Matty came over to my side. “Jake said something about a cabin in the woods.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” I said, and I pulled the oven door open. Empty. I stuck my head in and looked around anyway. Nothing. I turned in circles with my arms out, open palms up. “This is the only oven I see.”
“When he said the rucksack was in Betty’s oven,” Austin said, “he mentioned something about a cabin in the woods.”
“What did he say exactly?” I asked.
Austin shook his head. “He was speaking so fast. It was just a string of words. We were hoping you could make sense out of it.”
I put my hands on my haunches and shook my head. “I’m just as dumbfounded as you guys are.” I looked at Austin. “Do you know what woods?”
He lifted his shoulders. “How many woods are there around here?”
I rubbed my chin. “Could be Bear’s Paw.”
“Bear’s Paw!” Matty exclaimed.
I chuckled. “It has the shape of a bear’s paw. There are no actual bears there. Actually, I doubt there are any cabins there either. Too small. Has to be Kanetoni.”
“Where’s that?”
I motioned vaguely behind me. “Not far.” I hung my head and let out a long, slow breath.
Matty put a hand lightly on my arm. “We don’t have to go now. Get some rest. We can do this tomorrow.”
“No,” I said. “Tomorrow, I have to work. We’re getting to the bottom of this now, tonight.”
I had never been to Kanetoni before. Back at the orphanage, the older kids liked to try to scare us by telling us stories of a witch who lived there and kidnapped little boys and girls, cooked them up, and ate ‘em. They might very well have been talking about Betty. And they might not have been exaggerating either.
Regardless, with Cameron’s phone as our only source of light, we headed into Kanetoni Woods.
A few paces in, I stopped and pointed to a patch of woodland stars.
“What is it?” asked Austin.
I knelt and began picking the flowers. “Give me a hand, would you?”
Without questioning, Austin and Matty helped me collect bundles of the white flowers.
“When we were little, Hans and I tried to run away. As night was falling, we made it to a forest. I was worried we’d get lost. He plucked some flowers, gave me a bundle, and as we walked we tossed petals to the forest floor. Eventually, we grew tired and hungry. We decided it was time to go home, though, in truth where we were staying wasn’t much of a home. But it was at least a warm bed and a roof. Wouldn’t you know it, we had no idea where we were or how to get back. Hans smiled at me. ‘No problem,’ he said. ‘We’ll simply follow the trail of petals.’”
I plucked a petal from the woodland star and tossed it to the ground. “Smart kid, my brother was—still is.”
As we walked through Kanetoni, I was so tired, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Instead, I held on to Matty and went wherever they were taking me. It occurred to me that I had no idea if they were in fact Jake’s friends. For all I knew Jake could have been murdered as I thought and they could have been the murderers. And there I was, following them blindly into the woods in the middle of the night.
The thought didn’t have me scared, though. For some bizarre reason, I felt proud. For years, I’d been overly prudent and had probably missed out on a lot because of that. But in the few short days, I’d been back in Perth, I was taking chances I’d never thought myself capable of.
Despite the exhaustion and despite the concerns I had for Jake, I also felt quite happy with myself. I even rested my head on Matty’s arm and took liberties feeling the hard curves of his muscles.
“Guys,” said Cameron, “I think we’ve got something up ahead.”
We had, in fact, arrived at a cabin. I was reminded of the silly stories the kids used to tell back at the orphanage, and my heart beat fast in my chest.
Austin put his face to the window.
“See anything?” asked Matty.
“Nothing.”
While the boys tried to get a peek in through the windows, I went up to the front door and turned the knob. Unlocked. I pushed the door open. “Guys.”
Matty pulled me away from the door. “Wait here. We’ll go in and check it out.”
I didn’t argue.
A few minutes later, they came back. Matty gave me his hand. “Come in. You’ve got to see this.”
I recognized the rucksack.
It was the same one I’d rummaged through to find a mask and clothes for our videos. The camera and laptop were also in there.
We opened the laptop and, sure enough, there was a file named Redemption. Upon opening it, we discovered documents, receipts, screenshots of emails, many of them concerning the orphanage in Perth; some dating back as far as twelve years, to the time when Hans and I were there.