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“No, so he didn’t worry at first. He thought maybe she decided to stay an extra day, but when she didn’t get home by nine this morning, he got worried. She was supposed to help prep for a wedding anniversary party for their parents tonight. The cake was ready an hour ago, and she didn’t show to pick it up.”
This sounded ominous. “You have a picture? Have we found her vehicle yet?”
Deja handed over a picture of a smiling blonde with large, dark eyes. Young, too, late teens most likely. “Her car is in the lot by the boat launch into Superior. No sign that anyone has tampered with it. And of course, no one has seen her since she left on her kayak Monday.”
Annie rose. “I’ll go out and see what I can discover.”
Mason hung up the phone. “The process to get the phone records is started. The nurse at the memory care unit said Mort doesn’t have many good days anymore, but they happen when least expected and don’t last long. She suggested you stop in everymorning for a while. The clouds in his mind are more likely to part for a few minutes then.”
“I’ll try that. Did you talk to the detective in Minnesota, put in a good word for Jon?”
Mason nodded. “He wasn’t ready to back off Jon, but he was impressed that Jon asked him to look into the patient who died. I think Jon will be okay when this is all over.”
“If only he’d get his investment back, but I think that’s a lost cause.”
“Yeah, the detective said the other doctors were splintering, and he expected the practice to file for bankruptcy. Sorry, Annie.”
“It’s okay. We’ll make it.” She thanked Mason and exited the building, then glanced around for Jon. She didn’t see him at first until she caught sight of him walking her way from the north. He’d probably been on the beach. She lifted a hand in greeting and headed to meet him.
With the wind in his hair, he looked happy and carefree. She stepped into his embrace, and he kissed her as if he’d missed her in the two hours she’d been gone.
He pulled away with a reluctant smile. “All done with Mason?”
“Yes, and there’s news from Minnesota.” She told him what Mason had said. “But you’ll figure out what you want to do. We’ll be okay.”
His green eyes flickered, but Jon managed a smile. “I have you and Kylie. That’s all I need.”
“You’re right.” She kissed him. “We also have a missing kayaker. I need to head out to the boat launch and have a look around. We might need to take the boat out and see if we can find her. I pray she hasn’t overturned out there.” That was always a worry in the lake’s cold water. Hypothermia could set in very quickly.
“Want to go now?”
“Yes. I’ll drive in case we find her kayak.” She led the way to her parked truck. “You know, I never heard the name of the woman Max found on Tremolo. What if it’s the same woman?”
“Was she heading there?”
Annie opened her door and got in as he went around to the passenger side. “She was going that direction to camp at a small island, but a current could have sent her on past and over to Tremolo.” She handed him her phone. “Would you call Max and ask the woman’s name?”
“Sure.”
She drove down Houghton Street and out of town as he placed the call and left a message. “No answer?”
“Nope.”
“Hopefully he’ll call back right away.” She drove out to the Kitchigami Wilderness Tract and parked beside the woman’s pickup, a ten-year-old blue Dodge. “That’s her vehicle.”
The truck was unlocked, and Annie checked the registration. Ella was eighteen, nearly nineteen. A quick search of the truck and the surrounding area didn’t turn up any evidence. Not that Annie had expected any. She retrieved the keys to the park boat from inside her office and headed for the dock.
Before they got out of cell range, she called the hospital where Max’s men had taken the woman and asked if they had a patient by the name of Ella Anderson. They had no record of her, so Max must have found a different woman.
Annie feared the worst for Ella as she and Jon boarded the boat and headed out into the lake. The storm last night had been fierce, and if the Anderson woman had been in the kayak coming back this way, she could have drowned.
Twenty-One
The brisk wind lifted Annie’s hair and blew it into her eyes. She steered the boat through the waves left over from last night’s storm and squinted at the light bouncing off the water.
She reached into a storage bin and extracted binoculars that she handed to Jon. “See if anything catches your eye out there.”
He scanned the horizon. The uninhabited bit of land Ella had been heading for was just ahead and to the west of Tremolo Island.
