Page 88 of Guess Again
“That oughta do it,” he said.
“Thank you. Storm is supposed to break overnight, but you know how slow they are to bring the power back around here.”
Life on Lake Morikawa could not exist without a good generator, Ethan knew. It sometimes took days for the power to return after an outage.
“Want me to stop by tomorrow?” Ethan said. “In case you need to refill it?”
“No. I’ll have my husband do it. Thank you, though.”
“Have a good night.”
“Stay safe, Ethan,” Uma said as Ethan hurried into the storm with his bags of groceries weighing him down.
CHAPTER 95
Lake Morikawa, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025
MADDIE HAD ONLY THE BEDSIDE LAMP ON IN THE BEDROOM. SHE’Dbeen up to Ethan’s cabin before when the electricity had gone out, and she knew to draw as little power as needed from the generator. She pulled off her wet shirt and sorted through her duffle bag as she stood in her damp shorts and bra. Three loud bangs stopped her cold. She stood with her hands sunk in her bag and listened. The banging came again, and she thought that perhaps a tree branch was hitting the side of the cabin. But when the pounding came a third time, she knew someone was knocking on the front door.
“Kai?” she whispered in an attempt to calm her nerves.
She looked down at her waist and remembered that she had left her Glock on the counter by the back door. She found a T-shirt and pulled it over her head before exiting the bedroom and starting down the stairs. When she reached the landing, she walked to the front door and peeked through the side window. Standing on the front porch, barely shielded from the pouring rain, was a woman. She was backlit by the headlights of her car that was parked in the driveway. She wore a baseball cap—what Maddie suspected was a way to protect her from the rain.
Maddie slowly opened the door.
“Thank God,” the woman said. “I am so sorry to bother you. I’m staying at one of the other cabins on the lake and my power went out.”
“Ours, too. We’re running on a generator.”
“It’s my aunt and uncle’s cabin. I don’t know if they have a generator. And if they do, I have no idea how to use it. I hate to impose,” the tall woman said. “I was going to drive back to Duluth, but I don’t think I can make it until the storm dies down. I turned around to hunker down in the cabin, but there’s a downed tree in the road and I can’t make it back. I saw your lights on and thought I’d take a chance.”
Maddie pushed a hesitant smile onto her face and nodded. “Of course. Come in.”
“I don’t know how to thank you,” the woman said as she stepped in out of the storm. “I’msosorry to drip all over your home.”
“Don’t be silly. Let me get you a towel. I’m Maddie, by the way.”
The tall woman with radiant blue eyes smiled. “Harriett. Thank you so much for opening your home to me.”
Harriett stepped farther into the cabin as Maddie shut the door against the raging wind and driving rain.
CHAPTER 96
Lake Morikawa, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025
ETHAN MANEUVERED THEBRONCO AROUND THE FALLEN BRANCHESthat littered the road. The rain came in sheets, and, had Maddie not been at the cabin alone, he would have pulled to the shoulder until the torrent subsided. Instead, he twisted the truck around a large tree limb that blocked the eastbound lane, splashed through a twenty-yard-long puddle, and continued on. He dialed Maddie’s number again. On clear days, his phone rarely registered more than a single bar of service up at the lake. The storm was making things worse, and he gave up after the third time the call went straight to voicemail.
The fifteen-minute drive took thirty, and when Ethan turned onto the last stretch of road, he saw a vehicle pulled to the shoulder of the westbound lane. The headlights were on, and the driver’s side door was open. As Ethan drove closer, he recognized that it was Kai’s pickup truck. Ethan bounced the Bronco onto the breakdown lane on the other side of the road. The rain hindered his vision so he couldn’t see what the problem was.
He reached into the middle console and grabbed the flashlight he kept there, clicked it on, and opened the Bronco’s door. The rain demarcated the beam of the flashlight as Ethan stepped into the storm and shined the light onto his friend’s truck. He saw that the driver’s side tires were intact. No flats. He walked across both lanes of the road and checked the cab. Empty.
“Kai!” Ethan yelled against the driving rain.
He was soaking wet. Rainwater dripped from his chin and his T-shirt stuck to his chest. Ethan shined his light into the bed of the F-150. Also empty. But when he walked behind the truck, he saw Kai lying in the embankment on the side of the road.
“Kai?” Ethan said.
He ran to his friend and crouched next to him. The rain mixed with the blood that streamed from Kai’s abdomen and mouth.
