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“I think you’re making headway.”
He wanted to tell Annie she was dreaming, but he didn’t want to spoil the evening. It all felt off-kilter to him, and he didn’t know if anything could right it.
***
Munising was small but mighty with natural beauty. It served as the gateway to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and Annie had spent many summers exploring the waterfalls and lakeshore with her family. Her dad had grown up here, and he knew every lane and pond in the county. She’d hoped to give Kylie the same sense of belonging Annie had felt here, but life was always so busy that she hadn’t brought her over often.
It was nine o’clock when she drove her old red-and-white Volkswagen truck past the brick storefronts to Elm Avenue. “There it is.” She pointed out a 1920s white two-story with a wraparound porch.
The manicured yard and garden added to its charm, and the gray paint on the steps and porch felt welcoming. She parked in the drive and rolled down her window. “Wait here. I won’t be long.”
Glued to her iPad game, Kylie nodded. Jon took out his phone. “Take your time.”
The porch seemed freshly painted and baskets of geraniums swung in the breeze from the ceiling. Even the porch swing was just like her grandma’s. Annie didn’t have to ring the bell because a woman spotted her through the screen door.
“Coming,” she called.
The woman had one of those faces that made you feel accepted immediately. Tiny lines around her brown eyes crinkled when she smiled and stepped out onto the porch. Her salt-and-pepper hair was in a casual, windblown cut that ended at her round chin.
A Yorkie trotted out with her, and the woman scooped her up. She spotted Kylie and Jon sitting in the truck, and her expression softened even more. “What can I do for you?”
“Are you Mary Berlin?”
“Yes.”
“I’m law enforcement ranger Annie Pederson from over near Rock Harbor. I’m the one who found your daughter’s car in the forest. I need to ask you a few questions.”
Mary’s smile faltered. “You found Michelle?”
“I’m sorry, but no, we haven’t. Her case is peculiar, and I hoped you might shed some light on her activities. When did you see her last?”
Mary gestured to the wicker chairs on the porch before she dropped into one with her dog on her lap. “A little over a year ago. She brought me flowers for my garden for Mother’s Day andtold me she was planning to leave Brandon. I told her it was about time.”
Annie settled in the other chair. “You didn’t like Brandon?”
“He was very controlling when they were dating. Always wanting to know where she was if she was a few minutes late, and he even checked her text messages. It got worse after the wedding until she felt like she could hardly go to the grocery store without questions. That was bad enough, but when she showed up here with bruises on her stomach from his fists, that was the last straw. I begged her to leave him before he killed her. But she was afraid he’d come after her.”
“Did she call you before she left him?”
“Yes, of course. She called and told me she’d found a women’s shelter that would help her. She said she’d try to get in touch, but that she’d been told it was better to cut off contact with family for a few weeks so Brandon couldn’t find her.”
“What triggered her leaving then?”
“He cut her with a knife the night before. She told me she kept the sheet with all her blood on it. And she took a picture of it.”
That explained the bloody sheet. “When did you start to worry after not hearing from her?”
Mary soothed the squirming dog with a rub on the ears. “While I haven’t seen her in a year, she’s called regularly on a burner phone, just to reassure me that Brandon hadn’t found her. But a week ago, she left the shelter and decided she was ready to enter normal life again. She called the day she left, but I haven’t heard from her since. After three days had passed, I was getting antsy. By yesterday, I was terrified. I returned the call from that nice Sheriff Kaleva, but he said there was no sign of her.”
“We discovered Michelle had rented a condo in Rock Harbor,but she never lived there. She’d left her BMW in the garage for about a year too.”
“She hated that car. Brandon gave it to her, and she suspected he planted a tracking device on it.”
Annie leaned forward. “Why did she think it was bugged?”
“He made a few comments about places she’d been. She didn’t see how he could know unless there was something on the car.”
“Did she have it checked?”
