What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite #9)(27)

“Where did you learn that?” Tracy asked.

“The investigating detectives made that quite clear.”

“Keith Ellis?”

“No. Moss Gunderson. That’s a name you don’t easily forget.”

“I would think not,” Tracy said. “I told your daughter I’m looking at your wife’s case in three ways, and yes, one way is that you had something to do with her disappearance.”

“And the other two ways?”

“That her disappearance was caused by something she learned from one of the investigative stories she pursued, or she simply walked away.”

“That’s two more possibilities than the first detectives entertained. Thank you.” His sarcasm was not well hidden.

“Why do you say that? Was it something in particular?”

“They didn’t do much to get Lisa’s files. I told them she was an investigative reporter and that she’d had a meeting very early that morning with a confidential source. At least that’s what she told me. I could tell they didn’t believe me. Even when they found the receipt and confirmed she had gone into a convenience store at two in the morning to purchase a liter of Coke, they never seemed to consider that she was killed by someone she met that evening.”

“Did you push them?”

Childress smirked. “I encouraged the newspaper to cooperate with the detectives. I made several calls to Lisa’s desk editor, but he claimed she told him little about the stories she pursued and even less about her sources. I think Anita has gotten further than anyone.”

“Who was the editor you spoke with?”

“Bill Jorgensen.”

Tracy changed subjects. “Did you know or suspect any of her sources?”

“No.”

“Did Lisa get calls at home that concerned you?”

“She never talked to me about the calls so, no.”

“Do you think your wife could have walked away?”

Childress took a moment and Tracy watched his chest rise and fall. “I’d like to think not, for Anita’s sake.”

“But?”

“But Lisa was different,” Childress said. “I don’t know how much Anita told you.”

“I’d like to hear what you thought.”

For the next several minutes, Childress largely repeated what Anita had told Tracy about her mother. “She could also retain incredible amounts of information—almost ninety percent of what she’d read, sometimes verbatim. But that ability came at an expense. She filtered out information like having a daughter she needed to care for.”

“Anita said you stayed at home to care for her.”

“That’s right.”

“What about work?”

“What about it?”

“How did you work while staying home to care for a toddler?”

Childress paused. He’d been down this line of questioning before. “I wasn’t working at the time. I was between jobs.”

“What did you do, before you stayed at home?”

Childress told her of his dot-com business that went bankrupt.

“You had debt?”

“Are you asking or telling me?”

“I read in the file that $150,000 was not dischargeable in bankruptcy.”

“Then you know. Some debt I also chose to honor—investments from family and friends.”

“Did you pay off that debt?”

“Eventually.”

“How?”

“I sold real estate, but back then I couldn’t very well get a real estate business off the ground and care for a baby girl. I was also worried about Anita—if anything happened to me, that Lisa wouldn’t be able to handle things on her own. So I took out an insurance policy.”

“Not long before your wife disappeared.”

Childress glared at her. “Are we back to option one, Detective?”

“It’s a fact I have to consider.”

“I thought it prudent given how unreliable Lisa was turning out to be. I worried about who would care for Anita if something happened to me. I wanted my wife and my in-laws to know I’d planned for Anita’s care.”

“But the insurance company didn’t immediately pay. How did you take care of Anita?”

“The best I could. I had my in-laws care for Anita when necessary, or I took Anita to day care when I had to show a home.”

“You didn’t want the detectives to go to the media with the story of your wife being missing. Why not?”

“Anita,” Childress said.

“Can you explain?”

Childress dropped his head, showing his frustration. When he spoke, his voice had a bite to it. “She was a little girl who lost her mother and lived under the stigma that her father was somehow responsible. Yes, she was a child, but she would grow up and realize we were not wanted in many social circles. I should say, I wasn’t. I didn’t want it broadcast to the world any more than the media already had. I thought it would only make Anita’s life more difficult.”

Concern for his daughter, a good answer, but Tracy wasn’t convinced, given that Anita had been too young to perceive being a social outcast. Then again, Tracy knew it would break her heart if Daniella were ever viewed that way. She decided to push Childress.