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“Yes.” Sharon grimaced, then, with a brisk movement, she was pushing herself off the couch and walking to retrieve her coat. “I really should be getting home. I have a couple of teenagers who need hands-on supervision.”
Kaden rose to his feet, holding up his hand. “Just one more question.”
“What?”
“Did Vanna ever mention the town of Pike?”
Not really expecting the older woman to have an answer, Kaden was surprised when Sharon nodded as she pulled on her coat.
“Since I was contacted by the coroner’s office to say that a skeleton had been found near that place, I’ve been trying to figure out why she might have been there. Her work took her all over the area, of course. But there was something about Pike that seemed familiar.”
“Did you figure it out?”
“Yes. I think it was the summer after her sophomore year that she did an internship at the University of Wisconsin Extension Office near Pike.”
Kaden’s gaze flicked toward Lia, watching her eyes widen. It hadn’t occurred to either of them that Vanna’s connection to Pike would have started before the EPA job had taken her there.
He returned his attention to Sharon. “Do you know what she did?”
“A lot of it I didn’t understand, but basically, she helped develop plans to protect the waterways from the animal waste produced at the dairy farms.”
Kaden nodded. That sounded legit. “How long was she there?”
“For several weeks.” A sad smile touched Sharon’s lips. “At first, she came home every weekend, complaining that she was stuck at the ends of the earth. She was truly convinced there was nothing in town but aging farmers and cow manure.”
“She wasn’t entirely wrong,” Lia muttered.
“After a week or so, she must have made a few friends,” Sharon continued. “She stopped coming home.”
Kaden made a mental note to check out the extension office once they returned to Pike.
“Did she ever talk about her time there? Or mention any names?” he asked.
“No, but when she came back after her internship was over, she was different.”
“Different?”
“Distracted. Even . . . restless. Like she had something on her mind.”
“Did you find out what was bothering her?”
“No. She went back to college and we barely spoke for months.” Sharon lifted her arm to glance at her watch. “I really need to go.”
Without warning, Lia stepped forward. “Do you know any friends she might have from college?”
“Not really.” Sharon turned and started out of the room. At the door she paused, glancing over her shoulder. “There was a professor. What was her name?” She paused before snapping her fingers. “Professor Sanders . . . no, Sanderson. Yes, Sanderson. That was it. I think the two of them were close. Vanna talked about her all the time.”
“Thanks,” Lia murmured.
Sharon glanced toward Kaden. “Let me know if you discover anything. I’d like to have a proper funeral for Vanna. She deserved that.”
“I will.”
Chapter 16
Lia waited until she heard the car drive away before she broke the silence. “Burke Fellowship. That’s not a coincidence.”
“My thought exactly.” Kaden slowly turned to face her, his expression troubled. “Then again, Ryan Burke doesn’t strike me as the philanthropic type.”
