Marge said, “I have Lee Wang going through old cold cases to see if we have any unsolved hangings. There isn’t anything that pops up.”

“It’s a weird way to die unless it’s suicide or erotic hanging and that’s usually more a guy thing than women. And usually with rope, not with cable wire. Did you find a stool or a box that she could have stood on?”

“Nope,” Marge said. “But there were piles of lumber around her feet. I tell you what I did find. The cable company called back. They claim that no one was in the area yesterday.”

“That’s sucks. Where are we on locating Aaron Otis?”

“Funny you should ask.”

Decker sat up. “You found him?”

“He finally decided to clear his mailbox. I just got off the phone with him.”

“So what’s going on?”

“Aaron actually talked to Adrianna on the phone and—according to Aaron—this is what she told him.” Marge turned to her notes. “He said that Adrianna told him—Aaron—to give Garth a message. The message was—and I quote—that he could fuck himself. Adrianna then went on to say that she was tired of giving him money that he spent on vacations without her. She also said that Garth shouldn’t bother calling her back now or ever. She would just hang up on him. When Aaron offered to give the phone to Garth, she did hang up. The conversation, according to him, lasted about two minutes. According to the records, it was two minutes fifty-two seconds.”

Decker thought a moment. “If she wanted to break up with Garth, why not call Garth?”

“I don’t know, Pete. Aaron felt that maybe she was using him as a messenger of bad news.”

“Did he give Garth the message?”

“He did, and this is where it gets interesting.”

“Go on.”

“The boys were supposed to go on a weeklong river-rafting trip. But they decided to shorten it to five days and spend a few days in Reno for some R and R.”

“So that squares with what Crystal told you last night.”

“It does. Aaron got Adrianna’s phone call a few hours before they were supposed to leave for the rafting trip—at about eight in the morning.”

“That also squares with the records.”

“At first, Aaron didn’t tell Garth right away because he figured…” She flipped through her notes. “And again, I quote, ‘Why ruin the dude’s good time?’ But then he thought it over and figured it was better to tell him before the trip in case he wanted to call Adrianna. Once they got deep in the mountains, their cells wouldn’t work.”

“And?”