“You lived with him all those years, Ms. Benoit. You had to have seen him committing a crime. We need you to be frank with us.”

“No one sees Rafe committing crimes, Detective, least of all me. I can’t help you. I really can’t. If you don’t have any further questions, I’d like to leave now.”

“I have just a few more for you,” Tuttle said, giving her an exasperated look. “You do understand that this man is a crime lord. You have no reason to feel loyalty toward him. He murdered your mother. He either murdered April Harp and her family, or he ordered that hit. Rafe Cordeau belongs behind bars.”

“If all that’s true, Detective, why can’t you ever find any evidence? Or witnesses?”

“Witnesses disappear.”

“Exactly. That’s my point. I was never a part of Rafe’s business. I was a child growing up in his house.”

“There’s no record of you going to school.”

That shamed her and she suspected he’d said it to humiliate her. She detested that Rafe hadn’t sent her to school or brought in tutors. She was tempted to lie, but instead she lifted her chin. “No, I didn’t go to school. And strangely, no one came to ask why.”

“He didn’t have you homeschooled?”

She shook her head. “No, I was never homeschooled. I didn’t graduate. I didn’t go to college. In fact, Detective,” she added a little defiantly, “I could barely read for a very long time. What does that have to do with Rafe and his crimes?”

“I would say that would be considered an injustice against you,” Tuttle pointed out.

Catarina shrugged. Every second that went by was a second more Rafe had to find her. Sooner or later a police officer on the take would notify him.

“Ask your questions. I don’t have much time.”

He frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It means that sooner or later, word is going to get out that you have me in an interrogation room. Rafe can move fast when he needs to. I think it best if I’m long gone before he gets here.”

“We’re offering you protective custody in exchange for your testimony against Rafe Cordeau.”

She stared at him for a moment and then burst out laughing, noting she just might be on the edge of hysteria. “Have you not heard one word I’ve said to you? I will not testify against him. I don’t have any information to help you. And people in your protective custody are not safe from him. He would be able to find me. Once he’s here and he gets my scent, my trail, he will find me. He’d kill every single one of you and your families to get to me. He would kill every officer you have guarding me. And then he would kill me.”