“Why?” Jackie said. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just thinking, maybe he’s not out on that river. Maybe he had another reason to get us out here.”
“What, you mean to draw us away?”
“I hope I’m wrong,” I said. “Go make sure Margaret’s okay. I’ll call her on the cell phone. And Jonathan, too.”
We all walked back out of the alley together. The four men all jumped into the bed of my truck and I took them back up Portage Street to the parking lot. It occurred to me as I was driving, all I need now is a police car stopping us. He’d find four men in the back, all with recently-fired rifles. Three of them would even have open bail bonds. That’s all we’d need to make the evening complete.
I dropped them off at Jackie’s car, then headed back east to Paradise. I caught a look at myself in the rearview mirror. I was filthy with all the dust and other crap from the floor of that building, that on top of all the bruises I already had going. I was definitely not pretty.
I called Margaret, and was glad to hear her voice when she answered. I told her Bennett and Ham would be there any minute now. Then I called Jonathan.
“I’m on my way,” I said. “Jackie’ll be a few minutes behind me.”
“What did he get mixed up in this time?” Jonathan said.
“You don’t want to know. Have you seen the blond guy again? The one who left you the torn-up hundred?”
“I haven’t, no.”
“If you do, call me right back,” I said. “I’ll see you soon.”
I hung up and took a deep breath. Everybody was in one piece, at least for the moment. “What are you up to, Blondie?” I said. “What the hell’s your game?”
When I hit town, the Glasgow Inn was a welcome sight. I’d go in and wash my face in the bathroom, have a couple of cold Canadians. By the time Jackie got here, I’d almost be ready to forgive him for being such a jackass.
As I pulled into the parking lot, another pickup truck came roaring by, right behind me. I opened my door, stepped out, looked up the road, and then up into the night sky. I saw a great black dragon rising above the treeline, obscuring the silver clouds behind it, the stars, the moon.
Smoke.
That was one of the volunteer firemen racing by. He was headed north.
I got back into the truck and sprayed gravel. When I turned onto my service road, I was expecting to see the fire truck parking in front of my cabin. It wasn’t.
“What the hell’s going on?” I said. Then it hit me.
I kept driving down the road, all the way to the end, to the last cabin. As soon as I turned around the last bend, I saw the truck. Paradise Volunteer Fire. A bright flume of water hung in the sky, lit by the floodlights from the truck. There were seven or eight other vehicles all spread around the place. One of the men looked back at me as I got out. He had his rubber boots on, his fire hat, but no coat.
Flames. There were flames, orange and yellow and blue.
“Mr. McKnight,” he said.
I didn’t hear him. I walked past him, toward the cabin. I got so close I could feel the heat on my face.
“Mr. McKnight! Stand back from there!”
I felt myself being pulled backward. I kept staring into the flames. This was my father’s masterpiece, the best thing he ever built, and the last.
It was burning up before my eyes.
Three hours passed. It was well after midnight when the firemen left. They didn’t want to leave anything hot, not with all the dry brush around. “Last thing we want is a forest fire,” the man said. “Do you have any idea how this happened?”
I didn’t have anything to say to him. I just stood there and watched the men as they soaked the remains of the cabin with a fine spray of water, back and forth, back and forth. The water hung in the air and collected on my face, but I didn’t wipe it off. I clenched my hands into fists, released them, and then clenched again, over and over.
“This thing went up fast, Mr. McKnight. Please don’t touch anything until the arson investigator gets here.”
“I won’t,” I said.
“We’ll be back tomorrow to make sure nothing’s smoking.”
“Okay.”
“We did the best we could.”
“I know. Thank you.”
When they were gone, it was just me and a pile of black rubble. The chimney was left standing, the chimney my father built with his hands, stone by stone. It stood alone in the clearing now, looking strangely out of place.
I don’t know how long I waited there, or what I was even waiting for. I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t walk away.
Finally, I did. I took the truck back to my cabin, went inside, and sat down in a chair. I stared at the floor until the phone rang. I looked at the clock. It was 1:42 in the morning.
“McKnight,” the voice said.
“I’m going to kill you,” I said.
“Hold onto those dreams. It’ll keep you young.”
“I swear to you, Blondie. I’m going to kill you.”
“Yeah, we covered that. Have I made my point yet? You guys gonna come through for me or what?”
“There’s nothing to come through with, you stupid fuckhead. I had nothing to do with the robbery, first of all. And even if I did, there was thirty thousand in that safe, and nothing more.”
“I know who Vargas is,” he said. “I know what kind of scam he’s got going on. That’s the only reason I bought into this. What I get for working with amateurs, I guess. Never again, eh? When Seanie gave up his share, that was like the first clue, you know what I mean? He gave it up because he knew there was a lot more. Hell, he might have had it stashed right on his person, underneath that big bag he was wearing. Would’ve taken more balls than I thought he had, but hell, why not? Maybe he did. As soon as your other three friends ended up arrested, it all sort of came together, didn’t it. When I found out who you were, this mystery guest who wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place, it all made sense. I know all about you, McKnight. I thought you acted pretty cool when I had that gun on your head. Now I know why. You knew what the score was that night. You were in on this from the beginning.”
“You got it all wrong, Blondie. Everything you said is totally wrong.”
“Right now, what I really need you to do is understand something, McKnight. You gotta know what you’re dealing with here, eh?”
“I know what you are, Blondie. Believe me, I’ve seen ’em a lot better. Torching a cabin, that’s really chickenshit stuff, you know that? Why don’t you come here and talk to me face to face?”
“Oh, we’ll do that one, McKnight. We’ll most definitely do that one, eh?”
“How about tonight? How about right now?”
“Patience, eh? You Americans, I swear. What you need to do is round up all the money and go to O’Dell’s place. I’ll call you there tomorrow morning at eight o’clock.”
“There is no money, Blondie. Simple as that. When are you gonna get that?”
“I’m thinking Vargas had at least a half million in that safe, McKnight. It might have been more. If it was, I’ll just have to trust you to come through with the rest of it. I know you’re an honorable man. You’re the one with the cool head, too, so I’d appreciate it if you did all the talking tomorrow. We’re gonna do this one out in the open. I mean real open, eh? I suggest you have a boat ready. I’ll be giving you some GPS coordinates for a position out on the lake. That’s where we’ll meet you.”
“I’m not going to be there, Blondie. It ain’t happening.”
“I think you will be, McKnight. I know you’re a lonely old man, with no family, nobody you really care about. Except maybe one person.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I got somebody here you should talk to.”
There was a brief silence on the line, and in that one horrible moment I knew who it would be, before he even spoke. He dropped the men off, then he came back by himself. If he had made it home, he would have called me by now. I was too far out of my head to notice that he hadn’t.