Practice to Deceive

the Basic Law Enforcement Academy in 1997 in the number-one spot. He joined the Island County Sheriff’s Department and found that law enforcement was a perfect fit for him.
    The Island County Sheriff’s Department doesn’t have that many detectives—only four—so each wears many hats. Mark Plumberg handles homicides, sex crimes, fraud, robbery, white-collar crimes, and arson. “Everything, really,” he comments. “I love it—but it’s draining because I love it so much.”
    As part of his arson training, he attended the Emmetsburg, Maryland, National Fire Academy.
    “As I worked full-time,” he recalls, “I quickly began to understand everything I learned in the academies.”
    One aspect of law enforcement troubles Plumberg, however. “I can’t protect people. I try to tell people that. It’s a rare occasion when I can actually prevent a crime. I have to deal with the aftermath.”
    It is the age-old dilemma for good cops. Solving crimes can be challenging and even exciting, but sadness and regret come inextricably bound together in a homicide case. They grieve for the victims’ lives, even as they try to give them some kind of justice.
    * * *
    W ITH EDDIE NAVARRE, PLUMBERG had a suspect who could be quite easily wedged into the empty spots of the jigsaw puzzle that Russel Douglas’s murder had created. Not exactly fitting, but doable. But Plumberg wasn’t satisfied with that. There were many other scenarios to explore, quite possibly suspects who had yet to be revealed. It was maddening that the motive for Russ Douglas’s murder was still obscure.
    If Russel had met Eddie in a bar—in Redmond where he worked, in Renton where he lived, in Lynnwood or Mukilteo or somewhere on Whidbey Island—he might have fallen for Navarre’s crafty line of patter about a fortune to be made in juice franchises. He might even have been curious about a promise of gay sex. But it would have taken a series of coincidences for their paths to have crossed.
    Even though Mark Plumberg continued to look for Navarre, he didn’t allow himself to have tunnel vision. He had more people to interview or reinterview.
    * * *
    B RENNA DOUGLAS HAD STOPPED talking to the sheriff’s investigators months before. Now, Brenna’s attorney, Jessie Valentine, contacted Island County prosecuting attorney Greg Banks and asked for a meeting.
    Shortly before three 3 P.M. on July 15, Plumberg, Banks, and Brenna met in Valentine’s office. Susan Wilmoth, Valentine’s legal assistant, was also present. Brenna and her lawyer provided her phone records for December 2003, and for January and February 2004. They also turned over her bank statement for December; they validated where she had made purchases on December 27. Jessie Valentine said she had no problem giving the investigators her client’s appointment book at Just B’s, showing a client list from December 22 to 27. They couldn’t offer any more, citing Brenna’s need to protect the privacy of her clients.
    “Nobody needs to know who gets their hair dyed or what color.”
    This was to be a difficult interview for Greg Banks and Mark Plumberg; Jessie Valentine often made comments that precluded Brenna Douglas from answering questions spontaneously. At times she seemed to be guiding Brenna back to a particular question when she became distracted, and seemed to be almost coaching her.
    Plumberg had to remind Brenna of what she had said when she was first notified of Russ’s death and in the days that followed.
    “I was told that you stopped cooperating with our investigation some time ago.”
    “Oh no,” she insisted. “I wanted to help. The only time I didn’t want to talk to Detective Birchfield was when the insurance investigator came to my salon. He treated me horribly and told me they weren’t going to pay my claim. That was when I called Jessie.”
    Both client and attorney said they had tried to make appointments with Birchfield without success.
    Brenna had brought her appointment book with her to help her recall specific dates. Russ had come to visit on December 19 when his mother was there. “He stayed that night and on the twentieth,” she said.
    “He told me then about some guy who called and wanted to talk to him—the headhunter—but he wasn’t sure he should talk to him because he had just gotten a promotion at Tetra Tech.”
    Once more, the recent widow stressed that Russ had very few friends—and that any he had came from “my circle.”
    “Who do you