CHAPTER 29

Sheriff Marsha Dross had called early that morning with the only good news they’d heard in a while. The blood that had been found on Raspberry Island was definitely human, but didn’t match Cork’s type or Lindsay Harris’s. Dross was headed into the Boundary Waters to work with Search and Rescue. She invited anyone who wanted to join them. But the O’Connors had a different idea for that day.

They gathered around the table in the kitchen of the house on Gooseberry Lane. Cork’s children were there, as well as Daniel and Rainy. Rose had made breakfast for them all, and they’d eaten, and now they sat sharing their information and their thoughts.

“He started out as a geotechnical engineer and worked on dams all over the world. A dam he designed in Indonesia gave way during heavy rains in 1978. The resulting flood killed hundreds of people.”

Jenny was reporting what she’d discovered during her Internet search the night before.

“Harris claimed that his design hadn’t been followed and also that there was graft involved in the project and construction materials weren’t of the specified quality. The official report backed him up. Since then, he’s personally overseen the construction of most of the dams he’s built.”

“What about his family?” Daniel asked.

“I know we’re all wondering about Trevor,” Jenny said. “But his sister is the one with the rap sheet.”

Rose saw astonishment on all their faces.

“When she was a student at Northland College, she was arrested during a protest against a proposed open-pit mining operation that would have devastated part of the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan.”

“The Penokee Mine,” Daniel said. “I remember it. Huge money involved, but a lot of Native and environmental groups banded together and the proposal was finally abandoned. That was only a year ago.”

“Got arrested, huh?” Stephen said. “I think I like this lady.”

“There’s more to her to like,” Jenny said. “On her Facebook page, her relationship status is ‘committed.’ To an Odawa guy she met during the mine protests.” She smiled at Daniel. “Smart woman.”

“What about Trevor?” Daniel asked.

“Attended Stanford for a while but got himself kicked out,” Jenny said.

“What for?”

“He set up a gambling ring on campus. Quite successful, apparently, until a number of parents complained about their kids’ money going to pay debts instead of tuition. He moved to Las Vegas, which is where he lives now. His official occupation is entertainer-­slash-actor. He’s been in lots of Vegas shows.”

“But it’s clear from what we’ve seen that for him Vegas isn’t really about the acting,” Rainy said. “He has a gambling addiction.”

“So maybe he’s in need of money,” Jenny said. “And getting rid of Grandpa—and his sister—will give him quite an inheritance to feed his addiction.”

Daniel said, “If someone disappears, I’m pretty sure it’s a long time before they can be declared legally dead. So Trevor has to be patient. My sense about addicts of any kind is that patience isn’t one of their strong points.”

“Also, that assumes something beyond addiction,” Rainy said. “A cold, calculating, heartless individual. Trevor may have problems, but is he really that kind of man?”

Daniel said, “I don’t have any problem assuming the worst about him. For me, the question is how he would accomplish the disappearance of his grandfather, his sister, and Cork. He’d need a lot of help in that. It would have to be someone who knows the territory, so someone local. How would he make that kind of connection?”

“And,” Jenny said, “if all this is calculated and everything he’s told us is a lie, how did he know about Stephen and ‘monthterth under the bed’? Have you ever posted anything about that on Facebook, Stephen?”

“Are you kidding? I barely remember it. I was five.”

“Trevor came by that information somehow.”

Rose had been quiet, listening, trying to calm her spirit so that clarity of thought might prevail in her own mind. She offered, “What if it’s a combination of many forces at work? Maybe Trevor Harris is weak, and someone has played on that weakness. As you’ve pointed out, if this is all part of some grand plan, he couldn’t very well have accomplished it on his own. He’d need lots of help. Who would want to prey on his weakness?”

Rainy said, “That’s pretty much what Uncle Henry said to me last night. Where does the wind blow from that bends this young man?”

“Someone who’s after something that Lindsay or her grandfather have?” Stephen offered.

“More probably something that Lindsay and her grandfather have,” Daniel said. “Maybe they tried getting it from Harris and couldn’t, so now they’ve gone after his granddaughter.”

“There’s another possibility,” Rose said. “They’ve taken Lindsay in order to coerce her grandfather. You might be willing to do things you wouldn’t otherwise do if it meant keeping someone you loved from harm.”

They digested that in silence, and Jenny nodded. “Of everything we’ve said, that makes the most sense.”

“But it doesn’t get us any farther,” Daniel pointed out. “We’re still in the dark about almost everything. Especially who’s behind all this.”

“So what do we do now?” Jenny asked.

Daniel pulled a photograph from his shirt pocket and set it on the table.

Rose saw a young man standing beside a lake holding a big fish and grinning to beat the band. “Trevor?” she asked.

“That’s him with the prize walleye he caught the day his grandfather went missing. I’m going to talk to Dwight Kohler, their guide,” Daniel said. “I’d like to know exactly what happened out there, the story behind how a guy who’s never been to the Boundary Waters and almost never casts a line managed to land this. Forgive the pun, but there’s something fishy in that story.”

“I’ll go with you,” Rainy said.

“I want to go out to Crow Point,” Stephen said. “Since Trevor screwed up the sweat, I haven’t had a chance to talk with Henry about this darkness I feel. I’d like to explore it more with him.”

Jenny finished her coffee. “I’m going to wake up Waaboo and get him ready for preschool.”

“You all go do what you have to do,” Rose said. “I’ll clean up here.”

She saw them off, and when Jenny had gone upstairs, Rose took her cell phone from her purse and called her husband. Mal answered in the way she loved: “Hello, light of my life.”

“Oh, Mal, it’s good to hear your voice.”

“Whoa,” he said. “Yours doesn’t sound so good. What’s up?”

She told him all that had occurred. He didn’t interrupt.

“I can leave right away,” he offered.

“At this point, it wouldn’t do any good. I just thought you’d want to know what’s going on. For the time being, just keep us all in your prayers.”

Mal said, “There’s one thing I hope everyone up there understands.”

“What’s that?”

“This Lindsay Harris couldn’t have a better man with her than Cork. If anyone can help her, he can.”

“I’ll pass that along. It’s a good piece of wisdom.”

“I’ll keep everyone in my prayers. You take care of yourself, love.”

“I will, sweetheart.”

She ended the call and slipped the phone back into her purse. Then she sat among all the breakfast mess that needed to be dealt with and offered a silent prayer of thanksgiving. Until she was forty, she’d believed she would never know love, the kind that Mal offered her anyway. She thought of it as a great treasure she’d stumbled upon, a blessing never anticipated, and maybe that was the best kind. She also offered a prayer in gratitude for her sister’s family, which she’d always been a part of. And finally she asked for the grace to accept whatever outcome God had in mind for them all. She might have gone on in her prayers—sometimes they lasted well beyond anything she’d intended—but a knock at the back door took her from her meditations.

She found Daniel’s aunt Leah standing there, looking wild-eyed.

“Can I . . . can I come in?” the woman asked.

“Of course.” Rose brought her inside and took her coat, hung it, and led her to one of the empty chairs. “Can I get you something? Coffee maybe?”

The woman didn’t answer. She stared at Rose with eyes hollowed into deep pits of fear. “I’ve seen something.”

Rose sat down and took Leah’s hands. “What did you see?”

As if completely disoriented, she said, “I don’t know. I don’t understand it.” Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “Oh, Rose, they’re dead. Hundreds and hundreds of them. All dead.”