Page 15 of God’s Country

“Okay, here’s the only thing I can think of that might have some bearing,” she responded. “Do you remember the Wollersheim killing in Duluth fifteen years ago?”

“Sure.”

It was a horrific murder that involved torture and made national headlines. No motive ever came to light. I didn’t say any of this out loud. It was pretty scary stuff. And I didn’t quite understand why Marsha had brought it up.

Then I got it. “Cordell was the guide who took the two men responsible for the murder into the Boundary Waters,” I said. “As I recall, they hired him to guide them all the way to the Quetico, on the Canadian side. They were Canadian citizens, right?”

“The Kennedy brothers, Dillon and Declan,” Marsha said. “Declan suffered a massive stroke shortly after they entered the Boundary Waters. Cordell and Dillon Kennedy brought him back out. He died. Dillon was arrested, convicted of the Wollersheim murder, and sent to prison. He never divulged the motive for what he and his brother had done. He’s been incarcerated at the Oak Park Heights facility for the past fifteen years. He was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and went downhill pretty fast. Died two weeks ago.”

“Okay, what does that have to do with these guys Cordell guided in now?”

“I don’t know. It just feels oddly similar to the scenario of fifteen years ago. I’ll keep digging on this end. On your end, just be careful and keep me apprised of anything suspicious that you observe. And tomorrow, I’d like you out of there.”

“Will do, Marsha. Thanks.”

Everyone was staring at me, their eyes aglow in the firelight.

“The guys Cordell guided in lied about who they are,” I said.

“Who are they?” Mal asked.

“The sheriff doesn’t know yet, but she’s on it.”

“Are we okay here?” Mal gave an almost imperceptible nod toward his son.

“We’re okay. We’ll just stay put for tonight and think about heading back tomorrow.”

“Heading back?” Waaboo said. “But we were going to stay a whole other day.”

“Yeah, a whole other day,” Luke echoed.

“All they did was trash the campsite,” Waaboo said. “It’s not like they killed somebody.”

All the men exchanged looks.

“Why don’t we see what the sheriff comes up with,” Daniel suggested. “Then we’ll decide.”

There was silence around the campfire until Luke said, “I gotta go to the bathroom.”

“Me, too,” Waaboo said.

At official campsites in the Boundary Waters, there are primitive latrines, usually open-air pit toilets set a little ways from where the tents are pitched. It was dark, and Daniel and Mal gave their sons flashlights. After the two boys headed off together, Mal said quietly, “What do you know about these guys, Cork?”

“Nothing really. But the situation seems to resemble something that happened fifteen years ago.” I explained what Marsha and I had discussed.

“So these guys are dangerous,” Mal said.

“Things aren’t looking good,” I admitted.

Stephen said, “I know it’ll disappoint the boys, but, Dad, we should go back tomorrow.”

It was clear that we were all in agreement.

“We’ll tell them in the morning,” Daniel said.

“It’s probably not necessary, but I think we should maybe not all be asleep tonight,” I suggested.

“Post a guard or something?” Stephen said.