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PROLOGUE

T he sun threw a last golden glow across the horizon of Lake Superior. From her vantage point about five miles from Eagle Island, Suzanne Baxter could see nothing but the cold, clear waters of the big lake they call Gitchee Gumee.

She leaned against the railing of the forty-foot yacht and lifted her face to the breeze. Her husband, Mason, joined her.

“I’m glad we came,” she said, turning to slip her arms around his still trim body. Even at fifty-four, he could still make her heart race like a teenager’s. They’d come through so much over the years.

He dropped a kiss on top of her head. “Me too. It was time to make amends.”

She bristled. “You mean let them make amends. You didn’t do anything.”

“Don’t start,” he said. “It was the right thing to do.”

“I’m not so sure anyone but your mother feels that way. The rest stand to lose a lot of money with you back in your mother’s good graces. She intends to leave you the lion’s share now as her only living child.” She pulled away and rubbed her arms.

“They’ll get used to it.” He swept his hand over the railing. “I can’t believe we allowed ourselves to be gone from this for fifteen years. The kids should have been here every summer.”

“We’ll all come out in August. Jake will be done with his dig by mid-July, and Wynne’s dive should be over about the same time. Becca will be out of school. I miss them.”

“We’ll be home by Wednesday. You could call Becca on the ship-to-shore phone. She should be around.”

Suzanne hesitated. She’d like nothing better than to share things with her youngest child, but something still didn’t feel right about the situation. She’d caught undercurrents at the old manor house, eddies of danger she wasn’t about to share with her daughter yet. Becca would just worry. “I’ll see her in a few days,” she said.

He nodded and pulled her back against his chest as they watched the sun plunging into the water.

A rumble started under her feet, a vibration that made her toes feel tingly. It radiated up her calves. “What is that?” she asked Mason.

He frowned. His hand began to slide from her waist as he turned to check it out. But the rumble became a roar as the hull of the boat burst apart. The explosion tossed Suzanne into the air. As she hurtled toward the frigid Lake Superior water, her last regretful thought was of her children.