“Feet together,” he said. “Slightly off the floor.”
The second zip tie was a little bigger. He was able to slip it around my feet and pull it tight. This was not the first time he had done this. Probably not even the first time today. Wherever Vinnie and Buck were, I was pretty sure they were wearing the exact same things.
“Okay, now what?” he said.
She just looked at him until the light bulb finally went on. He stripped out of his wet suit right there on the deck, down to a tight little Speedo swimsuit. He was in decent shape for his age, but it still didn’t exactly flatter him. There was a key on a plastic lanyard wrapped around his wrist. He took that off and tossed it on top of the wet suit.
“All right, I’m gonna go have a quick chat with Mr. Olympia here,” the woman said. “Sugarpie’s gonna keep you company.”
The tie around my ankles was even tighter than the one around my wrists. I couldn’t have gotten up out of the chair even if the house had been on fire. But Sugarpie pulled up the other chair right in front of me and sat down. He folded his arms and watched me. All I could do was sit there and look at his tattoos. A dragon and some barbwire around the biceps, all brilliantly original work. Some birds and some Chinese characters, and for some reason a clock on his chest with the hands at twelve and three.
I got tired of looking at his ugly skin and his ugly face. So I put my head down for a while and just hoped to God that Vinnie and Buck were still alive.
Dumpling came back up the steps and onto the deck.
“I couldn’t find the zip ties,” he said. “We’re gonna have to-”
He stopped dead when he saw me trussed up like a turkey.
“Your turn to watch him,” Sugarpie said. “I need a little smoke.”
Dumpling took his place in the chair, giving me a whole new set of tattoos to study if I wanted to. This guy had more space to work with, but he obviously hadn’t spent the money. Half of his ink was cheap stuff that looked like it had been drawn by a kindergartner.
The sliding door opened again. Harry and Jo came back out.
“Okay, Alex,” she said, her voice different now. Like I was their houseguest and she had kept me waiting way too long. “Here’s what we’ve decided. It’s good news.”
She paused and looked to her husband for confirmation. He just stood there. His hair was still wet.
“Harry’s gonna go put on some clothes,” she said. “Then we’re going to go for a drive. Have you ever been to Beaver Island before?”
“Where are Vinnie and Buck?” I said.
“I’ll take that as a no. In which case, we really need to take you on the tour. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
She looked at me with her eyebrows raised, like she actually expected an answer.
“Harry, go get dressed,” she said to him, “and boys, put your shirts on. You look like a couple of monkeys.”
“Where are they?” I said. “God damn all of you.”
Dumpling looked up at her to see if she was offended, but she just smiled at him and gestured for him to get up and put his shirt on. He shrugged and then hauled himself to his feet. Sugarpie had picked up the joint and was busy smoking it down to nothing. Dumpling gave him a look and grabbed his shirt off the railing.
When Harry finally came back out, his hair was dry and it was sticking out in both directions. He had glasses on now, and the overall effect was that of an eccentric English professor. The kind who sells marijuana by the planeload and who knows how to zip tie your hands and feet.
“Okay, it’s time to go,” Jo said. She still had the gun, of course. Something told me she wouldn’t have trusted her husband with it. Not for a second.
Harry cut the zip tie from my ankles. He left the tie around my wrists. They led me off the deck, all four of them, to the driveway. I looked around for some way to distract them. Some way to escape. I didn’t see any opportunity. None at all.
Harry opened the back door and motioned for me to get in. Sugarpie got in behind me, and then Dumpling squeezed himself in on the other side. Then Harry got behind the wheel and Jo sat beside him. She didn’t bother pointing the gun at me, and I didn’t blame her. What the hell was I gonna do?
“Time to go set you free,” she said in a voice as cheerful as an icicle. “Just like a little bird.”
Then we were off. It was a beautiful, picture-perfect day on the island, and I was being driven to my own execution.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
They drove back into town first, right back to the dock. I looked out the window, trying desperately to catch sight of Lou. But he was off the ferry and it was getting ready to head back to Charlevoix now. Lou might have been a block away, walking around, looking for me, but there was no way for me to know. Even if I’d seen him, what could I have done? With these men on either side of me, how could I have drawn his attention?
Harry stopped at the edge of the dock entrance. He and Jo got out. All of a sudden both of the back doors were open and I could see daylight on either side. Freedom just a few feet away. But then Sugarpie closed his door and stood there talking to Harry. Jo still had the other door open and she gave Dumpling a kiss right on the mouth that lasted at least three seconds. Something a little strange going on there, if I had bothered to think about it. She gave him the gun and he weighed it in his hand for a moment before pointing it right at my gut. He was smiling and wearing just a touch of Jo’s lipstick.
Jo came around to the other side of the vehicle as Sugarpie took Harry’s place behind the wheel. She leaned and gave Sugarpie another three-second kiss on the mouth.
“Remember,” she said, “if you’re not back here in time to catch the ferry, just take the next one. We’ll take your car from Charlevoix and go on ahead. We’ll be waiting for you.”
“Why can’t you just wait for us?” Sugarpie said. “We can all go on the last ferry together.”
“You’ll be okay. You’re big boys.”
“I don’t think you should go to the house alone. What if Corvo shows up?”
“He’s got no reason to do that, Sugarpie. We’re all square now.”
Not that it’s any consolation to me, I thought, but those two are in for a real surprise today. Corvo already did show up, and he’s got quite a flair for redecorating.
“I don’t like it,” Sugarpie said. “I think you should wait for us.”
“You just hush your mouth,” she said, patting him on the cheek. “You got money for something to eat?”
“Yeah, I got money.”
“Okay, then we’ll see you on the other side.” She gave him another kiss and then she closed the door. As Sugarpie drove off, I caught one more glimpse of the two of them. Harry waving, Jo blowing more kisses in the air. Then we were on the road out of town, riding south.
I kept looking for Lou. Here now at least I’d have the chance to catch his attention. Bang my head against the glass, let him see me. Whatever it took. But I never saw him.
As they drove me down the coast, eventually turning into the interior of the island, I started to wonder if I had made a big mistake. Maybe I should have made my stand there at the house, told them I knew they weren’t going to shoot me. Not right there on the porch. Not in cold blood. Maybe they would have balked if I had done that.
Or maybe they wouldn’t have. These were some seriously deranged people, that much was clear now. Maybe Harry would have taken the gun and shot me, just to prove something to Josephine. Or maybe she would have done it herself. Hell, every time I looked her in the eye, I felt like I was seeing something fundamentally defective, like somebody had forgotten to install all the circuit boards in the factory. I had a sick feeling that she could have shot me without thinking twice about it. Then gone inside and taken a nice afternoon nap.