The Trapped Girl (Tracy Crosswhite #4)(30)

“And to climb the mountain,” Fields said. “Like I said, I was sure he killed her. Now? Well, she’s unhappy too, right?” Fields said. “So maybe she sees this trip up the mountain as the perfect opportunity to fake her own death, get out of a bad marriage, and stick the husband with the bills and headaches.”

“And maybe get even for the girlfriend while she’s at it,” Kins said.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” Fields said, wiping the corners of his mustache with the napkin.

“Maybe,” Tracy said. “Or maybe she suspected the husband didn’t intend for her to make it off the mountain and beat him at his own game.”

“Why would she go if she knew he was going to try and kill her?” Kins said.

“She has to go if she wants to fake her death to get out of the marriage and the debt,” Tracy said.

Kins shook his head. “She could have just run.”

“Running doesn’t mean she’s dead,” Tracy said. “This way, she hides the trust money, plants some seeds—like the insurance policy—and tells her boss the husband is cheating on her and she wants a divorce. When he goes to sleep, she walks off knowing everyone will blame the husband.” She looked to Fields. “The ranger says she had to have help getting off the mountain.”

“Yeah, I know, but I don’t know who that would have been. Her parents are deceased and the only relative is an aunt in San Bernardino who hasn’t been in contact with her since Andrea left for Portland. Number’s in the file. There’s the husband—”

“Who we can rule out,” Kins said.

“—her boss, and one friend,” Fields said.

“Who’s the friend?” Tracy asked.

“Devin Chambers. They worked at the insurance company together.”

“You talk to her?” Tracy asked.

Fields gave her that look again. “Like I said, not my first rodeo. I checked her out. She said Andrea confided in her that the husband had admitted to the girlfriend and that he’d physically abused her.”

“She said he physically abused Andrea?” Tracy asked.

“That’s what she said, but before you get too excited that it was Chambers who helped Strickland, I can tell you that the weekend of the climb, Devin Chambers was at the coast. She produced a credit card receipt for the hotel and restaurants.”

“Were you able to verify those?”

Fields scoffed again and Tracy was starting to tire of it. “Like what, that she walked into the restaurant, ordered a meal to go, drove six hours to Mount Rainier, helped the wife disappear, and drove back? I had the receipts saying she was there.”

Kins jumped in. “Okay, so regardless of who helped her, now what? He figures out she played him, goes after the money, and kills her? Since she’s already dead, nobody will miss her, so long as they don’t find the body—which explains the crab pot.”

“He’d still be my primary suspect,” Fields said. “And I’d work him hard, but you got a body now, so I guess it’s gonna become your rodeo.”

“Does he have a lawyer?” Kins asked.

Fields nodded. “A good one in Portland.”

“How long were they married?” Tracy asked.

“Right around a year. They got married within weeks of meeting. So now you’re wondering if he chose her on purpose, someone with money and without any relatives. Am I right?”

“So you suspected it?” Tracy said.

“Absolutely I suspected it, but I didn’t find anything in his past to indicate that was the case—first marriage for both of them. Plus, I don’t think she’s the innocent little girl she portrayed herself to be. These kinds of people tend to find one another, know what I mean?”

“So no other suspects?” Tracy asked.

Fields finished the last of his beer. “No need. It was like after the OJ trial when the press asked Gil Garcetti if they were going to pursue the real killer, and Garcetti said, ‘The killer just walked out the door.’ I was convinced that was the case here. Still am.”

“Any indication he owned a boat or fished?” Tracy asked.

“Not that I’m aware of. He didn’t strike me as that type.”

“What type?” Kins asked.

“Someone who’d bait his own hook.”

“But you think he’s capable of killing?”

Fields slid the empty plate away from the edge of the table. “I have no doubt he had the intent. Maybe now you can prove the act to go with that intent.”





CHAPTER 10


Genesis made a profit our first month in business and Graham’s mood was sky high, but that just made the fall that much farther and the landing that much harder. Business steadily declined as the novelty of legalized marijuana wore off. Then the laws changed, as the article I had read suggested, allowing medical dispensaries to sell retail. That was the kiss of death, that and Graham had insisted on a Pearl District address and tenant improvements that would have made King Louis XIV blush. Turns out our “high-end” clientele really didn’t care about things like Brazilian floors or display-case lighting. They cared about price.

I wanted to say I told you so, but I suspected—no, by this time I knew—where that would lead.