Chapter 9 - The First Wife
While the forensic accounting was the ultimate weapon, my detective instincts were itching. Criminals like Mark—narcissists who resort to meticulous, calculated violence—rarely start with their current spouse. There is always a pattern.
I sat at my kitchen table, nursing a glass of bourbon, scrolling through background checks on my encrypted laptop.
Mark had moved to our state five years ago. Before that, he lived in Seattle. I pulled up his marital records. Sarah wasn't his first wife.
Ten years ago, Mark had been married to a woman named Chloe Sterling. According to public records, Chloe had died tragically in a boating accident on Puget Sound. The death was ruled accidental. Mark was the only witness, claiming she slipped on the deck and hit her head before falling into the water.
He inherited her modest estate, collected a $500,000 life insurance policy, and moved away a month later.
My heart hammered against my ribs. He had done this before. He had perfected the "grieving husband" routine a decade ago.
I called in a favor with a former colleague in the Seattle PD. By midnight, he emailed me the original incident report from Chloe's death. I read through the coroner's notes. Cause of death: Drowning. Contributing factors: High levels of prescription sedatives found in the victim's bloodstream.
The exact same sedatives Mark had been forcing down Sarah's throat in the basement.
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He didn't just want Sarah's money. He was repeating his own twisted, successful playbook. He drugged Chloe, drowned her, and got away with it. He was trying to drug Sarah, let her wither away, and play the victim all over again.
I printed the Seattle police report, stuffed it into a folder with the financial records, and drove straight to the District Attorney's office. The trial was going to be a bloodbath.
