Morgan opened the front door for a second time. “You’ll like her,” he promised. “She’s headstrong, like you.”
“I am not headstrong,” Krys retorted defensively.
“All right,” he amended amicably, “stubborn, then—like you.”
“I have to be stubborn,” she informed him, an edge coming into her voice. “Because if I wasn’t, I would never be able to get the story, or people to talk to me, for that matter. The ones who are willing to talk usually have nothing to say.”
He nodded, well acquainted with that particular trait. “Stubbornness also happens to be a family trait,” he told her. “So there’s no point in you trying to fight me on this.” He thought of his sisters. “I’ve gone up against the best—and won.” He didn’t add that there were times when he lost, because that would be counterproductive to his assuring a win this time—which he both needed and wanted.
Krys sighed, knowing he was right. After slipping her laptop into its case, she slung the strap over her shoulder.
“Let’s go,” she told him, resigned.
Morgan was secretly relieved that she wasn’t putting up a fight about this. He had actually anticipated a great deal more resistance from her because in his experience, that was what stubborn women did. They fought something at every turn when they weren’t willing to go along with it. His sisters and female cousins certainly did.
Ever suspicious, Morgan made sure she was in his line of vision the entire time as they went back to his vehicle. He didn’t want to take a chance that she would bolt at the last minute.
Krys didn’t say anything until after she had gotten into his car and Morgan started it up. “What’s this computer wizard’s name?” she asked.
“Valri,” he told her. “And she really is the best,” he maintained. “Speaking of names, would you happen to know this Bluebeard’s real name?” Morgan asked.
Krys sighed, clearly frustrated because she had to say, “No.
“I know the names he used with each of the women he married, but as for this monster’s real name, I hate to admit it but that’s still a mystery,” she told him.
Morgan was rather surprised, given what he had learned about this woman sitting in the car next to him. “You mean with all your resources, you haven’t been able to find out his actual name?”
She detected just the slightest note of sarcasm in his voice and it made her bristle.
“It’s a work in progress,” she informed him between clenched teeth. “His prints haven’t shown up in any known database yet.”
He could see that being a problem. Still, Valri had been known to work miracles with very little to go on.
“All right, do you have a list of the aliases this guy used?” he asked.
“Yes.” Krys gave him the names that she knew of, reciting them in no particular order. “He’s used Chris Hunter, McKinley Thompson, Duke Bradley, Alan Gaskell and Victor Marshall. There are probably more,” she added, “but those are the names that I uncovered so far.” She noticed that Morgan had a rather strange, surprised look on his face when she gave him the names. “What?”
Morgan spared her a penetrating glance. “You mean you don’t know?”
He had lost her again. “Know what?”
“Then you’re not kidding?” he questioned.
“Kidding about what?” she demanded, her voice growing progressively more and more irritated. “You’re toying with my last nerve. I am really not in the mood for games so just what the hell are you talking about, Cavanaugh?”
“Those names.” He rattled them off again just to make sure he hadn’t heard her incorrectly. The look on her face told him he hadn’t. “They’re all names that belonged to movie characters.”
“Movie characters?” she repeated, more confused than ever. She didn’t recognize a single one of the names she had just told him, names she had practically lived with when she tracked Bluebeard down, attempting to corner the black-hearted monster and bring him to justice. “What movie characters? What movies?” she asked sharply, losing the last of her patience.
So he told her. “They are all names of characters that Clark Gable played in different movies.”
“Clark Gable?” she repeated, unfamiliar with the name. And then she suddenly realized who he was talking about. “Do you mean that guy who played Rhett Butler in that old movie? Gone With The Wind?”
He nodded as he stopped at a red light just before the intersection. “That’s the one.”
That sounded pretty far-fetched to her. She still wasn’t convinced, although it was the kind of egotistical thing the monster was undoubtedly capable of. “Are you sure?”
He thought of the woman he had watched these old movies with. “Oh, I’m sure,” Morgan assured her.
Still, she thought that maybe Morgan was pulling her leg. He was talking about an actor who had been dead for at least sixty years, if not longer. “How would you even know that?”
A fond smile curved Morgan’s mouth as he continued to drive back to the precinct. “Because I had a mother who was a big Clark Gable fan. She used to watch all his old movies whenever they would turn up on some old movie channel. She liked to share the experience with her kids, but as it turned out, I was the only one who didn’t mind watching corny old movies.” He laughed softly to himself. “Mainly because I liked spending time with my mother back then.” A rueful note entered his voice as he confessed, “I didn’t even know she was sick then. Looking back, those times spent watching those old movies were the basis of most of my childhood memories of her.”
Krys was silent for a couple of minutes as she digested the scenario. And
