What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite #9)(16)

“Lisa was fearless as a reporter, but she never struck me as reckless. I just can’t see her taking that path to a story.”

“What about the other stories?”

“Hell, we have a file room filled with allegations and innuendo on Mayor Edwards—too much for it to all be bullshit.”

“Where there’s smoke there’s fire?”

“A big fire. But we’re a newspaper. We print facts, not innuendo.

Something did come up later though, a week or so after Lisa went missing. Her photographer—a guy I assigned to work with her because he was older and had more patience than the younger guys —said that after Lisa had covered a city council meeting Mike Greenhold approached and told her that if she ran a news story about the mayor’s business dealings, he’d have something to say about it.”

This must have been the threat Moss said Childress received.

“Who’s Mike Greenhold?”

“Greenhold Construction. His company was doing a lot of projects in Seattle at that time, and he was rumored to be close to Mayor Edwards.”

“Do you know what came of it?”

“I gave the police that information and made the photographer available to talk to them.”

“Did you ever hear back about it?”

“No. Nothing. I imagine Greenhold denied saying any such thing and it was a he-said-she-said thing, and the ‘she’ was no longer around.”

“What about the other two stories?”

“I recall we had statements from three grown men who told remarkably similar stories about being sexually abused by Peter Rivers when they were under sixteen.”

Tracy confirmed that legal consent in Washington at that time was sixteen. Therefore, each allegation, if true, would constitute rape of a child under state law and would have subjected Rivers to possible prison time.

“Were they credible?”

“I’ll answer this way. Each similarly described the apartment Rivers rented back then—both its location and the general layout, as well as his certain physical attributes, which only would have been visible if Rivers had his clothes off. But each accuser also had a criminal record for prostitution, drug addiction, robbery, and petty theft.” Jorgensen used his fingers to tick off the charges. “And that record got longer as each got older.”

“Troubled.”

“They didn’t exactly project credibility. Two of the men had also known each other as boys at a drug rehabilitation center where Rivers had worked.”

“They could have coordinated their stories. And the third?”

“A neighbor who had lived down the street from Rivers.”

“So then collectively . . . ?”

“We made the decision to ask Rivers about the three men. He denied the allegations. Said the men were lying. He said if we published the allegations, he would sue us.”

“Did you?”

“No, but not because of his threat to sue. We decided that if one or more of Rivers’s accusers filed a lawsuit, we would report on the lawsuit. We would not mention other unsubstantiated allegations unless they became part of the suit. If they did, we’d print the allegations in the public record. If not, we wouldn’t. We didn’t want to unwittingly become part of a political purge, not to mention ruin a man and his family.” Jorgensen smiled. “At least not without corroboration.”

“But was there some truth then to what Childress had uncovered?”

“Personally? I think there was.”

“Which would be very troubling to a man in the public eye thinking about making a run for mayor.”

“I’ll leave those deductions and insinuations to the police,”

Jorgensen said.

“Did Childress have your permission to pursue the allegations?”

“Like I said, it was open ended.”

“So she did.”

“She did.”

“And the police skimming drugs and drug money. What came of that?”

“Again, a lot of smoke.”

“But no fire.”

“Not that I recall.”

“Anything about Childress leading up to her disappearance that struck you as different or out of her usual routine?”

“If you talked to Anita, well, then you know Lisa could be quirky.”

“Anita mentioned it. When did you last see Lisa Childress?”

“In the office, the day before she disappeared.”

“How did she seem to you?”

“From what I recall telling the detectives back then and later telling Anita, something seemed off, but what it was, exactly, I don’t know.”

“Anything else?” Tracy asked.

“She’d put on weight. Nothing extreme but probably ten pounds.

Not surprising, given her diet.”

Tracy asked questions for another fifteen minutes but didn’t get much more information than she had already received from Anita Childress and Moss Gunderson.

“What do you think happened to her?”

Jorgensen put up his hands. “Not my place to say, Detective.”

“No, but you knew her. Was she capable of just disappearing?

Walking away?”

Jorgensen looked uncomfortable. “Was she capable? Yeah. I’d say she was capable, but I don’t think that’s what she did.”