Page 43 of A Gathering of Secrets

When the desk is in place, all four of us stand back and look at it. “Looks great,” Mona proclaims.

“I say we test it out by making some coffee,” Pickles grumbles.

Lois snaps up the carafe and sets to work.

I’m midway to my office when it occurs to me Mona shouldn’t be here. She’s already worked her shift, which is midnight to eight A.M. At the door to my office I turn and look at her. “You’re still here.”

She gives me a deer-in-the-headlights look. “I was on my way out the door when—”

“I could probably muster a couple hours overtime for you this morning,” I tell her. “If you’re game.”

She brightens. “Oh, I’m game. What you got?”

I pull out the small notebook I keep in my pocket. “See if you can come up with an address for Ruth Beiler.” I spell the name. “She’s Amish. I don’t have a DOB, but she’s approximately twenty years of age. Last known residence is Painters Mill.”

“Coming right up.” She starts for her computer.

“Mona?”

She stops and turns, her expression telling me she’s afraid I’m going to lay into her for staying late yet again when I’ve asked her not to. “I was on my way out the door when you walked in, Chief. I couldn’t let Lois and Pickles move that desk—”

“When you find her address, I thought you and I might go speak to her.”

“Seriously?” Her eyes and mouth open wide; then she catches herself, grapples for cool. “I mean, that would be great. Experience.”

“Good. Thanks.”

I’m nearly to my office when I hear her let out a whoop loud enough to rattle the windows.

* * *

A few minutes later my phone buzzes. I glance down to see DEPT OF COMM pop up on the display. “Burkholder.”

“Hi, Chief, it’s Bob Schoening. I wanted to let you know about an interesting development on the Gingerich case.”

I shove the file aside. “I could use some solid information about now.”

“As you are aware, I collected a number of items from the scene. Among them were two mason jars located just outside the tack room door. We suspect whoever set that fire used the jars to transport gasoline to the scene.”

“Are the jars intact?”

“Unfortunately they are not. In fact, there’s nothing about them that makes them particularly unique. The most interesting item I’ve examined was a key. It was discovered with a metal detector a short distance from the tack room where the body was found.”

“Is it the key to the tack room door?” I ask.

“It is. But, Chief Burkholder, what’s significant about the key is that we processed it for latents and, amazingly, we got a good print off it.”

“A fingerprint survived the fire?”

“The key was beneath some wood, lying against the dirt floor. It was somewhat protected from the fire and remained cool enough for the latents to show up when we tested it.”

I sit up straighter. “Do you have a name to go with the print?”

“We submitted to BCI via LiveScan and they’re running it through AFIS now.”

AFIS is the acronym for the Automated Fingerprint Identification System. “Any idea how long that might take?”

“Twenty-four hours, give or take.”