Page 82 of Guess Again
She’d checked on the barrel twice in the ten years that had passed. In a strange twist of fate, the Prescott family had purchased the land that included the decrepit building that was once a power plant, and the lagoon next to it. Consequently, the land had been uninhabited since, and the barrel had remained for ten years unattended and unnoticed just below the surface of the water.
She turned the garage lights off as she entered her home, simultaneously clicking on the kitchen lights. She screamed when she saw Francis Bernard sitting at her kitchen table. He wore a white T-shirt freckled with blood spatter. Lindsay could have no idea that the blood belonged to Andre Monroe, the other person who had tried to take advantage of him while he was in prison.
The edges of Francis’s lips twisted into a tight smile.
“Hello, Dr. Larkin.”
CHAPTER 83
Milwaukee, Wisconsin Monday, August 4, 2025
ETHAN PULLED HISJEEPWRANGLER TO THE CURB OUTSIDE THELower East Side home that belonged to Dr. Lindsay Larkin. He shut off his lights and waited. Within ten minutes two other cars had arrived—those belonging to Pete Kramer and Maddie Jacobson. Pete was in his unmarked DCI car; Maddie was in her Milwaukee PD squad car. Two other marked cars followed behind, filled with the four officers assigned to protect Maddie Jacobson—the only surviving victim of the Lake Michigan killings—until Francis Bernard was apprehended. Ethan had requested Milwaukee Police Department presence to take Lindsay Larkin into custody.
Ethan wanted to question Lindsay about how she had pulled it all off. How she had brought Francis Bernard into the picture, and what role she might have played in his escape. He also wanted to learn her motive for killing her best friend, and why she had chosen Blake Cordis to pin the blame on. The woman was a treasure trove of information, but not until they safely had Dr. Larkin in custody.
Ethan knew that everything he did from this moment forward would be scrutinized by law enforcement, district attorneys, and Lindsay Larkin’s powerful defense attorneys, so he planned to make no mistakes. It was why he had called Maddie to make the formal arrest. There was a level of clandestine fogginess to his agreement with the Department of Criminal Investigation, and Ethan wanted to avoid a breach in procedural protocol. It was also why he left his gun in the glove box.
The three of them met on the street outside Lindsay’s house.
“You take the lead,” Ethan said to Maddie. “Everything’s got to be by the book on this.”
“Got it,” Maddie said.
She turned and walked up the driveway with Ethan and Pete following. She started to knock on the front door, but the first knuckle-to-wood connection sent the door slowly gliding open. Maddie looked at Ethan and Pete. The Lower East Side was an affluent neighborhood. Residents were known to leave their doors unlocked, but they did not leave themopen.
She removed her sidearm. Pete did the same. Maddie led the way into the home with Ethan and Pete close behind. Maddie pushed open the door and yelled into the darkened house.
“Dr. Larkin? Milwaukee PD. Are you in the home?”
No answer.
The entrance foyer was dark, but the light in the kitchen down the hall was on.
“Dr. Larkin!” Maddie yelled again.
When no answer came, they headed toward the kitchen, clearing the rooms to the left and right as they went. As they approached the kitchen, Ethan heard Maddie gasp.
“Oh my God.”
Ethan hurried past her. Lindsay Larkin sat at the kitchen table with a garrote tight around her neck, her face bloated and her skin the color of white marble. Blood streamed down her neck from where the cord had been cinched into her skin. As Ethan approached, he saw that Dr. Larkin’s blood had been smeared onto the white maple wood of the kitchen table.
Close Ethan, So Close
PART VII
Loose Ends
CHAPTER 84
Milwaukee, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025
THE TELEVISION WAS TUNED TO THE LOCAL NEWS AND PLAYED IN THEbackground as Maddie packed. Ethan had spent the night. He’d gotten almost no sleep, despite the officers posted outside Maddie’s apartment. In total, four Milwaukee PD officers were assigned to keep tabs on Maddie’s home and act on anything suspicious they saw. In addition to the cops, two DCI agents spent the night parked in the alley behind Maddie’s apartment.
The death of Dr. Lindsay Larkin dominated the local news, and with the murder happening just miles from Maddie’s apartment, Ethan knew Francis was close. He was taking no chances. He stepped from the closet and saw that Maddie had stopped packing to watch the news. On the television, the female reporter stood in front of Lindsay Larkin’s home, yellow crime scene tape visible behind her, along with the police cruisers and crime scene investigation vans.
Dr. Lindsay Larkin, the founder ofThe Anonymous Client, a leading online counseling company, was found dead in her Lower East Side neighborhood home late last night. Police have yet to offer details about Dr. Larkin’s death, other than to say that it is an active homicide investigation. There has been speculation that a former patient of Dr. Larkin’s has been implicated, but again, details are only just now coming in.
The Milwaukee Police Department chief offered a statement early this morning but refused to confirm a connection between Dr. Larkin’s death and Francis Bernard, a high-profile inmate who escaped while being transferred from the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel. Bernard was being moved to Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage when his transport van was ambushed and both guards were killed. And Dr. Larkin’s death comes on the heels of another homicide that took place yesterday in Nekoosa, north of Madison. Francis Bernard is still on the loose.
