“Andrea was quiet, but not necessarily shy. People thought she was shy because she read a lot. That was my first impression too.”
“What did she read?” Tracy asked.
“Novels,” Berg said. “She had paperbacks stacked all over her desk, novels on her phone and her Kindle. She read all the time, but when you got to know her you realized she wasn’t shy. She just preferred not to be the center of attention. She liked to stay on the periphery. Does that make sense?”
“Can you give me an example?” Tracy said.
Berg gave the question some thought. “We had a function at the company—a birthday party for someone. I caught Andrea sitting back and taking everything in, you know? If you didn’t know her, you might get the impression she was disinterested, but if you watched her closely, you’d see these little grins, or frowns, maybe a subtle eye roll. It was never blatant or disrespectful, just enough that I knew she was paying attention.”
“Was she intelligent?” Tracy asked.
“Very,” Berg said, nodding.
“You sound certain of that.”
“For someone without any college education she was extremely quick to pick things up. She wasn’t a normal assistant. I’d give her some fairly complex tasks and she’d get the work done in no time flat. I think she was just one of those people who was inherently very smart, very gifted. Maybe from all the reading she did. You never had to instruct her twice. I was encouraging her to go to college or to get her insurance license.”
They approached a second drawbridge. Out on the water, speedboats zipped by with young men and women in bathing suits.
“Did you know her husband, Graham?” Kins asked.
Berg looked back over her shoulder. “A little. I was inadvertently to blame for that.”
“How so?” Kins said.
“Like I said, Andrea was an introvert. She really just preferred to go home and read after work. It became my mission to find her a social life. We had a function downtown and I sort of forced Andrea to attend. That’s where she met Graham. Anyway, next thing I knew she’s getting married.”
“How long after they met?” Tracy asked.
Berg blew out a breath. “It was fast, I’ll tell you that. Maybe a month or two. I’m not really sure.”
“Did Andrea seem happy?”
“Hard to tell with Andrea—she kept everything so close to the vest, but I thought so.”
“We understand she grew up in Southern California. Do you know if she still has family down there?” Kins asked.
“An aunt, I believe, though I don’t think they’re close.”
“Did you subsequently get to know Graham?” Kins asked.
“Not real well,” Berg said. “For the most part Andrea kept her work life and personal life separate.”
Tracy deduced from the tone of Berg’s response that she had not been a fan of Graham Strickland, but was being diplomatic. “But you had occasion to meet him?”
“Just a couple of times. He came to a few functions and every so often he’d come in and pick up Andrea from work.”
“What was he like?” Kins said.
Berg smiled but it looked like more of a wince, as if she were in pain. She looked like someone who had an opinion but didn’t want to offer it.
“We understand you didn’t know him well,” Tracy said. “We’re just looking for your general impression of him.”
“Honestly? I didn’t care for him.” She again hesitated. “He was just one of those guys who tried too hard. Do you know what I mean?”
“Tried too hard to be liked?” Kins said.
Berg again looked back over her shoulder but this time she paused midstep and stopped. “Yes. That’s a very good way to put it.”
“What did he do?” Kins asked.
“It was just everything—the way he dressed, his hair, the beard. It was all . . . affected, like he was trying to display a certain image. And the Porsche.” She smiled and shook her head at the thought of it. “A red Carrera Porsche. It was all just sort of obnoxious. And I don’t think he was any rocket scientist.”
“Why not?” Tracy asked.
“Just little things Andrea said—like the marijuana dispensary. Andrea tried to tell him she didn’t think it was a good business idea, but she said Graham had done all the research and told her it was going to be a gold mine.”
Tracy wiped a bead of perspiration trickling down the side of her face. She could feel sweat between her shoulder blades from the sun, which was at their backs. “Did Andrea ever say she and Graham were having marital troubles?”
Berg became contemplative. “Andrea and I went to lunch after she came back to work for me, after the business failed. She said Graham was cheating on her.”
“Did she say with who?” Tracy asked.
“She didn’t know, but apparently it wasn’t the first time. He’d cheated with someone he used to work with.”
“How’d she find out? Did she say?” Tracy asked.
“When the business started to fail, she paid closer attention to the expenses and found credit card charges for hotels and restaurants in Seattle. He’d said they were related to work, but she called the businesses. They weren’t.”
“So she was resourceful,” Kins said.
“When she had to be,” Berg said.