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Sean had a few photographs with him. All of them had been taken from Natalie’s room.
“Do you know who this man is?” he asked.
The photograph he was talking about was of a nineteen or twenty-year-old Natalie with a man a few years older than her, with long, slender arms and long brown hair. He looked a little like a rocker.
“No,” Rose answered. “But Natalie wrote about her boyfriend before Oren. It must be him?”
Sean bowed his head.
“Oren always said he ‘stole’ Natalie from some guy,” Rose said. “It must be him?” She searched her mind for a name from the diaries, then came up with, “Howard? I think?”
“Howard Reynolds,” Sean affirmed. “Do you know that name from anywhere else?”
Rose squinted and took a bite of a donut. Her mouthfilled with cream. She repeated his name a few times but came up dry. “Where is it from?”
“You bought the estate from him,” Sean said.
Rose gasped. “Of course!”
How could she have forgotten? The Salt Sisters had researched him very soon after Rose bought the estate. He lived in Manhattan and worked in importing and exporting, whatever that meant.
He was Natalie’s first boyfriend.
It has to be a clue.
Rose pressed her hands to her ears. Her thoughts whirred and whirred.
“I got to thinking,” Sean was saying. “It didn’t make sense that the old Grayson Estate sat empty like that for so many years. Why didn’t the owner do anything with it? Why didn’t they refurbish it or bulldoze it?” Sean shook his head. “I couldn’t understand it, so I dug deeper into Howard Reynolds and recognized him from some of her photographs.”
Rose puffed out her cheeks. “You’re a regular Sherlock, aren’t you?”
“Ha. I wish.” But Sean’s smile was proof of how proud he was.
Rose pulled up the same images of modern-day Howard the Salt Sisters had discovered. She placed her phone directly beside the old photograph and sighed.
“He was so cute,” she said. “Now he just looks wealthy and mean.”
“I talked to someone from his hometown last night,” Sean said. “Howard and Natalie were high school sweethearts. Apparently, it was a total shock when the two of them broke up. But the old friend didn’t know the details.He just said, ‘Howard would have done anything to get Natalie back.’”
Rose raised her eyebrows. “Is it possible that Howard was the one who killed Natalie? Maybe he was jealous and set their house on fire?”
“It’s certainly possible,” Sean admitted. “It sends us down another path.”
“But it’s an exciting path,” Rose said.
She hated to admit it to herself, but she still didn’t like to fully acknowledge that Oren might have killed Natalie. Rose had loved Oren. Some of her still wanted to believe there was goodness in him and that she wasn’twrongfor having fallen in love with him.
“Oren always talked about how Natalie’s boyfriend had been so awful. So bad for her,” Rose whispered. “I remember feeling so proud that Oren was the kind of man who knew how to love women properly. I felt so protected.” Rose’s eyes filled with tears. “Gosh, I was so wrong!”
Sean touched Rose on the shoulder, and Rose smiled through her tears.
“Sorry. My emotions are all over the place,” Rose said. She picked up a donut and took another bite. The sugar opened her mind a little bit. It reminded her of where she was and why. It reminded her of how much time had passed.But it’s good that it did. It’s good that I’m not that person anymore.
“I think we should go to Manhattan to meet Howard,” Sean said. “I have so many questions I want to ask him. Why didn’t he do anything with the estate? What did he think when Natalie left him for Oren? Did he and Oren ever meet?”
Rose’s heart pumped. It was hard to picture herself in Howard’s office in Manhattan. It was hardto imagine herself shaking his hand.This was Natalie’s first love. He’s mourned her forever.
Has Oren mourned Natalie, too?
