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Idoya showed her out to the porch, and Annie hurried back to her truck. She pulled out her phone and called the editor at the magazine. Yuriko Davis didn’t even remember the contact. No help there.
But the wildlife cams were a definite new clue.
***
The back of Annie’s neck prickled when she left the shelter, and she glanced around to see if someone was watching her. Children played in the yard, and two women chatted on the porch. Nothing seemed out of order, so she shrugged and got in her truck.
She called Mason and told him what she’d found. “Can you get me an address for Chad Smith? I’ll run over to talk to him.”
“I’ll text you. Good work. And I have more information on Michelle’s car. I accessed all the cameras around the condo complex, and it appears two teenage boys took the car from the parking garage for a joyride. I was able to identify them, and they’ve done it before. I picked them up, but they were clueless about Michelle.”
“I think I know the incident that caused the blood on the sheet we found.” She told Mason what Michelle’s mother had said about the knife incident. “But I’m still concerned she’s not contacted the shelter where she was working. And why hasn’t she been in touch with her mother now that she felt comfortableenough to leave the shelter? And where has she been living since she left there a week ago? It’s clear she wasn’t staying at the condo.”
“Lots of questions and very few answers. Let me know what you find out from the Smith guy. I’ve already got the address. Sending it now.”
Her phone pinged. “Got it. I’ll be in touch.”
She ended the call and glanced at the address in her text messages. Chad Smith lived in L’Anse, only half an hour away. If she found him home, she wouldn’t have to drive all the way to Marquette. As she pulled from the curb in front of the shelter, she saw a white panel van pull out of a driveway down the street.
She didn’t think much about it until she turned onto M-41. The van let another vehicle in front on occasion but kept pace with her. She pulled into a service station to see what would happen, and the van continued on past. She went inside and bought a bottle of water, but when she got back on the highway, she saw the van parked along the side of the road. When she passed, it pulled out behind her again.
It was clearly following her. Could it be a disgruntled husband who knew she was trying to find Michelle? She wasn’t working on any other case right now, so it seemed the most likely explanation.
She sped up until the van fell behind, and in the curve around L’Anse Bay, she took a sharp right into an area she knew was protected from sight by trees. She waited fifteen minutes before she pulled back onto the highway. She didn’t see the van again until she drove down Chad Smith’s street.
And there it was, parked in Smith’s driveway. She cut the engine and got out as a young man in his midtwenties fumbled with a key in the lock of the house.
“Hey!” she called.
He turned around and blanched when he saw her beside the distinctive red-and-white Volkswagen truck. His gaze darted from right to left as she started toward him.
“Chad Smith?” she asked from the bottom of the porch steps.
A defeated expression settled into his hazel eyes. “Yes.”
She stared him down. “Why were you following me?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His protest was feeble.
She fisted her hands at her side. “You followed me from the shelter. How’d you know Michelle was staying there? Did you follow her home one night too? Were youstalkingher?” Her anger rose at the thought.
He held up his hands. “No, no, I wasn’t stalking her. I’m worried about her.”
Annie didn’t buy it for a minute. “Why would you worry about her? She’s been protected in a shelter.”
“But she’s been gone a week. No one has seen her.”
“How do you know?”
A dull red crept up his face. “I had a tracker on her ATV. It hasn’t moved.”
Stalking her just like Mary had said. Annie wanted to punch him. “When did you last speak to Michelle?”
He shrugged. “The last day of school?”
“How well did you know her?”
“Well enough to know she was crazy about mountain lions.”
