Michelle arrived home from her squash game and in a sudden flurry of activity Jack was hugged and kissed, fed a chicken sandwich followed by coffee, with the whiskey bottle firmly removed. Placing a plate of freshly baked brownies before him, Michelle wrapped one of Jack's hands in both of hers.
"I'm sorry Jack, you must feel we've let you down so badly. First Kim and the baby, and now Chase... perhaps if we'd-"
"No Michelle, please don't. I'm grateful for all you and Tony have done, you've been good friends." Jack glanced over to Tony hoping he was listening. He had been quick to judge earlier and he wanted him to know he didn't blame them in anyway. "But I'm worried about Angie, she looks ill... and why isn't she in kindergarten?"
"She was, but last week they asked Kim not to bring her anymore. She kept crying and it upset the other children. Kim had told her Chase was away for a work trip but one of the older kids told her he was missing and that's when the nightmares began... she wakes up screaming, saying she can hear Daddy crying."
Michelle left the table and returned with a box of tissues. Wiping her eyes she continued, "You know how close Chase and Angie are, I wondered about ESP, so I asked her if she could see where he was. It's too dark she said, dark and cold and he's sad. She now asks Kim to keep all the lights on at night so he can find his way home again from the dark."
Tony joined them at the table and he wrapped his arms around Michelle as she sobbed. After a moment's hesitation, he reached across and squeezed Jack's shoulder just as the doorbell rang.
"That will be Chloe and Edgar," and he rose to let them in.
Jack excused himself and fled to the bathroom where he splashed water on his face and rinsed out his mouth, the urge to vomit overwhelming. Images of Angie's face swam before his eyes. Her look solomn and her eyes large and pleading, her face kept morphing into the face of Chase and he leaned over the basin, his stomach heaving, but nothing came up.
A knock sounded at the door and he opened it to find Michelle waiting, "Chloe says she has something... look I'm sorry Jack... about Angela, I said too much."
"It's fine Michelle, I'm glad you told me... let's go see what Chloe has."
"Death doesn't suit you Jack," was all Chloe said as she set up her laptop. Turning to the others, she said, "I think I know where Liz has Chase."
"How the hell did you manage that?" scoffed Tony.
"Well once you have all the information it's really easy," she answered. "But you only told me Liz was involved one hour ago and that totally changed the parameters." She glared at Tony accusingly and he felt the heat rise in his face.
"So what do you have?" he asked softly.
"Liz is smart and she likes to play games so everything means something, there are clues all over.. Chase's car was found facing north on Sierra St, parked outside the Nevada Book Store. So we have north, Sierra, Nevada... that's easy, the Sierra Nevada Mountains are north of here. Under the car wiper was a flyer for a new fast food restaurant that does donner kebabs and this being Liz, she'll love the Donner Pass area."
Seeing the puzzled looks around her Chloe explained, "You know, the wagon train that got snowed in for six months in the winter of 1840 something. Half of them died and the remainder survived by eating the dead. I'm sure Liz would fine that appealing."
Unfolding a map, Chloe continued, "We have fly fishing which indicates water, but it needs to be isolated too and there's a body of water near Donner Pass that's
perfect, and that's where you'll find them... Lake Angela."
Tony turned away in anger. It was all too contrived... or was it too simple?... it was all nuts is what it was.
Jack was silent as he looked over Chloe's shoulder at the topo map of the lake. "There's no road access and the snow cover is still deep, the last of the Donner Party didn't get out until late April, but there's a snowshoe trail," Chloe said helpfully.
Jack was startled when Edgar cleared his throat, "I have the PI report here. He's been following up on the letters that came in after Kim posted the reward. A medium
in Santa Clarita emailed," he paused as he tried not to laugh at the thought of a medium needing to email, "Anyway, she says Chase is still alive and he can be found near a frozen angel."
"A frozen angel?" Tony asked.
"Yes," Jack said quietly. "Lake Angela will still be frozen." Patting her on the shoulder, he said, "Thank you Chloe, well done."
author's note; I was looking at a map of the Sierra Nevadas, wondering if there were some lakes in the area which I could include in the fic - and how spooky to find there is a Lake Angela!