A couple hours later I was still in town, sitting on the hood of my truck on Portage Street, looking out at the vast expanse of Lake Superior. I sat there for a long time, thinking about the night before. Dave didn’t hear me calling him because the radio wasn’t even on. Didn’t I even notice that the unit was dead? No static, even?
And then when Prudell was knocking on my door, the way I grabbed that gun. What if I had opened the door before Dave got there? Would I have shot him? Prudell could be dead right now, on top of everything else. What was happening to me?
And why in God’s name won’t Rose see me? It doesn’t make any sense. Unless… unless it’s not really Rose. The man is afraid I’ll know it’s not him if I see him.
Listen to yourself, Alex. Listen to what you’re saying.
But what else can explain it? Rose is the only person who could have written that note.
Stop it. Just stop it.
I could see the dark clouds building in the western sky. The wind began to pick up. It stung my face and brought tears to my eyes.
I finally made it into the Glasgow for dinner, after killing a few more hours driving around, going nowhere. I didn’t want to go back to the cabin yet. I dreaded the thought of another long night there.
Jackie was behind the bar when I got there. “What the hell happened to you?” he said. “You look worse than I do, and that’s saying something.”
“It’s a long story, Jackie. I’m not going to tell you until you slide a beer this way.”
He cracked a Canadian for me. “Couple men in here asking about you last night.”
“One of those men would be Leon Prudell, I take it.”
“Yeah, he came in later. Said he had some unfinished business with you. Drank a good twenty dollars’ of whiskey before he finally left. I keep overcharging that guy but he doesn’t seem to notice.”
“Who else was here?”
“What’s his name, the chief of police over in the Soo.”
“Roy Maven?”
“Yeah, that’s the guy. He was asking all sorts of questions about you. You know, how often you come in, who you hang out with.”
I raised my bottle. “Here’s to Roy Maven,” I said.
“So are you going to tell me what’s going on or aren’t you?”
“Get your no-good son out here so we can go sit down,” I said. “This is going to take a while.”
His son poked his head out of the kitchen. There was a phone in his hand. “Hey, is McKnight here?”
“Depends on who’s calling,” I said.
“Do you know a woman named Theodora Fulton? She sounds like she’s ready to kill you.”
I jumped off the barstool and grabbed the phone from him. “Mrs. Fulton?”
“Alex! My God, where have you been? I’ve been calling you for two hours.”
“Take it easy, Mrs. Fulton. What’s the problem?”
“It’s Edwin!”
I felt a needle in my gut, sickly and cold. “What about Edwin? What’s the matter?”
“I knew this would happen,” she said. “I had such a horrible feeling when I woke up this morning.”
“Mrs. Fulton, tell me!”
“He’s gone,” she said. “He told me he’d be back in a little while. But he didn’t come back, Alex. He… “Her voice broke for an instant while she struggled with the panic. “He’s gone, Alex. Edwin is gone.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Mrs. Fulton was already standing in the doorway when I got there. She grabbed the front of my coat and pulled me into the house. “What in God’s name took you so long?” she said as she steered me onto the couch. “I called you twenty minutes ago.” She didn’t sit next to me. She just stood there looking down at me.
“I came as fast as I could, Mrs. Fulton.” I wasn’t about to tell her that it had only been fifteen minutes. “Please, you have to tell me exactly what happened.”
“He’s gone,” she said. “My son is gone.”
“Gone where? When did he leave?”
“It was around noon. He said he needed to go into the office for a little while. He said he’d be back for dinner.”
I looked at my watch. It was almost seven o’clock. “He’s not that late,” I said. “It’s just starting to get dark out.”
“No, no,” she said. “He’s never late. Edwin is never late for dinner. He should have been here two hours ago.”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” I said. “Did you call his office?”
“Yes, of course I did.” She made a fist with her right hand and rubbed it with her left, like she was getting ready to belt me.
“Then he’s probably on his way home right now.”
“I called at five-thirty. Don’t you understand? He should be home by now!”
I grabbed her hands and pulled her onto the couch. “Please, Mrs. Fulton. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.”
“He shouldn’t have left the house,” she said. “He should have stayed here. It’s too dangerous.”
“No, Mrs. Fulton, no. You can’t think that way.”
“He had a fight with her ” she said. Her voice turned cold. “She was yelling at him. I could hear them from down here. That’s why he had to leave. He just had to get away from here.”
“He had a fight with Sylvia?”
“Yes,” she said. “That woman drove him out of the house.”
“Well then, that explains why he hasn’t come back yet, doesn’t it.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s probably just sitting in a bar somewhere.”
“Do you think so?” Finally, the first hint of hope in her voice.
“Of course,” I said. “He’s talking to a bartender right now, telling him all about it. You know, trying to figure women out. We’ve all done that.”
From behind me a voice said, “He’s at the casino.” I turned and saw Sylvia standing there.
“How do you know that?” I said.
“Because he told me that’s where he was going,” she said. The expression on her face was totally unreadable. I didn’t know if she was angry or smug or God knows what. “That’s why we were fighting.”
Mrs. Fulton just stared at her. For the first time, I sensed some of the history between them.
“Edwin told me that he was through with gambling,” Mrs. Fulton said.
“He told that to everyone,” Sylvia said. “But it was only a matter of time. He needed his fix. I couldn’t stop him.”
“Which casino is he at?” I said.
“He starts at one casino and then moves on when he thinks his luck is turning bad,” she said. “You know that. You’ve gone and found him before.”
“Alex,” Mrs. Fulton said, “you know how to find him? You’ve done it before?”
“Yes,” I said, looking at Sylvia. I remembered the last time I had gone looking for him. It was a summer night, as warm as it ever gets up here on the lake. Sylvia had wanted me to spend the night, to use this rare chance to wake up in the same bed together. He won’t come back, she had told me. You know he’ll be gone all night. And even if he does come back, then so what, so he finds out. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.
I told her it was time for us to put an end to it. And then the warm night got even warmer.
“Please,” Mrs. Fulton said, “go find Edwin. Will you do that please?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’ll go find him.”
Uttley came in the house. Why did he always show up five minutes after I could really use him? “What’s going on?” he said. “Alex, shouldn’t you be at your cabin?”
“Edwin is gone,” Mrs. Fulton said. “Alex is going to go find him.”
“It’s all right,” I said. “He’s at one of the casinos.”
“I thought he said-”
“I know,” I said. “So he had a little relapse. It’s perfectly normal. I’ll go get him and then we can all beat on him until he admits he needs to get some help with his problem.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Uttley said.
“No, you stay here,” I said. “See if you can make Mrs. Fulton some tea or something. I won’t be long. There aren’t that many places he could be.”
“Maven’s not going to like this,” he said.
“Maven doesn’t like anything I do. So it doesn’t matter.”
On my way out, I grabbed Sylvia by the elbow and pushed her into the hallway. “Goddamn it,” I said in a whisper. “What’s the matter with you?”