Page 187 of Capturing You

Forbes hadn’t taken any notes. That’d been all Brooklynn.

Putnam continued. “That’ll give us a running start to nail down the rest of the people involved with your parents’ murders. We’ll do everything we can to match all those initials and names with people so they answer for what they did.”

“It was Leo who shot them.”

The woman patted the top of his foot, an awkward gesture at best. “We know. Leo and Lois were working together. Leo’s dead, and if Lois survives, she’ll face charges.”

“Are all of those terrible people in custody now?” The question came from Grandmother, who hadn’t spoken before this.

“Everyone we know of, yes ma’am.”

She nodded, then backed up to sit in the chair as if the information was more than she could take.

Forbes understood how she felt.

The FBI agent, who’d been quiet since his introduction, cleared his throat. “I have some information I think will be a comfort to you.”

All eyes turned to him.

“Charles Ballentine was informing for the FBI. That summer, twenty-five years ago, another agent in the Boston field office was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer. He passed less than six months after his diagnosis. I took over all his cases. There was one I never did understand. We think he was working on it off book, maybe something he planned to take to the higher-ups when he’d proved something. I had a note in the system for years”—he nodded to Brooklynn—“all those initials you wrote down. The information you provided matched what this agent had in the file. The whole thing just slipped through the cracks.”

Forbes absorbed that.

Brooklynn had been right.

Dad hadn’t been a criminal. Forbes had never understood how his good and decent father could’ve done something like be involved in smuggling, but the evidence had seemed concrete.

Only because Forbes hadn’t had all of it.

Rosie squeezed his hand, tears dripping from her eyes. “I didn’t… I didn’t know.”

He sniffed back a fresh wave of emotion. “Me, either, sis. But it makes sense. Dad would never?—”

“But why would he even inform for the FBI?” she snapped. “Why get involved at all?”

“According to the file,” Bergstrom said, “they didn’t give him any choice. They threatened his family if he reported what they were doing. He felt trapped and thought his only chance to get out was to inform.”

Grandmother stood, the motion taking more effort than it ought. “They should have gone in and arrested everyone immediately. They shouldn’t have put my son and his family in danger like that.”

“You’re right.” The agent’s expression was grim. “I agree entirely.”

Gran didn’t seem to know what to say to that, just mumbling a “Hmph.”

Whatever that FBI agent had been thinking, whatever Dad had been thinking, what happened had happened. Their family had been ripped apart that night.

But as Forbes glanced at the people surrounding his hospital bed, he realized God was putting it back together. Not just Rosie and Grandmother, but now there were Rosie’s husband and children, and her husband’s family, and the family that had taken her in, all part of the circle.

And Brooklynn, who smiled at him.

He wasn’t sure what would happen next. He’d spent his entire life hiding his identity, something he no longer needed to do.

Now, he could be himself. Forbes Ballentine. And he had a real family.

He hardly remembered what that felt like, but he was eager to find out.

CHAPTERFORTY-TWO

Two weeks had passed since that terrible night. As Brooklynn looked out over the cove where her life had nearly ended, she still struggled to make sense of it.