The Wicked Wife (Murder in Marin Book 2) (28 page)

What little William had to say on the ride up to the Marin County morgue was mostly a stream of consciousness. One comment, however, stayed with Eddie, and he later repeated it to Sharon when he arrived home later that night.
 

“The one difficult thing about being married to Willow was all the media attention. You can’t be one of the world’s wealthiest people and be married to a celebrity model, and not be followed by every jerk with a camera hoping to sell a photo to one or more of the sleazy tabloids. In large part, tabloid readers don’t care about billionaires. But let one marry a famous model half his age, and they’ll be on top of that in a flash.”
 

Eddie nodded silently.

“You know, when you first came to me with the news about Willow on Saturday evening, I thought of asking—perhaps insisting—that some massive search of the entire area be done starting Sunday morning,” William went on. “But I knew that would lead to a national media circus, and I thought, what if this all was much ado about nothing? I’d never want to do anything that would embarrass Willow.”

Eddie remained silent, but actually he had considered on Sunday the very same action. He’d also backed away from it, for the exact same reason: for fear of a media feeding frenzy, which might have ultimately proven an embarrassment for both Adams and his wife.

William’s knees buckled when an attendant pulled down a sheet to reveal Willow’s face. She had already been separated from the clear garment bag, with much of the hair on the back of her head needing to be cut away. William knew instantly it was his wife, his perfect flower. Still, he was deeply shocked at how different she looked in death. Standing there with just Eddie and an attendant, William began to weep as he leaned into Eddie to help maintain his balance.
 

“This makes no sense! Why would anyone want to hurt someone as sweet and loving as her?”

To Eddie, it was a powerful reminder of something that he had heard his mother say. “No one on their death bed asks if their stocks went up or down today,” she explained. “They talk about the people they love, and the people who have loved them. Having money is a wonderful thing, but never forget, son—there are other things in your life that, in time, you will learn are so much more important.”

Fully aware of William’s distress, Eddie stayed with him until he left the morgue with his driver.
 

As he drove back to the crime scene, he knew he owed Rob and Holly a call, and perhaps more importantly, they might help him to fill in some of the blanks he was facing in unraveling Willow’s life.
 

When Rob picked up, Eddie asked if Holly could pick up the extension. That caused both of them to anticipate really good news—or really bad.

“We found Willow’s body this morning, near one of those dugouts on Tennessee Valley Road.”

“Oh
shit!
” Holly exclaimed.

“Damn,” Rob added.

“Holly, can you get ahold of Sylvia, and ask her to come up to your office, say around ten tomorrow? Rob, feel free to join us. I have something that I want to discuss with the three of you.”

“Come on, Eddie! Don’t leave us hanging,” Holly whined.

“Sorry, hon, I’m going to have to for right now. I’ve just got to follow every lead, and you and Sylvia might be able to help me to do that. Rob, I just need you there in case we need someone to go for refreshments.”

“Very funny,” Rob groused.

“Give me a break, Rob. That joke I just made at your expense was the first good laugh I’ve had all day. Between finding Willow and spending the last hour and a half with her husband, this hasn’t been one of my more fun days.”

“I hear ya, bro. Okay, see you tomorrow. Let Karin and I know if you need any coverage for Aaron tonight.”

“Thanks, pal. See you tomorrow.”
 

When William got home, he called his brothers, then he called Fran’s brother and sister. He began to cry during each call, but felt a desperate need to connect with family.
 

Finally, he called his partner James, who nearly dropped his phone when William told him the news.

“But I didn’t even know she was missing. I don’t believe this!”

“I learned she was missing Saturday afternoon after I got back from our golf game. I haven’t said anything to you or anyone over the last few days because I didn’t want to worry a lot of people when really there was nothing that we knew.”

“William, I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“She was my perfect little flower,” William said, and then quickly got off the phone.

James’ mind was racing when he got off the call with William. His first thoughts were about all the calls that he had made to Willow over the past several months. He wondered if that would help add him to the list of suspects that the police would be taking a closer look at.
 

He snickered at William calling Willow his perfect little flower. If she was perfect, James thought, he would have never relished every opportunity he had to be with her. Certainly, it was not her being perfect that led to her murder.
 

Well before nightfall that day, news trucks lined both sides of Tennessee Valley Road with their long satellite transmission arms fully extended, beaming to America and the world the site where Willow’s body had been discovered.
 

Sheriff Canning called a press conference for Thursday, at two o’clock. Eddie would dearly like to avoid the event, but as lead investigator, he had no doubt that he would be placed front and center.
 

William was bombarded for interviews through phone calls to his office secretary, and to his home.

In response to all the requests, he released a brief statement, expressing in part, “A deep sense of loss and profound pain over the tragic death of my beloved wife.” He followed it with a plea that the media, “Respect our family’s need for privacy during this very difficult time.”
 

Eddie went back inside the crime scene tent in order to check on the work of a team of specialists who were covered in protective clothing in hope that they not further contaminate the site.
 

“How’s it going?” he asked Debbie Salem, the county’s lead forensics tech. “No fun, I suspect.”

“We would have preferred if the body had been found in, let’s say, a less challenging environment,” Debbie explained, with her usual tired smile. “Human hairs and traces of DNA are all a lot easier to find on a carpet, a bedspread, or a kitchen floor than here in the great outdoors. But we’ll work with what we have.”

“It’s never easy, is it?”

“That’s why I get paid the big bucks, right?”

“Ha! Really? I never knew that. But it’s nice to know.”

She smacked his arm. “If you think that, then I’ve got some swamp land in the East Bay with your name on it.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

When Eddie walked into the offices of the
Standard
promptly at ten the following morning, he had an extra-large cup of black coffee in his hand from the Starbucks directly across the street.

Noting that he looked as if he’d gotten very little sleep the night before, Rob greeted him by saying, “You look like you saw a ghost.”

“I can’t get that image of Willow’s body out of my mind. In fact, one of my deputies ran off to return her breakfast behind a tree. If I wasn’t the officer in charge, I might have done the same thing. Talk about unsettling.”

Rob nodded. “There are days that I wouldn’t do your job for all the money in the world.”

“That’s how I feel about running a string of community papers,” Eddie laughed. “I guess we were both cut out for the work that we chose to do. So, where are Holly and Sylvia?”

“They should be back up here any minute. Holly took Sylvia out for a little fresh air. They’re pretty stunned by all this.”

“Join the crowd. Willow’s husband looked like hell when I took him up to the morgue. Less than four years ago his first wife dies in a skiing accident, and now his second wife is murdered. I don’t think all those billions means all that much to the guy at this moment.” He shook his head mournfully. “You should have seen him, Rob. He looked as if he’d been kicked in the gut.”

At that moment, Holly and Sylvia walked in with red-rimmed eyes. Obviously, they’d shared a good cry.