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He backed away to go find Mason and Annie and bring them here. They were righting the ATV to look for evidence. They followed him when he explained what he’d found.
Annie circled the area to study the prints while Mason headed closer to the water. “Two women and a man, I think. See the different shoe sizes?” Annie said.
“I found something,” Mason called from the other side of a rocky outcropping.
Jon led Annie toward Mason’s voice, and they found him at a kayak partially hidden by vegetation. “Looks like a rental.” Jon pointed out a label on the hull of an outfitters from Rock Harbor. “Did you check the dry hold?”
“Not yet.” Mason pulled it from the shrubs and flipped it over so he could get to the compartments.
Jon bent to help him. “I’ll get the one on this end.” Reaching inside, he felt through the compartment and found a dry bag. He pulled it out and dumped the contents onto the ground.
Annie reached past him and snatched an item in her gloved hand. “There’s a woman’s wallet.”
She unsnapped it and flipped it open. Her eyes widened. “It belongs to Grace Mitchell!”
Jon glanced at the picture of the girl. Blonde hair. The body they’d found was a blonde. Jon saw the thought flicker across Annie’s face as she continued to stare at Grace’s picture. They probably hadn’t found Michelle at all.
“What about the ATV? Any idea whose it is?” Jon asked Mason.
“I called in the registration number. It belongs to Fraser. I assume Michelle took it when she left him and was using it. I found the tracker on it, too, though it’s not working now.”
“So both girls have been here.” Annie flipped through the other pictures and documents in the wallet, but they held no surprises. “We need to talk to Brandon again and see if she took theATV when she first left, or if she came back for it. He claims he hasn’t seen her since she left, but where did she store the machine if she took it when she left?”
Mason nodded and went back to examining the kayak. The only things he found in the dry bag in the other compartment were a pair of jeans and a tee. Grace had evidently brought along a dry set of clothes in case she capsized.
“We need an autopsy and ID performed on the body ASAP,” Mason said. “I’ll let the Ontonagon County sheriff know we might have found Grace.”
Jon looked around. “Michelle was here, too, though. Where is she?”
Mason’s phone sounded, and he listened for a long moment. “We’ll be right there.” He ended the call. “Montgomery found tire tracks. It’s probably nothing, but I’d better check it out. And the DNA on the bloody sheet came back. It’s Michelle’s blood, likely from the attack with the knife her mother mentioned to you.” He scooped up the evidence he’d found in the kayak. “I’ll have Doug retrieve the kayak so we can dust it for prints.”
Jon and Annie followed him away from the clearing into a thickly wooded area where they found beaten-down weeds and grass from truck tires. A sprinkle of rain began to intensify.
“I’ll need to get a mold of the tires before this rain ruins it,” Mason said.
Jon assessed the tracks. “A ton truck.”
This scene was only a few yards from the body they’d found. They’d missed it at first because of the heavy vegetation.
But where had he taken Michelle?
With the ATV in the area, Annie walked around staringup into the trees. “Here!” she called. She spied a wildlife cam attached to a large spruce tree.
Jon retrieved it for her, and she took it and turned it on. “Michelle would have liked to have seen this.”
She showed Jon and Mason the picture of a mountain lion, then continued to scroll through the pictures.
Jon peered closer when Annie gasped. “What is it?”
She turned the camera around to Mason and him. “Someone carried her out of here.”
The picture showed a man carrying a woman with dark hair toward the area where they’d seen the tire tracks, though no vehicle showed in the frame.
“Any other pictures?” Mason asked.
Annie shook her head. “We need that warrant to examine her personal effects. She was definitely abducted.”
Mason nodded and walked away to use his phone. Jon took Annie’s hand. “You’re amazing at what you do. I’m proud of the way you care about people, Annie.”
