Beautifully Cruel Read online

  HIGHEST PRAISE FOR M. WILLIAM PHELPS

  “M. William Phelps dares to tread where few others will: into the mind of a killer.”

  —TV Rage

  “Phelps is the king of true crime.”

  —Lynda Hirsch, Creators Syndicate

  “Phelps treads dangerous ground like an Amazon jungle guide—fearless, compassionate, insightful.”

  —Geoff Fitzpatrick, Executive Producer of Dark Minds

  DANGEROUS GROUND

  “It takes a unique individual to stay the course on a disturbing journey like the one documented in Dangerous Ground. We’d expect no less from Phelps, as he blends his own powerful story with that of a demanding serial killer—his anonymous consultant on Dark Minds unmasked—who alternately fascinated and repulsed him. True crime fans will savor this careful descent into an obsessive psychopathic mind, even when they feel how difficult it can be to come up for air.”

  —Katherine Ramsland

  THE KILLING KIND

  “In this true crime book, Phelps focuses on unrepentant killer Danny Hembree . . . [who] seizes the chance to take center stage with lurid confessions of a decades-long career of violent robbery, assault, rape, and murder.... Fans of the author’s Discovery TV series, Dark Minds, will be rewarded.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Phelps presents in-depth research and interviews that allow for vivid descriptions of characters and events.... Fans of true crime, forensics, and serial killer activities will all find something of interest here.”

  —Library Journal

  OBSESSED

  “Phelps focuses on a fatal love triangle that definitely proved to be stranger than fiction. The police work undertaken to solve the case is recounted with the right amount of detail, and readers will be rewarded with shocking twists in a story with inherent drama.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  BAD GIRLS

  “Fascinating, gripping . . . Phelps’s sharp investigative skills and questioning mind resonate.”

  —Sue Russell

  NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN

  “This riveting book examines one of the most horrific murders in recent American history.”

  —New York Post

  “Phelps clearly shows how the ugliest crimes can take place in the quietest of suburbs.”

  —Library Journal

  “Thoroughly reported . . . the book is primarily a police procedural, but it is also a tribute to the four murder victims.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  TOO YOUNG TO KILL

  “Phelps is the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers.”

  —Allison Brennan

  LOVE HER TO DEATH

  “Reading anything by Phelps is always an eye opening experience. The characters are well researched and well written. We have murder, adultery, obsession, lies and so much more.”

  —Suspense Magazine

  “You don’t want to miss Love Her To Death by M. William Phelps, a book destined to be one of 2011’s top true crimes!”

  —True Crime Book Reviews

  “A chilling crime . . . Award-winning author Phelps goes into lustrous and painstaking detail, bringing all the players vividly to life.”

  —Crime Magazine

  KILL FOR ME

  “Phelps gets into the blood and guts of the story.”

  —Gregg Olsen, New York Times best-selling author of Fear Collector

  “Phelps infuses his investigative journalism with plenty of energized descriptions.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  DEATH TRAP

  “A chilling tale of a sociopathic wife and mother . . . A compelling journey from the inside of this woman’s mind to final justice in a court of law.”

  —Harry N. MacLean, New York Times best-selling author of In Broad Daylight

  I’LL BE WATCHING YOU

  “Phelps has an unrelenting sense for detail that affirms his place, book by book, as one of our most engaging crime journalists.”

  —Katherine Ramsland

  IF LOOKS COULD KILL

  “M. William Phelps, one of America’s finest true-crime writers, has written a compelling and gripping book about an intriguing murder mystery.”

  —Vincent Bugliosi

  “Phelps consistently ratchets up the dramatic tension, hooking readers. His thorough research and interviews give the book complexity, richness of character, and urgency.”

  —Stephen Singular

  MURDER IN THE HEARTLAND

  “Drawing on interviews with law officers and relatives, the author has done significant research. His facile writing pulls the reader along.”

  —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  “Phelps expertly reminds us that when the darkest form of evil invades the quiet and safe outposts of rural America, the tragedy is greatly magnified. Get ready for some sleepless nights.”

  —Carlton Stowers

  “This is the most disturbing and moving look at murder in rural America since Capote’s In Cold Blood.”

  —Gregg Olsen

  SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE

  “An exceptional book by an exceptional true crime writer. Phelps exposes long-hidden secrets and reveals disquieting truths.”

  —Kathryn Casey

  EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE

  “An insightful and fast-paced examination of the inner workings of a good cop and his bad informant, culminating in an unforgettable truth-is-stranger-than-fiction climax.”

  —Michael M. Baden, M.D.

  LETHAL GUARDIAN

  “An intense roller-coaster of a crime story . . . complex, with twists and turns worthy of any great detective mystery . . . reads more like a novel than your standard non-fiction crime book.”

  —Steve Jackson

  PERFECT POISON

  “A compelling account of terror . . . The author dedicates himself to unmasking the psychopath with facts, insight and the other proven methods of journalistic leg work.”

  —Lowell Cauffiel

  Also By M. William Phelps

  Perfect Poison

  Lethal Guardian

  Every Move You Make

  Sleep in Heavenly Peace

  Murder in the Heartland

  Because You Loved Me

  If Looks Could Kill

  I’ll Be Watching You

  Deadly Secrets

  Cruel Death

  Death Trap

  Kill For Me

  Love Her to Death

  Too Young to Kill

  Never See Them Again

  Kiss of the She-Devil

  Bad Girls

  Obsessed

  The Killing Kind

  She Survived: Melissa (e-book)

  She Survived: Jane (e-book)

  I’d Kill For You

  To Love and To Kill

  One Breath Away

  If You Only Knew

  Don’t Tell a Soul

  Dangerous Ground

  BEAUTIFULLY CRUEL

  M. WILLIAM PHELPS

  PINNACLE BOOKS

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  HIGHEST PRAISE FOR M. WILLIAM PHELPS

  Also By M. William Phelps

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  PART 1 - THE SECOND MAN

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

&nb
sp; 18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  PART 2 - THE THIRD MAN

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  48

  49

  50

  51

  52

  53

  54

  55

  56

  57

  58

  59

  60

  61

  PART 3 - GAME OF TRUST

  62

  63

  64

  65

  66

  67

  68

  69

  70

  71

  72

  73

  74

  75

  76

  77

  78

  79

  80

  81

  82

  83

  84

  85

  86

  87

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Notes

  Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals connected to this story.

  PINNACLE BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2017 by M. William Phelps

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Pinnacle and the P logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-0-7860-3728-5

  First Kensington Mass Market Edition: December 2017

  eISBN-13: 978-0-7860-3729-2

  eISBN-10: 0-7860-3729-6

  Kensington Electronic Edition: December 2017

  This book is dedicated to Lexi O—for rescuing me.

  PART 1

  THE SECOND MAN

  1

  BEN SMITH HAD ALWAYS CONSIDERED himself a pragmatic, reasonable man. He viewed the world realistically. Ben knew very little about murder, other than what he had seen on television, maybe read about in the papers or a book. He knew even less about prosecuting murderers or other major crimes, though Ben Smith was the newly elected prosecutor for Sac County, Iowa. Thus, when Sac County sheriff Ken McClure stood inside Ben’s office and turned to the man standing next to him, state detective Trent Vileta, Ben welcomed the opportunity to say hello to two men he would likely be working with at some point down the road.

  “Ben,” McClure introduced, “this is Trent. Trent, Ben Smith.”

  Prosecutor Ben Smith stuck out his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

  “Trent here is assigned as the state detective for this area,” the sheriff explained.

  “We’re just going around and introducing ourselves to the newly elected county attorneys,” Trent said.

  Ben offered the men a chair. “Sit down, please.”

  It was the second week of November 2010, days after the election. Ben Smith, just thirty-two years old, had unseated an eight-year man. Ben, admittedly, had no idea what he was doing sitting in the prosecutor’s chair. The last year or so of his life had been a whirlwind of disappointment and letdown. Ben felt isolated and depressed. He was trying to deal with the fact that he had moved from Omaha, Nebraska, back to his hometown in Sac County, Iowa, after the girl he was dating suggested they settle down. However, she had left and Ben was now alone. He had joined the Iowa Army National Guard a few years back, had gone through training that summer (2010) and was hoping, he said, to be deployed. He just wanted to get away from everything. A tour overseas sounded like a good idea at the time. Yet here he was, sitting inside his office in Sac City, taking over as prosecutor of this rather small community of about 10,500 residents. How life could change within the blink of an eye.

  The three men chatted for about five minutes, getting to know one another. Before walking out of the office after the meet and greet, Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) state detective Trent Vileta stopped, turned to Ben, and said, “When you get some time, there’s a case I want to run by you.”

  Trent had a mild manner about him: medium build, bald, glasses, talked with a slight Midwestern tongue. He was far from intimidating or overbearing.

  “What’s that?” Ben asked.

  “A shooting in Early,” Trent said.

  Early? Ben thought. Early, Iowa, is a town (in the county) of about five hundred souls on a good day. Shooting? Ben kept asking himself, trying to remember.

  Then it clicked.

  As Trent walked away, Ben closed the door and sat back at his desk. He recalled which shooting Trent was referring to.

  “I had heard about the shooting,” Ben said later. “But nearly ten years had gone by. I thought it was a done deal.”

  Everyone had. It was thought to be a case of home invasion in 2001, where a woman was seemingly brutally attacked inside her Early home while her husband was away on business. According to the woman, somewhere near 7:00 p.m., a local man, just twenty, along with an accomplice (or two), broke in and came after her. After a scuffle between the men and the woman (the second man took off out the back door at some point), she shot and killed one of them with two different weapons. The woman, known then as Tracey Roberts, had been promoted by the media as a “hero” for protecting her three kids and saving herself.

  “I had no idea it was an open case. No idea it was even a case,” Ben recalled.

  Trent had been kind of “flippant” about planting the seed, Ben said. “He wasn’t browbeating me.”

  Good detectives never do. They have a plan and set out to get it done.

  Ben sat at his desk and thought, I don’t even know how to prosecute speeding tickets and this guy is talking about murder?

  Admittedly, Ben noted, he had no idea what DCI did during the course of a normal day. It was Ben’s first week on the job. He thought he was walking into an office where his days were going to be consumed by traffic infractions and domestic abuse allegations, maybe a sexual assault case once a year. Murder—the basis for Trent’s comment—was something nobody even thought about in Sac County. There had not been a murder in the county for, Ben was certain, at least thirty years. Sac County was known for its “desirable” landscape for growing grain or raising stock, some farms doing both. You hear Iowa and think Hawkeyes, caucuses, oats and hay, rye wheat and red clover.

  Murder?

  Ben went about his day not giving too much thought to what DCI Special Agent (SA) Trent Vileta had said. The weekend came. It was a strange time in his life, Ben recalled. He was rebuilding after that breakup and wasn’t where he wanted to be. It had been his ex’s idea to move from Omaha back to his hometown, outside Early. A Drake University Law School graduate, Ben had been a first-team all-American running back for Buena Vista University and had worked for the Iowa Attorney General’s Office (IAGO) just out of law school, from 2007 to 2010. He didn’t see himself at this point in his life back home, running the county prosecutor’s office, single, with no future life plan. He understood Omaha wasn’t New York or L.A., but there was far more action there than Sac County could offer a guy his age.

  All throughout that weekend after meeting Trent and the sheriff, the
comment kept popping up in Ben’s mind. That seed Trent had planted was growing.

  What was Trent talking about? What was his concern? What interest did a detective have in a ten-year-old cold case that had been investigated already by DCI (before Trent had even moved back into the state and taken a DCI job!) and the sheriff’s department? It was thought to be a home invasion, a homicide committed in self-defense. What was Trent up to?

  A week or so after their meeting, Trent e-mailed Ben. He included an attachment with the e-mail. It was a photo. Ben was getting ready to head home for the night. It was Friday. After reading the brief e-mail, Ben opened the attachment.

  Disturbing couldn’t really describe what Ben was staring at. The back of a man’s head, bloodied, obviously riddled with bullet wounds. It shocked Ben. The graphic nature of the photos was jarring to a guy who had just stepped into office. Ben had never seen anything like it.

  She claims she did this under [stressful] circumstances—think about that this weekend, Trent wrote. She—Tracey Roberts—was the shooter. The victim (alleged intruder) was Dustin Wehde (pronounced WEED-EE), a twenty-year-old so-called “special needs” kid, who had been shot nine times by a woman who lived on the other side of town from where Dustin lived with his mother, father, and siblings. So much had happened since Dustin was killed. If this case had been a murder, why hadn’t it been prosecuted as such inside the past decade?

  Ben sat back in his chair. Took a deep breath.

  What is Trent not telling me?

  He stared at the photos.

  What am I missing here?

  2

  IT WAS A SUMMER CONCERT. He was walking by a booth, saw an advertisement for police recruiting and decided to fill out the card and put it in the box, never thinking for one minute he would get a call. After all, Trent Vileta was about six hours, or nearly four hundred miles, from home. He’d known some people in Milwaukee and was there to have some fun. A year later, he was applying to the police force; fifteen months after that, Trent had his run-down Jeep Wrangler loaded up with his belongings—a mattress, a few plastic garbage bags full of clothes, and his wallet—and was hauling ass from eastern Iowa, where he lived, to Milwaukee, to head into the police academy. It was 1996. And from then until 2001, running into a crossroads, you could say, Trent did his duty as a Milwaukee Police Department patrol cop before he and his wife decided to hightail it back to Iowa.