Page 90 of Guess Again
Lake Morikawa, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025
MADDIE’S FLIGHT OR FIGHT RESPONSE KICKED IN AND BLOODpulsed through the vessels of her neck. When she turned from the empty counter, Harriett was smiling.
“Looking for your Milwaukee Police Department issued Glock forty-five?”
Maddie looked around the cabin. The woman was tall and young. Maddie was trained in close-quarters combat, and she could take care of herself if it came to that. But her first goal was to get out of the cabin. She turned and took two steps to reach the back door, but the woman was on her in an instant. Maddie felt her head snap backward as Harriett grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her away from the back door.
Turning, Maddie bull rushed the taller woman, cramming her shoulder into Harriett’s sternum and advancing forward until they crashed into the kitchen table and toppled over the surface. Maddie landed on top of her in a jarring manner that caused Harriett to release her grip on Maddie’s hair. Maddie sat up and delivered two sharp strikes to the woman’s face—one landed below her eye, the other square to the nose.
As Harriett cried out in pain, Maddie climbed off of her and sprinted for the front door. But Harriett caught her shin with her hand and Maddie went down hard. The woman climbed onto her back and wrapped her arm under Maddie’s chin, tightening her grip in a chokehold that immediately restricted her breathing.
Maddie clawed at the woman’s forearm but could not loosen the grip. Stars formed in her vision and the compartmentalized memories of her time as a sixteen-year-old girl came back to her, when Francis dragged her to the shores of Lake Michigan to kill her. Climbing first to all fours, Maddie next managed to get to her feet—Harriett on her back the whole time. She stumbled a single step forward before bracing herself and then rushing backward several steps and launching them both against the wall of the cabin where the fishing spear Kai had gifted Ethan hung. Maddie knew that the spear hung on three ivory tusks set firmly into the wood, and she prayed she’d find one of them.
As they crashed backward, Harriett collided against the wall with Maddie’s weight and momentum adding to the force. Maddie knew she’d hit pay dirt. Harriett’s scream was other worldly as one of the ivory hooks pierced her back just below the scapula. Maddie felt the woman’s grip loosen, and she managed to escape from the chokehold. As Harriett crumpled to the ground, Maddie staggered for a step or two as she sucked in air until the tunnel vision cleared. Then, she turned and ran for the back door.
When she reached it, Francis Bernard stood on the other side and smiled at her through the glass. Rain dripped from his face. His clothes were soaking wet and his white T-shirt stained red with blood. He lifted Maddie’s Glock from his waist and used it to tap lightly on the glass.
CHAPTER 99
Lake Morikawa, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025
MADDIE BOLTED FROM THE BACK DOOR AND RAN THROUGH THEcabin. Harriett had made it onto her knees and tried to hinder Maddie’s progress. But a visceral fear coursed through Maddie’s body that made her feral and unstoppable. She ran through Harriett as if the woman were a sack of suds. She reached the front door and yanked it open before she heard the blast from her Glock and felt a searing pain pierce her left side.
The force of the bullet caused her to fall forward, slamming the front door closed. When she pushed away she saw the exit wound in her lower left abdomen where her T-shirt was painted red. Blood, too, spattered the door. The pain came and went, overshadowed by the adrenaline that flowed through her veins. She twisted the handle to the front door and started to pull it open again when she felt Francis grab the back of her shirt.
“Now look what you’ve made me do,” Francis whispered in her ear. “This won’t be nearly as fun if you die quickly. I was hoping to take my time.”
Francis spun her around and, with a violent jerk, ripped the front of her shirt so that her breasts were exposed. His head tilted to the side as he examined her chest. Then, he traced the spot on her left breast where he had years ago etched a black heart into her skin. The heart was gone, replaced now by a jagged scar.
“You erased my work,” Francis said. “We can’t have that, now can we?”
The burning pain in her side had taken on a life of its own, and the blood loss was making her drowsy. As Francis continued to stare at the scar on her breast, Maddie reared back and drove her forehead into his nose. She heard cartilage crunch and bone break. Blood shot horizontally from Francis’s nostrils as he stumbled backward. A stream of blood poured into Maddie’s eyes from the newly formed gash that ran from her hairline to the bridge of her nose.
Combined with the bullet that had pierced her side, the concussion of the impact with Francis’s skull made her dizzy. She staggered two steps forward until she was in striking distance again. Then, she delivered an upward kick to Francis’s groin. He howled in pain and fell to his knees. Maddie turned and, like a drunk leaving the bar, zigzagged for the front door. Before she made it, though, Francis lunged forward and grabbed her ankle. It was all it took to send her face first into the doorframe.
Exhausted from blood loss, Maddie closed her eyes and willed her brain to power down and take her far away. She had nearly succumbed to the urge when she felt Francis pull on her leg as he dragged her back toward the kitchen.
His voice was nasally when he spoke. “I’m going to return you to the black heart club before I kill you,” Francis said.
She felt him grab her by the hair as he lifted her off the floor and forcefully shoved her onto the kitchen chair. Maddie was helpless now as Francis secured her wrists to the chair with zip ties. She opened her eyes when she felt him unclasp the front of her bra. He touched a knife to her left breast.
CHAPTER 100
Lake Morikawa, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025
IT KILLED HIM TO LEAVEKAI BLEEDING ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, BUThe had no choice. Ethan jumped back into the Bronco and stepped on the accelerator, the tires spitting gravel as he fishtailed off the shoulder and back onto the road. Visibility was for crap, and he was driving much too fast for conditions. He’d be no help to Maddie if he flipped the Bronco into a ditch, but he couldn’t help himself.
It took four minutes to reach the cabin and as he turned the Bronco wildly into the driveway, he collided into the backend of a Range Rover that was parked there. The airbag deployed and delivered a solid jolt to Ethan’s nose, drawing blood. As he jumped from the truck and ran through the driving rain, he reached for his waistband but remembered that his Beretta was in his bag.
He ducked down below the Range Rover and changed course, running along the side of the cabin and then around to the back door, which had been left eerily open. There was no time to assess the situation or decide on the best tactical approach. Instead, he bolted forward and put his shoulder into the partially open door, sending glass shattering as he crashed into the cabin.
Ethan stumbled into the kitchen to find Maddie tied to a chair with Francis behind her, a garrote similar to the one he’d used on Lindsay Larkin around Maddie’s neck. Her shirt was torn at the neck to reveal a crude black heart that had been carved into her left breast, blood oozing from her gouged and stenciled skin. There was no hesitation. Ethan lunged forward and clipped Francis with a clothesline forearm across the neck and both men went down.
He heard Maddie choke as she sucked air through her now-open trachea. Ethan climbed on top of Francis and pummeled him with several blows to the face. Years of pent up rage poured from him as Ethan bloodied the man’s face with a relentless fury of strikes. When Francis’s arms fell to his sides and the man could not defend himself, Ethan placed his hands around Francis’s neck and began to choke the life from his body. The man’s face turned to a deep purple and his eyes bulged as Ethan tightened his grip.
A violent blow to Ethan’s temple stunned him. A second to the back of the head caused him to slump to the side and collapse onto the ground next to Francis. Ethan rolled onto his back and opened his eyes to see a tall, blond-haired woman standing over him and pointing Maddie’s Glock down at him.
The woman squeezed the trigger, and he felt a searing pain in his left shoulder. The blond woman adjusted her aim, this time bringing the barrel of the Glock in line with Ethan’s face. Before she could pull the trigger, though, Ethan saw the walrus tusk that tipped the end of his prized fishing spear pierce through the woman’s chest.
