Page 55 of Break of Day

Her blue eyes brightened. “I can’t wait to hear all about it.” She squatted beside Mort. “Hello, Mr.Jones. I’m Annie. Annie Pederson. I knew your nephew, Sean. Did he or your brother ever mention me?”

Mort had been staring blankly, but he lowered his gaze to settle on Annie’s face. “You’re the other girl. The one Becky left behind.”

Every line of Annie’s body tensed. “That’s right,” she said in a soft, soothing voice.

“I told Sean it was wrong to help Becky with that whole thing. Those boys always were boneheads.” He touched Annie’s cheek with a crooked index finger. “Pretty girl, pretty girl, all the pretty girls. She wanted a pretty girl.”

Annie tried to ask more questions, but he continued to babble about pretty girls and soon lapsed into silence again. While they didn’t know the details, it was clear Sean and Clive had been involved in Sarah’s abduction.

***

“At least now we know for sure Sean helped his aunt.” Hand in hand with Annie, Jon walked toward Lake Superior.

“I guess it doesn’t matter, not really. We can’t change the past.” She shaded her eyes with her hand and pointed. “I think the building is this way.”

Jon nodded. They’d stopped to show Annie’s ring to Anu, and she mentioned a place to lease for Jon’s practice. So they’d walked down to see it and meet with the Realtor Anu had called.

Storm clouds built in the western sky, and the scent of ozone from the flickers of lightning mingled with the flowers blooming in the tree lawn. “We’ve got waves ahead of the storm,” he said. “If this place works out, I’ll be able to hear the water.”

“I thought you might like that. Anu said it was almost at the end of the street here, just after the jeweler’s.” Annie’s eyes went wide. “Can we stop and show Henry the ring on my finger?”

It touched Jon to see how much the ring meant to her. “You bet. He’ll be so happy you love it, and it will take a few minutes for the leasing agent to get here.”

It was after nine, so they were open. He held the door for her, and they stepped inside. Henry was putting pieces into the display case, and he straightened when he saw them.

His smile broke out, and his gaze darted to the hand she held out in front of her. “Ah, yous said yes,” he said in his heavy Yooper accent. He wiped his hands on his black apron and came around the end of the display.

“The beautiful ring cinched it,” she said. “I can’t believe you created it so quickly. And it’s such a perfect design.”

“Yous delight makes this old man very happy. When is the exciting day?”

“Saturday, July seventeenth,” they said in unison.

“Less than two weeks,” Annie added.

“No wonder he wanted it done quickly. Now yous can find something to complement the blue in your eyes and in the ring.”

“I’d love a goldfinch necklace.” Annie told him about how God had sent a goldfinch to comfort Kylie as she was waiting for rescue from the cliff’s edge. And how Jon had saved her knowing it might cost his own life.

“Yous got a good man there.”

Annie’s expression turned speculative. “Did you ever hear Sean and Joel talk about hunting?”

Jon hid a grin. He should have known Annie would take the opportunity to quiz Henry herself.

Henry went back behind the display case. “Me and Sean used to play poker together, and he mentioned it. Those boys were crazy about hunting and fishing like three quarters of the men in the U.P.”

“There have been several deaths of missing hikers in the past few months, maybe longer. And we’ve had reports of men chasing some women hikers, almost as if they were using them for a hunting sport. My gut says they might be related. One of the women who was chased was Joel’s ex-girlfriend, so that brings it in a little closer. You ever overhear anything that sounded off?”

Henry ran a hand through his white hair. “That’s a terrible thing to think about. I haven’t been around Joel since he was in his late teens and early twenties. There was nothing like that back then, and nothing Sean said that would make me think he was that kind of man.”

Henry was in a position to overhear things. Maybe they should talk to all the shop owners, especially the outfitters. “You hear any chatter around town about something like that?” Jon asked.

“I’ve heard men talking about their shoots. Nothing that stood out as strange.” He pulled at his ear. “Though now that I think about it, two guys were standing outside smoking a couple of weeks ago. It was a nice day, and I had the windows open instead of the air on. I only recognized one of them. Eric Bell. You might not know him.”

“We know the name,” Annie said in an eager voice. “What did you hear?”

“Eric said something about the quarry that got away. The wordquarrystruck me as odd. Most men would have saiddeerormooseor whatever they were hunting.”

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