What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite #9)(38)

Tracy closed the hard file and reviewed the evidence log of items found outside and around Slocum’s car—cigarette butts, aluminum cans, a tennis ball, pieces of ripped and torn paper, and other items. She quickly scanned the list, still considering the date of Slocum’s death, the Shell station phone call, and thinking it all too big a coincidence to not be related to Lisa Childress’s disappearance.

An item on the list caused Tracy to sit upright and her blood to pulse.

She went again to the crime scene photographs accompanying the list of items and found photographs to document where each item had been located in relationship to the car.

8.1-ounce, 8-inch tall, red can of

counter-assault bear spray in a cloth sleeve.

The standby detectives found the can in the weeds between the paved parking area and the Duwamish Waterway. Nearby they had found a dislodged black safety cap they subsequently determined to fit the can. Unlike the other items photo documented, the can appeared relatively new. The detectives indicated the can was nearly full but had been sprayed, based upon chemicals identified in the nozzle screw and the spray swirl piece.

Keith Ellis, the investigation’s lead detective, did not relate the can of bear spray to the suicide. Tracy found nothing to document whether the can had been checked for fingerprints. She stood and went to the box of materials the Evidence Unit had pulled for her. As she suspected, the can was not in it. It had been purged.

At best, it had been poor police work by Ellis. At worst, it had been a deliberate attempt to ignore evidence and possibly misdirect an investigation—to quickly classify the death as a suicide and close the file without further inquiry. Nothing in the file indicated Moss Gunderson ever mentioned Slocum had been the harbormaster he had interviewed at the Diamond Marina in the drowning deaths of Navarro and Ibarra, that Slocum had died the same day Lisa Childress had disappeared, or that Larry Childress had given his wife a can of bear spray to protect herself. If Slocum had mentioned to Moss the raid on the Egregious, as Hopper relayed to Tracy, it raised further questions about Slocum’s death—questions that should have been red flags billowing in front of Moss’s face.

He’d missed or deliberately ignored them.

If Slocum did not tell Moss of the raid, then Moss could argue that Tracy was working with hindsight, with information Ellis and Moss did not possess at the time of their investigation. But, at the very least, Moss should have identified the can of bear spray to be an item not typically found in the weeds behind a plastics company, and mandated that further investigation take place. If Moss had done so, it was inconceivable he would not have linked the found can to Larry Childress’s statement that he had given such a can to his wife.

Moss then could not have ignored the fact that the telephone call to Lisa Childress had come from a gas station pay phone just down the street from the Diamond Marina, where David Slocum had lived on a houseboat.

Moss Gunderson, the golfer in the bright clothing, seemed to be doing his best to camouflage what had happened. Why? Tracy suspected it had to do with the raid never reported, and she wondered if Del could also somehow be implicated, and if so, just how deeply.

Tracy checked her watch and quickly called the detective monitoring the Lisa Childress tip line. The detective told Tracy the tip line had received 150 tips since the site went live, all but a handful from cranks, the lonely, and junior wannabe detectives. She was following them up and would pass along any she deemed worthy.

Tracy thanked her and hung up.

On her computer, Tracy put together a timeline of the events and the people she wanted to speak with.

November 18, 1995, unconfirmed. Unknown unit conducts a raid on the Egregious fishing trawler at the Diamond Marina in Lake Union. RCMP

attempting to arrange interview with ship captain Jack Flynt.

November 20, 1995. Moss Gunderson and Delmo Castigliano respond to call from Diamond Marina of two dead bodies floating in Lake Union.

November 20, 1995. Harbormaster David Slocum tells detectives Moss Gunderson and Delmo Castigliano about raid on the Egregious two nights previous. Unconfirmed.

No record of a raid, of any forfeiture of drugs, or of the fishing trawler found through inquiry to normal channels.

February 26, 1996. 7:37 p.m. Call made from pay phone at Shell gas station near the Diamond Marina to Lisa Childress’s home phone number.

February 27, 1996. 2:00 a.m. Lisa Childress leaves her home to meet with confidential source.

Husband says he placed bear spray in her bag.

February 27, 1996. 2:17 a.m. Lisa Childress stops at convenience store and buys liter of Coke.

Never seen again. Moss Gunderson and Keith Ellis later investigate.

February 27, 1996. 5:17 a.m. Supervisor at plastics company calls police about dead body in a car in Seattle’s Industrial District. Body is identified as David Slocum, harbormaster, Diamond Marina.

Investigating detectives are Moss Gunderson and Keith Ellis. Does not appear they tried to determine where the gun came from or how it came to be in Slocum’s car.

February 27, 1996. Detectives processing the Slocum crime scene find can of bear spray, without top, in reeds by car containing body of David Slocum. Detectives inspect can and conclude it had been recently sprayed. No fingerprints.

March 10, 2002. The Egregious is seized roughly 10 miles west of Cape Alava, just south of the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, by the United States Coast Guard. The boat contained nearly 3,300 pounds of cocaine and marijuana with a street value of more than $30 million. Captain Jack Flynt pleads guilty and is sentenced to 12