In Her Tracks (Tracy Crosswhite #8)(64)

“Attacked how?”

“She had the boyfriend when we separated. He was her personal trainer. I don’t think she gave a shit about him, to be honest, but he was well-built and good-looking, perfect for her to try to make me jealous, to get under my skin.”

“Did it?”

“No.” He shook his head with emphasis. “As I said, I knew what she was doing, and I figured that maybe if she had someone else to torment, she’d leave me alone. I was just looking forward to the day when I’d no longer have to deal with her.”

“But that day would never come, so long as you each had Elle.”

“I know. And at one point I thought the only way out was if I checked out. That’s how messed up she had me. I actually contemplated it.”

“What stopped you?”

“I realized that would mean leaving Elle to Jewel, and that would mean condemning Elle to a life in hell. I couldn’t do that to my daughter.”

Tracy wondered, though, if that thought could have been the impetus for killing Elle. Especially if Chin wasn’t right in the head, as he said. “Let me ask you something. It seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it, that Jewel would use the boyfriend just to take Elle? If she’s that calculating, she’d have to know she and the boyfriend would be forever stuck together.”

“Unless she drove him to kill himself . . .” Chin shrugged. “Or manipulated someone to do it for her. I can only imagine the mind games she played on him, because she played them on me. They said it was depression from steroid use, but I know differently. I think it was depression from Jewel.”

“There was a witness to Elle’s disappearance—”

“Jimmy Ingram,” Chin said.

“He said he told you the lights went out at ten, but you were insistent on going through the maze. Why?”

“As I said, I was just trying to give my daughter a good time, to make her happy. I was late getting to the house because I got tied up doing reports at work. Jewel refused to feed Elle the nights I picked her up.” He shook his head. “What kind of a woman lets her child go hungry just to make a point against her husband?” When Tracy didn’t answer, Chin continued, telling her about their arrival at the corn maze, Elle’s need to use the bathroom, and her hunger. “By the time we ate, the maze was about to close. I told the guy I just needed a few minutes.”

“I was curious. He said it didn’t look like the little girl he saw was resisting the woman, that she didn’t appear to be struggling or screaming or otherwise trying to get away.”

“I know. I’ve wondered about that as well.”

“You told the detectives you thought it was Jewel and the boyfriend.”

“I know.”

“Do you still believe that?”

“I don’t know. What I believe doesn’t really matter.”

Tracy changed subjects. “Jewel claimed she left you, that you were obsessed with her.”

“Yes, she did.” Chin smiled and met Tracy’s gaze. “But that isn’t how it happened. I walked out on her, and she raced to get an attorney and to file for divorce to make it look like her idea. I didn’t really care, but I couldn’t have even started to fathom the storm she was brewing. Jewel hated me for walking out on her, Detective. She hated me because I didn’t have the career she thought I was going to have, because my parents cut off all financial support when I joined the PD and married Jewel. My ex used Elle to try to hurt me. She used the domestic violence charge to hurt my position in the parenting plan and in the divorce. She was very calculating.”

“You think she planned this from the start?”

“That part of it. I know she did. Remember, Detective, I worked. Jewel didn’t. She had all day to think about this shit, about how she could hurt me, disgrace me, maybe get me to kill myself like the boyfriend, so she could get it all. I almost did too. In the end, I had to walk away, and all I can tell you is that walking out that door was the hardest thing I ever did, because I knew I was leaving Elle behind in her dysfunctional care.”

“Why do it, then, Bobby? If you were so certain of this, why leave your daughter with someone that sick?”

Chin shook his head, fighting emotions. “I always thought I’d get Elle. I thought a judge, the guardian ad litem, someone would see what I saw, what I’d come to know.” He shrugged. “They didn’t. I underestimated Jewel. And I paid dearly for it.”

Tracy decided to ask the question intimated in the reports. “With Elle missing, you no longer have to deal with Jewel.”

Chin closed his eyes and shook his head. “I married Jewel because of Elle, Detective. I took responsibility for my child. My parents. My sister. My friends. They were all dead set against me marrying Jewel. They saw what I didn’t want to see. But Elle was my responsibility.”

Chin sounded sincere, and it was a strong argument. “I tried to reach your parents and your sister, but the numbers I have no longer are in service.”

“My parents and sister can’t tell you anything, Detective.”

“Where are they?”

“China. My sister met a student at the U—a Chinese national. They live outside Chengdu. My parents went back home with them. And I’ve put them through enough as it is. I’d ask you to leave them alone.” Chin stood. “Unless there is anything else, any new leads, I need to get back to work.”