It was gone.
Sylvia was standing there, my gun in her hand. She was pointing it right at my chest.
“Sylvia, what the hell-”
“I should kill you,” she said. “I should kill you right now. That would feel good, Alex.” Her robe fell open. In the moonlight I could see her breasts and the soft hairs that disappeared into the shadows between her legs. She made no attempt to cover herself.
“Sylvia…”
She put the gun back down on the coffee table. “Some watchdog you are,” she said as she walked away. She went back up the stairs, leaving me sitting there in the darkness, trying to catch my breath.
“Goddamn you,” I said softly. “You stupid crazy bitch.”
I got up and walked around the place again, looking out the windows again. I walked down to the end of the house where the guest rooms were, put my ear against Mrs. Fulton’s door. I could hear the rhythm of her breathing as she slept.
I lay back down on the couch, thinking I would never sleep again in my whole life. But eventually I dozed off again. I couldn’t help it. After the last two nights of blood and late-night phone calls, I was beyond exhausted. At least I wouldn’t have to deal with another phone call tonight, I thought as I finally gave myself over to sleep.
I saw the blood. It was Mrs. Fulton’s dream. I was floating above it. It was stretched out as far as I could see in every direction.
And then I saw the car, moving smoothly and silently through the pine trees. Its lights were out. I could not see the driver.
And then the phone rang.
I jumped off the couch and fell over the coffee table. I didn’t know where I was. The phone, where’s the phone? It rang again. I remembered where I was. I picked up the gun and went upstairs. The phone rang for the third time.
“Alex, are you there?” It was Edwin, from inside the master bedroom. The phone rang for the fourth time.
“Yes!” I knocked on their door and then opened it. Edwin had turned on the light next to the bed. Sylvia sat up next to him, blinking. The phone rang for the fifth time.
“Should I answer the phone?”
“Let me,” I said. I went around to his side of the bed and knelt on the floor. The phone rang for the sixth time.
I picked up the receiver. There was silence on the other end until I finally heard a man’s voice. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
“Who is this?” I said.
“Who is this! Is Edwin Fulton there?” It wasn’t the voice I was expecting. It was someone else, someone I knew.
“This is Alex McKnight. Who is this?”
“McKnight! What are you doing there? This is Chief Maven!”
“Chief Maven,” I said. Edwin looked at me with surprise.
“Goddamn it, McKnight, what are you, the Fultons’ butler now?”
“Why are you calling?” I asked. “What time is it?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “What is it, like three o’clock, I think? Three-thirty? I was calling Mr. Fulton to see if he knew where you were. I was so disappointed, McKnight. You weren’t at the crime scene waiting for me this time.”
“Maven, what the hell is going on?”
“There’s been another murder,” he said. “Another bookmaker, it turns out. They found this guy behind a restaurant on Ashmun Street.”
“What happened?”
“The cook found him when he was taking the garbage out,” he said. “He was shot three or four times, looks like.”
“Do you think it was the same killer?” I looked up at Edwin and Sylvia. They were both staring at me. Sylvia started to shiver.
“Well, I’m not psychic, McKnight, but I have a feeling that we’re going to find the same bullets from the same gun.”
“Who was the victim?”
“Guy named Vince Dorney. You know him?”
“Vince Dorney. No, I don’t know him.” I looked to Edwin. He shook his head. “Edwin doesn’t know him, either.”
“He’s right there by the phone, eh?” Maven said. “Sounds like I called you right in the middle of your slumber party.”
“Save it, Maven. What about… I mean, did he cut him again?”
“No, not this time,” he said. “This time he used the knife for something else.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think you better get down here, McKnight. Right now.”
“What are you talking about? Where are you?”
“As a matter of fact, I’m calling from a squad car parked right outside your cabin.”
I saw the lights from the squad cars first, the blues and reds bouncing madly through the pine trees. When I rounded the corner, I saw four cars in front of my cabin. There was a county car, a state car, and two Soo cars. Eight men stood together by my door. When I stopped my truck and got out, it didn’t take too long to figure out who was running this little show.
“Mr. McKnight,” Maven said. “How nice of you to join us this evening.”
I nodded to the two county deputies. I had seen them once or twice at the Glasgow Inn.
“Some of the county and state boys were good enough to stop by,” Maven went on. “We’re a few miles out of the Soo, after all. But this pertains to a Soo case, so I’ll be handling things. I was just explaining that to these gentlemen.”
“What’s going on?” I said. “Why are you here?”
“I tried to call you as soon as I found out about the murder behind the restaurant. You weren’t home, so I got worried. I sent a car out here just to make sure you were all right. That’s the kind of guy I am,” he said.
“So why did you come out here? And why are all these officers here?”
“I called the county and state out here just as a courtesy,” he said. “I’d expect the same if one of them came calling in the Soo. Now go take a look at your front door,” he said.
I thought of the rose that had been left there. I shuddered to think what he might have left this time.
I went to the door. One of the Soo cops was taking a picture with an instant camera. In the sudden moment of white light I saw a piece of paper pinned to the door by a large hunting knife.
“Don’t touch it yet, McKnight,” Maven said from behind me. The officer carefully removed the knife and put it in a plastic bag. He put the note in a separate bag. “That’s a shame about your door,” Maven said. “It’s gonna leave a nasty mark.”
“What does it say?” I said. “Let me read it.”
“Just hold on,” Maven said. He took the bags from the officer and held a flashlight over them. “Looks like blood on this knife,” he said. “Three guesses who the lab says it belongs to.” He passed it back to the officer and then stretched the clear plastic flat against the letter. “Sweet Jesus,” he said as he read it. It took a long time to read it. I could see that there were many words crammed on the single page.
When he was finished, he passed it to me without another word. The note looked like it was typed on an old manual machine with a ribbon that needed changing.
ALEX
You know who I am. It is hard to believe I think but you must believe because I am here now and it is time for both of us to be together and to finish the work that has been given to us. Iron bars could not hold me. I flew to you over all this time. Yes you know who I am. You know who YOU are that is to say you know that you are the one who will take us all to a better place. I did not see this before because I was blinded by the power of evil but now I see that you have been chosen to overcome death and to show the way for others to follow. The evil is here. It knows who you are and you must be very careful. I removed the one man who was threatening your little friend just as a sign of good will from me to you but there are others all around us to make this lonely place into a battlefield and tonight I removed another man who was sending out microwave signals for more of them to come. I used a different technique of course to keep them guessing. You always have to keep them guessing and not so much blood means it will take longer to discover he is missing but they will find us in time. They will not get to you I promise. It feels so good to help you now after all these years. Who would have thought it would turn out this way. To think I once thought you were one of them in disguise. I am watching over you and I cannot wait for the day when we can be together at last.