“Mr. McKnight?” It was a woman’s voice.
“Yes.”
“This is Constable Natalie Reynaud of the Ontario Provincial Police.”
I thought of two things at once. One was the sick feeling that the previous night was coming back to haunt us. Somebody must have filed charges-probably Stan, the guy Vinnie did a number on. The other thing going through my mind was just how little this woman sounded like a police officer. It was too early in the morning to be politically correct about it. Hell, most of the women officers I had known had voices like drill sergeants.
“Constable-” I said. That’s all I got out.
“You left a message on Mr. Red Albright’s cell phone,” she said. “That’s how we got this number.”
I ran my hand through my hair. “Albright’s phone? That was actually my friend calling.”
“Mr. Albright’s wife called the Michigan State Police yesterday. I assume they’ve been in contact with you already?”
“The police?” I needed to wake up, and fast.
“In Michigan, yes.”
I stood up and gave Vinnie a nudge. “No,” I said. “We haven’t made it back to Michigan yet. We’re in Wawa.”
“You were up at the lodge yesterday,” she said. “On Lake Peetwaniquot.”
I nudged Vinnie again. He slapped me away. “Yes, we were,” I said. “We were looking for Albright and the men who were with him.”
“We just spoke to Mr. Gannon and Ms. St. Jean. They told us you were up there.”
“Yes, we drove up to see if we could find out anything. The men were due back a few days ago. Are you telling me that Albright never got home, either?”
“None of the men did. Mrs. Albright and the other wives apparently decided to give them one more night, and then call the police. It’s been five days at this point. It doesn’t take that long to get back down to Detroit.”
“Even less to Sault Ste. Marie.”
“Now, that’s where we’re getting a little mixed up. You see, I’ve got four names here, Mr. McKnight. These were the names called in from Detroit. I don’t see anybody from Sault Ste. Marie.”
“They picked up another man on the way,” I said. “That’s the man we were worried about.”
“Okay, it’s starting to make sense now. That’s what Mrs. St. Jean seemed to be saying. There were five men on the hunt.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Can I get this man’s name, please?”
“LeBlanc.”
“LeBlanc,” she said. I could tell she was writing it down. “What’s the first name?”
I looked over at Vinnie. He was out.
“Mr. McKnight? I need that first name.”
“I know, I know.” It was way too early to try to keep the story straight. And now that the police were officially involved, I figured it was time to end it. “You see,” I said, “it’s kind of a long story.”
“If you’re telling me I’ve got a fifth man missing who the families in Detroit didn’t even know about, I’m going to need that name right now.”
“Where are you calling from, Constable?”
“We’re at the Hearst Detachment. It’s about fifty miles east of the lodge.”
“You think we could come back up there and talk to you in person?”
She hesitated. “Mr. McKnight, if you want to come up here, you can do that. But first I want that name.”
“Thomas LeBlanc,” I said.
“That was the fifth man on the hunting trip.”
“Yes. I’m here with his brother, Vincent LeBlanc.”
“Okay,” she said. “See, that wasn’t so hard.”
I let that one go. As soon as she ran the name, she’d find out just how hard it really was.
“Listen,” she said, “we’re on our way over to the lodge right now. As long as you’re still in Wawa, why don’t you come back up and talk to us?”
“I think that would be a good idea.”
“Okay, Mr. McKnight. We’ll see you at the lodge. Drive carefully.”
“You, too,” I said. “Watch out for moose.”
I switched the phone off. Vinnie slept in perfect peace, oblivious to what I’d just done. Like I had any choice.
“Wake up,” I said.
He made a noise.
“That was the police.”
He lifted his head. His left eye was still swollen. “What?”
“Albright never got home. His wife called the police down in Detroit.”
He pulled himself up until he was sitting on the edge of the bed. “Man,” he said. “My head hurts.”
“That was the OPP,” I said. “They’re going to the lodge. I told them we’d meet them there.”
“Okay.”
“They wanted Tom’s name. I figured it was time to come clean.”
He looked at me. “You figured that, huh?”
“We’re going up to see the police, Vinnie. These men are officially missing now.”
He let out a long breath. Then he pushed himself up and for one second I thought he was going to jump on me. But instead he stumbled toward the bathroom. “I need to take a shower,” he said. “I can’t go see the police looking like a vagrant. It’s gonna be bad enough.”
An hour later we were both as cleaned up as we were going to get. We stopped in at a little coffee shop down the street, then at the gas station, and then we were on our way. The giant goose looked down on us one more time as we left town. It felt strange to be going north again.
The rest of the morning we spent retracing our route from the day before, through White River and Hornepayne, through miles and miles of lakes and trees. The air felt even colder. Vinnie sat on the passenger’s side and looked out the window.
“I didn’t have any choice,” I finally said.
“I know.”
“At this point, it’s got to come out.”
“You’re right,” he said without looking at me. “I’m not saying you did the wrong thing.”
“Okay,” I said, and then I settled in for two more hours on the road without one more word from him. I suppose if I had a brother and I knew he was probably on his way back to prison, I’d be just as talkative.
It was eleven o’clock when we hit the Trans-Canada Highway again. I knew to take the left, and to look for the unmarked road on the right. I kept the truck out of the mud this time. We didn’t see our friend the moose.
When we came around the last bend in the road, we saw the police car parked behind the other vehicles. It was white and clean, with the blue OPP seal on the door. We stopped and got out of the truck.
“They must be inside,” I said. The place looked just as deserted as the first time we had seen it. There was a wet wind coming in off the lake again. The air felt heavy.
We walked down to the main cabin. As we passed the butcher’s shed, I expected to see the man come out with the blood all over his gloves again. I couldn’t remember the man’s name, although I knew Helen had told us.
“The plane’s gone,” Vinnie said. I looked out at the dock. There was just the two aluminum boats, bobbing up and down in the waves.
We went up the creaky old steps and into the main cabin. The big moose head looked down at us. “Hello!” I said.
Nothing.
“That’s what I love about this place,” I said. “They always know how to make you feel welcome.”
We went back to the little office, but it was empty. A radio was on. A faraway station was barely audible through the thick buzz of static. It sounded like French.
“Where is everybody?” Vinnie said.
“Think they all went someplace in the plane?”
“They told us to meet them here, didn’t they?”
“They did,” I said.
We went back through the main room to the front door. It opened just as we got there. Helen St. Jean took one look at us and screamed.
“Oh, my goodness,” she said when she could breathe again. “You scared the life out of me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “The police told us to meet them here.”
“The police,” she said. “Yes. Hank flew them out to the cabin.”
“The cabin where the men were staying?”
“On Lake Agawaatese, yes. They wanted to see if the men left anything there.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know,” she said, looking out the window at the sky. “Some kind of clue. Something that might tell the police where they were going when they left here. I can’t imagine what that would be.”