A Killing in China Basin - Kirk Russell [74]
‘Is anyone living in the other house?’ the foreman asked.
‘My son is.’
‘Is he home?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Would you mind calling him?’
‘No, I don’t mind at all, but his car is there. He must be home but that doesn’t matter. I’m giving you permission to do whatever you need to do on the property.’ She started down the gravel drive to the guest house and then turned on the foreman. ‘Oh, come on now, you know who my son is. You must know. Everyone knows what they’re doing to Cody. You don’t have to pretend with me.’
‘I’m not pretending about the rats, ma’am, and I’m just being polite about your son. I don’t want to surprise him.’
Good line. They watched her knock on Stoltz’s door with the big foreman standing to her side. If Stoltz answered, no question he’d object. Then he’d have to sneak out there and try to retrieve the daypack and they’d videotape that, maybe meet him coming back up the hole. But Stoltz didn’t answer and the foreman and crew went out to the manhole and the SID team dressed as exterminators followed with a Public Works foreman.
They placed a groundhog camera near the manhole to try to capture Stoltz’s discovery that Public Works had gone down and found the backpack. If he called and claimed it, and slim chance he’d do that, but if he did, they’d refer him to the exterminators. The exterminators would admit that yes, they had found it. They’d ask, is it your pack, sir? If he said yes, they’d get that on tape. They’d tape his explanation and let him know the daypack and laptop were safe and that they’d return them soon, but not that fast. Not until they got every last thing out of its hard drive.
FIFTY-TWO
Lafaye had always assumed that her years of emails with sam66942@yahoo.com were an anonymous exchange of information. She didn’t know Stoltz had discovered her identity three years ago and after doing so had made a point of learning everything he could about her. The email he sent her this afternoon read simply, ‘I have information you’ll want. It took work to get and cost me some money. Interested in splitting the costs?’
‘What is it?’
‘Found where she’s living.’
‘Confirmed?’
‘Very close to. If you’re in, you’re in for ten grand.’
‘Too much for me.’
‘OK.’
She expected him to write more, he always did. But after two hours had passed and he’d left it with the one word, she wrote back, ‘OK.’
‘It’s not easy for me to meet. Where are you?’
‘San Francisco.’
Though she didn’t know where he lived, she’d surmised from previous emails that he lived in the Bay Area at least part of the year.
‘I am interested; just don’t know about shelling out ten thousand without proof.’
‘Will show you some proof. Meeting would have to be San Francisco at the Marina dock. I have a boat. Five p.m. today. I leave town tomorrow.’
She wrote back a few minutes later, and he gave her the berth number and where to find a hidden key to the dock gate. Neither of them had ever revealed their true reasons for trying to find Quinn. They’d both gone to websites and chat rooms where credit information is bought, sold, and traded. So that said something mutual was understood, but all they’d traded were leads.
Shortly before 5:00 p.m. he saw her Audi pull into the lot. She looked nervous and uncomfortable as she walked to the dock gate. She was probably afraid. She’d always tried online to milk him for information, and maybe she knew he’d figured out that she had a lot of information about Erin already. He watched her find the key, get in, wander down to the lower dock, and with his face hidden behind glasses and a cap, he waved to her and untied the boat as she boarded.
‘We’ll do a lap around the bay,’ he said.
‘Why not here?’
‘Because I feel safer out there, and you don’t need to be afraid of me. I wish you wouldn’t act like you are. It makes me nervous.’
Once he’d