He gaped at her. “Is that what you really think? That God is causing all of these things to happen to make your life miserable?”
“He could stop them if He wanted, so at the very least He’s allowing it.” She let her gaze fall away from Ryan’s scrutiny. “Right. I forgot. You used to share this opinion with me but that’s changed.”
“Back then I really didn’t know God. Now that I have a relationship with Him, I know He doesn’t cause bad things to happen.”
“Really? Then why do they happen?” she asked, really wanting to know the answer. To know that God was the loving God Ryan seemed to know, and He really had her best interest at heart. How much easier life would be if she had that kind of God to turn to in times of trouble.
“This is a tough thing to understand. Even those who have a much deeper walk with God than me struggle with it. But here’s how I see it.” He eased closer and clasped her hands in his. His skin was cool through the gloves, and her hands seemed to be burning in his, maybe reflecting her need to know the answer.
He met her gaze. “Bad things happen for a variety of reasons. For me, it’s often a wakeup call. To get my attention and draw me closer to Him.”
Not liking the answer, she pulled her hands free. “I did bad things in high school to get my father’s attention and that was wrong. So why can God do the same thing and believers think it’s a good thing?”
“It’s different. God has a perfect understanding of what’s good for us. He knows what to allow. But we don’t have a clue what’s in our best interest. Not a clue. We mostly go with what our feelings tell us we want.” He paused as if waiting for her to stop him.
She didn’t. She still wanted an answer that she would like. “I’m listening.”
“One of my favorite verses in the Bible is in Proverbs. ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.’ If you can trust that everything will ultimately be good for you and not let your feelings color a situation, life will be a lot simpler. Letting God be in charge of my life makes the living much easier.”
“But being in charge stops people from stepping all over me again.” The vehemence in her tone shocked her. She knew her past bothered her, but was shethatbitter about it?
He eyed her. “And how’s that working for you? Are you happy? Everything going your way?”
His words were harsh, but his face held a sincerity that ate at her doubt. Maybe he had something here. She’d thought she was happy in Atlanta. Until she’d come back here, but was she really? Didn’t worrying about everything and falling to pieces when things went wrong deny the very idea of happiness?
This discussion deserved some legit thought. Which she would do. Later. When she was alone. When she wasn’t concerned with finding Fuzzy’s killer.
“I hear what you’re saying,” she said. “I’ll think about it, but I’m not ready to accept that God has good things planned for me.” She glanced at the wallet still in her hand. “Right now, we need to call Russ.”
Ryan pressed his lips together but didn’t speak. She hated causing this reaction, but she couldn’t flip on a religious switch just because Ryan wanted her to believe the same thing he did. She would think about it. Seriously. That was the best she could do.
“I’ll call him.” Ryan got his phone from a cargo pocket but didn’t make the call. “Seems odd that Sierra missed the wallet when collecting evidence.”
Indeed.How could a top forensic expert have missed something so obvious? Maybe she wasn’t as good at her job as everyone said. Or maybe when she conducted the search, the wallet wasn’t there.
Mia let her gaze rove the area in hopes of finding answers. Bandit lunged at the wallet as if it belonged to him.
“Oh, wait. That’s it!” Her heart thumped against her chest. “Sierra didn’t miss it—it was Bandit. He knew all the time but couldn’t tell us.”
Bandit thought she was talking to him and bounded to his feet, dancing with excitement. He jumped and yipped with glee.
“I’m a little lost here.” Ryan scratched Bandit’s head and quieted him.
“Don’t you see? This is what Bandit stole from the office last night. He picked up Fuzzy’s scent when he discovered his body. Then he found the same scent in the office, but he couldn’t get to the wallet because it was locked in Verna’s file cabinet until the break-in.”
Ryan blinked at her. “Why would Verna have Fuzzy’s wallet?”
“Only one answer.” Mia locked gazes with Ryan. “Verna’s the killer.”
24
Ryan handed the wallet to Sierra, and she laid it on a sheet of clean butcher paper in the back of her van as he, Mia, and Russ looked on.
“Thanks for coming back here to process this for fingerprints right away,” Mia said.
“Are you kidding?” Sierra’s eyes gleamed. “This lead could outweigh all the others for sure.”
She got out a jar of black powder and brush and opened the wallet with her gloved hand. “Leather can be tricky to lift prints from, so I’ll need to process the outside in the lab, but if we’re lucky we’ll get one from the plastic sleeve holding his driver’s license.”
