a good time. Why don’t you come to our office?’
‘Not today, Inspector, and I think I’ve told you everything now.’ She smiled at him. ‘I am impressed.’
From the car Raveneau called la Rosa.
‘How was lunch with Ms Goodworks?’
‘She wanted to tell me about the name and identity she sometimes uses in other countries where it’s not safe to use her own name. She must have felt like she had to get a jump on us.’
‘Let me guess, Florence Nightingale.’
‘No, the former Mrs Reinert, Stoltz’s lover, Erin Quinn. See you in a few minutes.’
FORTY
The private investigator was an ex-Riverside cop named Blake Fame that Stoltz’s mother had hired ahead of the trip to Los Angeles. She told him cost was always an issue, but keeping track of Cody came first. So obviously, mom was worried. No one at the table said anything to Fame about not coming to them before now, although Fame took a moment to try to cover his ass.
‘She had her lawyer fax me a stack of papers to sign before she hired me and she’ll sue me into the grave if she finds out I’ve come to you. I got sued once before. I don’t want to go through that again. I’m violating client confidentiality by talking to you, and I’m going to ask one favor.’
‘What’s that?’ Raveneau asked.
‘That you get my GPS unit back for me. He stuck it on the bottom of a CHP car.’
Everyone laughed. No one at table would ever try to recover his GPS for him, except maybe Raveneau, but only so he could get him alone and tell him what he thought about him not coming forward sooner.
‘He made a couple of stops for gas and food and then stopped at a state park. I’ve got a map; I’ll show you where he stopped.’
He unfolded the map and tapped on the park’s location.
‘I thought maybe he had something hidden there.’
‘In the park?’
‘Sure, he walked up a trail. Tell me why he’d be doing that on a drive north from LA? He’d disappeared so I got under his vehicle and attached a GPS unit. He must have seen me. He stopped at a shopping mall, detached it, and put it on a CHP cruiser. I didn’t figure that out until I started tailing the highway patrol officer. He was out on Highway Five jumping up to speeds of one hundred and then down to zero when he pulled somebody over. It took me twenty miles to figure out what was going on. By then I’d lost Stoltz.’
No one laughed this time, but Raveneau asked, ‘Why didn’t you ask for the GPS when you were right there?’
‘He would have been suspicious and I would have lost more time. I got the car number.’
‘Show us the park,’ Raveneau said, ‘and where you last saw him.’
Raveneau looked at the park location on the map and then asked him the name of the shopping center. La Rosa googled Valley Meadows Center and then its distance from the park, 29.7 miles, about one hour from Walnut Creek.
‘Look, I may sound like an idiot for what happened with the GPS, but he didn’t get past me when he left LAX and I heard on the news LAPD lost him. I’m just here to tell you that I know he came north in a Nissan he rented at Hertz. I’ve got the plates.’
He gave them those and la Rosa left the interview box. Captain Ramirez stood as well but didn’t leave the room.
‘Let’s go back to Mrs Stoltz. What else did she tell you about her son?’
‘That he owns a dozen or more vehicles, though I can’t find them and she doesn’t know where he stores them. That he has money, he’s not dependent