Page 37 of Guess Again
“Cuff yourself to the door or I will spray chemicals into the room that will cause you to pass out. That’s the hard way to get this done, but I’m willing to do it.”
She saw a hose of some sort poke through the door slot. Tears welled in her eyes until they streamed down her cheeks.
“Okay,” she yelled, taking the cuffs and securing one end around her left wrist and the other around the bathroom doorknob.
The hose disappeared and the woman peered through the slot.
“Show me,” the woman said. “Pull your arm away.”
She pulled against the cuffs to prove that she was securely fastened to the door.
The slot closed and a key rattled in the lock. Then, for the first time since she’d been there, the door opened. The woman walked into the room. She was tall and lanky.
“Please. Don’t hurt me.”
The woman threw something at her, and she reactively closed her eyes and flinched. When she heard a flop, she opened her eyes and saw a newspaper on the floor in front of her. It was a copy of theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel. She examined the front page and saw that it held today’s date.
“Hold the paper in front of you,” the woman said.
Since entering the room, large sunglasses hid the woman’s eyes, while the black head covering concealed her face.
“Hold it up,” the woman said.
She reached down and grabbed the newspaper.
“In front of your chest,” the woman said. “Just under your chin.”
She held up the paper and saw the woman raise her phone. The flash bleached her retinas, and she barely saw the woman throw something else in her direction before turning and walking out of the room. The door slammed shut and the lock rattled again. A moment later she heard footsteps climb the stairs, and the deadbolt of the main entrance slide into place.
When the purple afterimage faded and her vision returned, she looked down at her feet to see what the woman had thrown at her. It was the key to the handcuffs.
CHAPTER 34
Cherryview, Wisconsin Saturday, July 26, 2025
ETHAN POURED TWO CUPS OF COFFEE AND SAT WITHMADDIE AT HISkitchen table. He ran his hands through his hair.
“She was pregnant?” Maddie asked.
“According to the nurse at Planned Parenthood, yes. She went to Chicago to have an abortion but decided against it.”
“So you have a seventeen-year-old pregnant girl who decided to keep the baby. If I were the lead on this case, my list of people who disliked that idea would be long.”
Ethan had taken Maddie through the last week of his investigation.
“It would include the father of the child. Maybe he was a classmate who didn’t want a kid as a teenager. It would include Callie’s mother, although that sounds awful. She wanted this perfect little life for her daughter, who was supposed to go on to become a world-renowned surgeon. Having a kid as a teenager doesn’t fit into that plan. It would include her father, too. Governor today but a state senator back then and an up-and-coming politician star. Amissingteen daughter would draw more sympathy from potential voters than apregnantteen daughter. And I’d take a serious look at the girl’s stepfather. Make sure nothing sinister was going on between them.”
Ethan raised his eyebrows. “Those are some rough accusations, Detective Jacobson.”
“I’m just telling you how I would approach this if I were handling the case.”
“They’re all logical angles. If Callie’s mother had something to do with her disappearance, we’ll never know. She killed herself the year after Callie went missing.”
“Maybe the guilt got to her.”
Ethan squinted as he considered this. “It’s possible.”
“And her dad?”
