Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder

she was fixing to go her separate ways when she gets out of here, and I don’t know if that’s still gonna happen.”
    Pillow said they had spoken of marriage, and that he liked Mary because she reminded him of his mother, who had died when he was fourteen. “We looked good together. She was my height. We just seemed to make a good couple—I thought we did, anyway. I don’t really know what she was thinking…”
    Her boss’s brother carried pictures that he said Mary had given him of her and her girls and one that included Matthew. Still, it seemed obvious that her main concerns were all about her daughters and that more than anything else she wanted them back in her custody. Her attorneys had told her it was best if she remained single without any complicating factors like a boyfriend or lover.
    Darrell Pillow evinced no concern at all about his own safety should he and Mary eventually hook up. He found her a sweet and considerate woman, and he clearly cared a great deal for her. He refused to say if they had been intimate.
    Whether they will ever be together is an unanswerable question. Mary faces one legal hurdle after another as she fights to be reunited with her children.
    And marriage, as she has known it, hasn’t left Mary Winkler with positive feelings about the institution. Only time will tell.

Photographic Insert
    THE ANTIQUES DEALER’S WIFE

    Raoul Guy Rockwell poses with one of his fabulous collection of Ashanti weights. He was the darling of Seattle society women in 1960, and they flocked to his antiques shop on Lake Union.

Manzanita “Manzy” Rockwell, 39, and her husband, Raoul, clowning around. Manzy had left her first husband to run off with Raoul, but the romance went out of their marriage all too soon. And then she and her 18-year old daughter vanished.

Dolores Mearns, 18, was excited about her college classes, but along with her mother, she disappeared without any warning in the spring of 1960. Friends worried about Dolores and Manzanita.

Evelyn Emerson was swept off her feet by Raoul Guy Rockwell, but their honeymoon ended when he, too, disappeared. There was so much the wealthy divorcee didn’t know about her bridegroom.

The Rockwells had their popular antiques shop in this “shabby chic” building, and they lived there, too. Once, it was filled with treasures and with women enthralled with Raoul, but it became a house of horrors.

Seattle Homicide detective Gail Leonard sifts through the ashes of Raoul Guy Rockwell’s fireplace. The handsome antiques dealer told friends and neighbors that he was heartsick when his beloved wife and stepdaughter deserted him. Leonard and Detective Herb Swindler tried to locate the women.

Seattle Homicide detective Herb Swindler tracked the travels of Raoul Guy Rockwell for months, faced him in New York City, and elicited macabre answers. But was it a confession to the unthinkable?

THE TRUCK DRIVER’S WIFE

    Dorothy Jones burned to death in this house—but how? And why?

Arson investigators spread the burned mattress sections on the lawn of Dorothy Jones’s home. They tried to determine how an “impossible” fire had started, but nothing fell into place. Had Dorothy herself simply burst into flames?

Bill Hoppe, an arson investigator for the Seattle Fire Department’s renowned Marshal 5 unit, had seen one case of spontaneous combustion; he wondered if Dorothy Jones’s death was another.

Jim Reed, a member of the Marshal 5 arson investigation team, evaluates burn patterns in Dorothy Jones’s home as he looks for the flames’ point of origin. With Bill Hoppe, the arson detective tried to unveil some fatal secret in her life.

THE CONVICT’S WIFE

    Doris Mae Light had a difficult life, but it got worse when her husband’s brother came to spend Christmas—a surprise guest.

Larry Light had reason to resent his brother, George, and they both had good reasons to get out of the state of Illinois. Larry followed George and Doris Mae to Oregon, where they all lived together in an old farmhouse in the country outside Salem.

Lieutenant Jim Byrnes of the Marion County, Oregon, Sheriff’s Office investigated the family triangle that appeared to have ended up as a duo. It was no wonder some people said the isolated farmhouse was haunted.

Long after he failed to appear at his favorite tavern, Oregon detectives discovered all that remained of George Light.

THE CHEMIST’S WIFE

    Seattle Police Homicide detectives were called out from their