“Past news?” Rory asked. “That’s what they think of my sister’s murder?”
“Ford didn’t mean that,” Gale said. “Right?”
“I meant that it’s a small town and the McGregors are big names. They own a lot of different businesses, even other restaurants. They have wanted to control the town and tourism and have for years. They have their fingers in a lot of pies.”
“Do they have them in law enforcement?” Rory asked. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t thought of this before.
“No,” Ford said firmly. “I won’t take offense to that either. What is said here stays. If I think you’re going to use this otherwise, then we’ve got a problem.”
“I’m not,” he said. “I want justice like the next person.”
Ford sighed. “There is no record of Austin giving any interviews to the police. The detective on the case back then has been gone for years. I’m not sure where he is.”
“A retirement home in Albany,” Rory said.
“So you’re on top of that?” Callum asked.
“I keep on top of what I can. I know where the players are at some point. I hadn’t realized the current detective had retired though.”
There had been no reason for him to call monthly for anything new. It’d felt like they’d been stale for years.
Not anymore.
He just hoped this wasn’t anything more than a business not wanting to lose profits.
“On top of the interviews not being there, there is some other information on paper I found that never got scanned in.”
“Like what?” he asked.
“Nothing of importance at the moment. I’m looking into it,” Ford said.
This guy wouldn’t hand over anything without cause.
“And you’ll tell me if it is of importance?” he asked.
“Of course he will, right, Ford?” Gale asked. “Because I might not represent Rory, but that doesn’t mean I can’t recommend him to another attorney.”
“Gale,” Brooke said. “You wouldn’t cause problems for your brother like that.”
“I’m doing what is right regardless of the players involved. Just like Ford would do. Maybe not Clay.”
Clay huffed out a breath. “What do you have, Ford?”
“Gale told us about your sister’s ankle bracelet. It was cut off her body and bagged with the rest of her clothing that day. DNA testing was different back then, but your sister had nothing on her body to lead to her murderer.”
He knew those things. He always had.
Her clothes had been looked at for any particle of anything. Any clue. Any trace.
Nothing was there. Or was there and it wasn’t documented?
“I looked at the pictures of the ankle bracelet,” Rory said. “It’s different from how I remember it. As if it came off and was tied back on. Could she have done that? Maybe, but I don’t think so. Could it have come off while she was fighting the person off? That’s possible. I’m not sure why they’d tie it back on, but it’s not even the same width as it was.”
“All that we have on record back then was that your mother hadn’t seen it before, but you said your sister put it on that morning.”
“That’s right. I noticed it before she left for her walk. She told me she had put it on that day. I don’t know the exact time.”
They’d even questioned him if he’d done it. As if he were a suspect.
