The Wicked Wife (Murder in Marin Book 2) (35 page)

“Where does she like to go?”

“All over the county, but she really likes the headlands as well—usually going out of Mill Valley, and down Tennessee Valley Road.”

“My wife and I love that route as well. We grew up in Marin, and we were part of that first generation that got into mountain biking.” He paused, as if in thought. “In fact, I was thinking of getting her a new bike for her birthday, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. She has an old hand-me-down from her sister. What bike does your wife like?”

“Well, if you’ve got a minute, I’ll show you. We keep our bikes in the garage.”

“Sure, I appreciate the help! I know the wife would love a new bike.”
 

Thank God, Eddie thought, this guy is trying to make a good impression. I could probably ask him to bake me a pie at this point.

The garage was to the left of the house. After opening the automatic door, James waved Eddie inside.

Eddie entered the garage and walked around the bike. It was well cared for by a woman he suspected was a devoted rider.
 

“Wow, this is a beauty,” he exclaimed. At the same time, he hoped James wouldn’t ask any detailed questions about the type of bike he was looking for, given the fact that neither he nor Sharon knew anything about mountain bikes. “I hate to impose, but would you have any idea what this bike cost?”

James quickly said, “Jade just got it two months ago, from Caesar’s Cyclery, right near here on San Anselmo Avenue.”

“Oh, yeah! I know the place.”

“Give me a second, I’ll call over there,” James suggested. “Let me get my phone, I left it out on the porch where we were talking.

Debbie Salem had made the suggestion that if he got the opportunity, he should try to get at least a rudimentary impression of Jade’s bike’s wheels. Wild idea, Eddie thought, but he was always game for trying something new. There’s always a chance you might get lucky.
 

Eddie didn’t waste a moment pulling out carbonless imprint paper from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. Quickly, he bent down and rolled the front tire over the left side of the double sheet and then the rear tire over the right side.
 

James walked back into the garage as if he hadn’t a care in the world and announced that the bike was seventeen hundred dollars.
 

Eddie chuckled. “Little rich for my blood.”

“You should go over there and mention that you were looking at a Diamondback Recoil Pro with an aluminum frame and twenty-seven gear combinations with Shimano shifter,” James insisted. “If they have something comparable, you can probably get away for, say, under a thousand dollars.”

“Could you write that Diamondback model description on the back of my card, I’ll get over there and never remember the whole thing.”

“Sure, happy to help. Really, go over and check them out; they’re a great bunch of guys.”

“I’ll do that. Many thanks for your time and hospitality. It’s been great meeting you.”
 

Whatever role James played in Willow’s death, Eddie thought, he was not her killer. The story of he and William playing golf at Peacock Gap was easy to confirm. More importantly, he wrote down the model description of his wife’s bike using his left hand, and the killer, as Max told him days ago, was assuredly right handed.
 

There’s more to the story, particularly all those phone calls James placed to Willow.
 
Eddie knew, however, that his top priority at the moment was arresting Willow’s killer. James’ full story would come out in the wash.

Back in his car, Eddie headed straight for the crime lab. Getting prices on mountain bikes was, at that moment, the furthest thing from his mind.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Jade returned home in the late afternoon after a full day of shopping in the city. It was the first time she had gone an entire day without thinking of Willow’s murder.
 

What had amazed her most of all was how easy it all was, causing her to reflect for several nights on the fragility of life.

She knew Willow was less than a minute away from the dugout along Tennessee Valley Road because of the GPS tracker she had placed on Willow’s car shortly after she had observed Willow’s rendezvous with her husband at the W Hotel. In her great anger, first she thought of killing James, but she settled on Willow instead, convinced that Willow was the one who had instigated the affair.
 

Willow’s call to her the afternoon before her death was unexpected—and a bit of good fortune that Jade knew she could not pass up. Knowing that Willow was not an early riser, she left home on her bike a little past eight on Saturday morning, and waited at the Starbucks in Tam Junction for Willow’s car to announce that it was on the move. Jade picked up her light blue REI backpack and completed the short ride to the dugout, where she would wait for Willow.
 

She left her bike well back from the paved road, but kept the backpack with her. It contained the plastic bag, the note from a crazed fan, and the ballpeen hammer. As she reached the edge of the dugout, she uncapped a small container with blood and poured it down the side of her leg.

As she noted on her phone’s app, Willow was about to pass the small subdivision behind Tam Junction known as Birdland. This indicated that Willow was less than a minute away, so Jade smeared a little mud on her leg, above and around the blood.

She looked at every car that passed, hoping to spot Willow’s Mercedes. Moments later, as she saw it approaching, she winced in imagined pain and waved her arm in distress.
 

Willow could hardly believe her eyes. Oh my God, she thought to herself, that’s Jade! And not just Jade, but Jade in distress.
 

Willow thought of her good fortune. She had hoped to get closer to Jade; now here she was, in Jade’s moment of need.

Willow pulled well into the dugout, and practically leapt out of her car.
 

“Jade, you poor dear! What happened?”

“I was taking a back path through the woods when my bike hit a rock. I went flying over the handlebars.”

“Let me take a look at that cut,” Willow cooed.

“Oh, it’s not serious. Really, it isn’t deep at all—just a scratch, really. The bad part is that I hit my head pretty hard when I landed. Thank God I was wearing my helmet! I just don’t think I can ride back home to Ross right now. I’m not even sure if the bike is in good enough shape to do it, even if I tried.”

“Jade, don’t be silly! I’ll take both you and your bike back home. I think you’ve had enough adventure for one day.”

As Willow walked over the damp leaves, she thought how little she liked the idea of putting Jade’s filthy mountain bike in the trunk, or worse, on the back seat of her pristine car.

But this was her moment to shine, so Willow walked deeper into the woods to assist poor Jade, who limped along gamely behind her.
 

Jade knew the moment of her triumph had arrived. She would not allow herself a moment’s hesitation.
 

There would never be a better time to strike down this woman who wished to steal her husband and ruin her happy home.

As Willow bent down slightly to get a better look at the supposed damage to the mountain bike, Jade slid the hammer out of her bag and cocked her arm, poised to strike.
 

Into that blow went all the great anger that Jade felt toward Willow. The vibration that went from the point of impact, into Jade’s hand and up through her shoulder was like a small electric shock. But it was enough of a blow that Willow fell to her knees, and then down on her side.
 

Jade nervously looked around her as she quickly pulled the thick clear plastic gown length garment bag out of her backpack, and stripped every stitch of clothing from Willow—the last being a gauzy white cotton top, the back of which was already soaked in blood. Jade stuffed the clothes into the backpack, taking care to remove the only thing Willow carried with her: the keys to her car.

She rolled Willow’s now-nude body face down, then removed the “fan” note she had sealed in a small lunch bag. She used a thin, two-inch nail to tap the note into Willow, just above the base of her spine.
 

Jade was quite certain that Willow had already expired, because her shallow breathing had quickly vanished and her skin felt increasingly cold to the touch. She rolled her into the garment bag, picking bits of leaves off of her as she went, and then zipped it tight.

As a finishing touch, she opened a small bottle of Willow Wisp, pouring its contents all over the plastic bag and onto the surrounding soil. Quickly, she piled leaves on top of the shallow grave she’d created in the soft ground.
 

Jade walked further back into the woods. There, she opened a twelve-ounce bottle of water. With a small washcloth, she cleaned off her imaginary leg wound and the splatters of Willow’s blood from her hands and forearms.
 

She then biked back to Tam Junction. She passed Holly and Sylvia, who were late and hurrying to meet Willow at the trailhead. Behind the strip mall that faces California 1, she dumped her backpack and went back into the Starbuck’s. Reaching into the pocket of her red and white nylon biking jacket, she pulled out enough money to pay for a cold drink. As she did, she felt Willow’s car keys.
 

Damn it! She could not believe her oversight! The car, left where it was, represented two problems. One, it marked the area where Willow was buried. Two, there was the problem of the GPS tracking device she’d attached under the wheel well. She had no idea if that device could be traced back to her, but she thought it likely.
 

Her heart was racing as she rode back to the dugout. How could she have possibly committed such an oversight? Likely, she decided, because she was so focused on the murder and preparation of Willow afterwards that this all-important detail escaped her.
 

It took her six minutes to bike back to Willow’s car. The car, model and color—not to mention its license plate—made it stand out. She put back on the blue nitrile surgical gloves and waited until the road was empty to remove the GPS device and then start the car. She drove it closer to the main trailhead, where she parked the car, then she walked back to the spot in the woods where she had locked her bike to a tree.
 

Walking back to the dugout, no one seemed to notice her. Behind the Lutheran church just a few hundred feet from Tam Junction, she found another dumpster loaded with trash. Into it, she buried the GPS device and Willow’s car keys. All along her route, no one seemed to notice her. Surely, Jade thought, this was a sign that divine providence was on her side.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

With each passing day since the Saturday morning of the murder, Jade grew more confident that she had destroyed her nemesis and gotten away with it.

She congratulated herself on the brilliance of her plan, and relished those first few days when everyone was mystified by Willow’s disappearance.
 

Naturally, she regretted William’s pain during the days Willow went missing and after the discovery of her body. But Jade took comfort in the knowledge that she had unburdened William of the woman he had so foolishly married.

Jade was also blissfully unaware of the visit Eddie made to her home on Monday afternoon, or his supposed interest in buying his wife a mountain bike for her birthday. She had successfully disposed of the murder weapon, Willow’s bloody clothes, and all the rest of the items that would have tied her to the scene, save one—the tires of her recently purchased mountain bike.
 

It was a small detail that simply never occurred to her.