Beyond a Doubt

  Anu came back into the room carrying a tray with tea and cookies. Her smile widened when she saw the album in Bree’s hands. “I see you have found my treasure. I put it away when Abraham left. It seemed time to bring it out again.”

  “Does it still hurt?”

  Anu cocked her head to one side as she considered the question. “Yes and no. I grieve for the years he lost with his children, but the personal pain God has healed. I know his desertion accounts for much of Hilary’s overbearing manner. She seeks to prove she is worthy of love. As she grows more secure in God’s love, she can relax.”

  Bree remembered their earlier conversation. “You said Peter and Abe disappeared about the same time. Do you think there could be a connection between Peter’s death and Abraham’s disappearance? I mean, is it possible whoever killed Thorrington killed your husband as well? That he didn’t desert you?”

  Anu’s smile faded, and her hands slowed as she stirred the sugar in her tea. “I must admit the thought has troubled me. It is possible. But then I remember the ring he left me, almost as if he knew he was going away.”

  Bree nodded, turning the possibilities over in her mind. Another idea occurred to her, but this one she wouldn’t mention to Anu.

  “I see the wheels rolling, kulta,” Anu said with a smile flitting over her face. “You let Mason handle it.”

  “I’m just going to poke around a little. Maybe talk to Peter’s family. Anyone else who might be worth talking to?”

  “The waitress, if you could find her. Maybe Mason would know how to track her down.” Anu wrinkled her nose in a wry gesture. “I should not be encouraging you. Still, it would be amazing to know the truth of what happened to Abraham.”

  Bree knew how important closure was. She resolved to do all she could to give that to her mother-in-law. Anu was the mother she’d always longed for, the exact opposite of Bree’s real mother. Bree bit her lip. Someday she knew she was going to have to forgive her mother. Track her down in whatever rat hole she was living in and face the demons of her own past. But not today.

  “What do you think was really going on with that shot at Naomi’s wedding?”

  “Probably young men having a good time.”

  “Really, Anu. You don’t think anyone would be targeting you?” Though Bree desperately wanted to believe the shooting was a prank, it seemed ridiculous.

  “Pooh. You sound like Mason. You both worry too much.”

  “But Quentin?”

  “He is angry at us both,” Anu admitted.

  “I hope Mason finds him soon.”

  “Enough of problems,” Anu said, lifting her teacup to her lips. “We shall focus on God’s goodness. Nothing good or bad happens to us but what it first passes through the Father’s hand.”

  “Amen,” Bree said with a smile.

  She and Anu finished their tea and she went to bed. The unfamiliar mattress kept her twisting restlessly in the bed. She tossed and turned as images of the wedding, the fire, and Kade’s hurt expression ran through her mind.

  Just as she thought she might doze off, the sound of a car door and several men’s voices raised in anger put all her senses on alert. Her heart thumping, she eased out of bed and pulled back the edge of the curtains. The street lights looked blurry and distant through the fog that had rolled in off Lake Superior. A man’s voice swore viciously; then several car doors slammed and an engine roared off toward town.

  Bree strained to see through the fog, but whoever was out there seemed to be gone now.

  It was a long time before she slept.

  In her dreams, she heard Rob calling to her. His boat was sinking amid choppy whitecaps in the middle of Lake Superior. His hand reached above the heavy waves. She tried to catch it and pull him to safety, but his fingers kept sliding off hers until finally there was nothing left but the boat’s debris.

  Bree sat up and rubbed tears from her eyes. She reached for her Bible, the source of comfort she’d come to rely on.

  She opened to the last passage she’d read last night before bed, Micah 7:19.

  You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

  Did that really mean all her sins were all gone? How could God not look at her and see all that she’d done wrong in her life? Was this turmoil in her life punishment from God for her sins? When she’d turned to him she thought her worries would be over. Instead, new problems seemed to slam into her with the force of a Superior nor’easter. Wasn’t life for a Christian supposed to be different? She brooded about it. It seemed a hard thing to accept. Why would God allow such terrible things to happen, not just to her but to everyone? To good people like Anu, like Davy? She had no answers.

  Sighing, she got dressed, then got Davy up and bathed. He was in a good mood, chattering about his new toy and his new fireman friend. She took his hand and went down the hall to the kitchen. She could smell the pulla, and her stomach rumbled.

  Anu had already made coffee, and they sat down at the breakfast table. Anu kept stealing glances at Bree’s somber face, and Bree knew it was only a matter of time before her mother-in-law asked what was wrong.

  Anu held her tongue until Davy went to play in the other room. She fixed a fresh pot of coffee and poured Bree a cup. “I think it is time you told me what is wrong, eh, kulta?”

  Bree took the cup and tried to smile, but faltered.

  “Is it the fire? You must not worry. You and Davy are welcome here as long as you need to stay. The insurance company will soon have your home habitable again.”

  The coffee was hot, and Bree sipped it carefully, then set it on the table beside her.

  “You are not speaking,” Anu observed. “It will not go away to keep it inside.”

  “It won’t go away if I talk about it either,” Bree said.

  “Fears shared are fears halved,” Anu said.

  “Words of wisdom, I’m sure. But don’t you get tired of me always crying on your shoulder?”

  “Never, my kulta. You know I am always here for you.”

  “I know.” Bree paused. “I’m just struggling to understand why God let the fire happen, why he allowed Naomi’s wedding to be marred. I thought he would care about us as his children. Who has served him better than Naomi? Or you? I love him so much, and I want to serve him. But I still wonder how he works. I could never stand back and let bad things happen to Davy. So how can God? Maybe he’s punishing me.”

  Anu sat down beside her. She sighed, and a smile tugged at her lips. “Ah, you ask the perennial question: Why do bad things happen to good people? Sometimes it even seems as though those who have no knowledge of God fare better than his children do.”

  “Exactly!” Bree shifted in her seat. “I don’t understand.”

  “I’m not sure we can truly understand,” Anu said. “God’s ways are sometimes mysterious. But I’ve always thought of it like this: Who disciplines Davy when he is wrong? His mother or the neighbor?”

  “I do, of course.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s my child, my responsibility. I love him and want him to turn out right.”

  “Ah, there you have it. And we are God’s responsibility. Not all our trials are discipline for sin, but he sometimes allows trials so that our faith might be strengthened, and so that we might come nearer to his side.”

  Bree thought about it a minute. “But sometimes they make us turn on God.”

  “Then they reveal the true state of our hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 says, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?’ We can even deceive ourselves into thinking we are Christian or that we are following God. But when adversity comes, the true believer will still weather it standing, though he may go through a fire of doubt. This is God’s mercy to us, to strengthen our faith and our hearts. Allow this adversity to bow your knee to God and accept his will.”

  Bree pondered the words. “Just as I must sometimes punish Davy b
ecause I love him and want him to grow into the right kind of man, God wants me to grow into the right kind of Christian.”

  “You can choose how you respond to this adversity, my kulta. God allows us to choose.”

  “I want it to draw me nearer to God,” Bree said, relieved to discover her words were true. She never wanted to go back to the days of wandering without God. She realized that even in her anxiety over Davy, the body, the shooting, and the fire, she’d always been aware of God’s presence. He held her hand.

  Anu patted her arm. “Then that’s what will happen.” She stood and began to clear the breakfast dishes.

  Bree stood and stretched. A weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She thanked God for caring enough about her to make her stronger. What was a little fire compared to that knowledge?

  She went to the window and looked out. A glint caught her eye, and she squinted. A dark shape near a fir tree moved, and she realized it was a man. A man with binoculars trained on Anu’s house.

  Bree gasped and shrank back behind the curtain. Samson heard the sound of her dismay. He quickly trotted to her side and thrust his nose against her hand. Growling softly, he laid back his ears.

  “It’s okay, boy,” she whispered, curling her fingers in his soft fur. Who could be out there? She glanced around for the phone. It was on the stand by the sofa. Could he see her grab it? Maybe it would be better to go to the hall and dig her cell phone out of her purse. She moved quickly along the wall and went through the door into the entry, shadowed by Samson.

  Dialing Mason, she sat on the small bench against the wall, her hands icy. She prayed for him and not Hilary to answer the phone. The phone rang and rang. Bree tried his cell number but got his voice mail. She had to have some help. Biting her lip, she shakily dialed Kade’s number. After last night, he might not want to hear from her, but she had no choice.

  “Hello.” Kade’s deep voice immediately calmed the jitters in her stomach.

  “Kade, it’s me. There’s someone watching the house with binoculars. I’m scared.”

  “Are you still at Anu’s?” His voice was sharp with concern.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll be right there. Call the sheriff’s office.” He clicked off his phone.

  The office. Of course. She dialed 9-1-1 and explained the problem. The dispatcher promised to send someone without a siren or lights. Bree wanted to catch whoever was out there.

  She slipped her phone into her pants pocket and went to the door sidelight. She couldn’t see the man from this angle, so she slunk along the wall back to the living room. Standing behind the curtain, she stared at the spot where she’d seen him. No one was there.

  Panic fluttered at the edges of her thoughts. Maybe he had moved closer. And Anu never locked her doors. She raced to the front door and shot the deadbolt home. The back door! She hurried through the dining room to the kitchen.

  Anu was sitting at the kitchen table looking through a stack of cookbooks. “I cannot remember which book my recipe for Tiikerikakku is in.”

  “Tiger cake is the least of our worries,” Bree said. She rushed to the door and quickly locked it.

  “Whatever is wrong?” Anu half rose, then sank back into her chair.

  “Someone is watching the house through binoculars. But I can’t see him now.”

  Anu’s eyes widened. “Quentin?”

  “Probably.” Bree bit her lip. “But I don’t know. He was too far away to tell.” Something about the man nagged at her. This man seemed older, bigger. But if not Quentin, then who? Her unease deepened.

  A thunderous knock sounded on the front door, and Bree and Anu stared at one another. Bree took a step toward the door to the dining room, but Anu stopped her with a finger to her lips. Bree swallowed.

  Then the knock came again. “Sheriff’s office!” a gruff voice called.

  Bree sagged with relief, then hurried to fling the door open. Anu followed her. Kade was running up the walk behind the two deputies who stood on the doorstep. He pushed past them and swept her into his arms. She leaned into his embrace and buried her face against his chest. The scent of his aftershave comforted her, and she clung to him.

  He kissed the top of her head, then put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her away to stare into her face. “Are you all right?”

  “We’re fine. It just scared the daylights out of me.”

  “You want to show us where you saw the man?” one of the deputies asked.

  Bree nodded. Still holding Kade’s hand, she stepped outside and pointed. “He was by that fir tree.”

  “Could you tell what he was wearing?”

  “A black jacket with a yellow shirt underneath. And dark pants. He had a hat on that hid his face.” The deputies nodded, then began to walk toward where she’d seen the man.

  “I’m going with them.” Kade kissed her, then jogged across the street behind the officers.

  Mason’s car turned the corner and stopped in front of the house. He jumped out and hurried to Bree, wearing a ferocious frown. “I just heard you spotted someone watching the house. What’s going on?”

  Bree explained it all to him, and he went to join Kade and the deputies. Bree and Anu watched them searching through the snow. They found something and put it in a plastic bag. Bree grew chilled and grabbed her coat from the entry closet. She saw Davy watching from the window.

  She would try to distract him. He didn’t need to be worrying. “You about ready for church?” she asked him.

  “What’s going on, Mommy? Why is Uncle Mason outside?”

  “He’s just looking for someone.”

  “The bad person who hurt Grammy?”

  “Maybe. But we’re okay,” she hastened to add. “Go get your Bible and jacket from your room.”

  He didn’t argue but got up and went to his room. She slipped to the window.

  Mason and Kade were heading toward the house while the deputies got in their car and left. They stopped to talk to Anu, then they all came to the house. Bree went to meet them.

  Mason’s face was grim, and Kade put his arm around Bree as though to brace her for more bad news.

  “Find anything?” Bree asked.

  “Some cigarettes.”

  “They’re a weird brand,” Kade said. “I think they’re Canadian. But I found a bunch of butts just like these at the site of some cabin break-ins. Something is going on, but I’m not sure what.”

  “That’s not as important as the other thing I found out this morning,” Mason said. “Your fire was arson.”

  The news confirmed Bree’s worst fear.

  “Someone threw some kerosene-soaked rags in the basement right in that alcove where you found the body. Looks like he broke a window in the basement. He probably hoped it wouldn’t be discovered until too late, with everyone at the wedding. As it is, we got lucky. Whatever he was hoping to cover up, he didn’t succeed.”

  Samson could have died. And what if she and Davy had been home? She had to find out what was going on. That chest of photos Lauri had found just proved Quentin’s instability. “I thought you’d gone through everything there,” Bree said. She resolved to go through the basement inch by inch and see what she could find. If Quentin Siller had left a clue, she would find it.

  “I do not like this.” Anu crossed her arms over her chest protectively. “It is good you are staying with me.”

  “But I don’t want to put you in danger,” Bree said. And what about Davy? Her fingers tightened into fists. She had to get to the bottom of this before the culprit hurt someone she loved.

  14

  On Monday morning around eleven, Bree drove her Jeep to Rock Harbor’s downtown and parked behind Mason’s car at the sheriff’s office. She felt the need to do something. Yesterday’s scare had hardened her resolve.

  Before she could get out of the Jeep, Mason exited his office. He saw her and came straight over. “Got time for a piece of pie and coffee? I was just coming to see you.”

  “How abo
ut lunch instead?” She let Samson out, then fell into step beside Mason. “I’m hungry.”

  “Fine by me.”

  The Suomi Café was bustling as usual. Bree and Mason stood by the door until Molly could seat them.

  “Where’s Davy?” Mason asked.

  “With Anu. I told her I needed to talk to you.”

  Before Mason could answer her, Molly, her frizzy hair pulled back at the nape of her neck, came up to them. “You’re here for fresh pasties, eh?” Her Yooper accent was a combination of Canadian and Finnish inflections.

  “You got it, Molly,” Mason said.

  “I thought you might be by. I saved some leftovers for Samson.” Molly led them to a booth with a window, then quickly brought coffee. “Beef for both of you, eh?”

  “Sure.” Bree laced her fingers together and glanced at the door to make sure Samson was behaving himself. He lay stretched on the floor like a sultan while Molly and the other waitress brought him homage—and food.

  “That box by the body in the basement,” Bree said, turning back to Mason. “I figured out what it is. It’s a lighthouse keeper’s service box. It held polishing cloths on the side and was used to keep the lights and equipment clean.”

  “I know. I showed it to Wanda at the antique shop and she told me.”

  “With his journal there as well, the skeleton has to be Peter Thorrington.”

  “Forensics says the same thing, according to the dental records.”

  “So what’s next?”

  They halted the conversation as Molly brought their hot pasties. Bree dug into hers with gusto. Beef, potatoes, carrots, and rutabagas stuffed into a folded-over pie crust—a Yooper favorite.

  Mason grinned when Bree wiped a bit of gravy from her chin. “Maybe we need to get you a bib.”

  “You’re going to be buying lots of those pretty soon. With everything going on, I haven’t had a chance to congratulate you. I’m thrilled for you! Davy can’t wait.”