Kayli Unknown

Chapter 39 - Lisa Returns

Dave Kekkonen lived on K. Kat spotted him as she drove home. He was in the driveway playing basketball with his boys. Decent shot. Probably could hit three pointers from above the arc. At five eight, he would never have an inside game. Kat parked her bus along the road and joined the game. The younger brother joined her, and now the basic game was for the two boys to dribble past each other and then pass to their dad or Kat. Kat let Dave past her for two layups, then scored two herself. Dave ended the game then.

"Find what you wanted?" Dave led Kat into the house. Bonnie was right there to take her coat.

"Mostly." Kat took the chair across from the couch. Dave and Bonnie sat on the couch as they always did. A small room, Kat's knees almost touched theirs. "A high school friend of Lisa's has been raising her child. Amy and Lou Smollet." She paused and then spelled the last name for Dave. "Chalk Hills Road. Really, just across the river. About halfway to Banat."

"That's just seven or eight miles east of here." Bonnie looked equal parts surprised and frustrated.

"We would have never found them. It's just over the river, but a different state. We were thinking up some road in the forest. They are in a farming area, top of a hill."

"But you found them." Bonnie had her smile back.

"I used some pictures from that album." She directed that comment at Dave. "Backgrounds. Where Kayla fished. The porch where she sat. I guessed the Chalk Hills area and just looked at porch railings."

"You are so clever." Bonnie reached across from her couch and patted Kat's hand.

"Anything I need to know about them?" Dave was sitting straighter. This was not a casual question.

"Not sure. I didn't meet him. She says he's a truck driver. She works part-time for Banat. Took care of Lisa's child all these years. Seemed to care about the child and about Lisa."

"But." Dave wanted more.

"There's always a 'but', isn't there? Nice house, little farm, good place to grow up. But. One night Kayli gets in an ancient car and drives like hell for Mama."

"And..."

"I asked. She said it was all a mystery to them. They were both at work. Came home, and she was gone."

"I know a deputy the other side of the river. I'll ask what he knows. Maybe ask him to visit them."

Kat nodded agreement.

"Kat," It looked like Bonnie wanted to reach across the little room again and pat Kat's hand. "In the army. Is this what you did? Investigate things?"

Kat couldn't help but laugh. "During twenty years, I was a traffic cop, a prison guard, an inventory checker and a perimeter walker. And I was a major. So mostly I sat a desk. I went to meetings, I wrote reports, I read reports, and I went to more meetings."

"In Iraq and Afghanistan?"

"Fewer meetings, more walking, but I had no trouble telling who the bad guys were."

That pretty much ended the conversation. Bonnie offered coffee, but Kat still had chores to do back at the lodge. She hugged Bonnie, waved to the boys, and drove home.

Lisa was waiting for her. She had just taken a load of sheets out of the drier and was folding one. She was wearing her cowgirl outfit again. She stood looking at Kat, a pleasant smile on her face, but she couldn't hide her nerves. It was obvious from the way she was holding the folded sheet in front of her, almost as a barrier.