Page 84 of Guess Again
“You just made it,” Kai said. “A storm is coming.”
Ethan climbed down onto the deck. “Tomorrow, right?”
Kai looked to the sky and assessed what he saw and felt. “Tonight. Bad winds will start early this evening. You would not have been able to land in them.”
Kai raised his chin to the east and then looked at Heaven’s River, the current of which was raging.
“The rapids are loud and angry. We need to secure the plane tight. The storm will be fierce.”
Ethan had learned to trust Kai when he mentioned anything weather related. The man had never been wrong about a meteorological prediction in all the years Ethan had known him.
“I’ll haul our bags up to the cabin and then tie off the plane.”
“Supplies, too?” Kai said.
“We’re short on supplies. Left in a hurry.”
Maddie pushed open the cargo door of the plane.
“Hey Kai.”
“Hello, Maddie,” Kai said, taking the bag she passed out of the plane. “Just a short stay, then?”
“No,” Ethan said. “We’re planning on a couple weeks.”
“Or longer,” Maddie added.
“Something I should know about?” Kai asked.
Ethan looked at Maddie, who nodded.
“Let’s get our bags up to the cabin and get the plane secured,” Ethan said. “Then we’ll talk.”
CHAPTER 88
Lake Morikawa, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025
IT TOOK TWO HOURS FORETHAN ANDMADDIE TO BRINGKAI UP TOspeed on the developments of summer and the events that had unfolded since Memorial Day weekend, the last time they were at Lake Morikawa. Ethan told Kai about Francis Bernard and the man’s haunting connection to both Ethan’s and Maddie’s lives. Kai listened as Maddie relived her harrowing story of escaping as a teenager from the man who brought her to the shores of Lake Michigan to kill her the way he’d killed eight other women that summer. Ethan and Maddie explained how they had met two years earlier at Francis’s first parole board hearing and quickly fell in love. Maddie told Kai about the ten letters she had received—all postmarked in Boscobel and signed with a black heart—promising to finish what was started years ago.
“And this man,” Kai said, “has escaped from prison?”
“Yesterday morning,” Maddie said.
“And we believe he killed a woman down in Milwaukee. A doctor who had been treating him, and who helped facilitate his transfer. It’s also possible he was involved in another homicide—a woman named Eugenia Morgan, who we believe was his accomplice in the escape. Authorities are still trying to piece it all together. But until they find him, I thought Lake Morikawa was the best place for Maddie.”
Kai nodded. “It is. You’ll be safe here. It’s quiet and peaceful, and I hope you stay for a long time.”
“As long as it takes for my colleagues to find Francis,” Maddie said.
Kai looked out the front window. “You came just in time.”
The wind had picked up and the lake swarmed with small whitecaps that would have made landing the Husky impossible. The weather reports predicted winds gusting overnight. Kai had proven them wrong again.
“I’m heading home before it gets too nasty,” Kai said.
Ethan stood. “I’ll walk you out.”
They left through the front door and stopped in the driveway. The Chippewa elder’s long braid flew from his shoulder as a gust of wind skirted across the land.
