In this chilling volume of New York Times bestselling author Ann Rule’s Crime Files, discover unforgettable cases of a spouse, lover, family member or helpful stranger who is totally trusted—until it’s too late. Whether driven to extreme violence by greed or jealousy, passion or rage, the calculating sociopaths in this true crime collection targeted those closest to them—unwitting victims whose last disbelieving words could well have been “but I trusted you....” Headlining this page-turning anthology is the case of middle-school counselor Chuck Leonard, found shot to death outside his Washington State home on an icy February morning. A complicated mix of family man and wild man, Chuck played hard and loved many...but who crossed the line by murdering him in cold blood? And why? The revelation is as stunning as the shattering crime itself, powerfully illuminating how those we think we know can ingeniously hide their destructive and homicidal designs. Along with other shocking cases, immaculately detailed and sharply analyzed by America’s #1 true crime writer, this fourteenth Crime Files volume is essential reading for getting inside the mind of the hidden killers among us. Ann Rule (1931–2015) wrote thirty-five New York Times bestsellers, all of them still in print. Her first bestseller was The Stranger Beside Me , about her personal relationship with infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. A former Seattle police officer, she used her firsthand expertise in all her books. For more than three decades, she was a powerful advocate for victims of violent crime. But I Trusted You Chapter One The slender strawberry blonde and the school counselor whose home was three thousand miles away in Washington State met in such a seemingly romantic way that they seemed destined to be with one another: he was in New Orleans for a ten-day educational conference, and she was a concierge at a fine hotel in the Mardi Gras city. It would have been better, perhaps, if his judgment hadn’t been somewhat obscured by the romance of it all. In retrospect, she undoubtedly knew exactly what she was doing. It was 1988 when their story began. Teresa Gaethe was twenty-seven then, and she had deep roots in Louisiana and Florida. Trying to trace those roots, however, is almost impossible. Gaethe was her first husband’s surname; her maiden name was probably Jones, but she didn’t tell Charles “Chuck” Leonard that. She said her maiden name was Goldstein before she married a stock broker named Gary Gaethe, and she subtly alluded to her family’s wealth, only the first of the many exaggerations and downright lies she would tell Chuck. Teresa’s family—two sisters and a brother, and her parents—met Gary Gaethe only twice, once before she married him and once again when they attended their daughter’s wedding. Teresa said she and Gary had lived aboard a wonderful sailboat during their brief marriage. It was a somewhat bizarre celebration. Lois Patois,I Teresa’s older sister who had always tried to look after her siblings, recalled, “My whole family went to Teresa’s wedding, and there was a gentleman that had come down from like a balcony area, and he had a gun—a big gun.” From then on, Teresa’s family wondered if their sister’s bridegroom was involved in some things that “weren’t normal.” Teresa said nothing to disabuse them of that impression; she enjoyed having mysteries in her life. She stayed married to Gary Gaethe less than two years, actually living with him for only a few months. As they sipped cocktails far into the night, Teresa gave Chuck the impression that she worked not out of necessity but because she enjoyed interacting with the guests who patronized the hotel where she was employed. When Chuck told her that he had a master’s degree from a highly rated Jesuit college—Seattle University—and that he was working to be qualified as a school principal, she volunteered that she had a college degree. She probably didn’t, but following her tangled background to its sources is akin to untangling a ball of yarn after a kitten is through playing with it. Teresa was five feet, six inches tall, but she was small-boned and sometimes appeared to be far more delicate than she really was. In truth, she had a backbone of steel and usually got what she wanted. Her green eyes gave her a seductive quality. She knew how to attract and please men, and she spent a great deal of time on her clothes, hair, and makeup. Sometimes, she looked like Sharon Stone, and then again she could be as guileless and innocent as Doris Day. She had a cute little pug nose and thick blond hair, and a good, if somewhat boyish, figure. She kept her nails long and lacquered bright red. But she wasn’t technically beautiful; she also had a “spade chin,” too elongated for her face to be perfect, and she didn’t like her nose. Haltingly, Teresa told Chuck that she felt lucky to be alive; she said she had survived open-heart surgery when she was a child, but she assu