Michael remembered the name. Morgan reminded Michael that Natalie and Kate were once college roommates, and that they worked together before Kate had moved back to her family’s dairy farm. It was coming back to him now. The woman who had technically introduced them wasn’t at their wedding. He recalled that Natalie hadn’t seen Kate after she moved away, but they had been very close beforehand.
Morgan texted back that she hadn’t been in touch with Kate in years, but thought that her farm was located in Missouri. Michael searched the name on Google, and sure enough, he found Hildonen Farms in Elsberry.
Michael sourced his list of names, all of the friends and acquaintances that he and Natalie had in common. Most of the names were crossed out. Kate’s name wasn’t even on the list. But she was the only one who lived in the Midwest.
Michael thought: She sent us north while she went south.
He thanked Morgan. Told her he’d be in touch. He left his hotel room and went to Kennett’s. He knocked on the door, half expecting Kennett to greet him with handcuffs.
Screw it, Michael said to himself. He was in too deep to back out now.
Kennett opened the door dressed in a gray suit, white shirt, and tie, like he was going to work.
“Mikey,” he said with a cheerful smile and tone, not looking at all like a detective about to make an arrest. “I was just going to call you for breakfast. Get any sleep last night?”
He gave him a telling smile, which set Michael ill at ease. He ignored the insinuation and his own discomfort.
“I think I know where she is,” he said.
He told Kennett about Morgan, the party, and Kate Hildonen.
“Damn good detective work, damn good,” Kennett said. “I like it, Mike. Like the lead.” Kennett went to his closet, got out his suitcase, tossed it on the bed, and threw some clothes inside. He looked over at Michael, who stood impassively in the doorway, watching.
“What are you doing, Mike?” Kennett asked. “Go pack. Time’s a-wasting. We’ve got to get ourselves to Missouri.”
Four hours, two pee stops, one driver change, one fast-food drive-through, and one gas station refill later, Michael’s cell phone rang. The caller ID came up: InLaws. He answered the call, finding Lucinda, not Harvey, on the other end of the phone.
“We know where she is,” Lucinda said. “I just got off a call with her friend Kate Hildonen. She’s very worried about Natalie’s health. Said she’s not well and may need help.”
Michael sent Kennett, who was doing the driving at the time, a big thumbs-up. He mouthed the words: We got her.
“Thank you, Lucinda,” said Michael. “Please get back in touch with Kate. Make sure she doesn’t say anything to Natalie. We were actually headed to Kate’s farm when you called. I had a feeling she might be there. We should arrive soon enough. This nightmare will be over very shortly.”
CHAPTER 38
NATALIE
The morning brought a day full of bright sunshine along with cloudless blue skies. The chatter of farm life chorused in through her open bedroom window. Natalie’s ears tuned into the sounds of cows lowing in their enclosures, the steady hum of machinery, and the noise a breeze made as it rustled the trees and grassy fields. The smell of damp soil held a rejuvenating freshness, as if last night’s rainstorm had come to wash the earth clean. A new day should have felt like a new start, but Natalie still carried memories of the night before. She pondered shadows that were never there, knocks that never sounded, and snapping branches that echoed like a threat.
Up from the kitchen wafted the smell of bacon sizzling on the griddle and buttery pancakes hot off the stove. Natalie had mercifully fallen asleep at some point and didn’t hear the children go downstairs. She arrived in the kitchen to find Addie and Bryce greedily eating breakfast. Out the window she spied Chuck working on the banged-up old tractor Bryce loved to sit on and pretend to ride.
“Chuck thinks he can get it to run again,” Bryce said, beaming. “He said he’d take me for a ride on it.”
“Sounds wonderful,” said Natalie while checking over the sorry state of that vehicle, thinking if anyone could fix it, she’d put her money on Chuck.
“Have you seen Kate?” Natalie asked Addie.
The time had come.
“She left with Hank,” Addie said.
A knot of worry formed at the base of Natalie’s neck, but she told herself it was nothing, unrelated to her fear that Kate was no longer her trusted confidante.
“Oh? Did she say where?”
“One of the calves got sick and she had to bring it to the vet in a trailer. She left in a hurry.”
“I see,” said Natalie.
She sent Kate a text asking about the calf and got an answer right away that she was going to live, but they’d be some time at the vet. Natalie took care of the breakfast dishes while Addie and Bryce set off to go sweep the barn, a chore that Kate had assigned them that morning.
Some time turned out to be most of the day. During that period, Chuck made good headway on the tractor, managing to get the engine running again.
“I’ll let Bryce put his hands on the wheel, but I’ll do the driving,” he said, with a chuckle.
Natalie was watering the garden when she finally crossed paths with Kate, but the air between them hadn’t cleared in their time apart. If anything, it felt worse—almost like Kate, who was barely able to maintain eye contact, wished she’d avoided the garden altogether.
Nevertheless, Natalie decided for the direct approach.
“We need to talk,” Natalie said firmly, encouraging Kate to follow her into the house, and then to the living room. When they got settled in chairs, Natalie raised her concern. “Something is up between us,” she said. “It’s quite obvious to me, and I suspect it has to do with last night. I admit my imagination may have gotten the better of me, Kate, but there’s a reason I’m not sleeping, something I think you should know.”
Natalie straightened her body as if strengthening her resolve.
“Okay,” Kate said. “Talk to me.”
Natalie reminded Kate of Michael’s affair and how she’d come to believe he was responsible for Audrey Adler’s death.
“What I didn’t tell you is that Michael knew Audrey from before, from long ago.”
Kate listened intently as Natalie recalled discovering Audrey’s body, Sarah Fielding’s investigation, her search for the missing birth certificate, and the reverse image search that led to a shocking discovery. Then Natalie made her big reveal: that Audrey was the sister of the woman Michael had murdered, that his mother hadn’t died of cancer, that Michael was born Joseph Jacob Saunders, that he wasn’t from South Carolina but rather New York, that he’d gotten off at trial but everyone remained convinced of his guilt, and that Audrey had died at his hands because—and this Natalie said was speculation on her part—Michael’s cover was about to be blown.
“If Audrey wasn’t murdered, I wouldn’t have involved Sarah Fielding and I never would have learned the truth about Michael,” Natalie told Kate, who sat stunned and motionless in a checkered wingback chair.
“Honey, is this true?”
Natalie nodded vigorously.