Page 16 of Promise Keeper

"They're obviously not getting in trouble for murder," Anna said. "They've been dead for nearly a century. This is about honor and legacy."

"There's no record of that property being located on an old cemetery," Logan said. "So if that's where the bones came from, it's not because they belonged there."

"Always twenty-two steps ahead, aren't ya?" Roy asked, shaking his head. "We don't even know they were found there, now do we? Didn't you say the bones hadn't been outdoors or buried?"

"They might've been buried in a bag or something," I said.

"No signs of being wet, and bugs can chew through bags," he said.

"I think it's worth looking into," Anna said. "The bones could've been inside a lead-lined box for all we know. It is quite a coincidence that they're digging up their backyard and unidentified bones turn up."

"Exactly," I said.

"I can ask her," Johnna said.

"No. I don't want her--or anyone not sitting here at this table right now-- to know we're looking into this. I don't want to risk the wrath of the Daughters for this to come to nothing."

"Okay, then," Johnna said, "how do you propose we find out if the bones came from her and Jim's backyard?"

"First, I think we need to find out if anyone in her family was ever convicted of a crime. B) We need to see if we can tie anyone in her past to someone who went missing. Lastly, we need to discreetly question the men doing the work. If anyone saw something it would be them."

Logan's fingers tapped on his laptop again. "I don't think we're going to find the kind of information we want online."

"This kind of information is usually found in old diaries, isn't it?" Anna said. "Long after people have died and their belongings are in thrift stores, or antique shops."

"Mia and I have already been through everything in Brenda's shop," I said. "I didn't tell Mia about this, and I don't want her knowing."

"I'll take a look at Will's Schoolhouse Antiques," Johnna said.

"I'll be at Steve's working," Roy said. "Maybe I'll have time tomorrow, unless he has another group he needs help with."

"Where can we find old diaries?" Anna asked. "The library, maybe?"

"Maybe," I said.

"If you want diaries from Fiona's ancestors," Johnna said, "they're in the back of the train depot where she has the documents on the history of the town's founding."

"Do you think she'll let me borrow them?" I asked.

"You can't even touch them without those white gloves on that people wear when they handle old papers," Johnna said. "They're fragile."

"How do we get them, then?"

"I think that's one of them rhetorical questions," Roy said. When I shot him a confused look and shrugged my shoulders, he let out a sigh of exasperation, looked around, and leaned in close. "You break in," he whispered.

Break in? Hadn't I just told Mia never to compromise her standards and beliefs? Of course, I did believe in finding out if Fiona was behind those bones. That didn't need compromising, it was just the breaking in part that I needed to wrap my head around.

"He's right," Johnna said. "There's no other way to get your hands on them."

Anna and Logan avoided eye contact. "You two don't disagree?" I asked.

"The probability of reading those diaries without deceptive measures is too low to calculate," Logan said.

"What he said," Anna agreed.

Good gravy, was I going to break into the train depot to steal old diaries?

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