What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite #9)(29)

“No.”

Tracy switched subjects. She didn’t need Larry Childress’s permission to run social media, not with Anita’s permission, but again, she wanted to gauge his reaction. “I’d like to use social media to see if it generates any leads about what happened to your wife, where she might be, if she’s still alive.”

“Are you asking my permission or telling me you’re going to do it?”

Childress was smart. “Anita is an adult,” Tracy said.

“Then you have your answer. Anita is old enough to know the consequences of her actions . . . whatever those consequences might be.”

“And you?”

Another smirk. “I understand very well what those consequences might be, Detective, and have for many years.”





C H A P T E R 1 2

Tracy left the Medina home thinking about what Larry Childress had said, how he understood well the consequences of his daughter pushing the investigation into her mother’s disappearance.

Did he mean he had already lived those consequences? Or did he mean he knew what might be revealed and the consequences of that revelation?

Since it was afternoon, and Tracy was already on the east side of Lake Washington, she saw no reason to drive downtown only to then drive home. She had Childress’s investigative files in her car and could work a few hours at home.

When she arrived, Therese’s car was not in the circular drive.

Therese often took Daniella out. Tracy and Dan had purchased passes to the zoo, the Pacific Science Center, the aquarium, and just about everything else. Therese also took Tracy’s place in the Redmond Library reading circle for moms and a PEPS group for parents and their young children. But on beautiful days like today, Therese yearned for the outdoors and often took Daniella in her stroller on walks or to the playground, or on hikes in a backpack. Rex and Sherlock had gone with Dan that morning into the office, which was dog friendly.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, Roger,” she said when the cat jumped onto the pony wall’s marble top and purred needfully, then jumped down and rubbed up against her legs. It might have been affection, but it was also a desire to be fed at any time after two in the afternoon.

“Dinner isn’t for a couple of hours, Roger, though you’re welcome to join me in the office.”

He mewed and did not sound happy.

When Dan and Tracy remodeled their Redmond bungalow, they had put in an airy office with large picture windows, a sliding glass door, and skylights. Dan used the office more than Tracy did, but she loved to slip in to read or catnap in the cushy, brown leather chair beneath a Pendleton blanket. Not this day.

She grabbed a cup of chamomile tea, asked Alexa to play a Jack Johnson set, then settled in at the desk. She pulled up her desktop computer at Police Headquarters using an encrypted remote connection and checked her emails. Not seeing what she searched for, she emailed Katie Pryor, asking if the forensic artist had completed the age-progression photographs of Lisa Childress. While waiting for Pryor’s reply, Tracy pulled up an email from Billy Williams, who confirmed that a dedicated tip line had been established, and he had assigned a detective to monitor incoming calls. Tracy would call the detective after she got off the phone.

Pryor replied by email and attached two pictures of an aging Lisa Childress. Tracy considered the pictures, which were skillfully drawn, and looked remarkably similar to Childress’s mother. She then opened and reviewed Anita Childress’s suggested edits to the Facebook material Tracy had prepared, made the indicated changes, and called SPD’s Public Affairs Office, which told Tracy she had a green light, and that a dedicated tip line would be attached to the social media page the minute it went live, probably early the following morning.

That task completed, Tracy pulled out the fourth of Lisa Childress’s investigative files, this one on Mayor Michael Edwards’s business dealings. Edwards had been incredibly popular, especially with business owners. Those businesses provided jobs, salaries, and other capital that translated into residential and retail growth in downtown Seattle and the Puget Sound.

To get it done, however, Edwards had what became known as his “juice clientele”—lawyers, lobbyists, campaign donors, and political players who had influence with the mayor and his political team that doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in building contracts, land deals, and favorable regulatory rulings. Bribes and payouts were suspected, never directly tied to the mayor. A former lawyer, Edwards understood the rules of evidence and the term “chain of custody.” He rarely used the phone, never used email, and had so many intermediaries that no link in the chain could be tied back to him.

The dynamic had sparked several public corruption investigations by the FBI and US Attorney’s Office but no convictions.

Tracy flipped the page and found articles and handwritten notes on an airport expansion project undertaken by Greenhold Construction the year Lisa Childress disappeared. Bingo. Beneath the articles she found three xeroxed contracts, bids by different building contractors, each worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Of the three contracts, Greenhold was not the lowest bidder, but Greenhold was the chosen bidder.

Taken in context with the threat supposedly made by Greenhold against Lisa Childress, the pricing certainly could not be ignored.

Tracy made a note to determine if Greenhold remained alive and, if so, to speak to him.