“They really came back,” I said. “If they had any sense, they’d be five hundred miles away by now.”
“If they came back,” Lou said, “then where are they?”
We heard the noise from around the corner. Lou broke first, but I caught up to him and was the first man to find Buck standing at the door to the barn. I stood there looking at the same horrible sight, and a few seconds later Lou and Vinnie had the misfortune of showing up behind us. We’d all surely see it in our nightmares, for the rest of our lives. Harry and Josephine Kaiser, both strung up and hanging from the rafters of the barn, their feet just inches from the ground. The ropes around their chests, cinched under their armpits, holding them aloft without choking them. Giving Corvo the chance to take his time with them.
They’d been here for hours. The blood had stopped draining from their bodies. One of the chickens lay dead on the ground. I didn’t see any of the others.
I pulled Buck away from the door. Vinnie followed us, but Lou stayed behind.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!” I called to him. “Right now.”
He stood there looking through the doorway for a few more seconds. Then he caught up to us as we all got back into the vehicle.
“This is who we’re dealing with,” he said as I whipped the car around and headed back down the driveway. “This is the kind of thing these guys do.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Nobody said anything for a while. I made myself stick to the speed limit. Buck was holding on to his knees, leaning forward like he was about to throw up.
“That would have been us,” Vinnie said from the backseat. It was the first time he had spoken since we’d left Charlevoix. “Both of us.”
“There’s no such thing as ‘would have,’” I said. “It didn’t happen. That’s all that matters. You’re safe now. We’re all safe.”
Not quite true, I thought. But I still wasn’t ready to drop that on him.
When we hit Cadillac, I found the same auto-glass shop again. Vinnie’s truck was out in the parking lot, its windshield fully restored. Lou went in to talk to the man while I stayed outside with my cell phone. I called Janet Long and she answered on the first ring.
“Alex, I was trying to call you back yesterday. What happened?”
There was a joke there about being tied up, but I wasn’t about to say it.
“I’ve got something to tell you,” I said. “You have to listen very carefully. I’m going to give you an address just outside of Cadillac. There are two dead bodies in the barn. A man and a woman.”
“Alex, stop right there. You need to go to the local police immediately.”
“We’re on our way back to the UP right now, and that’s the first place we’ll go, I promise. You just need to send somebody over there now.”
“What the hell is going on up there? There were two dead men found in Sault Ste. Marie just a couple of days ago. Are we talking about the same perpetrator?”
“The same perp,” I said, smiling grimly at the cop talk. “It’s a man out of Chicago named Corvo, if you want to know the truth. Although I don’t imagine you could tie it to him just yet.”
“What was that name?”
“Corvo. You know who I’m talking about?”
There was a silence on the line.
“Alex, you have to go to the police right this second,” she said. “The nearest station you can find. You may be in some serious danger.”
You don’t know the half of it, I thought, and then that’s when I had to make my choice. I flashed back on what Mr. White had said to me. If you try to set up Corvo, he’ll smell it from a mile away. Then every family member of every man involved, every single one of them, dies in a river of blood.
“You’re the only person I can trust with this,” I said. “So let me ask you a question. If you’re putting together a case on Corvo-”
“I didn’t say that. I just said you-”
“Needed to go to a station right away because I might be in big danger. I got that part, okay? I heard you. Obviously you wouldn’t be saying that if you didn’t know about this guy. And you wouldn’t know about this guy unless he was on your radar. Look, I’m not asking you to tell me any secrets. Just give me a general idea here. Are you close to moving on him?”
Another silence.
“Janet, are you there?”
“I’m here.”
“There’s a good chance I’ll be seeing him again. Soon. I need to know if there’s any chance of you putting him away. Like maybe even with my help.”
“This is insane,” she said. “You cannot be involved in this.”
“Too late. I’m already involved.”
I heard her let out a long breath. “I need to go talk to somebody, Alex. I’ll call you back as soon as I can, all right?”
“Okay. I’ll be here. Thank you.”
I ended the call, just in time to see Lou coming out of the glass shop. I figured that meant we were ready to go, but he stopped me and waved over Vinnie and Buck.
“I have something to ask,” he said, “from all three of you. When we get back up north, I know the police are going to be asking a lot of questions. I know Alex said we should tell the truth. But in my case, I’m afraid that even the truth might get me into a lot of trouble.”
“It was all justified,” I said. “It was self-defense.”
“Let me finish, Alex. If the police start asking me questions and they find out who I really am, I’m going to have a big problem. I’m a convicted felon, remember? I’m technically still on parole?”
“There’s no ‘technically’ about it,” I said. “You’re either on parole or you’re not.”
“Okay, I’m on parole. If they find out back in Nevada that I’m mixed up in this? Never mind if anything I did was justified or not, it’s gonna hang me up for a long time just trying to explain what happened. As you can imagine, I’m not accustomed to getting any breaks when it comes to the police.”
Vinnie shook his head and for a second I thought he was going to turn and walk away. But he stayed put and kept staring at the ground.
“I hope Alex will agree I’ve been good to have around this week. If I get sent back to Nevada today, I lose any ability to keep helping you.”
“I’m getting a headache again,” Vinnie said. “Can we get going now?”
“I’ll drive the rental car,” Lou said. “You guys go with Alex in Vinnie’s truck. All I’m asking is that you guys leave me out of the story. Okay? That’s all I’m asking.”
“Fine,” Vinnie said. “You weren’t here. I can live with that.”
“He helped save our lives today,” Buck said. “Come on, give the man a break.”
“It’s okay,” Lou said to Buck. “We still need some time to sort things out.”
Vinnie and Buck got into the truck. It was a tight fit sitting three across, but we’d been through a lot worse. I gave Lou a nod and told him I’d see him back in Paradise.
Vinnie sat in the middle. I could see him trying to focus, until he finally gave up and closed his eyes. I didn’t want to disturb him. Let the man rest, I thought.
I looked at my watch. About twenty-four hours had passed since I’d been given my little assignment. We were halfway to the deadline and I still hadn’t told them that Corvo considered them both walking dead men.
Buck didn’t seem too happy about it, but I drove right to the Bay Mills Tribal Police Station. I figured we might as well get right into the fun part of the day. Chief Benally made us all wait in the lobby while he called in a detective from the Michigan State Police post in the Soo. Some of this reached beyond Chippewa County, after all. I recognized the man who showed up. I knew him well enough to nod hello to, anyway. Chief Benally and the detective took Buck into the interview room first. Then Vinnie. Then it was my turn.