Page 88 of Guess Again

Lake Morikawa, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025

IT TOOK TWO HOURS FOR ETHAN AND MADDIE TO brING KAI UP TO speed on the developments of summer and the events that had unfolded since Memorial Day weekend, the last time they were at Lake Morikawa.

Ethan told Kai about Francis Bernard and the man’s haunting connection to both Ethan’s and Maddie’s lives.

Kai listened as Maddie relived her harrowing story of escaping as a teenager from the man who brought her to the shores of Lake Michigan to kill her the way he’d killed eight other women that summer.

Ethan and Maddie explained how they had met two years earlier at Francis’s first parole board hearing and quickly fell in love.

Maddie told Kai about the ten letters she had received—all postmarked in Boscobel and signed with a black heart—promising to finish what was started years ago.

“And this man,”

Kai said, “has escaped from prison?”

“Yesterday morning,”

Maddie said.

“And we believe he killed a woman down in Milwaukee.

A doctor who had been treating him, and who helped facilitate his transfer.

It’s also possible he was involved in another homicide—a woman named Eugenia Morgan, who we believe was his accomplice in the escape.

Authorities are still trying to piece it all together.

But until they find him, I thought Lake Morikawa was the best place for Maddie.”

Kai nodded.

“It is.

You’ll be safe here.

It’s quiet and peaceful, and I hope you stay for a long time.”

“As long as it takes for my colleagues to find Francis,”

Maddie said.

Kai looked out the front window.

“You came just in time.”

The wind had picked up and the lake swarmed with small whitecaps that would have made landing the Husky impossible.

The weather reports predicted winds gusting overnight.

Kai had proven them wrong again.

“I’m heading home before it gets too nasty,” Kai said.

Ethan stood.

“I’ll walk you out.”

They left through the front door and stopped in the driveway.

The Chippewa elder’s long braid flew from his shoulder as a gust of wind skirted across the land.

“I have to head into town for supplies,”

Ethan said.

“We came up unexpectedly and didn’t have time to make our usual run before we left.

We’re going to need some food and water, especially if the storm prevents us from leaving the cabin tomorrow.”

Kai looked to the sky.

“You’d better hurry.”

“I’ll go now.

Do you mind keeping an eye on the cabin and Maddie, in case she needs something? She can take care of herself, but she’s still pretty rattled.”

“Of course.

I’ll be right around the corner.”

Kai’s home sat on a bluff above Ethan’s cabin.

Tall lodgepole pines formed a barrier of privacy, but Ethan knew the foliage had never been much competition to Kai’s vision and awareness.

“Thanks,”

Ethan said as lightning blinked far off on the horizon.