“It’ll anger Mr. Morgan. Mrs. Morgan wants the right thing for her family,” Val said.

Gavin didn’t respond. His gaze stayed glued to the next piece of paper he pulled out of the safe deposit box. “Christ, would you look at this!”

“What is it?” Warren asked.

“It seems Gabrielle was trying to get custody of her sister Bridget. She had the paperwork drawn up about a year ago,” Gavin said.

“Do you think she was playing hardball with her parents, Mitch?” Warren asked. “They wanted custody of Adam and now she wanted Bridget. Maybe this was an attempt to get them to cave in.”

“Possibly,” Gavin said.

One last piece of paper was left in the box. This time Val reached in to take it out. It was a newspaper article. The story was about Gabrielle’s second husband, Perry Logan and his band. The photo with the article is what caught her attention. It showed Perry playing on stage. Warren looked over Val’s shoulder.

“She had a grudge against the guy. Looks like she was still stalking him,” Warren said.

“I might know why,” Val responded. The picture captured a small portion of the audience. In the front row, with a smile and her arms outstretched, her lips almost reaching a leaning Perry, stood Bethany Arias.

Then Val noticed something else.

27

“So, Perry, did you divorce Gabrielle because she was crazy or did she divorce you because you were screwing her friend?” Gavin decided to get right to the point. And he meant to catch Perry off guard with the sucker punch.

Perry’s lips parted as if to speak and his eyes went wide. It took a few seconds before words eventually came out. “Look, my marriage to Gabi was already over by the time I hooked up with Bethany. And let me tell you that she was no friend. Neither was that bitch, Melinda.” Perry pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one up. The three men sat around his kitchen table. Perry looked remarkably at ease.

“You knew Melinda too?” Warren asked, the implication in his voice was evident.

“Yah, I did.” Perry stood up and paced the small space. “All those three did was compete with each other. I couldn’t keep up with the jealousy, the trying to outdo one another. What’s the old saying—keep your enemies closer. Well, in this case it was frenemies.” Perry smiled. “See, I have no problem being honest with you, detective.”

“Thank you, Perry. So let me ask you this, since we’re being honest, how did Bethany take it when she found out you were screwing Gabrielle?”

Perry froze momentarily before continuing his trek around the ten-by-ten area. He remained silent. Gavin could see Perry trying to backtrack out of this one. Trying to figure out how Gavin knew the truth.