“So not panicked or distraught?” Tracy said.
Hicks shook his head. “If anything, I’d say he looked and sounded more confused than distraught. He said he didn’t know why his wife might have wandered off or what could have happened. Then he started hypothesizing, saying that maybe she’d gone out to go to the bathroom and became disoriented, lost her way, and fell off the side of the mountain. Here’s what I don’t understand. She doesn’t come back and he doesn’t go looking for her immediately? People are anxious the night before a climb. They don’t sleep well, if at all. This guy says he slept through his alarm? I was dead certain he pushed her over the edge.”
“Did you find any sign of her?” Tracy asked.
“We did,” Hicks said with just the hint of a smile. “The search involved about twenty people, climbing rangers, and Nordic Ski Patrol Search and Rescue. I had members of the Tacoma, Everett, and Seattle mountain rescue units conducting the ground search, and the US Army Reserve 214th Aviation Battalion from Lewis-McChord conducting the air search. Like I said, a lot of resources and a lot of money. We arrived at Thumb Rock late the following afternoon. The air search spotted what appeared to be a debris field here, at the base of the Willis Wall.”
Hicks made a mark on the map.
“A debris field of what?” Kins asked.
“Crampons, a pack, water bottle, a few articles of clothing.”
“The husband identified them?”
“He did.”
“But no body?”
“No body.”
“How far a fall is that?” Tracy asked.
“Couple thousand feet.”
“Seems if there was debris there’d be a body,” Kins said.
“Not necessarily. I can tell you what we were thinking at the time. There’s a bergschrund at the base of the wall.” Hicks continued to use the pencil on the topo map.
“A bergschrund?” Tracy asked.
“It’s a German term. It means a large crevasse where the glacier ice separates from the headwall.”
“And the presumption was she fell into that crevasse, never to be found,” Kins said.
Hicks nodded. “No way to get her body out of there. The Willis Wall cleaves constantly. My climbing rangers won’t go there and I don’t blame them.”
“So the perfect place for someone to stage their own death,” Tracy said.
“Apparently, but that’s not what I was thinking at the time.”
“You thought it was the perfect place for the husband to kill his wife,” Kins said.
“No reason for her to put on her crampons and other gear just to go to the bathroom.”
“Makes sense,” Tracy said.
Hicks sat and leaned back. “I was convinced he shoved her over the side—right up until I came in late yesterday and saw that flier on my computer you sent out. I don’t forget those missing on the mountain,” he said. “They’re permanently imprinted on my mind.”
“So what do you think happened now?” Kins asked.
“Now? Now, I don’t know what to think. But I’ll tell you this. She didn’t make it off that mountain on her own. No way. Somebody had to have helped her. Hell, the husband could have been in on it for the insurance money. The Pierce County detective said they took out a policy and there were problems in the marriage,” Hicks said.
Tracy had made contact with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office that morning. They had an appointment to speak to the investigating detective from the Major Crimes Division later that day.
“I spoke to the detective this morning. He said the husband was a person of interest,” Tracy said.
“Maybe.” Hicks picked up Andrea Strickland’s picture. “Thing is, I don’t know now if this exonerates him or implicates him.” Hicks looked up at the red X he’d circled. “But I guess that’s not my job anymore. My job is done; looks like yours is just getting started.”
CHAPTER 8
I’d had more than my share of doubts about Genesis, but Graham had been so optimistic, so sure of its success, that I had finally relented, despite my reservations. I don’t want to say Graham wore me down, or that I caved to his repeated attempts at persuading me, but it had become so unbearable at home I knew we couldn’t go on the way we had been. Graham would come home and slowly begin with the numbers, then tell me he’d spoken to another dispensary in Washington and about how much money we would make. When I tried to question his numbers, he would dismiss me or accuse me of not supporting him. Then he would either leave pissed off and not come back until late, or sulk the rest of the evening and not say two words. He needed my income to get the loan.
When I finally said yes, his eyes widened like a man who’d just been told he was cancer free, and he gave me a bear hug and a kiss.
“You’re not going to regret this,” he said, holding me by the shoulders. “This will be the best money we’ve ever invested.” Then he hugged me again.
“I hope you’re right,” I said, trying to smile through my apprehension.