Alaskan Courage: Silenced Part 10

Jake nodded.

She was silent a moment. "Nah," she said, shaking her head. "Brody can be a real jerk, but endangering another climber goes against all he stands for."

"Anybody else you can think of that could have wanted to mess with Conrad?" Jake asked, wondering if that was the direction they were headed-someone wanting to teach Conrad a lesson. A lesson that had gone horribly wrong.

"Yeah." Natalie exhaled with a smile. "Try his wife or mistress."

"Mistress?" Vivienne hadn't said anything about a mistress, but maybe she didn't know.

"Patty Tate," Natalie said.

"As in expert climber, two-time state champion Patty Tate?" Kayden had pointed her out on their last climb. Patty had quite the reputation for being a tough compet.i.tor and a fierce athlete.

Natalie tapped the pen against her flattened palm. "That's the one."

"How on earth did those two . . . ?" From what Jake knew of them, they seemed like an odd pairing.

"They met over at Brody's gym a while back. Been going strong ever since."

"How long is 'a while back'?" Kayden asked.

Natalie shrugged. "At least a couple of years."

"Years?" Kayden said.

"Did Vivienne know?" Jake asked, wanting to know if she'd purposely withheld pertinent information or if she was still in the dark about the affair.

"Oh, she knows."

"You sound very confident."

"Because I saw it."

"Saw what?"

"Patty and Vivienne having it out a couple months back."

So Vivienne did know. Interesting omission on her part. "Having it out, how exactly?" he asked.

"Vivienne's a shrewd woman, I'm pretty sure she'd known for a while but let it go."

"How could a woman let something like that go?" Kayden asked.

"They've been married a long time. Maybe she was invested, maybe she figured it'd be a pa.s.sing fling, or maybe she'd grown too used to the lifestyle. Who knows."

"What would have made her change her mind? I mean, why have it out with Patty if she'd known for a while?" Something had to spark the change.

"Because Conrad stopped being discreet. He brought Patty to the Spring Festival. Vivienne showed up, and if it weren't for Conrad's intervention, I think she'd have gouged Patty's eyes out."

"I'm pretty sure Patty Tate can hold her own," Kayden said.

"Regardless, it was loud and ugly and very public."

"Who'd Conrad leave with?" That was the key to where his ultimate loyalty lay.

"Vivienne." She smiled but quickly looked away from Jake, staring at her chipped nail polish instead.

"How'd that go over with Patty?" Kayden asked.

Natalie dropped the pen and retrieved a bottle of polish from under the counter. "I saw them together last week, so it must have been okay." She tapped the bottle against her hand, shaking it up.

Kayden shook her head. "I still can't picture Conrad Humphries and Patty Tate together."

"Why?" Jake asked, gathering his evidence bag.

Natalie's gaze pinned on it for a minute and then quickly shifted back to the bottle of polish. She definitely seemed concerned about the chalk sample she'd given him.

Kayden shrugged. "Patty's about ten years his junior, an accomplished athlete. She just seems to have her act together. Why she'd be interested in a married man . . . I don't get it."

"Definitely not the most likely pair," Natalie said, opening the polish.

Kayden looked at Jake. "Guess we know who we're visiting next."

"If that's Patty," Natalie said, using smooth strokes to apply the coral polish, "you're out of luck. At least until tomorrow."

Kayden frowned. "Why's that?"

"She's at the Mount Marathon race over in Seward."

So they'd come back to Imnek tomorrow.

Jake extended his hand. "Thanks for your help."

"No problem." She offered the hand she hadn't started polishing and darted a glance at the evidence bag in his hand, her shoulders tensing. She'd been distracted ever since she'd handed over her chalk bag, hesitant to make eye contact. What was bothering her? He couldn't wait to get the sample to Booth.

10.

"Detective Cavanagh." Vivienne Humphries' condescending stare settled on Kayden as she stood beside him. "And the climber. How lovely to see you again."

Vivienne clearly didn't like her, but knowing what she now did about Patty Tate, she understood the woman's negative att.i.tude toward female climbers, and in a way she couldn't blame her. She couldn't imagine how it would feel to be betrayed with an affair. Not after growing up with her parents-so faithful and deeply in love.

If she ever were to marry-and she only considered it in moments of pure fantasy-she wanted what her parents had had. She wanted to be married to her best friend, like Cole and Bailey, and Landon and Piper. Gage and Darcy were another story-more sparks and lit fuses-but for them it worked. And for the rest of them, it was highly entertaining to watch.

"What now?" Stuart said with an exasperated sigh as he trudged through Vivienne's foyer. In his lounge pants, T-shirt, and leather slippers, he looked mighty at home in another man's house.

Jake took the lead. "We need to ask Mrs. Humphries a few more questions."

"What more could you possibly need to know?" Vivienne asked.

"The truth about your husband's relationship with Patty Tate and why you didn't feel the need to mention it earlier?"

Vivienne opened the door with a sigh. "Come in. Let's get this over with."

They settled back in the front room, where they'd sat only hours ago, and Jake started again. "Why didn't you bring up Ms. Tate when we were here earlier?"

Vivienne crossed her legs, pinning her gaze on Kayden as she answered Jake's question. "Why do you think?"

She was embarra.s.sed her husband had been having an affair, though the coziness she and Mr. Anderson displayed made Kayden again wonder if they weren't doing the same.

Jake leaned forward and cleared his throat, bringing Vivienne's attention back to himself. "Now that we're aware of the situation, what can you tell us about your husband's relationship with Ms. Tate?"

"I think fling is a more appropriate word."

"Fling?" Jake sat back. "I'd hardly call a two-year relationship a fling."

"Two years?" She chuckled. "That's absurd. Conrad had his occasional trollops, but they were always gone before I could blink."

Stuart shifted, avoiding eye contact.

Vivienne paled. "Stuart?" She c.o.c.ked her head. "Tell them they're wrong."

"I'm sorry, Viv. The detective's right. Conrad had been seeing her for a while."

"And you knew?"

"Not the whole time."

She shifted. "But long enough." Her eyes narrowed. "I can't believe you didn't tell me. Why would you let me find out like this?"

Kayden watched the interchange, curious if they even remembered she and Jake were still present and taking it all in.

"Vivienne, now's not the time." Stuart glanced at Jake.

Guess that answered her question.

"Let's talk about how you found out about the affair," Jake said.

Stuart's shoulders stiffened. "I'm sorry, but what does any of this have to do with Conrad's death?"

"It's helpful to have an understanding of Mr. Humphries' relationships at the time of his death."

"Our relationship was strained, but we were working through it," Vivienne said.

"To your knowledge, had he ended his relationship with Ms. Tate?"

Vivienne's teeth clamped. "Would you stop calling it a relationship? I made it very clear that if Conrad wanted to remain in our marriage, he needed to end things with that tramp."

"And did he?"

"He said he would." She paused, and her eyes widened. "So if you're looking for suspects, you should be looking at Patty Tate."

"Why's that?"

"I'm sure she wasn't happy Conrad was ending things, and she's a climber."

"Meaning?"

"His chalk was compromised. That's what you said. Who better to mess with his chalk than another climber?"

"She's not wrong," Kayden said as they left the Humphries residence for the second time that day.

"On which count?" Jake asked.

"That another climber was likely involved. Adding Dodecanol to the chalk takes some sort of chemical expertise, but it also takes climbing expertise. The killer would have to know what chalk feels like and how it works, would know how high up Conrad would likely be when his hands got slippery enough to no longer be able to hold on. Only a climber would understand how chalk works over time. If it wasn't a climber who killed him, then the killer had an accomplice with climbing experience."

"So we have Stuart Anderson, Brody Patterson, Natalie Adams . . ."

"And we can't rule out anybody climbing at Brody's gym the same time as Conrad that day either," she said.

"We need to figure out what Conrad did first-climb at the gym or buy the chalk. And if he bought the new chalk first, did he use it at the gym that day or save it for his Stoneface climb?"

"According to Vivienne's timeline it sounds like he went straight to the gym after work, but we'll need to clarify."

"Along with establishing what he was doing that hour Vivienne believes he was at work."

"You don't think he really was at work?"

Jake shook his head.

"You think he was visiting Patty."

Jake shrugged. "We'll have to talk with her to know for certain."

"If so, that possibility would add a fourth name to our list of people with access to Conrad's chalk before his climb," Kayden said. "I hate leaving Imnek without talking to her."

"Unfortunately, we don't have a choice."

She sighed. "So what now?"

Jake glanced at his watch. "Let's drop back by Brody's, see if we can confirm where Conrad went first the day before his death."

The parking lot was fuller now that the workday was done. It was a good time for them to be returning. It was the same time, according to Conrad's wife, that he typically visited the gym. It would give them a feel for who else may have had access to Conrad's chalk and who he spent his early evenings with.