“Well, that’s the other thing,” Sean told them. “When the police came to get her statement at the hospital, they couldn’t find her. Apparently, she was gone. Nobody saw her leave and so far, nobody has been able to find her.”
“But they are looking, right?” Krys asked.
“They’re looking,” Sean confirmed. “But the problem is that everyone was so focused on bringing Bluebeard here in, nobody really got a good look at his hostage. Consequently, they don’t have a viable description of her and aren’t really sure just who they’re looking for.”
“So this still isn’t over,” Krys said as she turned toward Morgan. “But at least he didn’t get a chance to kill her. That is something.” She saw that as a victory. Krys said the words more to herself than to anyone else in the room.
Chapter 17
Myriad questions raced through her brain, jockeying for position. She hardly knew what to ask first.
“Do we have an exact cause of death yet?” she finally asked the medical examiner.
“That much we have,” Toni told them, glancing at the autopsy report. “Apparently Bluebeard broke his neck when his car went over the hill. What I’m really surprised about, I have to admit, is that the woman wasn’t killed along with him.”
Krys shook her head. “That we know of,” she pointed out. “For all we know, the woman might have died later, after she took off from the hospital,” she commented. “As for Bluebeard’s fate, if you ask me, it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.”
Pausing, she looked at Toni. “So you’re not satisfied with the autopsy report that was done on Bluebeard?” she questioned. She was glad that Toni was performing a second autopsy, but she was curious about the medical examiner’s reasons.
“Well, I hate pointing fingers,” Toni said. “But to be honest, the autopsy that was done appears to have been rather slapdash, and since two of the man’s victims were Aurora citizens, I think it might be a good idea for the department to perform an autopsy of their own. What do you think?” she asked Sean, turning toward the CSI unit leader.
“Seeing how many women were killed by this man, if there are any unanswered questions about this killer, I vote ‘go ahead,’” Sean told the medical examiner.
Toni nodded. “That’s what I’d hoped you’d say.” Her eyes shifted toward the other two people in the room. “I’ll let you know if I come up with anything new,” she promised.
“All right then,” Morgan told the medical examiner, “we’ll leave you to your work.”
“I’ve got a question,” Krys said as they walked out of the morgue.
“Only one?” Morgan asked wryly.
“Oh, I’ve got more,” Krys assured him. “But I’ll just ask this one for now.”
He stopped at the elevator, pressing the Up button. “Go ahead.”
“Who’s looking for the woman that scum had with him in the car and supposedly abducted?” she asked.
Morgan had wondered when she’d get around to that. “It’s what we’re looking into,” he told her. “But right now, your guess is as good as mine.” He could tell by the expression on her face that this was really bothering Krys. It bothered him as well because of all the questions it raised, but for the moment, there was nothing he could do about that.
The elevator arrived and they got on. Wanting to distract Krys, Morgan asked, “Don’t you have those interviews you wanted to conduct?”
He was right. She couldn’t allow herself to lose sight of her objective. Bluebeard’s story was all but over. She had an obligation to focus on Weatherly Pharmaceutical’s “miracle” drug.
One foot in front of the other, Krys told herself. Nodding her head in response to Morgan’s question, she said, “I guess I should put this in the ‘win’ column.”
Morgan was in complete agreement with her conclusion. “Considering how many unresolved cases there are each year, this is more than just a win. It’s a really big deal.”
Arriving on the first floor, she got out of the elevator ahead of him. “I know, I know. But I just can’t help wondering about that woman who was with him. What’s her story? I can’t make sense out of her running off.” She turned toward Morgan. “What would make her run away from the hospital like that? For all intents and purposes, she was finally safe.”
He had no pat answer for her. “Who knows? Maybe she was totally spooked. Being abducted and then in a car accident, maybe it affected her thinking and she didn’t know who to trust.” He thought of his Aunt Rose, Uncle Andrew’s wife. “Maybe she even got amnesia and everything around her just contributed to her being spooked.”
He could see by the look on Krys’s face that she was skeptical about his explanation. “Something like that happened to my Uncle Andrew’s wife,” he told her as they left the building. He headed toward the rear parking lot and his car. “Years ago, she accidentally drove her car over an embankment and plunged right into the lake.”
Krys looked at him in horror. “My lord, what happened to her?”
“Well, from what was eventually pieced together, someone saw the accident and managed to save her. But the accident took place far from where she lived and she had no ID on her. Upshot is Aunt Rose was missing for years. But Uncle Andrew never gave up looking for her, never gave up hope of finding her.” Every time he heard the story, it just seemed so incredibly remarkable to him. “He followed up every lead he could. Eventually,” he concluded, opening his vehicle and getting in, “he managed to stumble across Aunt Rose—totally by accident.”
Krys got in on her side. Listening to Morgan tell the story, she came to what she thought was a logical conclusion. “And she recognized him?”
“No,” Morgan said. “It took Uncle Andrew a while longer before he could convince Rose that he wasn’t trying to take advantage of her, that he really was her husband and moreover, that they had
