Page 123 of Jack

“Yeah, but then, still, she doesn’t get away. He can’t think she’s with Tommy.”

Jack looked toward the dark boatyard. “What if she wounded him?”

Harper sat up. “Which could be why Kyle burned the car—his blood in the seats.”

“Good. Then what?”

“She runs.”

He gestured to the darkness, the forest. “Where?”

Right.Not a light to be seen. Except . . . “Wait. Ty.He’sthe link here.”

“How?”

“She was in the car with Ty once before he picked her up. And I know Penelope—she’s a talker. And his mother said he loved his fish house. Spent all his time there. What if that came up? Penny asked about it. It’s possible she even knew about the Loon Lake housing project. Could be that Ty even complained about it.”

“Now you’re reaching.”

“Maybe—but I also know Ty. Remember our high school project so many years ago? It was about the Eagle Lake development and how the pollutants from the houses killed all the fish. He was pretty angry.”

“Okay, so she knows about the Loon Lake development and the boatyard.”

“And what if”—she leaned in—“Ty had a Loon Lake boat key?”

He considered her, light in his eyes. “And what? She took it?”

“Maybe Kyle did catch her, maybe she did wound him, but he still grabbed her and took her to the housing project, to finish his plan.”

“And she got Ty’s keys, somehow . . . Didn’t Mrs. Bowman say he stored his icehouse at the boatyard?”

“Marjorie.”

“Right.”

She rolled her eyes. But a heat of hope had stirred in her as Jack took out his phone.

The woman answered on the second ring, sounding tired. “Hello?”

“Mrs. Bowman—Marjorie—this is Jack Kingston.” He put the call on speaker.

“Jack. Did you find him?”

Oh, the hope in her voice could make Harper wince.

“Working on it, ma’am. How’s Ty?”

A sigh. “They found brain activity today.” Her voice shook. “But he’s still in a coma.”

“I’m so sorry. We . . . we were wondering. Does Ty store his icehouse at the Loon Lake boatyard?”

“I think so.”

“Do you . . . happen to know the number of his parking space?”

A pause. “I don’t.”

“It would have been on the back of his Loon Lake boat-float key chain.”

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