Chapters (37)
- Cover
- PROLOGUE
- CHAPTER 1
- CHAPTER 2
- CHAPTER 3
- CHAPTER 4
- CHAPTER 5
- CHAPTER 6
- CHAPTER 7
- CHAPTER 8
- CHAPTER 9
- CHAPTER 10
- CHAPTER 11
- CHAPTER 12
- CHAPTER 13
- CHAPTER 14
- CHAPTER 15
- CHAPTER 16
- CHAPTER 17
- CHAPTER 18
- CHAPTER 19
- CHAPTER 20
- CHAPTER 21
- CHAPTER 22
- CHAPTER 23
- CHAPTER 24
- CHAPTER 25
- CHAPTER 26
- CHAPTER 27
- CHAPTER 28
- CHAPTER 29
- CHAPTER 30
- CHAPTER 31
- CHAPTER 32
- CHAPTER 33
- CHAPTER 34
- About the Publisher
“Can you give me the names of her husbands?”
“Sure, but I honestly don’t see them as coming back and killing her. Her last husband was four years ago. If I were you, I’d look at who she was currently dating.”
“Do you think that she dated men while she was with Elsie?” Marge asked.
“Oh, for sure,” Marion said. “My sister had been fooling around with boys since she was thirteen. By the time she was done with high school, I think she slept with every boy on the football team. My opinion? Once she was off drugs, her sexual appetite went up and not down.”
“Where would she find her men?” Marge asked. “It would help us zero in on who she might have been seeing.”
Marion said, “If I had to guess, I’d say probably bars.”
“Online, perhaps?” Marge asked.
“Maybe.” A pause. “At one time, she had a website … with pictures of herself. Some of them were in bathing suits. Some were topless.”
“Would you know the URL?” McAdams took out his phone.
“No.”
Silence ensued. Then McAdams said, “Can’t find anything under Pauline Corbett. Maybe it was Facebook? Or a members-only account on Instagram?”
“No, it was her own website. But this was at least three years ago. A lot could have happened since then.”
McAdams said, “Can I look at your computer?”
“Sure.” Marion stood up. “It’s in the back.”
As soon as she left, Marge turned to Decker. “She just widened your suspect list.”
“By her exes and a lot of unknown people.” Decker shook his head. “Now we have to consider that Pauline and an abusive boyfriend got into a fight at Elsie’s house. But then why would Elsie take off like that? Why not just report the incident to the police?”
“Maybe anonymous bad guy threatened Elsie if she told anyone about what happened,” Marge said. “Elsie was frightened not only for herself but perhaps for Bertram.”
“Then who buried Pauline?”
“Anonymous bad guy?”
Decker said, “Her body was buried too close to where Bertram disappeared and too close to Elsie’s abandoned car to be random.”
“Agreed,” Marge said. “Maybe anonymous bad guy left the scene and Elsie and Bertram buried her.”
“We went over Elsie’s car,” Decker said. “We didn’t find blood evidence of a body.”
Marge said, “How about this? Anonymous bad guy kills Pauline in Elsie’s house. He puts Pauline in his car and then gets Elsie to help him bury her.”
“Then why was Elsie’s car found in the brush?”
“They went back together in anonymous bad guy’s car.” Marge made a face. “It sucks as a theory, but you have to start somewhere.”
Decker smiled. “Our assumption is that Elsie took Pauline’s car when she disappeared. She left her own car in the brush to throw the police off.”