“I told ya,” he said. “We got a full jail upstairs. A lot of them are Soo busts, drugs coming over the bridge. We already called the state prison in Kincheloe. They’re gonna see if they can help us out temporarily.”
“Where’s Vinnie?”
“Last cell on the end,” he said. We walked down a narrow corridor that ran the length of the cells. Above us the fluorescent lights were humming and flickering. There was no other light, no awareness of the outside world. “I’d appreciate it if you could talk him into posting bail. I really don’t need him here, Alex.”
“What bail? He’s already been arraigned?”
“Ten thousand dollars,” he said.
“Jesus, Bill.”
“He put a cop in the hospital, Alex. A thousand-dollar bond is all he needs. You know that.”
“Didn’t he call anybody?”
“Nope. He’s just been sitting there since last night.”
“You gotta be kidding me,” I said. When we came to the last holding cell I saw him sitting on one of the benches, staring at the floor. He didn’t look up.
“Vinnie,” I said.
He was silent. There were three other men in the cell, a couple longhairs sitting together on the other bench, trying hard not to look scared. A very large, very ugly man in fatigues standing against the back wall.
“Vinnie,” I said.
Nothing.
“I’ll leave you two to get reacquainted,” Bill said. “Remember, if Maven finds you here, I had nothing to do with it.”
“Thanks, anyway,” I said. When he was gone I pulled up one of the folding chairs that were scattered in the corridor and sat on it. I looked at Vinnie for a long time, waiting for him to do or say something. He didn’t do either.
“All right, Vinnie,” I finally said. “Are you gonna stay in here all winter or am I gonna help you get out of here?”
“I’m gonna stay in here all winter,” he said. When he looked up at me I saw he had nice shiner under his right eye.
“That’s what Indians do,” the man against the back wall said. “They get arrested so they can spend the winter in jail.”
“Thanks for the observation,” I said. “Now go fuck yourself.”
“You wouldn’t be talking like that if there wasn’t no set of bars in the way.”
“You’re right, I wouldn’t,” I said. “I’d be sticking your head down that toilet.”
He smiled. It didn’t do anything for his looks. For the rest of the time I was there, he kept staring at me, his arms folded against his chest.
“All right, tell me what happened,” I said to Vinnie. “And why the hell didn’t you call me?”
“What was I supposed to say?”
“That you were arrested and I should come get you?”
“I couldn’t do that,” he said.
“What about the tribe? They’d bail you out in a second, wouldn’t they?”
“No way,” he said. “There’s no way I’m gonna call the tribe to come bail me out.”
“No, perish the thought,” I said. “It’s so nice in here.”
“No fucking way.”
“So tell me the story, at least.”
“What story?”
“What story. That’s cute. The story of how you got arrested. Start with me leaving you at the bar the other night, and then work your way up to hitting a cop with a hockey stick.”
Vinnie let out a long, tired sigh, rubbed the swelling around his eye. “I didn’t mean to hit that cop, Alex. I didn’t even know he was a cop. He wasn’t in uniform.”
“So what happened?”
“He just got in the way, Alex. I was going after Bruckman.”
“Hold it,” I said. I moved my chair closer to the bars. “Vinnie, this is very important. Tell me everything that happened.”
“After you left the other night, I took a couple of the guys back to the reservation. I was going through town, there’s a gas station on the loop there, I saw Bruckman and some of his friends gassing up their snowmobiles.”
“So they did have snowmobiles,” I said. “But at the bar, they weren’t wearing suits-”
“No, they still didn’t have suits on. Just leather jackets. It’s pretty stupid, but then I’m not surprised.”
“That young woman you saw with them at the bar, was she with them then?”
“Yes,” he said. “She was there.”
“Her name’s Dorothy Parrish.”
“I know,” he said. He looked down at the floor.
“How do you know her, Vinnie? I asked her about you. She said she doesn’t know you at all.”
He let out a burst of air. I might have taken it for a laugh if he wasn’t sitting in a jail cell. “I’m not surprised,” he said.
“I don’t get it,” I said.
“Alex, I’ve known Dorothy Parrish since I was a little kid. She was a couple of years older than me. In high school, she was…” He shook his head. “She was so pretty, first of all. And a really good student. And popular. Everybody loved her. All the guys were hanging around her all the time. The white guys, I mean. The football players. She was the first girl from the tribe to be homecoming queen, did you know that?”
“I take it the two of you didn’t hang around together.”
“No,” he said. “Not hardly. Back then, the reservation was a bunch of shacks. It must have still been that way when you first came up here. You must have seen it.”
“Yes, I remember.”
“I suppose things are a lot better now, but back then… a lot of other kids from the tribe… well, it was hard. But not for Dorothy. She was the exception. When she was at school, at least.”
“Did you hate her for that?”
“Hate her?” he said. “I think Dorothy Parrish was the first girl I ever loved. As much as you can love somebody when you’re sixteen years old and she doesn’t even know your name. Or want to know your name. I would have just reminded her of where she came from. Where she had to go home to every night. She couldn’t wait to graduate and get out of town.”
“Why do you think she came back?” I said.
“I can’t even imagine why,” he said. “She hated this place so much. I never saw her again until the other night.”
“Vinnie,” I said. “She came to the Glasgow. She was looking for me. She wanted me to help her get away from Bruckman.”
He looked at me without saying anything.
“She stayed with me last night,” I said. “In one of the other cabins, I mean. This morning, she was gone. I think Bruckman took her.”
He closed his eyes. “Oh, no,” he said. “Please no.”
“What happened with Bruckman? You said you saw him at the gas station.”
“Yes,” he said. “Dorothy was sitting on one of the snowmobiles. She was right underneath one of the lights. I could see her face. She looked so cold sitting there. So miserable. Bruckman came over to her and started yelling at her. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she started… God, Alex, she was just cringing. And then he pushed her off the back of the snowmobile. She got up and went into the store next to the gas station. When she came out all the guys were ready to go. She just stood there in front of the door for a long time, and then she got on the back of Lonnie’s snowmobile and they took off. So I followed them, Alex. I don’t know why. I just had to. I couldn’t leave. Jimmy and Buck were in the back seat, but they were totally out of it. I followed Bruckman and his gang down the loop. They were riding right next to the road, so it was easy. They took a right on a little trail that goes
