“You killed Gray?” I said.
He stopped in front of me. “Yes, I did. Now tell me where the guns are, or you’ll get the same deal. I promise you.”
“I think he was afraid of you, too,” she said to me. “I think that’s why he came up with this idea.”
“Rhapsody…”
“‘Get Jacques to pretend,’” she said, imitating him, exaggerating the swagger in his voice. “‘McKnight won’t know any better. If he ends up killing him, so what?’”
“What do you think?” he said to me. “Do you think I’m afraid of you?”
“I think you talk pretty big,” I said, “when your woman has your back.”
He made like he was going to turn away, then surprised me with a punch right in my gut. It folded me in two. I went with it, going all the way to the ground, feeling for the mini automatic under my pant leg. Lift and fire, if I do it fast enough…
No. Not yet. Either one of them would mow me down in a second.
“Okay, enough chit-chat,” Cap said. “Where are the guns?”
Play this out, I thought. Buy some time, figure out what the hell is going on.
“They’re out there,” I said, pointing to the water. I was struggling to get my wind back. Laraque was dead. Gray was dead. I couldn’t believe it was all coming down to these two.
“What are you talking about, McKnight? Out there where?”
“I have to take you to them.”
“What did you do, hide them on some island like a pirate?”
“That’s exactly what I did, yes.”
He leaned down closer to me. “Do you have any idea how much you’ve fucked up my life already? Do you?”
“The man says he’s going to take us to the merchandise,” Rhapsody said. “So let him do it.”
“You actually believe him?”
“He looks like a smart man. He knows if he gives everything back, we’ll let him walk away.”
He grabbed me by the back of the collar. “Where are they, McKnight?”
“He said he’d take us to them,” she said. “Are you deaf?”
“I’m not falling for it,” he said. “I swear to God…”
“You got a better idea?”
“Yeah, I do.”
He put the gun against my temple.
“That would be smart,” she said. “We’d definitely get the guns back that way.”
He made a long muffled sound in his throat as he let go of me. I was starting to see the way things were between them. They obviously had a long history together.
“We need to clean up here first,” she said. “Why don’t you drag Jacques into the boathouse?”
“We can take him on the boat,” he said. “Dump him in the water.”
“I’m not riding in the boat with him. Just put him in the boathouse for now. You take him back out and dump him later.”
“McKnight can do that.” He kicked me. “On your feet.”
“He’s still recovering from you little cheap shot, Cap. Just shut the fuck up and drag Jacques’s ass into the boathouse, will you?”
“Rhapsody, I’m going to say this once. We’re partners now. That means you don’t get to talk to me that way anymore.”
“Pardon me. Will you please relocate Jacques to the boathouse? Is that better?”
He stared her down for a while, then he finally hooked his wrists under the dead man’s underarms and started dragging him.
“Let’s go,” she said to me. She waved me forward with her gun, careful not to step in the blood. “Cap, you better hose this all off when we’re done, too.”
He spat sideways and kept dragging. When we got to the door, he dropped the man for a moment and rummaged around in his pockets for the key to the door.
“Do you really need a key?” she said.
“I suppose not,” he said. “On account of our friend breaking into the place. Real smooth, McKnight. Did you use a sledgehammer?”
“I thought your pal Brucie was watching over things,” she said. “Where is he?”
“We can go see him if you like. But I don’t think he’s in any state to receive visitors.”
“Just open the door,” she said. “It’ll be dark by the time we get out there.”
He did as he was told. Then he dragged the dead man in and left him on the gangway.
“How far are we going, McKnight?” Cap jumped into the boat and turned around, the gun pointed at my chest.
“It’s not far,” I said. “I’ll take the wheel.”
“Like hell you will. You’re going to sit there and you’re going to tell me where to go.”
I got in and sat down on one of the chairs. Rhapsody sat across from me, a good six feet away. Cap climbed up to the captain’s chair and started the engine. A minute later, we were pulling out into the channel.
“Which way?” Cap said, his voice raised enough for me to hear him over the engine. “To the right?”
“Yes,” I said. “Go all the way out to the lake.”
He turned around and looked at me, then at Rhapsody.
“You heard the man,” she said. “Go to the lake.”
He shook his head and swung the wheel to the right, flipping on the GPS to follow the safe route, same as I had done. I sat there and thought about what was happening, and what my options were. With Laraque gone…Hell, it just wasn’t making any sense to me.
“Did you really kill him?” I said to Rhapsody. “I can’t see you doing that.”
“Is that a compliment or an insult?”
“Now you’re trying to collect his guns. You really are taking over.”
“That’s the idea.”
“And if Cap here really took out Mr. Gray, then I’m looking at both ends of the deal now. You’ve got the Canadian side and Cap has the U.S. side.”
She looked out the boat at where we were going, then back at me.
“I hope you can trust him,” I said. “He seems a little psychotic to me.”
Cap looked back down at us. “Just tell us where to go,” he said. “Other than that, you can keep quiet.”
“I’m just making an observation,” I said. “The two of you don’t seem to get along so well.”
I was fishing now. I was trying to find any kind of leverage I could, or anything I could use to distract them, even for a moment.
“We get along fine,” she said. “When we have to.”
“Whatever you say. It’s not my business. I’d just be a little worried about having a partner who’s so unstable.”
“Cap and I go way back, Alex. We’re the ones who hooked up Laraque and Gray to begin with.”
“You had this planned all along? Wait for the right moment and then take over?”
She smiled at me. I wasn’t getting anywhere. I needed something else, something to throw them off course.
“How far are we going?” Cap said. “Do I stay in this channel?”
“All the way out,” I said.
“Then what?”
“I’ll remember when we get there.”
He took both hands off the wheel for a moment to tighten the suppressor on his gun. He looked down at me as he did it.
“You’re not messing with us here,” Rhapsody said. “Are you? Because I’d be really disappointed.”
“Would I do that?”
“You don’t want me to be disappointed, Alex. Believe me.”
“I understand.”
She had her gun in her lap now, her right hand still gripping the handle. There has to be something, I thought. What would Leon do?
“Things must be kind of hot right now,” I said. “Maybe killing two cops wasn’t such a great idea.”
“Yeah,” Cap said without turning around, “maybe that wasn’t such a great idea.”
“Don’t start,” she said.
“Start what?”
“Did you hear me? Don’t even go there now. It was an unavoidable mistake.”
“You still don’t think I would have figured it out before shooting the guy?”
“How could you?”
“Well, let’s see…If I went to his apartment…Yeah, maybe I would have noticed something first. His badge on the table, maybe? His official Mountie coffee mug? His diploma from the police academy on the fucking wall?”
He stopped himself, closed his eyes for a few seconds, like he was counting to three. When he finally looked back at the GPS, he had to jerk the boat hard to the left to get back on course. Rhapsody almost fell out of her chair. I had a sudden vision of her gun falling out of her hand, me making my move. But the moment passed.