Mortal Danger

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http://www.SimonSays.com

For the families and friends of violent crime victims
and missing persons.
    I salute you for three decades of helping others
because you’ve been through it and you understand.
    You have made a difference.

Acknowledgments
    Most readers have no idea how many people it takes to make a book! There are numerous levels before I finally receive my first copy, which thrills me as much as it did twenty-nine books ago. As always, I feel lucky to have the wisdom, talent, skills, memories, and support from the many who have contributed to Mortal Danger . From detectives who worked hard to solve these cases to the families of victims who shared what I realize is very painful to survivors, my gratitude knows no bounds.
    And from my editors to my production team to my literary and theatrical agents, I could not possibly have completed this book without you!
    My appreciation goes to: Kate Jewell, Susan Hoskinson, David Gardiner, Gold Beach Police Department; Karen Slater, Dr. Randall Nozawa, Lieutenant Brent Bomkamp, Sergeant Ben Benson, Ed Troyer, Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
    To the late Dave Hart, Port of Seattle Police Department; Mike Ciesynski, Mike Tando, Hank Gruber, and Bob Holter, Seattle Police Department; and Bruce Whitman and Dick Taylor, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office; and Jarl Gunderson, Marysville Police Department.
    I thank my publisher, Louise Burke, for trusting my judgment in selecting cases, and my editor, Mitchell Ivers, who—with his sharp eye, literary skill, and deft pen—makes criticism almost fun. His assistant, Jessica Webb, makes things happen on time, and she helped tremendously in organizing the photo sections. The production staff—Carly Sommerstein, Sally Franklin, and Lisa Litwack—whipped all the parts of this book into one cohesive package and sent it off to the printer.
    Joan and Joe Foley in New York City have been my literary agents and cheering section for more than three decades. I was lucky when they took a chance on me! Ron Bernstein, my theatrical agent at International Creative Management (ICM) in Los Angeles, is responsible for transforming many of my books into movies and miniseries, and we have more to come soon.
    Gerry Hay is still my first reader, and my daughter, Leslie Rule, is a proofreader who catches almost all the mistakes I’ve missed! My special thanks to Marie Heaney, Donna Anders, Blanche Beanblossom, Marnie Campbell, Brian Heil, Dawn Dunn, Grace Kingman, and Diane Benson, to the “Jolly Matrons of Willamette University and the University of Washington,” the “Ladies Who Lunch/Union Meeting Extraordinaire,” and to the “Loyal Order of ARFs [Ann Rule Fans],” who never fail to brighten my days.

Foreword
    The format of my True Crime Files series changes constantly. Sometimes, there may be eight or ten short cases. Occasionally, as in this book, there are several long cases and only a few short cases. When I was in college, my professors in writing classes taught me to tell a story until it was told. The trick was to know when that was! It shouldn’t be a sentence shorter or a paragraph longer.
    In 2007, as it happened, I came across three cases that demanded well over a hundred pages apiece to unveil the many tunnels, dead ends, corners, intersections, and amazing revelations that startled even experienced detectives. And I took all the pages I needed.
    There are also two shorter cases in Mortal Danger. Readers often tell me that they read my crime files on the bus or a plane. This collection should fit, then, for short or long trips.
    Next year, I may choose an entirely different format as I write both new cases and mysteries going back decades. With the evolution of cold case squads in almost all large police agencies, I am learning the answers to many unsolved homicides that I covered at the beginning of mycareer, and it feels good to be able to write these endings long after we all believed the cases would lie dormant forever.
    As I explore each case, I try my best to research the motivation of the killer, going back as far as I can in his (or her) life. I also try to allow readers to come to know the victims as if they were still with us. I look for the moment their two paths cross and tragedy blooms. Sometimes they are strangers who meet only once; sometimes it takes years before the true personality of the killer emerges.
    As often as I can, I go to the cities and states where the crimes I write about