Page 95 of Guess Again

Lake Morikawa, Wisconsin Tuesday, August 5, 2025

MADDIE HAD ONLY THE BEDSIDE LAMP ON IN THE BEDROOM.

SHE’D been up to Ethan’s cabin before when the electricity had gone out, and she knew to draw as little power as needed from the generator.

She pulled off her wet shirt and sorted through her duffle bag as she stood in her damp shorts and bra.

Three loud bangs stopped her cold.

She stood with her hands sunk in her bag and listened. The banging came again, and she thought that perhaps a tree branch was hitting the side of the cabin. But when the pounding came a third time, she knew someone was knocking on the front door.

“Kai?”

she whispered in an attempt to calm her nerves.

She looked down at her waist and remembered that she had left her Glock on the counter by the back door.

She found a T-shirt and pulled it over her head before exiting the bedroom and starting down the stairs.

When she reached the landing, she walked to the front door and peeked through the side window.

Standing on the front porch, barely shielded from the pouring rain, was a woman.

She was backlit by the headlights of her car that was parked in the driveway. She wore a baseball cap—what Maddie suspected was a way to protect her from the rain.

Maddie slowly opened the door.

“Thank God,”

the woman said.

“I am so sorry to bother you.

I’m staying at one of the other cabins on the lake and my power went out.”

“Ours, too.

We’re running on a generator.”

“It’s my aunt and uncle’s cabin.

I don’t know if they have a generator.

And if they do, I have no idea how to use it.

I hate to impose,”

the tall woman said.

“I was going to drive back to Duluth, but I don’t think I can make it until the storm dies down.

I turned around to hunker down in the cabin, but there’s a downed tree in the road and I can’t make it back.

I saw your lights on and thought I’d take a chance.”

Maddie pushed a hesitant smile onto her face and nodded.

“Of course. Come in.”

“I don’t know how to thank you,”

the woman said as she stepped in out of the storm.

“I’m so sorry to drip all over your home.”

“Don’t be silly.

Let me get you a towel.

I’m Maddie, by the way.”

The tall woman with radiant blue eyes smiled.

“Harriett.

Thank you so much for opening your home to me.”

Harriett stepped farther into the cabin as Maddie shut the door against the raging wind and driving rain.