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Annie and Kylie came into sight with Milo on their heels.Annie saw the girl, and her eyes went wide as she hurried to join them.
She knelt on the other side of the girl. “Are you Michelle Fraser?”
“No, I’m Shainya Blackburn.”
“Are you injured?” Annie spotted the blood and winced. “That’s a nasty cut. Let me see what I can do.” She shrugged off her backpack and unzipped it to get to a first aid kit.
Jon moved in and took the pack. “I’ll do it.” While Annie was competent, he was the doctor. The girl winced when he began to clean the laceration. “What happened?”
“Two men. They chased me.” The girl reached for the water again and took a gulp. “They might still be out there.”
“When was this?” Jon asked.
“Yesterday, I think. Or maybe the day before. I got lost, and I can’t remember. I was so scared.”
“Did they hurt you?” Annie asked after a sidelong glance at Kylie, who stood a few feet away.
“N-not like you mean. They laughed while they chased me and threw rocks at me. One kept telling me to run so it was more fun. I think they might have been teenagers. Or in their early twenties.”
This was sounding all too familiar with some of the other things that had gone on this summer. Jon checked his phone. No bars. “We’ll need to transport her from here by ourselves.”
“The truck isn’t that far. Maybe we can make a travois.”
Jon handed her his backpack. “I can carry her out if you take this.”
“You sure?”
He nodded. “Let’s get her to the hospital. I think she’ll need stitches on that leg.”
And Mason needed to know there were still a couple of thugs out here terrorizing people.
Fifteen
The scene at the hospital was so hectic that Annie was glad they’d dropped Kylie and Milo off at Anu’s. There’d been a car accident with multiple injuries, and the small facility in Rock Harbor was bursting at the seams when they brought in the girl. She’d told them she lived on the Ojibwa reservation by Baraga. Annie thought it likely her love of nature had helped her survive whatever had happened out there.
Knees hugged to her chest, Shainya sat in a waiting room chair. She was looking better. Annie had used her own comb to remove twigs, leaves, and mud from the girl’s dark hair, and her color was improving. She was a beautiful girl with high cheekbones and dramatic coloring.
Annie returned the comb to her backpack. “Can I call someone for you—your parents, maybe?”
Shainya chewed her lip before answering with a slow nod. “We’re not on the best of terms. I moved out a couple of weeks ago, but they’ll need to come get me.”
“Where are you living?”
“I was with my boyfriend, but we broke up a couple of days ago. I found him with another girl, and I took off. Nature always helps center me.”
Annie nodded. “I feel the same way. What is your ex-boyfriend’s name?”
“Joel West.”
Annie jotted it down so she could tell Mason. She glanced at Jon in the chair beside her. “Would you call her parents?”
“Sure.” He pulled out his phone. “Number?”
Shainya rattled off her mother’s number, and he put it in his phone.
Jon rose to step out of the noisy and chaotic waiting room. He exited into the late-afternoon sunshine, and Annie watched him pace and bite his lip as he placed the call. He always did that when he was agitated. Mason appeared behind Jon, then passed him to proceed to the waiting room.
He spotted Annie and came to join her. He stared at Shainya, and his gaze softened. “I’m Sheriff Kaleva.” He took out a notepad and squatted in front of her. “Can you tell me what happened?”
