Page 83 of Guess Again
The news anchor sent things back to the studio, which transitioned to a weather report about the coming storm that would finally break the record heat wave that had consumed the Midwest all summer.
“Maybe we should shut it off,” Ethan said.
Maddie turned from the television. Her eyes were filled with tears.
“He’s close. I feel it in my bones.”
Ethan tossed the clothes he carried from the closet into Maddie’s suitcase. “That’s why we’re getting the hell out of here. My cabin, through a loophole that’s been passed down through three generations, is registered in a trust tied back to my great-grandfather’s copper mining company that no longer exists. No one’s going to find us there because no one knows I own the cabin. Lake Morikawa is the safest place for you right now.”
Maddie nodded and continued to pack.
CHAPTER 85
Madison, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025
ETHAN PULLED BACK ON THE CONTROLS AND THEHUSKY LIFTED OFFfrom the runway. He banked slightly to the left as he climbed to eight thousand feet to join his course up north to the lake.
“Two hours out,” Ethan said to Maddie through the headset.
Maddie nodded but kept her eyes closed.
“You didn’t get much sleep,” Ethan said. “Take a nap, you’ll feel better.”
Another nod.
With his route programmed into the GPS, he allowed the autopilot to take over. When he locked in his controls and dialed in his settings, Ethan settled back for the flight up to Lake Morikawa. He skipped playing Jimmy Buffett through the headsets. The “Leave All Your Troubles Behind” vibe seemed inappropriate for this trip up to the cabin, and he wanted Maddie to sleep. They’d packed for two weeks, but planned to stay up north as long as it took for authorities to find Francis Bernard.
CHAPTER 86
Lake Morikawa, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025
HARRIETTALSHON WALKED OUT OF THE CABIN AND SAT IN ANAdirondack chair on the front porch, feeling liberated and peaceful. Her long, blond hair flowed on the shoulders of a light breeze that came off Lake Morikawa. But it was more than the beautiful surroundings that helped her feel at ease. Her journey as Eugenia Morgan had finally ended. Shedding the woman’s identity after having assumed it for so long, and climbing back into her own skin, was more transformative than she predicted. She felt free and easy now that she was back to her old self. Some of her vigor, of course, came from finally knowing she and Francis would be together like they’d always planned.
Their relationship had started two years earlier with a simple letter. She had written to him but had never really expected a reply back. When one came, she was flabbergasted. She knew the ACLU had won a legal battle that allowed prisoners at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility to use the postal system, but she never thought Francis would actually respond to her. But he had, and they continued to write back and forth until one day a long letter arrived from Francis explaining his vision for how they could be together.
He had been explicit that she should never attempt to visit him. It was important for Harriett’s name never to appear on his visitor’s log. When authorities looked, they would only see that Eugenia Morgan had visited him. They wouldn’t know that it was not Eugenia who had made the trip to Boscobel, but Harriett. How could they? Harriett looked exactly like Eugenia. She had dyed her hair jet-black and used contact lenses to change the color of her eyes to match Eugenia’s.
With the woman securely shackled to a bed in the basement of her home in Nekoosa, Harriett had taken Eugenia’s driver’s license and used it to check in at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility when she visited Francis. She had used the same ID card to purchase the storage unit, to buy the gun Harriett used to kill the guard, and to purchase the Kevlar vest that thankfully hadn’t needed to stop any bullets. Harriett had driven Eugenia’s Ford Focus to intercept the transport van, and had left it there, along with the Sig Sauer Francis had told her to drop in the middle of the street. Both items would easily trace back to Eugenia Morgan.
Everything Harriett had done for Francis had been while assuming Eugenia Morgan’s identity. Detectives and investigators could come to no other conclusion than that Eugenia Morgan, a woman who suffered from hybristophilia and had written Francis seventy-five times in eighteen months, was his accomplice. And then, early Monday morning, Harriett had sliced the woman’s throat. According to news reports, police now believed that Francis was on his own. It could not be further from the truth. Harriett was with him today, and would be with him to the end—wherever that was and whenever it came.
She reached into her purse and found her wallet, removing the driver’s license that she had placed there weeks before. She slid it from the protective plastic sleeve and held it in the early afternoon sun. Eugenia Morgan’s face stared back at her. The resemblance was uncanny, and not for the first time she believed that fate had been on her side. She held the driver’s license with her left hand and clicked a cigarette lighter with the thumb of her right. The flame licked at the corner of the license until the laminated edge curled. She stared at Eugenia Morgan’s image until the flames melted the woman’s face away and burned her fingers. When the pain became too great, she dropped the license onto the porch. But not before Eugenia’s image had evaporated.
She took a deep breath, feeling unrestricted now that Eugenia Morgan was finally out of her life. It would take time to fully shed the woman’s persona from her being. But Francis had instructed her closely. She was to not only assume Eugenia Morgan’s identity, but to physicallybecomethe woman. It was the only way for their plan to work. Only now was she realizing how taxing that process had been. Only now did she understand how far she had burrowed into the woman’s life. At first she wasn’t sure she could pull it off, but she knew that love gives you the power to do all things. Francis had told her as much in one of his many letters to her. And he was correct. Her love for him had taken her this far, and now she needed to go just a bit further for him. So much waited for her in the very near future. Stepping back into her old identity was exciting, but she was not striding back to her old life. That life was over, and a new one waited for her. A second chance at life, this time with the man she loved.
She unzipped the small compartment in her purse and removed her real driver’s license. The name on the ID read HARRIETTALSHON. It felt good to look at a picture of herself, with blond hair and blue eyes. She had avoided looking at the photo ID of herself for the whole time that she had assumed Eugenia Morgan’s identity. But she was happy now knowing she’d never have to go back to the jet-black hair and brown contact lenses she had worn for the last few weeks.
Lake Morikawa unfolded in front of her. Harriett sat on the porch and took in the scenery. The home belonged to Hugh and Ruth Winchester, the elderly couple she had visited on Thursday night. Their bodies were now frozen solid and stacked in the large freezer in the garage. Harriett had checked on them when she arrived earlier today.
Her job now was simple, and much easier than racing around Wisconsin and down to the southern border setting things up for Francis. Her only responsibility at the moment was to wait and watch for the plane—a red-and-white, two-seat Husky—to land on Lake Morikawa. After it did, the real work would begin.
CHAPTER 87
Lake Morikawa, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025
ETHAN BROUGHT THEHUSKY DOWN IN A SMOOTH APPROACH, THEfloats kissing the surface as the plane skimmed across the lake. The late afternoon sun cast long shadows of pine trees across the lake. He turned the plane left and taxied toward the dock in front of his cabin. He hadn’t called ahead or told anyone he was coming, but still Kai was waiting at the end of the pier to welcome him. The Chippewa elder raised his hand in an amicable wave as Ethan approached. Ethan gestured through the window.
Kai cleated off the plane as Ethan popped the cockpit door open and threw his old friend another line of rope, which Kai used to secure to the rear float.
