Page 124 of Jack

Another pause. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know. But I do know that he recently painted his house blue. Like Blue Ox blue. He’s a fan.”

Blue Ox blue.

“Thank you, Marjorie.” Jack hung up.

Harper had already grabbed the flashlight, was getting out.

The lake was covered with icehouses, set at angles, with ice roads between them. Skid houses and wheeled houses.

“Wheeled or skid?”

“Probably the bigger ones. She said he spends a lot of time there. A few of these are like small cabins, with beds and televisions.”

She walked down the row—a bright green house on wheels, a white-paneled skid shack, a couple of silver houses. All snow-covered and crusted with ice.

“There must be fifty houses here, and the team looked in nearly all of them.”

“Yes, but only one is Blue Ox blue.”

“Like that one?” He pointed to a small house seated behind a garish purple ice castle with a bay window and a porch.

The house behind it seemed forlorn and forgotten, a box on ice.

Except for the door, a set of black stairs that had been pulled in.

A boot print was pressed into the snow below it, but that could belong to anyone.

She headed toward it, but Jack caught her.

“Please let me go in first.”

She read his face, nodded, and he stepped up to the door. Knocked.

No answer. Leaning up behind him, she shouted, “Penelope. It’s Harper!”

More silence.

“I’m getting the tire iron,” he said and headed for the car.

Harper took his place in front of the door and hoped,please, that someone was inside to listen. “Pen. I know you’re scared. I don’t know what happened, but I do know that you’re safe. You’re found. You can stop hiding. Come out?—”

The door shook.

She stepped back.

Jack ran up, breathing hard, holding the tire iron.

The door opened just as he reached it.

Penelope took one look at him, held out a fire extinguisher, and sprayed.

He pulled Harper away, turning her, his back to the foam.

“Penelope! Stop! It’s Jack!” Harper untangled herself from his arms. Turned.

Penelope stood on the steps, still dressed in her white shirt and white dress pants from Tuesday night, although now in men’s boots, a hat, and a wool jacket. She wielded a half-empty can of fire retardant and stared wide-eyed at Harper.

She dropped the can, stepped down, and flung herself into Harper’s arms. “Oh, you’re okay. I was so worried?—”