“I was missing my big sister and guess what? I have time off for Christmas. Can I crash on your couch?”
“Oh my gosh, I haven’t seen you in forever! How long can you stay?” They’d spent all their childhood apart, and Bree had longed to make up for lost time. Cassie was a busy professional, though, and they’d only been together a handful of times in the past two years.
She glanced at Kade. He grinned and gave her a thumbs-up. She chatted with her sister a few minutes, then put her cell phone away. “Cassie will be here for Christmas!”
“When’s she coming?”
Bree couldn’t stop smiling. “Christmas Eve. She can stay until after the first.”
“We might need to ask Martha for a room. Depends on how long Lauri plans to stay.”
Bree wanted them all close at hand. “Cassie said she could crash on the sofa, but I hate to have her sleep there that long. What if we put two beds in Lauri’s room? It’s plenty big enough to share. Unless you think Lauri would object.”
His jawline hardened. “Lauri objects to everything, but it’s our house, and we can do what’s best for our family. I think that’s a great idea. Even two queen beds would fit. And the closet is big enough too. We can get another dresser as well.”
The sunshine warmed the blacktop and began to melt the snow from the road’s surface. She never tired of the winter wonderland where she lived.
“Are you doing okay, honey? We’ll get this figured out. Lauri will grow up sometime.”
Kade pressed his lips together. “I’m beginning to doubt that.” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “Now’s as good a time as any to talk to you about something.”
The gravity in his manner made her fingers curl into her palms. “Is something wrong?”
He gave her another glance, then looked back at the road as a large motor home lumbered around the curve, narrowed by snow drifts. “I’ve been thinking. What would you think about adopting a child?”
His question took her breath away. She looked at him, noticing she hadn’t cut his hair lately. And he’d lost weight. From worrying about her? She wetted her lips. “Where is this coming from? You think we’ll never have a baby?” She had to force the words out as if admitting it might happen would make it real. Acid churned in her stomach.
“We would have adopted Olivia if her mother hadn’t been found. You wanted to keep her.”
“I’d fallen in love with her from caring for her. You’re talking about adopting some unknown child. I love children, you know that. But adoption is a big step.”
“You don’t sound totally against it.”
“I’m not, but I’d like the chance to have our own baby.” She pressed her hand against her stomach. Would a baby ever grow there again? Getting pregnant with Davy had seemed so easy, so natural. Why was it hard now?
“Can we agree to at least think about it? I talked to Hilary about it.”
She inhaled sharply. “Oh, Kade, you didn’t! That was pretty insensitive. She’s going to pry into our business now.”
He hunched his shoulders. “I want us to have a baby.”
She bit her lip at his words. Was that censure? Did he blame her? “I’m not ready to give up on us yet. Adoptions are expensive. If we spend all our money on adopting a baby, what happens if I end up pregnant and we’re tapped out from the adoption costs? I’d rather we didn’t rush into anything.”
He kept his eyes on the road and didn’t look at her. “I’m not saying we rush into it. But let’s open a dialogue.”
Tears pricked the backs of her eyes at his curt tone. She’d always known he wanted a child. Everything in her longed to place a baby in his arms—their baby. Though she knew she could love any child, she wanted to give him a child that carried his genes. She wanted a little boy with his dark hair and kind manner she could carry beneath her heart.
She wanted to bring his smile back. “We can talk about it as long as you don’t push me to decide right away. I want to see what the doctor has to say. We haven’t tried all our options yet.”
He shook his head. “You’re talking about in vitro. It’s expensive too and has no guarantees.”
“No, there are never guarantees in life, but I want to at least try, Kade. I can’t just give up without trying. One pass of in vitro is ten thousand dollars. Adoption can run much higher.”
“But we’d be assured of a baby at the end of it.”
She turned her head and gazed out the window. “Let’s table this for now, okay? I’ll think about it. I promise.”
“Fine.”
They said nothing more until they reached the outskirts of Houghton, but Bree’s thoughts never slowed.
Houghton’s downtown was built on a slope. Narrow side streets led to shops and cafes. After stopping for coffee, Kade drove to Michigan Tech. The university started in 1885 to train mining engineers. The campus now boasted many different majors and was rated one of the top colleges in the country. Kade had graduated from here himself.
They drove past the impressive campus to a side street where Garrick had rented an apartment with several friends. The blue paint barely clung to the two-story house, and the wood showed through the peeling layers in several spots. The porch and windows looked new, and the sidewalk appeared freshly poured. Two doors opened off the porch, presumably to different apartments.
“Which one?” he asked when they got out and stood on the street. They had left Samson in the truck and it was hard to ignore his whine.
Bree consulted the paper in her hand. “Apartment two.”
The numbers on the old siding hung at an angle. He took Bree’s arm and guided her to the brown door. Music blared from inside, the thump too distant to identify, and the scent of patchouli incense seeped from around the door’s cracks. He pressed the doorbell, then rapped on the door’s window for good measure.
“Coming,” a male voice called from inside.
The young man who yanked open the door looked like he’d just gotten out of bed. His hair, dyed an impossible red tone, stood on end, and his hazel eyes were bleary. He wore a wrinkled yellow T-shirt and stained jeans. The scent of patchouli was stronger with the door open, and Kade smelled cinnamon rolls now too.
“Hello, I’m Kade Matthews, and this is my wife, Bree. You may have heard of her. She’s the search-and-rescue worker who was out looking for Garrick Harper, your roommate.”
“Cool.” The young man stared at Bree. “I’ve seen your picture on the news.”
“We wondered if we might ask you a few questions. We’re trying to figure out what happened to Garrick.”
“I guess so. I can’t talk long, though. I have class in an hour.” He stepped aside and allowed them to enter the narrow hall painted in electric green. A small dog raced to meet them, yapping furiously. It put its front paws on her leg.
Bree held out her hand, and the terrier sniffed before licking her fingers. She smiled. “You’re a cutie.” She straightened and glanced at the dog’s owner. “What’s your name?”
“Andy.”
“Could we take a look at Garrick’s room?” Kade asked.
Andy set his jaw. “Not without a warrant.”
Bree shot Kade a quick look, then sent a placating smile Andy’s way. “We wondered if you had any idea who took Garrick up in the plane. Do you know what he was doing?”
Andy shook his head. “Our schedules never meshed. I’d see him in passing and that was about it. You might ask the neighbor in the other apartment. Lauri Matthews. She talked to him quite a bit after she moved in.”
Kade’s jaw dropped, but he quickly hid his shock. Lauri lived next door? When had she moved and why? She hadn’t said a word to him about this. “When did Lauri move in?”
“About a week ago. She was friends with that girl who went missing. Frannie Hastings.”
The one Bree
had searched for. Kade glanced over and saw Bree nod.
“As I recall, she went cross-country skiing and never came back,” Bree said.
Andy picked up his dog. “Yeah, the search turned up her skis, but she was never found. They gave up after a week.”
“My search dog, Samson, found those skis,” Bree said. “We also found her backpack and an area where the ice had been broken through. The sheriff assumed she’d fallen in, though her body was never recovered.”
Kade put his arm around her waist when he heard the pain in her voice. These bad outcomes always affected her. “Did you talk to Lauri when she moved in?”
Andy’s eyes widened. “It just clicked you said your name was Matthews. Are you related?”
“My sister.”
“And you didn’t know she lived here?”
Kade shook his head. “She didn’t mention it. So she and Garrick were friends? How close?”
Andy shrugged. “They hung out. I don’t think they were going out or anything. She was always asking about Frannie.”
Kade tried to remember if Lauri had mentioned Frannie. And when she went missing, as far as he knew, Lauri hadn’t called to ask Bree’s help. The authorities in Houghton had done that.
Andy shook his head. “I don’t think she knew Frannie well but Garrick did. They were lab partners.”
“Did Garrick skydive often?” Bree asked.
“Like I said, we didn’t talk much.” Impatience crept into his tone. “To tell you the truth, I was surprised to find out he was killed in that accident. I never went in his room so I didn’t know skydiving was a hobby of his.”
Strange that roommates could know so little about one another. Just past Andy’s shoulder, Kade saw the living room with video games strewn around the tables and the floor in front of the fifty-two-inch television that was still on, frozen on what appeared to be a Spider-Man game of some kind. Most likely Andy was too busy playing games to talk to his roommate.
“Anything else you can tell us about Garrick?” Bree asked. “Anything at all? Jobs, hang outs, anything?”
Andy put the dog on the floor. “Like I said, I didn’t know him very well. I’d ask Lauri.”
“I intend to do just that,” Kade said.
Six
Kade closed the lighthouse door against the cold wind blowing in off Lake Superior. “Lauri!” It smelled like freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies.
Bree laid her hand on his arm. “Don’t get mad. Let’s give her a chance to explain.”
He moved toward the closet and her hand fell away. “I want the best for her, but she exasperates the heck out of me.”
Her green eyes were troubled. “I think your high standards make Lauri even more determined to be the wild child and show you she can go her own way.”
So first she didn’t like him calling Hilary, and now she was insinuating it was his fault Lauri didn’t toe the line. He hung up his coat.
Lauri appeared in the doorway to the living room with Davy by her side and Zorro at her heels. “Is the house on fire?”
Kade’s heart softened when he saw Davy. “No, but we have something to talk to you about. Son, we need to talk to your aunt in private. If you’ll go load up your airplane, I’ll take you out to fly it when we’re done.”
“Yeah!” The boy’s grin was wide, and he took the steps to his bedroom two at a time.
Davy was nine now, and though he wanted to be called Dave, Bree found it hard not to use the old familiar name, though Kade found it easy. The boy’s red hair needed a bit of a trim, and he’d grown two inches in this past year. He’d be a young man before they could blink.
The caution in Lauri’s blue eyes broke Kade’s heart. Maybe Bree was right, and he was too hard on his sister. Their parents had wanted so much for both of them, and he often felt he’d failed them. When they’d died, he’d known nothing about raising a teenage girl.
Bree slipped her arm around the young woman’s waist and turned her back to the living room. “I’ve got some fresh Toomer’s coffee. Want some? And I smell chocolate-chip cookies.”
“Sure.” Lauri followed her through the living room to the kitchen. “The cookies are still warm.”
Kade brought up the rear, and he went to put fresh water in Samson’s bowl. The dog nudged his hand, then began to drink. Zorro joined him. The kitchen was a bit of a mess with flour and sugar all over the wood floor and the new granite tile counter.
Lauri glanced around. “You’ve redecorated. I like the birdhouses. Those ceramic chickens at Martha’s house freak me out. They are everywhere.” She shuddered. “Even in the kitchen wallpaper.”
Bree measured beans into the coffee grinder while Kade got down mugs. The rich smell of the beans filled his nose.
“Naomi told her mother it was time for a new look,” Bree said. “Martha loves those chickens, though.” She pointed to the cookie plate. “Want to put those on the table? And there are peanut butter ones in the cookie jar.”
Lauri carried the plate and the jar to the table. “So, big brother, what new sin have I committed now? I could tell I’m in trouble by the way you said my name.”
Kade glanced at Bree, then back to Lauri. “Why didn’t you tell me that you’d moved?”
Lauri’s careful smile vanished. She opened the lid to the cookie jar and extracted a cookie before she spoke. “I didn’t think it mattered. When you come to see me, we usually meet at the coffee shop. It’s not a big deal.”
“What do you know about Frannie Hastings?”
Lauri’s eyes widened, and she put down the cookie. “Where did you hear that name and how did you know I moved?”
Kade kept his tone neutral. “We talked to Garrick’s roommate. He mentioned that though he didn’t know Garrick well, the next-door neighbor did. And he gave us the name of that neighbor. You.”
Lauri slumped back in her chair. “Great.”
“So what’s this all about, Lauri?” Kade asked.
Lauri bit her lips. “I’ve done some dumb things in my life. If you think I haven’t noticed, you’d be wrong. I wanted to do something to make you proud of me.”
“But what does that have to do with Garrick and the missing girl? And I am proud of you, Lauri. Your grades have been great.”
It was small praise and he knew it, but it was the best he could come up with on short notice.
Lauri made a face. “I want to be like Bree.” Her gaze went to her sister-in-law. “I found out something about Garrick. Something that made me think he might have had something to do with Frannie Hasting’s disappearance.”
Bree poured cream into the coffee, then carried the mugs to the table. She handed a cup to each of them. “Did you talk to the sheriff?”
Lauri’s fingers curled around the mug. “Garrick was acting funny after she went missing. And he told Frannie he’d figured out a way to make enough money to finish his degree. She was curious about it, and he promised to tell her on their weekend away.”
“That hardly sounds sinister,” Bree said. “She appears to have fallen through the ice.”
“But Samson didn’t react, right?”
Bree frowned. “No, but he found her things. I did take him out on the ice, but he didn’t seem to smell anything.”
“Something about the whole thing seemed off to me. When she went missing, I moved into the apartment next door. When Garrick and Andy were both gone one day, I got into Garrick’s room.”
“You broke in?” Kade asked, not bothering to hide his disapproval.
Lauri hunched defensively. “The door wasn’t locked.”
Kade sighed. “What did you find?”
“Her necklace. And she never took it off. If she’d fallen through the ice, it wouldn’t have been in his room.”
“Maybe it fell off in his room,” Bree said. “You can’t jump to
conclusions, Lauri.”
“I know. So I went through his cell phone. I found a text where Garrick had asked her to go camping with him two days before she disappeared. The date was set for the day she went missing.”
Bree gasped and sat down. “Did you talk to the police about this?”
Lauri hung her head. “I didn’t have any proof. But I could tell Garrick liked me so I played along. I was supposed to pick him up after the drop and we would head for a cabin on the north side of Little Piney Lake. I hoped to find out something about Frannie.”
“So that’s why you were there.” Kade’s gut clenched. “Lauri, the duct tape? It was in his backpack.”
Lauri pumped her fist in the air. “I knew it!” She looked thoughtful. “I wonder if he realized I was on to him.”
Bree put her coffee on the table and leaned forward. “You put yourself in extreme danger. He could have hurt you or worse. You should have come to me and Kade.”
Lauri looked mutinous. “I can take care of myself. I had Mace in my bag.”
Kade glanced at Bree. “We have to get Mason in on this.”
Bree’s gaze was faraway. “Do you think you could find the cabin? I’d love to bring closure to Frannie’s parents. I talked to them after the search. Such a nice family.”
Lauri bolted upright. “I don’t know exactly where it is, but I have one of her sweaters in a bag in my room. I wanted to try to see if Samson could find where she’d been.”
Kade leaped to his feet. “Let’s go.”
Bree went to grab her search-and-rescue backpack out of the entry closet. Samson began running around and barking when she got out his search vest. He was so excited he kept sliding on the polished wood floors. She slipped the vest on him. He was always eager to work.
Kade took out his cell phone. “I’ll see if Naomi will keep Dave.”
Bree pulled her snow gear from the closet. “Davy will be disappointed if you. don’t fly the airplane with him. Lauri and I can handle this, right, Lauri?”
Kade frowned. “I’d like to come along in case there’s trouble.”
She tried to signal her concern to him in her gaze. “What kind of trouble could there be? Even if he was some kind of criminal, Garrick is dead. We’re just going to see if we can find his lair, maybe find Frannie’s remains.” Bree had met the worried parents a month ago. She still had their phone number, and she’d love to be able to give them some closure. “We’ll be back as quickly as we can.”