Champagne slipped a quick look sideways at his partner. Urbanic shrugged. “Why were you in the hospital?” Champagne said.
“I got beat up and then dragged behind a snowmobile.”
“Sounds like somebody doesn’t like you very much.”
“Your instincts are uncanny, Agent Champagne.”
His eyes narrowed just slightly. “What did you do to deserve this kind of treatment?” he said.
“They wanted to know where Dorothy was,” I said. “They thought I had her.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I didn’t.”
“And the fact that they thought you had her made you realize that they obviously didn’t have her.”
“Right again,” I said. “Keep going while you’re hot.”
He didn’t even bother to react this time. “So if you knew that they didn’t have her,” he said, “then why did you go over to Canada last night to ‘ask him questions’?”
I hesitated. “Because I didn’t know what else to do,” I said. “I thought he might have some information, even if he didn’t know where she was.”
“You were trying very hard to find her,” he said.
“I was concerned about her,” I said. “She was scared that night.”
“It must have been very upsetting to you,” he said. “Tell me, Mr. McKnight, how did you know where to find Mr. Bruckman last night?”
“We found him,” I said. “My…” I thought about it for a moment. “My partner and I.”
“Your partner.”
“Leon Prudell,” I said. “He’s my partner. When I was in the hospital, he spent some time over in Canada, looking for him.”
“How did he know to look in Canada?”
“Bruckman said something about going back over the river. We assumed that meant he was hiding in Canada.”
“Chief Maven,” Champagne said, “do you know this Prudell fellow?”
Maven cleared his throat. “I believe he’s currently a snowmobile salesman.”
“A snowmobile salesman,” Champagne said, nodding his head. “No doubt a valuable asset to any team.”
“He’s also a bondsman,” I said. “And a licensed private investigator.”
“I understand,” Champagne said. “He doesn’t need the other job. He just does it because women can’t resist snowmobile salesmen.”
“Any chance of me getting some coffee?” I said.
“When you start giving us some answers,” Champagne said, “then you’ll get your coffee. Hell, we’ll wheel the whole breakfast cart in here. So far, you haven’t given us anything.”
“If there was something to give you, believe me, I’d give it to you.”
“We’ve borrowed some of the county deputies. They’re going through all of your cabins right now. You have six of them, right?”
“What do you mean, they’re going through the cabins?”
“Turning them upside down would be a better way to put it. You getting stopped with drugs in your truck was more than enough probable cause for a search warrant. What do you think we’re going to find in your cabins?”
“At this hour of the morning? Probably a lot of unhappy snowmobilers.”
“Sorry about that. I don’t suppose this is going to help your rental business.”
“All right,” I said. “Listen, Agents Champagne and Urbanic, was it?”
Urbanic nodded.
“Champagne and Urbanic,” I said. “It’s got a nice ring to it. Didn’t you guys win a gold medal in ice dancing?”
“That’s funny,” Champagne said. “Personally, I wouldn’t be making jokes if I were sitting on drugs and weapons charges, but that’s just me.”
“Let me just get this straight,” I said. “You guys have been following me around for the past, what, six days? First you’re driving around in a Taurus, which gets stuck in the snow so I have to pull you out.” I looked down at Maven. “You ever hear of such a thing, Chief? I helped them out of the snow so they could keep following me.”
Maven looked at them without saying a word.
“And then when I tell the sheriff I’m being followed…” I stopped. A couple thoughts hit me at once. I didn’t like either of them. “He stalls me,” I went on. “Because you must have told him to. Which means that you kept following me even though you knew I was on to you.”
Champagne rubbed his hands together. Urbanic just sat there. Maven kept looking at them with a face of stone.
“You didn’t come to me and tell me who you were,” I said. “You just kept following me. In a new car. A four-wheel drive this time. But with the same brilliant disguises. Those Elmer Fudd hats really look good on you, too.”
“Mr. McKnight…”
“All because you thought I had something to do with Dorothy’s disappearance. And let me guess, that white bag she had with her.”
That perked them right up. “What do you know about the white bag?” the man named Urbanic said. It was the first time he had spoken.
“Bruckman was looking for it,” I said. “That’s all I know.”
“When did you see the white bag?” Champagne said.
“I told you. Dorothy had it with her Friday night. The next morning she was gone, and so was her bag.”
“Just like that,” Champagne said. “Just… poof! She was gone.”
“Yes, she was gone,” I said. “Somebody took her. I thought it was Bruckman, but it wasn’t.”
“So now you don’t know who took her.”
“No.”
“Or the bag.”
“No.”
“We’re not getting much here, are we?” He looked at his partner and then down the table at Maven.
Maven sat totally still, watching us.
“If you had come to me before last night,” I said, “then I wouldn’t have gone over to see Bruckman by myself. You would have him right now, and you could be asking him these questions.”
“I thought you said you met him in Canada.”
“I didn’t meet him,” I said. “I found him. I mean, Leon found him. But you could have had the Canadian Mounties there. I’m sure you’ve worked with them before.”
“What makes you think we’re not working with them now?” he said.
I thought about that one for a moment. “Wait a minute,” I said. “When you followed me to the bridge last night, did you have the Mounties pick up the tail on the other side?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you probably did,” I said. “Which means they followed us to the bar. Which means…” I replayed what had happened. Bruckman and me in the bathroom. His guys by the pool table. The fight starts. I go out, see what’s going on, make my way across the room, we go out the front door and meet one of his guys coming in. From outside! “He planted the drugs in my car,” I said. “When the fighting started, he went outside and put the bag in my car. Just to fuck me over. And then, let me guess, they called the bridge?”
Nobody said anything.
“That’s what happened, right? They got an anonymous tip? They must have. They were waiting for me.”
Champagne kept staring at me. Urbanic frowned and looked away. And Maven…
I knew that face. Maven was looking at the agents with that same face he used whenever he talked to me. He was squinting his eyes, the left a little more than the right. His mouth was set hard like he was biting the head off a nail. It was the worst tough cop face I had ever seen, but right now it was a welcome sight. It gave me a glimmer of hope.
“If you had Mounties watching the bar,” I said, “then they must have seen the plant. Am I right?”
Champagne let out a long breath. “There were Mounties on the scene, yes. And yes, they did see an individual come out of the bar and open up the door to your truck. But that doesn’t have to mean that he was planting drugs.”
Maven slapped his hand on the table. “What the hell do you think he was doing? Leaving a mint on his car seat?”
“Chief Maven,” Champagne said. He raised his hands as if to calm a child. “Please.”
“Please my ass,” Maven said. “When were you going to tell me you had the Mounties involved in this?”
“Can we discuss this outside?” Champagne said.
“We’ll discuss it right here,” Maven said. “You come all the way up here looking for this guy Bruckman and a bag of drugs he’s got with him. You’re walking around here like you own the place, ordering my men around, talking on the phone about the ‘football.’ ” He held an imaginary phone up to his face. “Yes, sir, we’re closing in on the football, sir. We’ll have Bruckman and the football any minute now.”