It didn’t sound like a lot of fun in the summertime, but when you need your sweat, you need your sweat.
I didn’t want to interrupt anything, but I figured I could be forgiven. I found the one big blanket that served as the doorway and peeked inside. I let in just enough light to see that the lodge was empty, and that the fire was low. Buck was just getting started or just finishing, but either way he wasn’t here at the moment. So I decided I’d come back later. Right now, it was time to go see Vinnie’s sisters again.
Mary LeBlanc Teeple was the older of the two. A little more fair-haired and less classically Indian, and maybe a little quicker to smile at people. Not that it mattered much to me. I knew she didn’t like me that much and she didn’t try real hard to hide it. Never mind that I’d done a few things over the years for her whole family. She seemed to have a short memory when it came to that.
I’d already been there once the day before, of course. Back when I said I was just wondering if Vinnie happened to be around for some lunch. Now I had to go back and tell her I hadn’t seen the man for a day and a half, and that he had missed his first shift back at work. Which was about as un-Vinnie-like as you could imagine.
“I don’t want to alarm you,” I said to her, knowing even as I said it that it’s probably the most alarming thing you could ever hear. “I haven’t seen Vinnie since a couple of days ago, and I’m just trying to make sure he’s okay. Wherever he is.”
“You didn’t say anything about that yesterday.”
“Well, no. Because that was yesterday. He didn’t come back home last night, so I started to get a little worried.”
“Did you check the casino?”
“Yes, I did. He was supposed to be at work yesterday. His first day back.”
“You didn’t mention that, either.”
“I know, I know. I just didn’t want to-” I came to a full stop, amazed at how badly I had done with this in just a matter of seconds. “Look, I know he’s had a tough week. You all have. He probably shouldn’t have gone back to work so soon in the first place.”
“I agree,” she said. “If he lived here, I never would have let him try.”
We were still standing there in the doorway. The kids ran into the house, slipping past us like we were just a pair of obstacles in their great summer game. Mary didn’t even look down at them.
“Look,” I said, “as long as we’re beating up on me, I might as well tell you something else: Vinnie had a lot to drink the other night.”
“My brother doesn’t drink.”
“Yeah, I know. Except maybe when his mother dies.”
I stopped myself again.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I mean your mother. I know it’s been-”
“So you took him out drinking.”
“No, I didn’t. It was his decision. I just kept him company. I was looking after him.”
“Were you drinking with him?”
I hesitated, resisting the urge to say something completely out of line and downright sexist, that her question was the kind of thing only a woman would ask.
“Yes,” I said. “A little bit. Like I said, I was keeping him company.”
“You were keeping him company and drinking with him. And now he’s disappeared. That’s what you came here to tell me.”
“I’m sure he’s fine. I just wanted to know if you’ve heard from him. That’s all.”
“I haven’t. We don’t see that much of him lately. As you know.”
Wow, I thought. A few more minutes of this and I’ll need an ice bag on my face. “If you hear from him, will you have him call me, please? I’ll do the same for you and your sister, I promise.”
“That’s very kind of you,” she said. “I’ll tell Reggie you were thinking of us.”
“That’s okay. I can tell her. I think I’ll go see her right now, too.”
“Oh good, she’ll enjoy that.”
“Listen,” I said, “I mean, come on, Mary.”
“Understand one thing,” she said. “I know it was my brother’s choice to leave the reservation. I don’t blame you for that. I really don’t. But I also know that my brother doesn’t drink alcohol. Ever. Not after what it did to our father. He doesn’t drink, period, end of discussion. So if you’re telling me that this was his choice completely, him just deciding one day to go get drunk… Well, I do not believe you.”
I put up my hands in surrender. I didn’t know what else to say.
“I’ll have him call you if I hear from him,” she said. “I promise.” Then she shut the door in my face.
Well, that was fun, I thought. Now I get to go do it again.
I walked down the street to Regina’s house. Reggie, as her sister called her. She opened the door with the phone in her hand, her sister already briefing her on what was about to come. We had a condensed version of the exact same conversation, with the same punch line. If Vinnie was drinking, it clearly must have been my fault.
Then I got another door shut in my face.
I got back into my truck and spent a full minute just sitting there, my hands tight on the steering wheel. Then I started the engine and took off.
I had one more destination in mind. Up that long hill to Mission Point, the way we came up to the graveyard so Vinnie could talk to his mother one more time. He could be up there again, I told myself. He really could be. Although spending a full day and a half up there seemed a little farfetched.
The place was quiet and empty when I got up there. I stopped the truck and got out, walked over to the overlook, that same view we’d had that night, but brightly lit by the sun now, the lakes below capturing the light and breaking into a thousand little pieces.
“Vinnie,” I said out loud, “where the hell are you?”
It was hours later, the sun gone down, another day nearly out of reach with nothing to show for it. There was a knock on my door. When I opened it, I saw a man in a uniform. I had no idea who he was.
“Mr. McKnight? Can I have a few moments? I’m Chief Benally from the Bay Mills Police Department.”
“Oh, you’re the new man in town,” I said. “Come on in.”
I’d known they had a chief coming in, some high-profile Ojibwa lifer from a tribe out in Wisconsin. This was obviously the man and he did look like he kept his boots shined just right. It’s a strange position, actually, being the chief of a small reservation police department and also being deputized at the county level simultaneously. You have only a handful of officers, and if you arrest someone you have to coordinate with the county and keep the suspect in the holding cells in the Soo. On top of everything else, the community you serve is basically one big extended family, and even your officers are members. I could only imagine how complicated that could get.
I indicated the chairs and offered him something to drink. He declined. He took off his hat and put it on the table in front of him.
“I stopped by Vinnie LeBlanc’s cabin on my way up here,” he said. “Doesn’t look like anybody’s home.”
“No, I haven’t seen him since night before last.”
“So I understand. I had a visit from his sister Mary today.”
“Okay,” I said. “Here we go.”
“She indicated that you and Vinnie were drinking the other night. Is that true?”