Page 44 of Two Hearts Reunited

Chapter Twenty-Two

When Jake tapped lightly on the front door the following morning at eight o’clock sharp, Anya opened the door, motioning for him to come inside.

“Good morning, Anya.” He looked across the room at Eric, apparently not surprised. “It’s nice to see you again Eric. This is cozy. I was wondering how you were surviving here during the winter. I see you have everything closed off.”

“Good morning, Jake,” Eric said, turning to Anya. “That’s right. I forgot to mention something to you yesterday. Ashley wondered if you’d like for her to come over and take a look at the place to see if she can help you come up with some plans to eventually convert the entire cabin into a four-season home. She thinks you might be able to do it a little at a time, so it won’t be as costly.”

“I’d definitely like that,” Anya agreed. “Come on in, Jake, and sit down. Would you like some coffee?”

“That would be great,” he replied, smiling as he sat at the kitchen table with Eric. “Black is fine.”

Once Anya was sitting at the table too, Jake began talking.

“I’m thinking that we underestimated your mother, Anya,” Jake began. “And I’m so sorry about that.”

“No. I get it. Even I was getting impatient with her conspiracy theories,” Anya said softly. “I lost so much time with her when I went off to school, but it was funny, she was better when I returned to visit.”

“I’ve talked with Sam—Chief Danielson—and he agrees with me. It’s possible that your mother was unknowingly being drugged. She wasn’t home most of the time. It would have been easy to slip something into…maybe a favorite water bottle or coffee cup?”

“She did have some of those. She took a thermos along with her every day when she went out on her uh…investigations,” Anya agreed. “Our house was in walking distance of school and the flower shop. I always had a few friends who would give me rides when the weather was bad and I had to get to school or work, including Penny, Sam’s wife. I barely saw Mom, even in the evening when I was still living at home.”

“There was no autopsy done, was there?” Jake asked.

“No. It seemed reasonable when the doctor said she had another heart attack. No one, not even Sam, suspected foul play, but something about the way Shanna spoke in that message made me wonder.”

“But your mom wasn’t cremated?”

“No. Only my dad since I had to handle it. All of her burial expenses were already covered by my grandparents, who had a family plot in our local cemetery,” Anya replied.

Jake nodded. “Good. That will make having an autopsy done a little easier, even though it’s been a few years.”

Eric and Anya nodded their understanding.

“Okay, so let’s hear what you’ve been doing,” Jake said.

Anya explained that her mother had received a message from Shanna sometime before she died. “According to the time and date stamp on her phone, it was about two months earlier. I sent that message to you as well.”

Jake nodded.

“I wouldn’t have known what Mom had discovered if someone hadn’t called and warned me that Mom was in the hospital. Once I arrived at the hospital in Eau Claire, Mom told me about the call from Shanna and the research she’d accumulated through the years. Although she had loads of information plastered on the living room walls in our house, she’d actually hid everything important here at the cabin. Since then, I’ve made multiple copies of everything, but I still have all the originals hidden where I found them.”

“I heard that you hired Charlie Andrews,” Jake said. “Don’t worry—Sam was the one who told me—not Charlie. He’s an old friend of mine too. You’re the one Charlie’s working for so he won’t come to me about anything without talking to you first.”

“He’s only been working for me for about a month, but he hasn’t found much,” she replied.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what have you got him looking into?” Jake asked.

“I’ve got two notebooks. I have no idea where my mom found them. I suspect that my father might have been blackmailing someone and had them hidden and she discovered them when he died. But apparently, she thought they were names of traffickers,” Anya explained, suddenly noticing the look of apparent shock on Jake’s face. “What is it?”

Jake held up a staying hand. “Tell me a little more. What have you got Charlie specifically looking for, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Well, the names have no addresses, so I’ve been going through them one by one, and searching online. Despite the fact that there are multiples of many of the names, if any of them come back with connections to Wisconsin, and recently I’ve included Michigan, I give those names to Charlie to investigate and follow.” She sighed. “I just took up where my mom left off.”

“I can’t believe it,” Jake muttered, looking dazed.

Although Anya was confused by what he meant.

Jake’s eyes met hers. “So, do you think your father might have had something to do with the trafficking, Anya?”

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