Kirk Russell - Counterfeit Road

‘Oh, come on-’

‘Ben, I’m with you, it’s another wacko conspiracy hunt, but something is going on. Garner is well-connected and the group he’s with is well-funded. A year ago you could never have convinced me that anything like they’re talking was even remotely possible. But now I’m not as sure. Maybe I’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid. Maybe I’ve listened and read too much into these conversations.’

‘They’re living a fantasy.’

‘I know and I agree with you, but I think they’re going to try.’

Snow was alongside the road in the foothills but the road was dry as Raveneau drove over Donner Pass. The high mountain rock caught early sunlight though the snow-covered slopes lower were still shaded, the snow smooth and hard looking. He lowered his window and let the cold air reach him as he exited in Truckee and found a gas station, then called Barbara Haney from there, his breath clouding in front as he told her he was close.

‘Do you need directions?’

‘It’s been awhile but I can still find my way around.’

The big Cottonwood sign was still up there on the hill and it was easy to remember sitting out on the deck. He drove toward the Tahoe Basin and turned off into the shadowed snowy Martis Valley. He found her house among the big new houses built in the last decade.

When she opened the door he saw a tall woman nearing fifty, big-boned but not heavy. She had a fluid walk, an athletic ease to her. Her cheekbones were sharp, eyes dark, iron-colored streaks running in her black hair. She led him to a large, high-ceilinged, open room that could have been the lobby of a boutique mountain hotel. Heavy fir beams held up the roof. The stone fireplace was big enough to set up a card table inside. Tall windows looked up toward the backside of the Northstar ski resort up above in the near distance. Skiers were on the slopes, not too many but some, dark and small as they skied the runs. He watched a fast skier and asked her, ‘Do you get out there?’

‘I usually ski once or twice a week, but not lately. We need a storm. It’s hardly snowed in January. The snow is hard and I’ve become softer, and I don’t really like to ski alone. But when I’m here I’m usually alone.’

‘Where’s your husband?’

‘Working. We have a house in Colorado and the corporate headquarters my husband works out of are there. He’s there most of the time.’

Raveneau could ask why they didn’t move from house to house together, but instead said, ‘I used to ski but I haven’t in awhile. It’s one of those things I don’t seem to do any more.’

‘That’s how it works, one day you just don’t do what you used to and you wonder why not.’

She smiled and Raveneau saw sadness. He looked from the mountain slopes and the skiers to her. ‘Some new evidence came in on the Alan Krueger murder and I’m actively working the case.’

‘Well, where do you want to start?’

‘With your ex-husband, how do I get in touch with him? Your daughter, Cheryl, gave me an email address. Do you have a phone number?’

‘Not any more. I email him. He always responds. Just don’t tell him you’re a San Francisco homicide inspector. Did my daughter tell you I’m fragile?’

‘She said you suffer from depression.’

‘I suffer from her theories but there’s nothing unusual about me and I’m certainly not fragile. I won’t burst into tears after you leave, but I would like to think I can put what happened in 1989 behind me at some point. We were tourists on our honeymoon.’

‘I understand.’

‘Good, and I understand we brought suspicion on ourselves. I have to admit we did avoid Inspector Govich when he came to Calgary. My husband simply couldn’t stand him.’

‘You can tell your ex that Govich retired.’

‘I don’t think retired would be quite enough to satisfy Larry. He’d want a little more than that.’ She smiled a wry smile now, brushed a strand of hair from her face and said, ‘Bit of an irony that all you had to do was call me yesterday to set up an interview this morning. Don’t tell Govich how easy I’ve become. What about Govich’s partner? I’ve forgotten his name.’

‘Henry Goya.’

‘What does he say about us?’

‘He’s circumspect.’

‘Wonderful, we’re making progress. It’s been how many years?’

‘Twenty-two.’

She smiled again, but less brightly.

‘Let’s move into the kitchen. It’s warmer there.’

She got out a plate and put scones on it that she said came from a bakery in town. She made coffee as she talked and Raveneau ate a scone and drank a mug of coffee while Barbara offered pieces of what she remembered of the day Alan Krueger was murdered. She was nervous. It showed in her hands and voice and Raveneau wanted to put her at ease.

‘I brought the murder files with me. I didn’t bring them to show you crime scene photos but because I thought you might want to see what was written about you then.’

‘Why would I want to do that?’

‘So we start from the same place. They’re in the car. They can stay there or I can bring them in.’

His tactic was to show her everything written about herself and her ex-husband, Larry Benhaime. He wanted to get her off the defensive and break the pattern. Her family members could only be echoing what she had told them.

‘You can leave them in the car.’

‘OK.’

‘And I should say I understand much more than you may realize. I know Inspector Govich discovered we lied about the dinner and that made him suspicious. I would be too. The truth about that particular thing is rather bizarre but simple. Larry, my ex, is a contrarian. If you say yes, he’ll say no, and maybe not right away but sooner or later. He didn’t like your Inspector Govich and I think he told him that we ate dinner at that restaurant that I can’t even remember the name of just to be perverse. When you finally track him down in some bar in Hong Kong I think he’ll tell you he didn’t believe it was any of the inspector’s business where we ate dinner or when we came back to the hotel, or anything else about our honeymoon.’

‘I think they realized that, and from talking with Henry Goya the lie over where you ate dinner didn’t mean anything.’

‘We actually had a reservation and we had looked forward to eating there that night. But we got asked to come to the police station and then we were kept waiting for hours. That’s what made Larry angry.’ She shrugged. ‘We were young and it was a murder and we were tourists. If it happened now I’d have told you everything we know and we’ll talk to you again tomorrow if you want, but we’re leaving now.’

‘It was never about the dinner, Barbara. There were other things.’

‘Why did you go back to this case?’

‘We received a videotape that someone made of Krueger’s murder.’

‘You mean of the actual murder?’

‘Yes, and it’s been looked at and we believe it’s authentic.’

‘That’s quite astonishing. You couldn’t have seen that one coming.’

‘Definitely not, and now I’m going back through Inspectors Goya and Govich’s investigation. I’m retracing their steps. I have to first understand where they were coming from.’

‘Why would you do that if they didn’t solve it?’

‘Because they had leads and questions.’

‘Like Larry and me.’

‘I don’t know that either you or Larry were ever suspects.’

‘Of course you do, it’s why you’re here. If you hadn’t received the videotape when would this have finally been tucked away in a file cabinet?’

‘We never close an unsolved case.’

‘There’s a TV show where they say dramatic things like that. It’s not a very good one though and I’m more interested in real life. I’m going to put forward my theory of why you’re here. You’re here because you think the original inspectors were on to something about us, or you think it’s possible they were. You aren’t sure, of course, but you’re curious or you are entertaining the idea or maybe they’ve convinced you that they should have arrested us.’