The photographer had moved around to the front for the next few shots. Charlie’s face was blue. His hair was crowned with snow. There, about three feet in front of him, was this car. It was covered with snow, too. The driver’s side door was open.
I kept looking at the photographs. Unlike the others… these, for some reason I couldn’t stop staring at them. This is where it all began, I thought. This was the first.
“I think that’s enough, Alex.”
I didn’t move. Agent Long had to reach over and close the folder.
“Are you okay?”
“No,” I said. “I think it’ll be a long time before I’m okay.”
We went over the three candidates they’d identified the day before, the three men who’d been arrested by Steele and Haggerty and who had lost children to suicide not long after. The thief, Henry Parizi, with the solid alibi from his current parole officer. The actor/filmmaker, Clyde C. Wiley, working on his next project sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. The ex-cop who had vowed revenge, Kenny Fraser, now deceased. All three had been eliminated, so it was time to pick up the search again, to go through the records with an even closer eye to find another candidate.
I didn’t actually see them get that far. By noon the big boys from Detroit had arrived and I was kicked out of the building.
So what the hell was I supposed to do?
I ended up driving around for a while, feeling numb and having no idea where I was going. Eventually, I ended up back in Paradise. I drove right by Jackie’s place. I put my plow down and went up my road, not even thinking to avoid looking at that first cabin. If nothing else, at least that particular hang-up had been displaced from my mind for a while.
I parked the truck and went inside. I got the fire going, then I looked around for something else that needed my attention. Eventually I went back outside and started chopping some wood. I had plenty, but swinging a big ax seemed like a good idea.
An hour later, I was tired and my shoulders were sore, but otherwise I didn’t feel any different. So I drove down to the Glasgow. Vinnie was sitting at the bar reading the newspaper. I sat next to him.
“How’s your mother doing?” I said.
“Not too bad today.”
“You got a shift at the casino today?”
“Later, yeah.”
I nodded my head. Eventually, I found myself tapping my fingers on the bar top.
“Something bothering you?” he said.
“You still got those boxing gloves?”
“Uh, yeah. Why?”
“I need to hit somebody. And to have somebody hit me back.”
“What do you suggest, we box in the parking lot?”
“I don’t know, maybe. You still playing in that hockey league?”
“No,” he said. “Besides, you made me promise you I’d never ask you to play hockey again, remember?”
“Where’s Jackie, anyway?”
“He went out. Should be back soon.”
“What, did he leave you in charge of the place?”
Vinnie did a quick scan around the room. We were the only two people there.
“I didn’t go to bar management school,” he said, “but I think today I can handle it.”
“He should be here,” I said. “He’s the only person I can drive crazy enough to make me feel better. Well, him and Chief Maven, but he’s kinda busy right now.”
“Alex, I know you’ve been through a lot lately, but-”
“I can’t just sit here, okay? I’ve got to do something. Anything. I’ll see you later.”
He watched me walk out the door like he was seriously wondering if I had lost my mind. Which was a fair question at that point.
Agent Long was right, I said to myself as I got back in the truck. I never should have looked at those pictures.
By five o’clock I was debating whether to call Chief Maven on his cell phone. I wanted to know what else had happened that day, if the additional agents from Detroit had helped develop any new breakthroughs. In the end, I decided it was still probably too soon for that. They were probably still catching up with everything.
Call him tomorrow, I told myself. He’ll tell you what’s going on. You know he will.
By six o’clock I was back at the Glasgow. Vinnie was gone, but Jackie was back. He stood behind the bar and watched me pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace. He started yelling at me to knock it off, but even that didn’t make me feel any better.
By seven o’clock I had eaten dinner and had actually sat down in a chair for a while. The problem was I’d keep seeing those pictures whenever I was still for even a moment. I couldn’t even say why they bothered me so much. I mean, apart from the obvious fact that seven people were dead. There was something else about the photographs, some horrible thread that ran through all of them.
He’s still out there, I thought. I could feel him. He was breathing the same air I was breathing, and he was waiting to do this again.
By eight o’clock I was back in my truck, driving hard toward nowhere. Eventually, I pointed it east and headed into the Soo. I passed the state post and was tempted to park in the lot. Go inside, start asking around, see what was happening. I didn’t see Chief Maven’s car.
It was almost ten o’clock when I finally pulled in front of the Cineplex. I shouldn’t be bothering Leon again, I thought. I’ll probably get him fired this time, but I don’t know who else to talk to.
I sat there in the truck with the heater still going, looking out at the customers hurrying through the cold air into the theater. They’d sit in the dark and they’d forget all about everything else in their lives for at least that long.
Not a bad idea, I thought. I should try it myself. Maybe it’ll even work. But which movie?
I ran down the list on the marquee. All the movies had titles I didn’t recognize. Not that it mattered. I could pick one at random and give it a shot.
Then something came to me. I didn’t get out of the truck. I didn’t go bother Leon. I put it back into drive and I drove across town instead. To Chief Maven’s house.
His car was in the driveway. I knocked on the door. When he opened it, I could see that he had his service revolver in his right hand.
“McKnight, what are you doing here?”
“Sorry to bother you, but I figured you’d still be up. Can I come in for a minute?”
He held the door open for me. I went inside. He put the gun away, and as I took my coat off I could smell the bleach coming from one direction and the new paint coming from another.
“You’ve been busy here,” I said.
“Just trying to keep myself from going insane.”
“Yeah, I know how that one goes.”
“Come on in and sit down.”
He led me into the kitchen. It was as bright and clean as an operating room. As I sat down in the chair, I tried not to think about what had happened in this very spot. Right there at my feet.
“How did everything go today?” I said.
“After you left? Well, four more agents showed up, including Long and Fleury’s boss. So we blew the rest of the day getting them all up to speed.”
“That’s what I figured would happen.”
“Are you okay? You look a little rattled.”
“I’m fine. I’ll live.”
“Come on, McKnight. Why did you really come out here?”