"He's our third cousin. On my mother's side."
"That a fact, Judah?"
"Sounds about right. I let her have that stuff there, just some old stuff of Laura's. I reckon she didn't need it."
"That a fact, Samantha?" She nodded. "Well, sounds like we got everything about wrapped up then. Unless you got anything to add, Miss Pestona?"
"I think that's a satisfactory explanation, Sheriff," the woman said. "If you boys don't mind, young Samantha and I have some business to conduct."
Miss Pestona led Samantha by the arm into the store. As she sorted through the jewelry Samantha had brought, she asked, "You said your name is Samantha Young?"
"That's right."
Miss Pestona paused to squint at Samantha from behind her glasses. "It's funny, about ten years ago I had a woman come in here calling herself Samantha Young. She looked just like you. She was older than you, of course. I'd say by about thirty years. She even had a necklace like that." Miss Pestona motioned to the half-heart necklace around Samantha's neck. "I don't suppose she was your mother?"
"Yes, my mother. She told me about this place. Before she died, of course."
"That's a terrible shame. She seemed like a nice woman. She knew more about antiques than anyone I've had in here." Miss Pestona finished sorting through the jewelry and then reached into her sweater for a pad of paper. "You have some nice specimens in here. I'll take these ones and give you a thousand dollars. If you want, I can give you the name of a broker in Portland who might take the rest."
Samantha nodded, her mind too distracted to consider whether she was being cheated or not. A Samantha Young who looked like her being here almost ten years ago? Along with the déjà vu she'd felt earlier, she knew it couldn't be a coincidence. But thirty years older? That meant she would have been forty. She did the terrible math in her head, figuring her parents would have been dead for thirty-five years now.
Despite biting down on her lip, Samantha couldn't keep from crying again. Miss Pestona put an arm around her shoulder and asked what was wrong. "My mother, what did she say when she was here? She died when I was little. Anything you could tell me would be helpful."
"Mostly we talked about military antiques. She bought an old set of binoculars off me. Your mother was very knowledgeable about that." Miss Pestona tapped her glasses against her chin. "You might want to talk with Mrs. Milton over at the Seafarer Bed and Breakfast. I think that's where your mother stayed at when she was here."