Heart of Ice

Chapter Forty-seven

Cherrystone

Camille Hazelton seldom stopped by the sheriff’s office. She left that, rightly so, to her assistants who wanted to burn off carbs or see how the order tent pole of law and order lived. But today, she’d called ahead and Emily was waiting for her in her office. Camille snapped the door shut. The warmth on her face was absent. She was granite.

“Em, this isn’t a social call.”

“I figured.”

“We’ve got a problem with Tricia Wilson.”

“Is she all right?”

“Far from it. One of our DAs noticed a couple of inconsistencies in her depos and did a little more digging. Sent the kid down to Portland. Good thing I did.”

Emily could feel the blood drain from her face. “I’m not going to like this one bit, am I?”

Camille shook her head. “About as much as a kick to the stomach. That’s how I felt.”

“Go ahead, Camille. Start kicking.”

Camille allowed a wary smile across her face. She wasn’t there to beat up Emily. Emily had done her job—and the DA’s office had done its job. The two worked together with the single purpose of making a case that would convince a jury.

“She and Mitch divorced, all right. But not because he beat her up. At least, not that we can tell. Patty or Tricia or whatever she called herself back then had more than likely bilked the Portland dealership out of two hundred thousand dollars. She was the pretty wife and the sticky-fingered head of accounting.”

“Charged?”

“Nope. It never got that far. Mitch’s father must have wanted to kill the girl, but instead they kept it out of the papers and kicked her to the curb, oh-so-quietly.”

“What about the abuse? The photos? The threats?”

“Made it up as far as I can tell. One of her old coworkers—you know the type, the woman who worked alongside the nitwit boss’s wife and wanted him for herself—she said the photos were fabricated. She used Max Factor and a Polaroid. I guess when it became clear that she was caught, she wanted a little insurance that she didn’t go down in flames.”

“Hence the photos.”

“Right. My guess is she never got over the fact that she’d been caught and didn’t get to extort the Crawfords for all they were worth.”

Emily sighed. “So coming forward must have been about payback.”

“That’s my take. She had those photos. Saw the Mandy story on TV and went for it.”

“Wonder why the defense didn’t bring this up? Why wouldn’t Mitch go to the media and blast one of his chief accusers? “

“Good question. I would have. But my guess is that Cary was looking for his Perry Mason moment. All lawyers do.”

“So what do you want me to do?”

“My assistant had no luck with her, but for some reason, she said she’d talk to you. She’s working for a telemarketing company east of Seattle. Here’s the address.” She handed Emily a slip of paper.