Page 34 of Guess Again

Cherryview, Wisconsin Saturday, July 26, 2025

ETHAN POURED TWO CUPS OF COFFEE AND SAT WITH MADDIE AT HIS kitchen table.

He ran his hands through his hair.

“She was pregnant?”

Maddie asked.

“According to the nurse at Planned Parenthood, yes.

She went to Chicago to have an abortion but decided against it.”

“So you have a seventeen-year-old pregnant girl who decided to keep the baby.

If I were the lead on this case, my list of people who disliked that idea would be long.”

Ethan had taken Maddie through the last week of his investigation.

“It would include the father of the child.

Maybe he was a classmate who didn’t want a kid as a teenager.

It would include Callie’s mother, although that sounds awful.

She wanted this perfect little life for her daughter, who was supposed to go on to become a world-renowned surgeon.

Having a kid as a teenager doesn’t fit into that plan. It would include her father, too. Governor today but a state senator back then and an up-and-coming politician star. A missing teen daughter would draw more sympathy from potential voters than a pregnant teen daughter. And I’d take a serious look at the girl’s stepfather. Make sure nothing sinister was going on between them.”

Ethan raised his eyebrows.

“Those are some rough accusations, Detective Jacobson.”

“I’m just telling you how I would approach this if I were handling the case.”

“They’re all logical angles.

If Callie’s mother had something to do with her disappearance, we’ll never know.

She killed herself the year after Callie went missing.”

“Maybe the guilt got to her.”

Ethan squinted as he considered this.

“It’s possible.”

“And her dad?”

“The argument of saving his political career is valid, but that’s assuming he knew Callie was pregnant.

Everything I’ve uncovered suggested he did not.

Also, why would he reopen the case ten years later if he got away scot-free?”

“Yeah,”

Maddie agreed.

“Pretty risky, especially when no one was putting pressure on him to reexamine the case.”

“The stepfather is a pretty ugly thought.

I’ll have to put some thought into how to approach that topic.”

“So that leaves the father of Callie’s baby,”

Maddie said.

“Any idea who that was?”

“Nope.

But I have to believe he was communicating with Callie through the prepaid Samsung.”

“Are you running forensics on the phone?”

Ethan shook his head.

“Not formally, but I’ve got a friend working on it.”

“You haven’t told Pete about the phone? Or Governor Jones?”

“Not yet.”

“They asked for your help, Ethan.

You’ve found something no one else found back then—she was pregnant.

And you found the prepaid phone Callie was calling and texting, which likely belonged to the father of her unborn child.

They’d want to know all that.”

“Yeah.

They’d also want to know how Francis Bernard led me to the prepaid phone in the first place.

I don’t know how to explain that yet.”

“Then go back and ask him.”

Ethan nodded and closed his eyes momentarily at the thought of speaking with Francis again.

“I’m meeting with Lindsay Larkin today to retrace Callie’s footsteps from the night she disappeared.”

“And Francis?”

“I’m on the visitor’s log to see him tomorrow.”

Ethan knew he had no choice but to return to Boscobel.

He had to find out what Francis wanted from him, and what else the man knew about Callie Jones.