Page 152 of Capturing You
“Money, power. Take your pick. Unless there are other Stratton women around? Owen’s a Stratton, right? Who’s his mother?”
“She was my second-grade teacher.”
“That doesn’t mean?—”
“I know, I’m just saying. She would’ve been in her twenties at this time. Even if she was involved”—Brooklynn waved toward the cassette tape—“your dad made the Stratton woman sound like a bigger fish than I’d guess a twenty-something woman would be.”
Forbes conceded the point with a nod. “Maury, then. Tell me more about her.”
“She’s a Realtor. She started selling real estate in oh-three, opened her own brokerage house about ten years later, and now has a number of agents who work for her. She’s one of the most successful real estate agents on the central coast because she puts her clients’ needs first.”
Forbes grinned. “You’re quite the cheerleader, aren’t you?”
“When I asked her for a bio for the Old Home Days website, she gave me a handwritten copy. I tend to remember what I type.”
“So she could’ve been involved. She’d have been in her forties at the time of my family’s murders, and the woman who was here that night sounded about that age.”
The thought that Brooklynn’s friend, her parents’ old friend, would have been involved in a murder made Brooklynn question everything. If she couldn’t trust a woman like Maury, who could be trusted? Could anyone?
“What did she do before she was a Realtor?”
“Oh!” Brooklynn remembered something that chased her dark thoughts away. “You’re brilliant, Forbes. That’s exactly the right question. Maury and her husband—Don or Dirk or something like that—moved to North Carolina. He took a job in the Research Triangle in Raleigh. They got divorced years later, and that’s when she moved back.”
“That was all in the bio?”
“It was a long bio.”
He chuckled, then started to scratch her name out. He stopped, tapping the pencil on the paper. “She was in the photo, though, right?” He looked back at Brooklynn. “The one we looked at the other day?”
She had been, which meant that Maury had been involved in commerce in Shadow Cove even when she was gone. “But why would your father call herLS?”
“MaybeL.S.andStrattonaren’t the same person. Is Stratton her married name?”
“Yeah. In fact…”
Brooklynn’s words trailed as a thought moved in like the fog. Or maybe a plague.
But it couldn’t be. Of course it couldn’t be.
“In fact what?”
“I’m not sure. Let me… Let’s move on to something else.”
“What are you thinking? Maybe I can help.”
“Nothing. Just…” She waved toward the notes they’d made, not wanting to put words to the notion that had just occurred to her.
Forbes studied her for a long moment, then tapped another letter pairing. “What do you think about MM and Bazz? We still haven’t…”
Her phone vibrated on the desk, loud in the quiet room.
She checked the screen. “It’s a text message from a guy who says he’s a friend of Grant’s.”
“Your cousin?”
“He wants me to call him.” She dialed his number and put it on speaker.
“Jon Donley.” The man had a deep, commanding voice.
