The Trapped Girl (Tracy Crosswhite #4)(29)

“Thank you, darling,” Fields said when the young woman finished. As the waitress departed, probably to take a scalding shower in disinfectant, Fields looked to Kins and Tracy. “You sure you don’t want anything? It’s good food. I come here at least once a week.”

The waitresses must have been thrilled about that.

“We’re good,” Kins said.

Fields twirled his fork in the pasta and brought a ball to his mouth. He wouldn’t have to worry about his cat. From the smell drifting across the table, the garlic was strong enough to kill a grizzly.

“What more can you tell us about the husband?” Tracy asked.

Fields wiped his mustache on his napkin and sipped his beer. “Like I said, a big shot. Drove a Porsche and wore those suits that look like they’re a size too small. Smarter than everybody too, always looking for the next big deal just around the corner, and believed it was just a matter of time before one of them paid off. Big bullshitter. I think he convinced the wife this was their ticket. They pretty much liquidated all their community assets and put it into the store. He’d also maxed out their credit cards and the creditors were calling. And like I said, the bank found out about the forged letter from the law firm, and he was looking at criminal prosecution and maybe a little jail time if he couldn’t pay back the money.”

“So you thought he was after the wife’s trust?” Kins said.

“I did,” Fields said in between another bite of his pasta. “Seems that money disappeared from Andrea’s personal account.”

“Disappeared where?” Tracy asked.

“Don’t know. The husband swears he had nothing to do with it and has no idea where it went.”

“What about the trustee?”

“Same thing. No idea.”

“You think the husband and wife could have been trying to hide it from the creditors?”

“Yep. You said she had a Washington license under a different name?”

“Lynn Hoff,” Tracy said.

“Then I’m betting that’s where you’ll find the money.”

Tracy recalled the receipt for the Emerald Credit Union she’d found in the garbage can at the motel room.

Fields sat back with a shit-eating grin. “Then there was the little issue of the girlfriend.”

“I figured that was coming,” Kins said.

“There’s always a girlfriend. Am I right?” Fields used a hunk of bread to wipe up sauce from his plate.

“You talk to her?” Kins asked.

Fields shook his head. “Haven’t determined who she is yet. Andrea told her boss she thought her husband was cheating on her, but she didn’t say with who.”

“Any evidence that was the case?” Tracy asked.

“I was still running it down, but apparently it wasn’t the first time. He’d been banging a little hottie from his law firm before they got married and I guess didn’t think a wedding band should inhibit that activity.”

“You talk to her?” Tracy asked.

“Ain’t my first rodeo, Detective.” He popped a piece of bread into his mouth.

Tracy really didn’t like this guy.

“She says she broke it off when she found out he’d gotten married. Apparently, he’d kept that little trinket from her for a couple months.”

“Sounds like a dirtbag,” Kins said.

“Yeah.” Fields nodded. “The wife also told her boss she was going to consult a divorce lawyer.”

“Did she?” Tracy asked.

“No evidence she did.”

“I think I’m seeing her motivation for disappearing,” Kins said.

“Divorce doesn’t get her out of the debt with the personal guarantees out there,” Fields said. “And because Oregon is a community-property state, Andrea was jointly liable for all the debts.”

“She was worried she’d lose her trust,” Tracy said.

“He declares bankruptcy, no big deal,” Fields said. “He’s got nothing but debt. Her? She’s sitting on a big pile of money the creditors would love to go after.”

“Why’d they take out a loan in the first place?” Kins asked.

“Like I said”—Fields took another bite of the linguini—“she wouldn’t let him use the trust money.”

Kins looked at Tracy.

“Yeah,” Fields said, reading the look. “The guy’s got motivation up the ass to kill her.”

“In which case, he would have just shoved her off the mountain,” Tracy said, thinking there had to be something more to it.

“It was the perfect setup,” Fields said, shrugging. “People die on that mountain every year. I think that’s why it was just the two of them—no guide. Husband claims wife’s death was a tragic accident. Who was going to be any wiser?”

“But he’s a lawyer,” Tracy said, still not completely convinced. “He had to have at least realized that the bankruptcy, the insurance policy, and the bad marriage, not to mention the girlfriend, would be pretty solid circumstantial evidence it was no accident.”

“He claimed he didn’t know about the insurance policy,” Fields said. “Or about any girlfriend.”

“He says it was her idea to take out the policy?” Tracy asked.