In Her Tracks (Tracy Crosswhite #8)(22)

The woman made a face and gave a slight eye roll. “I figured it had something to do with them. Did one of them finally kill the other?”

The statement caught Tracy off guard. “Why would you say that?”

“You’re standing here asking about them.”

“I wanted to talk about the disappearance of their daughter.”

“Oh. Sorry. That had to be what, five years ago now?”

“It is,” Tracy said.

“Something new develop?”

“I’m taking another look at the file,” Tracy said.

The woman identified herself as Evelyn Robertson. She and her husband had purchased the home and raised two kids before he passed away.

“I’m assuming from what you said that the Chin house was volatile?”

“That’s a polite way to put it. I thought it would be nice having a police officer living next door. Never knew I’d have the whole department over here. More than once.”

“Do you know what for?”

“I knew,” she said. “Bobby left the house in handcuffs one time. He came over later to apologize. He said he was embarrassed and sorry about it.”

“How well did you know him?”

“Not that well. We’d see each other in passing. He wasn’t a bad man. At least I didn’t think so when we talked.”

“Did you talk much with the wife?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Sounds like you had a run-in with her?”

Robertson pursed her lips. Then she said, “I’m not sure what she did, before the baby anyway. After the baby, she stayed home, mostly. I used to see her in running gear pushing the stroller, and a big guy would come by the house, a lot.”

“Do you know who he was?”

“I asked her one time, and she told me he was her trainer, and I should mind my own business. Said it just like that. ‘He’s my trainer. Mind your own business.’” Robertson made a face like the trainer had been more than a trainer.

“Can you describe him?”

“I could, but no reason to now. He shot himself.”

This gave Tracy pause. There had been no mention of this in Elle Chin’s file, and it raised several red flags. “When did this happen?”

“After the little girl went missing. About a year later, if I’m remembering correctly. And I don’t always.”

“And you said he shot himself?”

“It was in the paper. I didn’t hear it or see anything . . . That’s not true. There was an ambulance and a lot of police that night. I guess you could say I saw the aftermath.”

“He shot himself inside the house?”

“Yep.”

“Did the police interview you?”

“Just asked if I saw or heard anything. I didn’t. Until the police showed up, that is.”

Tracy wondered if the death was, in fact, a suicide. She could think of reasons why either Bobby or Jewel Chin might want the boyfriend dead. “Was his first name Graham?” She fumbled through her notes from the case file. “Graham Jacobsen?”

“I don’t know. Like I said, the wife told me to mind my own business. I did. I was glad when they finally sold that house. So much tragedy there. First the little girl disappears, then the trainer shoots himself.”

“Did the trainer come around before the Chins were divorced?”

“Before, after.” She shrugged. “Seemed like he was always there.”

“You think Jewel Chin was having an affair.”

“Don’t know. Didn’t ask. Didn’t care to know.” But she did think it.

“Sounds like you weren’t too fond of Jewel Chin.”

“She wasn’t real friendly, and based on some things I heard coming from over there, I chose not to get too close.”

Tracy made a mental note to ask Robertson what she had heard, but first asked, “Other than talking with Bobby Chin in passing, what else can you tell me about him?”

“He worked a lot and he had odd hours. I’d hear him leave early and get home late.”

Tracy deduced that had to do with the nature of Chin’s watch. “You live alone?”

“Since my husband passed away, going on ten years, but I have three sons who come by often and take good care of me.”

“You said on occasions you heard things coming from the house next door? What kind of things?”

“Arguing. Fighting. And the language . . . I couldn’t believe the language she would use with that little girl in the house.”

“The wife?”

“She had a mouth like a sewer.”

“What about Bobby?”

“He was no angel, but I never heard him swear. Not like the wife anyway. At times he’d just leave the house. I’d be watching television and I’d see him get in his car and drive off. I looked to see if he took the little girl with him. He didn’t, unfortunately.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because the wife drank. I think that was part of the problem.”

“How do you know she drank?”

“Because she was always worse at night than during the day. I’d see her some mornings and she’d be pleasant. By night she got cross. My father drank at night. I know a drinker. She was a drinker. Bobby would leave the house and she’d be standing in the doorway, yelling and swearing at him. Got so bad one night I finally called CPS.”