She settled into the chair.
He took the chair next to her but turned it to face her. “My mind keeps coming back to the fact that Wally must’ve kept the bracelet. There doesn’t seem to be any other possible explanation for how it could have shown up here.”
She didn’t answer for a long while. Just tapped her chin. “I’m leaning the same way, but then why didn’t Uncle Wally give it to me when I moved to Atlanta to live with him? My dad had no hold over either of us then.”
Ryan shrugged. “Who knows what he might have been waiting for. But we need to assume he brought it to Evergreen and someone around here got a hold of it. Who could’ve found it and realized what it was and how important it was to you?”
“Only one person had unrestricted access to Uncle Wally’s stuff up here and that’s Verna.” Mia’s face lit up. “She knows all about our family, and she was acting weird when I talked to her this afternoon.”
Interesting twist. “Weird, how?”
“Gruff. Bad-tempered. And you know Uncle Wally never locked anything around here, right? Well, the barn was locked the day of the fire, and I asked her about that. She gave me a vague answer then acted all secretive.”
He was hard-pressed to think of Verna as a criminal but he caught Mia’s enthusiasm and went with it. “You think Verna locked the barn to hide something in there? Or to keep someone from seeing something she stored in there?”
Mia twisted her hands together. “I’m not even sure both doors were locked. I can only vouch for the one I saw.”
Had they been locked? He thought back to when he’d gone in to check for a survivor in the truck. The doors were toast by then, but he’d taken a good look around, catching sight of the rear door. “There was a chain hanging on the other handle, but I don’t remember seeing a lock.”
Mia jumped to her feet. “We can check right now.”
Ryan held up his hand. “Not so fast. I know you want to do something, but how does finding out it was locked help us to move forward?”
“If the padlock is still there and the chain is intact, we know the arsonist had to have the key to get in. If he had a key, then maybe that connects him to Verna. And maybe Sierra Rice can get DNA or fingerprints from them.”
“If Veritas even agrees to help,” he said.
“They did. Sierra called me to arrange payment, and she’ll be here tomorrow afternoon.”
“Finally, some good news.”
“C’mon.” She danced in place.
He didn’t like walking around in the shell of the barn. Could be hazardous for them both. But he did want to determine if the doors had been locked. “Okay, but we do it my way. Rutting through a burned building is dangerous. We’ll go together, but I’ll do the looking.”
Her excitement deflated, and she settled down. “Fine.”
He stood. “Let me get a pair of boots from my truck. And you might want to put Bandit inside or leash him. Don’t want him getting into trouble.”
“It’ll do him good to go for a walk. I’ll get his leash.”
She went inside, and Ryan crossed to his truck. He slipped into protective boots and retrieved thick leather gloves. He doubted looking at the chain would pan out, but when he saw the excitement on Mia’s face, he’d have offered to pick up every charred hunk of wood in the barn to find a clue.
Mia clomped toward him wearing an old pair of green rubber boots that looked three sizes too big. Likely Wally’s boots. “Ready?”
Before he could answer, Bandit shot off, jerking the leash and pulling Mia along at a fast clip through recently mowed grass that emitted a fresh and earthy odor.
“I probably shouldn’t have said I’d keep Bandit.” She laughed as she tried to rein in the frisky animal. “I don’t have the first clue how to take care of or train a dog.”
“I can give you some pointers when we get done here.”
“That would be great.” She looked at him with the same admiration she’d had for him in high school, and a warm feeling spread through his chest. He was honestly looking forward to working with her and getting to know her again. “Have you had a chance to look at Eddie’s file?”
She shifted the leash to her other hand and faced him. “I did.”
“We can review the notes before your first session if you’d like.”
She cocked her head. “Do you do that with your other staff?”
