Our luck turned even worse when the door opened. Michael Grant stepped in, brushing the snow off his shoulders. He was holding a hat. The hat. He looked the place over, stopping when he saw me sitting there by the fire.
“McKnight,” he said as he came over to me. There was a big purple bruise on his left cheek, and he had a shiner around his right eye. But aside from that he didn’t look half as bad as I did. It didn’t make me any happier to see him standing in my bar.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
I didn’t bother to stand up. But Vinnie did. Grant gave him a cool, even look and introduced himself. “Alex and I had a little episode yesterday,” he said.
“What about at the funeral? Was that an episode, too?”
“No,” Grant said. “That was a very bad day for everyone.”
“Vinnie, sit down,” I said.
He did, with obvious reluctance.
“I asked you what you were doing here,” I said to Grant.
“I came to give you this,” he said. He held up the hat.
“I don’t want it,” I said.
“I figured Ms. Reynaud might.”
“I wouldn’t know. You’ll have to ask her.”
He looked down at me. “You’re making this hard, McKnight.”
“How did you even know I’d be here?”
“You’re in the book. When I drove by, I recognized your truck out front.”
I took the hat from him. “Okay, I’ve got the hat. You can leave now.”
“I need to talk to you. Maybe your friend can excuse himself for a minute.”
“Maybe his friend can kick your ass all the way back to the Soo,” Vinnie said.
Grant put his hands up. “I came to talk,” he said. “That’s it. I don’t want any more trouble.”
“Then you picked the wrong place,” Vinnie said.
“All right, take it easy,” I said. “If the man has something to say, let him say it.”
“Can we talk outside?”
“So we can freeze to death?”
“This’ll only take a minute, McKnight. It’s about Ms. Reynaud.”
I was about to tell him I was officially not interested in that topic anymore, but I figured it was none of his business. “You’ve got one minute,” I said.
“Don’t go out there,” Vinnie said.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I don’t think he’s gonna try anything stupid. Not on my home field.”
“Just sit down here,” Vinnie said, getting up. “I’ll be over at the bar.”
Grant didn’t look happy about it, but when Vinnie left us alone, he sat down in the empty chair across from me.
“You spend a lot of time here?” he asked.
“You’re wasting your minute.”
“Look, we don’t have to have a Kodak moment here, okay? Let’s just say I feel bad about the way things have happened.”
“That’s big of you.”
“You never went over to Marty’s house.”
“No,” I said. “I didn’t.”
“I called him, told him to expect you.”
“Yeah? Sorry if he was disappointed.”
“I told him what you told me, about Natalie Reynaud in Blind River. I asked him if he knew anything about her. I also asked him if he was in Batchawana Bay that day.”
“What did he say?”
“He said he was up there. You were right.”
“Did he say why?”
“No,” Grant said. “He said he’d tell me about it later.”
“Did he?”
“That was yesterday. I haven’t heard from him since.”
“Since yesterday?”
“I called his wife. Marty never came home last night. Never called. Nothing. He just disappeared. I’ve been looking all over.”
“So why did you come here?”
“I’m worried, McKnight. I’m running out of ideas. You remember what I was telling you about the devil of Blind River?”
“Yeah.”
“I was thinking your friend Natalie might know something,” he said. “Have you talked to her about this?”
“Not today.”
“I thought the two of you were close.”
“Your minute just ended.” “He said one more thing, McKnight. I think it’s important.”
“What did he say?”
“He said he didn’t know the devil’s family still lived in Blind River.”
I thought about that one. It found its way into my gut and started eating at me.
“Grant,” I finally said, “are you telling me-”
“I tried to look her up, McKnight. She’s not listed. I had no idea how to contact her.”
“I’ll call her right now,” I said. I told him to stay where he was, then went to the bar and grabbed Jackie’s phone. Vinnie and Jackie were both there, watching me. I gave them a little nod of my head and dialed.
The line was busy.
I let him sit over there by the fire for a few minutes while I waited to try again. The line was still busy.
Grant got to his feet just as I was hanging up again. He didn’t say a word. He just walked out the door.
I watched him go out, then looked over at Jackie and Vinnie. They were as confused as I was. When I headed for the door myself, Vinnie tried to follow me. I told him to go sit back down. I was just going to see what the hell Grant was doing.
When I opened the door, I saw Grant pacing back and forth next to my truck. It was snowing harder now. There was already a thin white layer on Grant’s head.
“What are you doing out here?” I said. I had brought the hat out with me.
“There was no answer when you called her?”
“The line was busy.”
“Both times?”
“Yeah, both times.”
“I tell you,” he said. He started pacing back and forth. “I got a real bad feeling about this. I think we should go out there.”
“Are you serious?”
“Come on, you gotta help me. You gotta take me out to her house.”
“You are serious.”
“Yes,” he said. “Aren’t you worried?”
“I can’t believe this…” I looked up at the falling snow. Truth was, I was getting just as worried as he was, no matter how things stood between Natalie and me.
“Please, McKnight. I’m begging you.”
“Hold on,” I said.
I went back inside and called her one more time. The line was still busy. I told Jackie and Vinnie what I had to do. Jackie yelled at me. Vinnie just shook his head. Then I went back outside.
“Let’s go,” I said. “I’m driving.”
“Okay,” he said. He got in and we took off toward the Soo.
We weren’t even out of Paradise yet when I happened to look over at him. He was holding the hat in his lap and rocking his head back and forth, ever so slightly. It looked like he was wound tighter than piano wire. Then for one quick moment I looked down and spotted something gray and metallic in his coat pocket.
“Hey, look at that,” I said, pointing out his side window.
“What?”
I jammed on the brakes and sent him flying into the dashboard. As he was bouncing back, I reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the gun. I had it pointed right at his head before he knew it was gone.
“What the hell’s going on?” I said to him. “What were you gonna do with this?”
He caught his breath and looked at me. The gun was two inches from his forehead.
Something was wrong. The gun didn’t feel right. It was way too light.
“What the hell?” I said, pulling it away from his head.
“It’s not real,” he said.
“It’s plastic,” I said. “It’s a cheap plastic toy. What the hell are you doing with a toy gun in your pocket?”
He started to say something. He gave up and shrugged his shoulders.
“Was this gonna be for me? In case I didn’t help you?”
He didn’t look at me. He picked the hat off the floor of the truck and brushed it off. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“I should just beat the living shit out of you right now,” I said. “You were gonna pull a toy gun on me?”
“I never would have used a real one. Give me that much.”
“Could you be any more of a jackass?” I took my foot off the brake and headed down the road again. “A toy gun. What were you gonna do when we got to customs?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Look, I told you I’m worried sick. My brother never disappeared before, okay? I wasn’t thinking straight.”