She shakes her head. “I really couldn’t see it. It happened so fast, and the light was behind him.”

“But it could be the same man?”

She nods. “Yes.” She looks over at Chase, her voice tremulous. “Why would he come back?”

“We don’t know, Mrs. Bradley.” Chase’s gaze is on the table, as though it’s his fault.

“Was he carrying anything?” I prod.

“Not that I could tell,” she says, her eyes back on the video of the man. “I don’t think the man I saw had a backpack.”

“Okay.” I lean forward in my chair. “We’ve got our lab guys trying to enhance the video, so we might have more to ask you about it later.”

We stand, and I collect my notes. Chase opens the door. “Do you need a ride home, Mrs. Bradley?” he asks.

“No, I’m okay. I drove myself. My sister is at my house. I’ve got a guy there installing a security system.”

“That’s a good idea,” Chase says.

“Will you have outside cameras?” I ask.

“Yes. My sister ordered it.” She almost smiles. “Cameras inside and out, all the bells and whistles.”

Chase says he’ll walk her to her car, and I head back to my office. I’ve got my notes spread out on my desk, the video pulled up on my laptop, when Lauren walks in.

“We found something, Rita.” She holds up an evidence bag with an envelope inside. She drops into the chair opposite me and lays the bag flat. “The guys found it wedged in the back of one of the filing cabinet drawers.”

I grab my reading glasses from my jacket pocket and lean close to the bag. Lauren lets go an excited breath, pulls on a latex glove, and reaches inside. She lays the envelope on top of the bag.

It’s a power company envelope, like the ones your bill comes in. “Okay.” I glance up at her.

She pulls a folded white tissue out of the envelope, unwraps something shiny, and drapes a delicate necklace over her palm like an anxious jeweler. She runs her thumb over the round disk of a pendant. There’s a chip of topaz set in the middle, with SCORPIO inscribed beneath it.

“Interesting,” is all I manage. “Doesn’t look awfully expensive.”

“It’s not,” Lauren gushes.

I lean back in my chair. “You think the perp was coming back for that?”

“He was coming back for something.”

“But a fairly worthless pendant?”

“The necklace might have some meaning for him.” Lauren licks her lips. “I think we ought to at least look into it. Why take the trouble to stash it in a locked filing cabinet? And here’s the best part,” she says, and flips the pendant over. “Initials.”

I sit up. Push my reading glasses up the bridge of my nose, but, shit, I still can’t see them.

“A.R.,” Lauren says.

“It could’ve been in that drawer forever.”

Lauren taps her finger against the envelope. There’s a postmark. The bill was mailed two weeks ago.