“Donovan Sherman,” I said in way of answering.
“Mr. Sherman. Michael here.”
I sat forward in the chair. “Is everything all right out at the cabin?”
“Yes, sir. I just left for a moment to check my cell signal. I had a couple messages I thought you’d want to hear. The first one was from Mr. Landon. He said you’d told him to reach me if he couldn’t reach you.”
I lifted my cell phone, wondering why Rob couldn’t contact me directly. There were no missed calls. “I did. However, I don’t have any missed calls from him. What was his message?”
“He said that Phillip Thomas is in San Antonio with his daughter and your sister.”
“Did he give you visual confirmation?”
“No, he simply said to tell you that he appears settled in for a while.”
“Settled in?” I repeated. That was odd verbiage. How would Rob know that Phillip was settled?
“Okay. What was the second?”
“The spoon in the sink…the one in the cabin.”
“Yes.”
“I took the liberty of sending it to my company for analysis.”
I sat forward. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wasn’t sure if it had been washed clean. They came back with one simple conclusion. Identity-matching DNA will take time and their success will depend on whether or not the person’s DNA is in a data bank.”
“What was the simple conclusion?” I asked.
“It wasn’t your brother, Mr. Sherman.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “You are sure?”
“Yes. The DNA on the spoon was not male.”
“It was a female?”
“Yes, sir. Albert is doing some checking in Ashland and neighboring communities asking about transient people. Not many homeless come this far north with nowhere else to go.”
“A female,” I said again.
“I thought you’d be happy, sir. It seems Phillip has moved on.”
“Thank you for the message. Please head back to the cabin. We don’t want any uninvited guests.”
“At least we can eliminate one.”
Julia
The three of us entered my old suite. “This is where you will stay,” I said to Vicki.
She nodded as she looked around, taking in the view of the bay. Soon we were in the bedroom, and I entered the closet. “I hid the dress from Van.”
Vicki and Margaret grinned as I came out carrying the garment bag
“You found this in town?” Margaret asked.