Page 78 of Lost and Found

“We don’t have to do this.”

Her chin snapped up. “We absolutely have to.” She fidgeted with her dress. “Honestly, I’m okay. I’m just taking it all in. It’s been a while since I was last here.”

“If you’re sure.”

She nodded. “He would want us in here, looking for the key. I’m sure of it.” She moved closer and inspected boxes labeled work. “Ryan was an environmental lawyer.”

“Wow, he really was nothing like his family.”

She laughed. “Litigating on behalf of trees nearly killed Angus.”

Sharing funny memories seemed to relax her, and within a few minutes, she was working alongside him.

Because Bailey had been so organized when she’d stored Ryan’s belongings, they quickly located a small box of personal items. She had packed everything. His cell phone, wallet, key ring. Wes set the phone and keys aside.

Bailey opened his wallet. “I was a zombie when I packed everything.” She slid out a business card and held it up. Her lips pulled down. “Two punches away from a free coffee.”

“Honestly, I can do this if you want.”

“No, I want to. I’m just feeling all the feelings.” She placed it back in the wallet. “Is that going to bother you?”

“No way.”

“Thanks.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Maybe I should take the cash and put it into Matty’s piggy bank instead of letting…” She pulled out the bills. “Twenty-two dollars—” A key tumbled to the floor.

They both stared at it.

“What kind of key is that?” she asked.

Wes picked it up. Longer and wider than a standard key, it had unusual grooves plated into a long, slender bar. He turned it over and ran his thumb over the dimpled metal and tiny angled cuts. The key’s head had an intricate design he couldn’t place. Several straight lines crisscrossed, except for one tight curve like an oblong half-circle. “High-security key. Possibly hand-crafted. Ever seen this image before?”

Bailey scrutinized the design and then the key, running her fingers along its bumps and grooves as he did. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.” She handed it back. “That has to be the key he planned to bring you.”

He set it beside the cell phone and caught her pensive glance. “You’re sure you don’t recognize it?”

With her lips pressed into a thin line, she shook her head, distracted. “He had a nice, leather-bound portfolio. It had a datebook and notes…” She scooted past Wes and pulled out a box labeled office and desk. Bailey swiped at her forehead. “For a climate-controlled unit, it’s really hot and stuffy in here.”

The temperature wasn’t as bad as the lack of airflow. He sliced open the tape on the box. “We don’t have to stay much longer.”

Bailey peeled the flaps back. “This is his journal.”

“Like a diary?” Wes didn’t want to pry into the guy’s life, though if he kept thoughts written down like Ryan, he would have noted the strange key.

“More or less, but nothing too personal. He’d use it for work, fill it up, and put it on a shelf. It wasn’t a diary full of secrets. Sometimes he’d leave it open on the table.”

“Okay, we’ll take that with us, and if we need to, we can find the other journals.”

She nodded and walked out into the hall. Wes gathered what they’d take into a bag and pulled the door down again, relocking it with the padlock she handed to him.

“How are you going to figure out what the key goes to?”

“Not sure yet.” He guided her toward the elevator and pressed the call button. “Dean would probably have an idea or two.”

“I don’t want to mention this to Angus or Kimbra,” she said.

“I don’t want to talk to either of them, ever.”

They stepped into the freight elevator, then walked out of the storage building, into the sunshine. Even though the summer heat immediately pounded on them, the stifling, still air of the storage unit was gone.