Decker wrote down three phone numbers with names:

Blake R. Baer

Blake T. Baer

Blake M. Baer

He slid the paper across the desk and began calling up the remaining Blake Baers.

Two didn’t answer the phone. Decker left messages. The remaining two were the wrong Blake Baers. When McAdams finished, he said, “Two messages, and one was not the right person.”

Decker looked at the list of names of Pauline’s husbands. “I wonder if Marion Vanderberg got the name wrong.”

“Why?”

“At the end of the name Blake Baer, there’s a question mark.” Decker paused. “I could check marriage licenses. They should have the proper names.”

“Where did Pauline get married?”

“Good question.” He checked his watch. It was a little after nine PDT. Not too early. He picked up his cell and gave Marion a call. When she answered, he said, “Mrs. Vanderberg, it’s Detective Decker from Greenbury PD. How are you?”

“I’m fine, Detective. What’s up?”

“We’re in the process of contacting Pauline’s ex-husbands. I noticed you had a question mark after Blake Baer. Any reason for that?”

“Yeah, I should have called you,” Marion said. “I was blanking and I knew I got the first name wrong. It’s Brook Baer. I should have remembered his name. What I do remember was that he was a real idiot.”

“An idiot?”

“Yeah, and a dangerous one.”

“I’m going to put you on speaker so Detective McAdams can hear you.” Decker pressed the button. “Okay, Mrs. Vanderberg, we’re both here.”

McAdams said, “Hi, Mrs. Vanderberg.”

“Hi, young man, how are you?”

“Just fine,” McAdams said.

Decker said, “We can hear you perfectly. Can you tell us how Brook Baer was an idiot and a dangerous one at that?”

She said, “You know, it started coming back to me after you all left. Her history with guys. She married Jerry at around seventeen, right out of high school. He was a nice boy, but a loser. Couldn’t keep a job because he was high all the time. The marriage lasted about two years. A year later, she met the supposed love of her life—Brook. I hated him from the get-go.”

“Why was that?”

“Brook just had to be the star of the show. He talked too much and he laughed too loud. He flirted with anything in a skirt and he drank. Now, he was good-looking, I’ll give him that. Never a shortage of female admirers. But he was mean, especially when he drank.”

McAdams said, “Did he beat her?”

“Oh yes, but she only told me about the abuse around two years into their marriage.”

“Then Pauline would be about twenty-two or twenty-three?”