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What could he want that badly? Pictures on her phone incriminating Brandon? She couldn’t think of any.
***
The Kitchigami Wilderness Preserve was full of twittering birds and the blended scents of leaves, mud, pine, and wildflowers. Jon walked through the pines with Annie and Kylie in the shadow of the thick overstory of oak and sycamore trees. He whistled for Milo to come back before he slipped out of sight.
“The cams are probably on branches of deciduous trees,” Annie said.
“What should I be looking for?”
“Her ATV might be around here somewhere. Either that or she found the tracker and tossed it away. And look for cams in the trees.”
Jon nodded. He knew Annie had to check it out, and it was a beautiful day for a hike in the woods.
A jaybird scolded them from a nearby spruce tree before flying off in a flurry of blue. He scanned the branches, searching for a glint of a camera’s eye, but he saw nothing.
“Let’s go toward the water,” Annie said. “Most animals congregate around water, and she might have set up cams at the nearest watering spot.”
He was lost in this dense brush, but Annie led the way with confidence. They broke through the thickets onto a small beach with Superior’s waves rolling onto its pebbles. It felt like a spotall their own, as if no other human had ever stepped foot here. Until he spotted a candy wrapper and a half-empty water bottle.
He picked up both and scrunched them in his hand. “Litterbug.”
Annie nodded and went to study the trees lining the beach. “There’s one!” She disappeared into the woods.
Milo yipped and raced over to throw himself at Jon’s feet. He was trembling and crying as only a frightened pup could, and Jon reached down to comfort him. “Easy, boy, what’s wrong?”
As he ran his hand over the puppy, he felt something wet on the side of Milo’s muzzle. Jon stared at his fingers. Red. He sniffed the metallic odor. Blood. “Are you hurt, buddy?” He knelt and examined the puppy for a cut or injury. Nothing.
“Is Milo okay?” Kylie fell to her knees beside her puppy. “Is he hurt?”
“I don’t see anything, but he has some blood on him. Did you see where he was playing?”
Kylie pointed to a rock pile near the water. “Over there.” She scooped Milo up in her arms and hugged him close to her chest.
Jon approached the rock pile and began to kick things around. All appeared normal at first. Until he found a boot lodged between two rocks. It was small, like it belonged to a woman. His gut clenched, and he rose to hail Annie.
She heard his call and came to join him with a cam in her hand. “You find a cam too?”
“Milo had blood on him. He was playing around over here, and I found this.” He held up the boot. “We should both explore a little more in case someone around here is hurt.”
Or worse.
If only they hadn’t brought Kylie out here. They’d found some gruesome sights this summer so far. Neither of them said it, but he saw the worry spring into Annie’s blue eyes. While she went north with Kylie and Milo along the beach, he went south. When he found nothing, he moved into the tree line a couple of feet and scuffed his boots through last year’s leaves.
He saw something red in a low bush and bent to look. A young woman, in her late teens or early twenties, lay curled into a ball under the vegetation. She was missing a boot, and blood trickled down her leg from a gaping wound. Her lips were cracked and her skin appeared dehydrated beneath her tangled mass of straight black hair. Her backpack was discarded a few feet way. How long had she been out here?
She flinched when he touched her arm. “Don’t hurt me anymore,” she whispered.
“I won’t hurt you.” He rose and yelled Annie’s name before kneeling beside her again. He pulled out an unused bottle of water, then slid his arm under her and helped her to sit up. “Have some water.”
She opened dark-brown eyes and pushed her black hair out of her face. He put the bottle to her lips for her to take a sip. “Not too much at first. I don’t want you to get sick.”
She raised a feeble hand and grasped the bottle to drink more. “So thirsty.”
“How long have you been out here?”
“I don’t remember. Forever,” she whispered.
He heard thrashing through the underbrush. “Over here, Annie!”
