My Sister's Grave (Tracy Crosswhite, #1)(62)

“Was Dr. Crosswhite home?”

“No. He and Abby had gone to Maui to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.”

“You knew how to reach him?”

“James had provided me the hotel number in case I needed to get a hold of him. It was something he did whenever he left town.”

“What was James Crosswhite’s response to the news that you’d located his daughter’s truck?”

“He told me the girls had been at the Washington State shooting championships that weekend and that Tracy had recently moved into a rental house. He said if the girls had car trouble, they could have spent the night there. He said he’d call Tracy and suggested I hang tight until he called me back.”

“Did he call you back?”

“He said he’d reached Tracy but she’d told him Sarah had driven the truck home alone. He said Tracy was heading home and would meet me at the house with a key.”

“Was Sarah home?”

“We wouldn’t be here if she was.”

“Just answer the question,” Meyers said.

Dan considered his notes on his iPad before taking Calloway through his and Tracy’s inspection of the car and the house. “What did you do next?”

“I had Tracy begin to call Sarah’s friends to see if she’d spent the night someplace.”

“Did you think that likely?”

Calloway shrugged his big shoulders. “It had rained hard the previous night. I thought if Sarah had some kind of car trouble and started to walk it was more likely she would have just walked home.”

“So you were already suspecting foul play?”

“I was doing my job, Dan.”

“Answer the questions you’re asked and refer to the attorneys in this courtroom as ‘Counselor,’?” Meyers said.

“Who was the last person to see Sarah?” Dan said, and Tracy saw him flinch at his mistake.

Calloway pounced on it. “Edmund House.”

This time Meyers silenced the murmur with a single rap of his gavel.

“Other than your belief concerning the defendant—”

“It isn’t a belief, Counselor. House told me he was the last person to see Sarah, just before he raped and strangled her.”

“Your Honor, I would request that you instruct the witness to allow me to finish asking my question before he answers.”

Meyers leaned closer to the witness chair and looked down at Calloway. “Sheriff Calloway, I’m not going to tell you again to treat these proceedings and those participating in them with respect. Wait until the question is finished before you answer.”

Calloway looked like he’d bitten into something tart.

Dan moved a few feet to his left, the blanket of snow falling out the windows now a backdrop. “Sheriff Calloway, who do you personally know to have been the last person to have seen Sarah Crosswhite alive?”

Calloway took a moment. “Tracy and her boyfriend spoke to Sarah in a parking lot in Olympia.”

“You met with Tracy and her father James Crosswhite in the family home the following morning, is that correct?”

“James and Abby took a red-eye home.”

“Why did you meet with James Crosswhite?”

Calloway looked to Meyers as if to ask, How long do I have to answer these stupid questions? “Why did I meet with the father of a missing woman? To set up a plan to try to find Sarah.”

“You believed Sarah had met with foul play?”

“I considered it a distinct possibility.”

“Did you and James Crosswhite discuss potential suspects?”

“Yeah. One. Edmund House.”

“Why did you suspect Mr. House?”

“House had been paroled for rape. The facts of that case were similar. He’d abducted a young woman.”

“Did you speak with Mr. House?”

“I drove out to the property. His uncle, Parker House, and I woke him.”

“He was asleep in bed?”

“That’s why we woke him.”

“And did you take note of anything about Mr. House’s appearance?”

“I noted scratches on his face and forearms.”

“Did you ask Mr. House how he’d sustained his injuries?”

“He said he’d been working in the woodshop and a piece of wood splintered. He said he quit after that, watched television, and went to bed.”

“Did you believe Edmund House?”

“Not for a second.”

“You’d already decided he had something to do with Sarah’s disappearance, hadn’t you?”

“I’d decided that I’d never heard of a piece of wood splintering and causing the kind of injuries I noted on his face and arms. That is the question you asked me.”

“What did you think caused his injuries?”

Again Calloway paused, perhaps anticipating where Dan was headed with his questions. “I thought it looked like someone had raked fingernails across his face and scratched his forearms.”

“Fingernails?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Did you do anything further as a result of that suspicion?”

“I took some Polaroids, and I asked Parker if I could take a look around his property and he gave his consent.”