“What?”
“Don’t get me a gun.”
“Who said I was going to get you a gun?”
“I know you.”
“Obtaining a handgun for someone else is illegal in the state of Michigan,” he said, as only Leon Prudell could manage with a straight face. “I’d lose my license.”
“You don’t have a license anymore,” I said.
I wasn’t sure, but I thought I caught a little smile.
A few minutes later, Leon dropped me off at my truck. I thanked him again and sent him on his way. On the way home, I stopped in at the Glasgow and had a late dinner. Vinnie’s cabin was dark when I drove past on my way home. It looked small and lonely.
I went to my own cabin. Since coming back home, this was the first night that sleep didn’t come easy.
I had some more bow hunters leaving the next day. When I was done with them I drove down to the Glasgow for lunch, passing Vinnie’s empty cabin. I passed it again coming back.
You’re gonna drive yourself crazy, I thought. You’re gonna make yourself absolutely insane.
I thought about giving Leon a call. I decided not to. If Eleanor answered, I’d just upset her again. So I decided to do something even worse. I called the Hearst OPP Detachment and asked for Constable Reynaud.
It took a minute for somebody to find her, and then I heard her voice. The distant static on the line made it sound like she was on the moon. “McKnight? What’s the matter?”
“I just wanted to ask you something,” I said. “Tom’s body came home yesterday. I assume that means you’re done with the forensics.”
“Is there a question in there?”
“Constable, please. Can I call you Natalie?”
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
I held the phone away from my mouth and counted to three. “Look,” I finally said. “Have you ever been to an Ojibwa funeral?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“It lasts four or five days. So I’ve had all that time to think about it. Isn’t there anything you can tell me?”
“McKnight, I suppose there’s one thing you might want to know. This is something you can share with the family, when the time is right. Tom was shot first, and then burned. He wasn’t alive when they set him on fire.”
“What about the others?”
For a moment there was nothing but the faraway static. “The others weren’t so lucky.”
“He must have struggled,” I said. “They had to shoot him.”
“Is there anything else?”
“Do you have any more information on why this happened?”
“I can’t really say, okay? I will tell you that we’re not close to anything.”
“And how are you doing?” I said.
“I’m just fine, McKnight. You don’t have to ask.”
“I told you before, I’ve been there. I know how it is.”
“Yeah, you told me. Thank you very much. Now if that’s all…”
“Nobody’s looking you in the eye, are they,” I said.
She didn’t say anything. More static, humming on the line.
“Your partner was killed,” I said. “Nobody is gonna come right out and say they blame you.”
“Is this supposed to be helping me, McKnight?”
“There’s nobody else you can talk to about this, okay? Trust me, nobody else is gonna understand what you’re going through.”
“But you do.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, aren’t I lucky then? If it gets to be too much for me, I’ll give you a call. My own personal psychiatrist.”
“Constable, come on. I’m just trying to-”
The phone went dead.
“Well, that was brilliant,” I said. “I’m such a big help.”
I tried to forget about it, but it put me in a bad mood that lasted the rest of the day. I didn’t even go down to the Glasgow for dinner. As if I didn’t have enough problems-for whatever reason, whether I wanted to admit it to myself or not, Natalie Reynaud had gotten under my skin.
Another day passed. Vinnie was still with his family. I thought about going over to the rez and finding him. But I didn’t do it.
Leon finally called me back. His friend at the paper had run Hank Gannon and the Albright brothers through LexisNexis. “He got nothing at all on Gannon,” Leon said. “On the Albrights, he found a few things. Some civic awards, something else about a car dealership Red had owned for a while, then sold. Oh, and a ballpark they both rededicated. I guess it was named after their father.”
“Albright Field,” I said. “Of course. That’s where I’ve heard that name before. It was over on the east side.”
“It sounds like an old Detroit family with a little bit of money,” he said. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“I don’t know, Leon. Dallas and one of his buddies came all the way up here to stick guns in our faces. Does that sound like an ordinary businessman to you?”
“Maybe he’s done a real good job keeping his name clean,” he said. “Either that or he just went a little crazy.”
“Who knows? I don’t think we’re getting anywhere.”
“Well, I’ll let you know if I find out anything else.”
“No, Leon. You don’t have to do that. You’ve already done too much, believe me. Your wife probably wants to kill me.”
He laughed at that. “She loves you, Alex.”
“Give her my best,” I said. “And tell her I’m sorry. Thanks for everything, partner.”
I hung up the phone and sat there looking out the window. At that point, I wasn’t even sure what I was doing. Maybe it was just the fact that I was doing something. After having to fight so hard in the woods, I couldn’t just sit still now and relax.
Reynaud was right, I thought. I sound like a psychiatrist.
I headed down to the Glasgow. A couple of hours with Jackie and I’d be myself again. I passed Vinnie’s empty cabin yet again. I never had a brother before. That’s what I thought as I drove by. I never knew what it felt like.
I spent the rest of the afternoon with Jackie. It was a Sunday, so that meant football games on the television above the bar. We sat by the fire and watched the Lions find another way to lose a game. I finally read the newspaper Jackie had saved for me. The story had made the AP wire-five bodies found on a remote fly-in lake, way up in the wilds of northern Canada. A constable from the Ontario Provincial Police dead on the scene. The apparent killer also dead, with two men from Michigan the sole survivors. It surprised me that nobody had called me, looking for the inside story.
“How’s Vinnie doing?” Jackie asked.
“I’m not sure. He’s with his family.”
“Tell him I’m thinking about him.”
“I will,” I said. “If I ever see him again.”
“Alex, what’s going on?”
“It’s nothing, Jackie. Just a little disagreement.”
“Disagreement, my ass. They’re taking care of him and you’re feeling left out. Am I right?”
“There’s more to it than that.”
“Yeah, I bet. Why don’t you just go over there and find out how he’s doing? Instead of moping around here, making me miserable.”
I didn’t have much of an argument. Deep down, I knew he was right. So what the hell, I thought. I’m going over there. I drove down to the reservation, taking Lakeshore Drive around the bay. The wind was kicking up, just in time for the change of seasons. November would be here soon, and Lake Superior would turn into a monster.
I felt the truck rocking, saw the whitecaps on the water in the dying light. When I got to the reservation, the snowflakes were flying through the air like tiny bullets. I pulled up in front of Vinnie’s mother’s house.
Vinnie’s truck wasn’t there.
I got out of the truck and rang the doorbell. Mrs. LeBlanc opened the door. Her eyes were red and she looked like she had aged twenty years.
“Alex,” she said, letting me in.
“I was just stopping by,” I said. “I wanted to see how Vinnie was doing. But it looks like he went home.”
She frowned. “Vinnie went home a couple of days ago,” she said. “He went home the day after we buried Tom.”
“That can’t be,” I said. “His truck’s not there. You mean you haven’t even heard from him?”