Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder

virtually unknown writer—many years ago: Joan and Joe Foley of the Foley Agency, New York City. Some authors change literary agents as often as they buy new cars, but I am sticking with the Foleys! They have long since become friends who are as close to me as family. I appreciate their pep talks, support, constructive criticism, experience, knowledge, and the fact that they always have my back. We have shared both ebullient good times and tragedies over the years, as all good friends do.
    Thanks, Foleys!

Acknowledgments
    There are many cases in this book, all of them carefully investigated and researched, and all but two successfully prosecuted. I count on the survivors, witnesses, patrolmen, detectives, medical examiners, prosecutors, and judges as my resources as I seek the truth about what really happened. And I was, indeed, lucky to have found such cooperation from those who brought truth and justice out of mystery and tragedy in the cases featured in Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder .
    I wish to thank Sue Jensen, Jenny Jensen, and Scott Jensen; Detectives Cloyd Steiger and Sharon Stevens, Seattle Police Department; Cheryl Snow and Marilyn Brenneman, Senior Deputy King County Prosecuting Attorneys; Val Epperson and Superior Court Judge Richard Jones.
    To Captain Herb Swindler and Assistant Chief Noreen Skagen, Seattle Police Department, and Ila Birkland, the most efficient secretary the Homicide Unit, Seattle Police Department, ever had.
    To Inspectors Bill Hoppe, Jim Reed, and Jack Hickam of the Seattle Fire Department.
    To Detectives Jim Byrnes and Jan Cummings, Marion County, Oregon, Sheriff’s Department; and Robert Hamilton, Oregon State Attorney General’s Office.
    To Detectives Sgt. Ivan Beeson and Sgt. Don Cameron, and Detectives Dick Reed, Dick Sanford, Billy Baughman, George Marberg, Joyce Johnson, and Al Gerdes, Seattle Police Department.
    To my first—and only—research assistant, Tennessee Division: Beverly Morrison, in Henderson. And to McNairy County, Tennessee, Circuit Court Clerk Ronnie Brooks and Clerk Jackie Cox, Russell Ingle of the Independent-Appeal, Selmer, Tennessee; Tonya Smith-King of the Jackson Sun, Jackson, Tennessee, and Malley J. Byrd, Memphis, Tennessee.
    As always, many, many thanks to my editorial team at Pocket Books: to my publisher, Louise Burke, whose enthusiasm is contagious; to my editor, Mitchell Ivers, whose voice on the phone or name on my e-mail is almost always cause for a smile. He still gives me more compliments and back pats than complaints; to his editorial assistant, Erika Burns, who put this book together—photo section and all—in perfect order on a tight deadline. And to the rest of the team, who worked efficiently and promptly, using more effort than readers—and sometimes authors—ever realize. I do appreciate you. Thanks also to Carly Sommerstein, Sally Franklin, and Lisa Litwack. And a special thank-you to Chuck Antony, the copy editor who sent back such a sweet-smelling manuscript. Thank you all!

Foreword
    Murder is a crime shot through with deception, subterfuge, wicked preparation, and cruel intent. By its very definition it involves trickery and lies; killers almost always seek to hide behind real or imaginary smoke screens, attempting to convince others of their innocence. They are, in a sense, “magicians of malice,” intent on covering up the truth. Some are far more clever than others and their intricate plots often come frighteningly close to allowing them to walk away with few or no consequences. And there are always some who do escape punishment. Unfortunately, there is such a thing as the perfect murder.
    The cases that follow cover the gamut of every genus of murderer; some were brilliant, while others were cloddish. One case may not have been a homicide but only a tragic circumstance that was virtually unexplainable. No one knows for sure. There is even a homicide case that may have had as its “watershed point” an Internet con game.
    Each case is especially memorable to me, whether it happened as recently as 2007 or took me back to the seventies and eighties, when I first began writing for the fact-detective magazines. In those days, I was known as Foreword “Andy Stack”—because the editors of True Detective said their readers would not believe a woman knew anything about police investigations. It took me years, but I proved them wrong.
    In this, my twelfth book in the Crime Files series, I include seven engrossing cases,