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As Shainya explained the location, Annie’s elation ebbed. It was the area where they’d found Sarah and Michelle. The cabin was out there, but the deputies had checked the surrounding area several times without discovering anything.
“Did either Joel or Glenn own any other property or hunting tracts?”
“Well, there’s Joel’s warehouse. He has his taxidermy setup there.”
“In Houghton?” They were on the outskirts of the city now, and Annie dug a pen and paper out of her bag for the address.
“Actually, no. It’s in Chassell.”
A little farther, but not much. “Do you have an address?”
“Let me check. I know where it is, but I’m not sure of the address.”
Annie heard rustling before the chimes of a computer booting up. She clicked the pen open and shut a few times while she waited. Maybe they should head there before seeing Joel. If they found something suspicious, they might get more information out of him.
“Here it is.” Shainya rattled off the address, and Annie wrote it down.
“Thanks, got it. Do you think Joel might have been one of the men who took Glenn out of the hospital?”
“There was a fuzzy picture in the paper from the parking lot camera, and I recognized Joel.”
Annie gasped and glanced over at Mason, who had raised his brows. “You’re just now telling me this? This is huge news, Shainya.”
“I assumed you already identified him since you called asking about him.” Her voice rose a decibel defensively.
“How do you know for sure one of the men in the picture was Joel?”
“Several things. The slope of his shoulders and the way he stood. And then there’s the hat. I gave it to him for his birthday.”
“Stormy Kromer caps aren’t uncommon,” Annie said. The iconic Yooper hat was usually a Mackinaw plaid of black and red with earflaps. While it was a winter cap, she’d assumed the guy wore it to disguise himself when he spirited Glenn away.
“This one is. They usually have only that little string tie in the middle to untie the earflaps. I took off that tie when I got it and replaced it with leather shoelaces. Joel always complained he couldn’t get his fingers around the string.”
A detail none of them had noticed. “Are you willing to testify that the man is Joel based on what you saw?”
Shainya’s answer came quickly. “I know it was him, Annie. No doubt in my mind. I’ll say the same thing in court. Just don’t tell him I’m testifying, okay?”
“I won’t,” Annie promised. “Thanks for your help.”
As she ended the call, she hoped it was enough for an arrest.
Twelve
Annie suggested they go to Chassell first, and Mason agreed. While she drove on to the small town, he shot off texts to deputies and other personnel about Shainya’s identification of Joel’s newspaper picture.
They had probable cause to bring Joel in for questioning at least, and maybe enough for an arrest. With somewhere to look, the few prints they’d picked up in Hussert’s room might pan out to belong to Joel. And with questioning, they might find who else had helped transport him out of the hospital. And where to find Glenn now.
Was he even still alive? It had been a dangerous move to take him out in his poor condition. But maybe that was part of their plan. They didn’t want Hussert to talk.
Annie parked at the address, a green-metal pole building on the outskirts of Chassell. No other vehicle was in the small lot overtaken by weeds.
She opened her door and got out. “Doesn’t seem like this place gets much traffic.”
Mason climbed out and followed her to the metal door. Weeds pushed up through the cracks in the pathway and creepedonto the concrete. The grass was eight inches high and hadn’t been mowed for a while.
There was no bell but Mason pounded his fist on the door. “Sheriff Kaleva,” he called. There was no sound but the caw of some crows on a scraggly oak in the yard. “Let’s try around back.”
Annie followed him around the side of the building, then took a step back at the stench of something rotting. Flies swarmed a fifty-five-gallon metal drum, and she shuddered at the mass of fur and other animal remains in it. “Nasty.”
