He put his hand up before I could speak.
“I don’t know exactly who is helping them. I’m not going to speculate. But I think I heard a voice in the background. Somebody who didn’t sound like Buck. That’s all I can say right now. When I know something else for sure, I’ll tell you. I promise.”
I leaned back in my chair. I wasn’t sure what else to say.
“Look, you’re an ex-cop,” he said.
“Yes. Long time ago.”
“Doesn’t matter how long, you still think like a cop. I get that. Believe me, I’ll probably be the same way myself when I finally hang it up. But right now, I need you to stay here close to home, and to keep your eyes and ears open. Are we clear?”
“I’m not sure what I’m gonna see or hear. Aside from Vinnie’s truck coming up that road…”
“I’m dead serious, Mr. McKnight. If you see anything suspicious. Somebody you’ve never seen before. You know, just nosing around maybe.”
“Nosing around.”
“Yes. Nosing around. You see somebody like that, I need you to call me.”
“Chief, who are we talking about that would be-”
I stopped myself. I waved it away and made myself take a breath.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll call you if I see anything unusual.”
“Thank you. I’m going to go now. For right now, I’m afraid all we can do is wait.”
He got up. He shook my hand. He put his hat back on and then he left.
I went outside and stood there in the night air. I listened to him drive away. That word still ringing in my ears. Wait. My least favorite word ever.
“Vinnie LeBlanc,” I said. “Wherever you are, you might want to think about staying there. Because the next time I see you I’m going to kick your ass.”
CHAPTER SIX
There was a time when Vinnie and I weren’t speaking to each other. A young Ojibwa woman had asked me to help her, and I tried to do that. But because she was a member of the tribe, it was the tribe who came to her in the middle of the night. They took her away, they helped her, and yeah, I suppose she was probably better off with a whole community on her side instead of one aging ex-cop.
But they didn’t tell me. That was the thing that burned me. I still haven’t forgotten it, and I don’t imagine I ever will. Vinnie wasn’t one of the men who actually stole her away, but he knew about it. He had to know. Even now, if he were here, I could ask him about it one more time and once again he’d try to deny that he had one hundred-percent knowledge of what had happened. But there would be no point in doing that because it would just push us back, closer to that point where we couldn’t be in the same room together.
In the end, we got over it. We got over it the way men get over things, not by talking things out heart to heart but by working on something together. He showed up one day to help me rebuild the cabin at the end of the road. The next day he showed up again. By the time the walls were up, we were talking again and eating dinner at the Glasgow. Which is a good thing because it’s hard to avoid a man when he’s your one and only neighbor.
That feeling, though… Damn it all. That feeling of being the outsider, of being totally excluded from everything that’s going on around you, even if you want to help. Even if you know you can help. That’s the feeling that always stayed with me.
Now here was Vinnie, hiding away somewhere with his wayward cousin. Obviously in some sort of trouble. If the situation were reversed, he’d be the first person I reached out for. We’d been down enough roads together over the years. We’d faced so much trouble. So much death and brutality. Hell, the man had once taken his own blood and painted stripes on my cheeks. Like we were brothers.
So when it’s his turn to be in a real jam, what does he do? He sends a message to the rez. I get it thirdhand, almost as an afterthought. Tell Alex I’m okay. Tell him not to worry. As if he’d even think for one second that would be possible.
Not to worry. I mean, come on.
When the chief’s taillights disappeared down the road, I went inside and sat back down in that same chair. I ran over everything in my head. Finally, when I thought I might punch a hole right through the table, I got up and went through my desk instead and found a business card. I dialed the number.
“Agent Long. What.” The voice of a woman who had been in a deep sleep just a few seconds ago.
“Hi,” I said. “It’s me, Alex. I woke you up, didn’t I?”
“Alex? What time is it?”
“It’s about midnight, I think. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I have to be up in five more hours anyway.”
She laughed, and something came all the way through the phone line, over all those miles, and went right through me. Agent Janet Long of the FBI, stationed in Detroit. We’d spent all of two weeks together, when she had come up here to help track down a killer. When she had left, I had promised to call her sometime. I never did, until now.
You are a goddamned fool, I told myself. All this time you could have reached out, and you pick now, in the middle of the night. Just because you can’t think of anyone else.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have called. I mean, I should have called. But not like this. I should have-”
“It’s okay, Alex. What’s the problem? I can tell you’re upset.”
“I just need to talk to somebody. I’m going to go crazy if I don’t.”
“So talk.”
“You remember Vinnie LeBlanc,” I said.
“Your friend, yes. I met him at that bar.”
“He’s gone. He and his cousin. They’re in some sort of trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“I just broke a promise, by the way. I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. But I figure you don’t count.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“No, I mean, being on the job and all. Which, by the way…”
“Yeah?”
“Tell me everything you know about this thing that happened up here. At the Newberry airport.”
“Whoa,” she said. “Time out. Are you serious?”
“I’m not saying they’re involved. I’m just asking you to tell me what you know, beyond what was in the paper. I know five men were killed, but-”
“Alex, if they’re not involved, why are you asking me this?”
“I can’t see Vinnie having any connection to this, but as far as his cousin goes…”
“Do you think he was there? At the airport?”
“I can’t rule it out. I mean, I didn’t think it was possible, but I guess I don’t know him that well. If he was actually there, well, let’s just say it would explain some things if he was.”
“You need to talk to somebody up there,” she said. “Right away. If you have any information that could-”
“I already have, okay? There’s a new police chief on the rez up here. He was just sitting right here at this table. He knows everything I do, and in fact, hell, he’s the one who received the message from Vinnie.”
“What kind of message?”
“Just that they’re both okay. As if they were, I don’t know, hiding out and figuring out what to do next? I’m not really sure, but that’s the only scenario I can imagine.”
“So you’ve had no contact with Vinnie yourself?”
“No,” I said, tapping my fingers on the table.
“And that bothers you,” she said. “You want to go get yourself right in the middle of it, don’t you?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time. We seem to do that for each other.”
She laughed again.
“This is so weird,” she said. “I was just thinking about this case when I went to bed, and then you wake me up to talk about it. I’m not dreaming, right?”
“So you do know about it.”
“Of course I do. Marijuana flying in from Canada in the middle of the night? People shooting each other?”