Vincent said nothing.
“Are you there, Mr. Livingston?” I asked.
“I am.”
“This is the only working theory I have, but I can’t understand why your brother wouldn’t be willing to help me.”
Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. I did have an idea and I was hoping the brother could be persuaded to confirm it.
“I may know why,” he said.
“Which is?”
“Before they moved to Maui, Guy had an affair with a sixteen-year-old girl. Lucy found out about it and left him. I still don’t know why she took him back. If she’d known the full truth, I don’t think she would have ever spoken to him again,” Vincent said.
“The sixteen-year-old girl wasn’t the only one,” I guessed.
“No, there was one other girl. She was also sixteen or seventeen. I’m not sure. The truth is there could have been more. Those were the only ones Guy admitted to. He meets lots of women of all ages through his photography job. He’s always been partial to the young ones.”
“He’s lucky he didn’t go to jail.”
“The age of consent in Ohio is sixteen, but the parents of the girls never found out either. We both expected Lucy to tell the one set of parents. She didn’t.”
“What’s your best guess? If Guy was having an affair on Maui, would it be with another young girl?” I asked.
“Probably. He swore to me he would never do it again, but I never believed him. I assumed it was only a matter of time before he cheated again. I wasn’t that surprised when he told me that Lucy cheated on him. I guess she’d finally had enough, and she wanted to even the score.”
“Do you think your brother is capable of murder?”
“No, I don’t. He loved Lucy. He just had a lousy way of showing it.”
“I appreciate your help with this. I know it’s a tough situation,” I said.
“Do you think you can prove my brother’s innocence?”
“I wish I could give you an answer, but I can’t. I’m sorry.”
I ended the call with Vincent Livingston and completed my run. By the time I got back to the house, I had a pretty good idea of what happened the day Lucy Livingston was killed. I just needed to prove it.
I went inside the house and took a quick shower. Then I changed into fresh clothes and walked back outside to my car. It was mid-afternoon by this point, and I thought there was a good chance I’d find Bella Bridges in her Lahaina-based office preparing for her early evening photoshoot. I knew the business address from my Facebook research, and it took me no time to get there.
The photography business was located in a small office complex several blocks from Harry’s. I found parking in the back and walked around the building to the front door. The door was locked, so I knocked a few times.
Bella eventually came out to greet me. My investigative career has made me more alert to people’s expressions, but even a clueless person would have noticed the change in her demeanor once she realized who I was. For a moment, I thought she might turn around and leave me standing outside. She didn’t, though.
“What do you need?” she asked.
“May I come inside? I’d rather not have this conversation in the open.”
Bella hesitated for a few seconds. Then she stepped back and allowed me to enter.
“I don’t know a gentle way to put this, but I had a conversation with Guy’s brother earlier today. He told me that Guy had a couple of affairs when he and Lucy lived in Ohio.”
“How’s that relevant to what’s going on now?” she asked.
“I don’t think Guy shot his wife because he found out she was cheating. I think this goes much deeper than that and I’m hoping you can help me prove it.”
“How can I do that?”
“Did Lucy ever come to this office?” I asked.
“Maybe once or twice after Guy first rented the place. She didn’t seem to have a lot of interest in his photography, though. I know it was a bit of a sore spot for him.”
“Did she have a key to the office?”
“No, not that I know of. I can’t think of a reason why she would.”
“I was told that Lucy suspected Guy was having another affair. She was monitoring his computer at home. She was also checking his phone, but she never found any proof. I think the proof is here in this office.”
“What kind of proof? You think he had a second phone or something like that?” she asked.
“No. I think it’s most likely photographic proof. What do you do after one of your photoshoots?”
“We back everything up to a portable hard drive. Then we back that up to a second drive. All the drives are numbered, and we have a library program that lists the clients’ names on each drive.”
“Did you both do the post-production work on the photos?”
“Yes. I would do the basic sorting of the photos. I’d select the best shots and put them in a folder. Guy would then take those shots and do all of the color correction. Then the drive would come back to me and I’d put everything online for client review.”
“So you both worked with all of the photographs,” I said.
“That’s right.”
“If Guy wanted to keep a photoshoot hidden from you, where would he have stored those photos?”
“That’s easy. On his computer. We each have our own Macs so we can both be working at the same time.”
“Do you know the password to his computer?”
“I do. Follow me.”
I followed Bella through the small lobby and into a back room. There were two large tables that were placed on opposite walls. One table was covered with photography equipment, including camera bodies, lenses, and two tripods. The other table had two iMac
