Dead by Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? (61 page)

If and when he moved, it would not be back to Portland.
 
"He wanted me

to move my practice to Seattle," Sara said.
 
"He wanted me to leave my

family, my friends, my patientsþmy secuntþin Portland and start all

over again in Seattle.

I made some inquiries about openings for anesthesiologists in

Seattleþbut I didn't want to go."

Despite her love for Brad and his sons, living with the aftermath of

Cheryl's murder wore on Sara.
 
Although she believed absolutely that

Brad had had nothing to do with her death, she had never really gotten

over the memory of those first few weeks of terror, of their moving

from place to place to escape the unseen forces that Brad insisted were

stalking them.
 
Brad had come into her life at Easter and made it

wonderful, but by Thanksgiving it was hard for her even to remember

those happy, carefree days.
 
When Cheryl died, much of Sara's joy had

died too.

Sara was having second thoughts.
 
"It wasn't just that he wanted me to

move my practice to Seattle," she said.
 
"He did things that upset

me.

He showed up at Providence Hospital one night looking like a street

person.

He was dirty, scroungyþhe needed a shave.
 
I was embarrassed."

Never once did Sara complain about how much money she had spent on

Brad.
 
Money in and of itself had never mattered to her.
 
People did.

It was the complete upheaval of her life, her belief system, that made

her rethink her decision to marry Brad.

Brad seemed unaware that she was backing away.
 
He and the boys went to

McMinnville for Thanksgiving dinner at Sara's sister's house and they

had a pleasant time.
 
Later they spent the night at Sara's apartment in

the Madison Tower.
 
Brad had long since given up his own apartment.

Regretfully, Sara had made up her mind that she couldn't continue

with

Brad.
 
After the boys were tucked into bed, she told him gently that

she wanted to break up with him.
 
"Brad pleaded with me not to leave

him," she recalled.
 
"He told me that he would have a very hard time

finding another partner' at that stage in his life."

Sara would not be dissuaded.
 
She had agonized over her decision for a

long time before she told him.
 
She had fallen in love with a handsome

charming, self-confident, successful bank executive.
 
She barely

recognized that man in Brad anymore.
 
She was shocked to learn he was

nearly broke.
 
He had spent the twenty-three thousand dollars U.S. Bank

had given him to buy out his contract in September, spent it in two

months!

He seemed to have no discipline and no brakes on his behavior.
 
It was

true that he had bought building supplies to fix up the house in

Tampico, but even so, he should have had half of that money left.

They went to bed, finally, with Brad still refusing to let Sara go.
 
He

loved her.
 
He needed her.
 
Some time later, Brad shook her awake.

"Sara," he said, "if something happens to me, will you take care of my

kids?"

"Yes," she answered sleepily.
 
"Of course."

The next time Sara woke up, Brad was gone.
 
She looked around the

apartment and couldn't find him.
 
Alarmed, she got dressed and went

down to the garage.
 
His Suburban was gone.
 
Where would he go in the

predawn hours?

Sara paced the floor of her apartment as Brad's sons slept, unaware.

Brad was gone for three or four hours.
 
And when he came back, he

looked terrible.
 
He looked like a broken man.
 
"I was going to jump

off the fourteenth floor," he told her hoarsely.
 
"I didn't have the

nerve.

I went out on the freeway and was going to drive into a pole or

somethingþ" "Why?"
 
Sara asked.

"I couldn't live without you.
 
I can't get a job.
 
I'm being harassed

by the Oregon State Police.
 
What do I have to live for?"

Sara stared at him, wondering if he meant what he was saying.
 
But,

finally, she believed him.
 
There was no way she could walk away and

leave a man in such desperate straits.
 
Brad needed her.
 
The boys

needed her.
 
"A!l right," she said.
 
"I'll stay with you for one

year.

But I'm not going to leave Portland.
 
If you don't get your life

together by then, I'll leave you."

Brad smiled at last and folded her into his muscular arms.

Sara realized that if they were all going to be together, they would

need larger living quarters.
 
Her apartment and Brad's tiny house 190

miles away would do only as stopgap measures.
 
Counting Brent, there

would be six of them when they merged their families.
 
Sara started

looking for a house big enough for herself, Brad, and his four sons.

Eventually they settled on a beautiful estate in Dunthorpe, an upscale

area in Lake Oswego.
 
There was a huge gray house, a guest house, and a

sweeping lawn where the boys could play.
 
It would need some

remodeling, but it was well worth the quarter-million-dollar asking

price.

Brad and his sons moved back to the Portland area in February 1987.
 
He

pointed out numerous things that he didn't like about the Dunthorpe

house.
 
The kitchen needed modernizing, and he felt a sweeping circular

driveway would suit their estate better.
 
Brad did some of the work

himself, grading the driveway before a contractor paved it.
 
He was

quite adept at operating heavy equipment.

"He took the cabinets out in the kitchen," Sara said, "and tore down

the kitchen wall."
 
Mostly, however, she hired carpenters,

electricians, and plumbers to do the work.
 
In the end, it cost her one

hundred thousand dollars to remodel the Dunthorpe estate to Brad's

specifications..
 
She also agreed to finance a 1988

Whitewater Jet boat that Brad felt would be fun for all of them.

Brad had apparently been correct in his assumption that he couldn't get

a job in Portland.
 
"He tried for banking jobs," Sara said.
 
"He had a

good interview at Rainier Bank but he said U.S. Bank quashed that."

So they soon settled into a pattern.
 
Sara was the breadwinner and Brad

was the househusband.
 
She left for work early each morning, and Brad

gave the boys breakfast and took care of them until the sitter

arrived.

Brent went to Lincoln High and Jess was in first grade, but Michael and

Phillip were still too young.

Sara changed her bank account at First Interstate so that Brad's name

was on the checks and he could sign them.
 
Now she was not only paying

for child care, dental and medical care, and all the other expenses for

Brent, Jess, Michael, and Phillip, she was also paying Brad's support

payments for Kit to Loni Ann.
 
Indeed, she was paying for everything,

even $210 a month on the baby grand piano that had impressed her so

much when Brad first took her to his eighteenth-floor apartment in the

Madison Tower.
 
Michael was taking piano lessons.
 
That alone made the

piano worthwhile for Sara.

Brad's contribution was to write the checks and sign them with his

flamboyant signature.

A year passed and although Brad had not really "gotten his life

together," he and Sara were married on November 27, 1987.
 
She was his

fifth wife, he was her fourth husband.
 
She was determined to make this

marriage work.
 
She truly loved Brad and she cared for his sons as if

they were her own.

Brad still couldn't seem to find a job, nothing in keeping with his

education and talents.
 
He had overseen a six-hundred-million-dollar

project in Houston, and he had been a top bank executive in Portland.

He couldn't very well lower himself to taking an ordinary job.
 
He and

Sara decided that he should go back to college.
 
He registered at

Portland State University in 1987 and 1988, and Sara paid his tuition

and expenses.
 
Brad had no income at all.
 
The Houston lawsuit

continued to wend its wearyþand expensiveþway through the courts in

Texas.
 
Vinson and Elkins had taken the case on a contingency basis.

If and when there was a judgment in Brad's favor, the law firm would

take a large chunk of that.

Beyond Sara's support, Brad had another money source to tap: Cheryl's

estate.
 
He submitted a budget for the cost of raising Jess, Michael,

and Phillipþwhich included money to pay him for child care.
 
He told

Bob McNannay, one of the trustees of Cheryl's estate, that he needed

just under four thousand dollars a month for the boys' expenses.
 
He

said he had to pay for their medical and dental bills, clothes, food,

shelter, and for child care.
 
He didn't mention, of course, that Sara

was already paying for all of that.
 
When McNannay resisted and John

Burke backed him up, Brad sued Cheryl's estate.
 
In essence, the estate

that she had set up for her sons then had to pay legal expenses to

protect itself, but at least Brad wasn't able to penetrate the trust.

He had another ingenious financial scheme.
 
There was no question that

he had suffered crushing business losses for years, and he said he had

talked to a C.P.A. who told him that Sara could take advantage of those

losses.
 
She would have the benefit of "two million dollars in tax loss