thought.
But I couldn’t escape it. Even when Leon was gone and I spent my last night in the hospital, I couldn’t stop asking myself the same question over and over.
I knew Dorothy was in trouble. She was mixed up with some bad people, and she came to me because she didn’t know what to do next. She had obviously made some mistakes, but beyond that I thought she was just an innocent victim. That’s the part that got to me that night. It’s what made me feel so bad when she was taken from my cabin. It’s what drove me to go out looking for her. But if that bag she was carrying around was full of speed or coke or God knows what, then what did that say about her?
And after all I had been through in the last few days, what did that say about me?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I left the hospital on a Thursday morning, after three nights on the machine and one more night just to make sure my ribs were going to stay put. The doctor took one more X ray, gave me strict orders to do nothing more strenuous than drive home and go to bed for a couple more days, and then I was a free man.
The wind was waiting for me as I stepped out the front door of the hospital. It hit me across the face with a blast of air so cold it made my eyes water. Vinnie was sitting in my truck.
“Welcome back,” he said as I eased myself in. “How d’ya feel?”
“Cold,” I said. Even with the heater going, the car seat felt like a slab of ice.
“The wind chill is minus forty today,” he said as he put it in gear. “I say we point this truck south and keep driving until we run out of gas money.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I eat breakfast,” I said. “I mean real food.”
“Jackie’s waiting for you,” he said. “Soon as you drop me off at the casino. My car wouldn’t start this morning.”
“Some day I’ll get this window fixed,” I said. It felt strange to be sitting on the wrong side of my own truck, especially with the cold air whistling through the plastic.
“I saw your man Leon this morning,” he said. “He looked like he hadn’t slept in three days. He came into Jackie’s for a cup of coffee. When he saw me he took me outside and told me he was checking on a couple guys at one of the motels. I’m supposed to tell you that he’s already working on the other, what did he say, the other individuals at large in Canada.”
“He’s something else,” I said.
“Alex, don’t you think he’s a little weird?”
“Just drive,” I said. “I’m too hungry to talk.”
As the snow blew across the road, it swirled in an ever-changing pattern, hypnotizing me as I watched it. I wrapped my coat tight around my body and leaned back in the seat. Somehow I dozed off, even with the cold wind in my ear. When I opened my eyes again, we were just coming to the Bay Mills Reservation. Even on a freezing cold Thursday morning in the middle of January, the casino parking lot was mostly full.
“Thanks for picking me up,” I said as he opened the door.
“Watch out for snowmobiles,” he said.
I slid over and took the wheel. My head started to hurt again as I concentrated on the road, but I thought about Jackie’s omelets and that kept me going. On the main road into Paradise, I looked for the Brass Anchor Motel on the left. There it was, just after the welcome sign. It was a simple string of doors, maybe eight units in all. A dark green Jeep was parked at the end closest to the road.
Alex is back in town, boys.
The Glasgow Inn was mostly empty. It was late in the morning, so the snowmobilers were already out on the trails. Although how the hell they could ride around out there all day in this weather was beyond me. It hurt just to think about it.
“Good God Almighty,” Jackie said when he saw me. “If you aren’t the ugliest thing that ever walked in here.”
“Nice to see you too,” I said. “I need an omelet with the works.”
“Too late for breakfast,” he said. “Kitchen’s closed.”
“Jackie, even with two broken ribs, I will kill you with my bare hands if you don’t get your ass in that kitchen.”
“Go sit by the fire,” he said. “I suppose you want the paper and a Bloody Mary, too.”
“You’re a good man, Jackie. God will reward you some day.”
He shot me a funny look on his way through the kitchen door. I pulled a chair close to the fireplace and threw another log on. When I was settled in, I promised myself that I wouldn’t move from that spot for the next week.
When Jackie came back with the food, he stood over me for a long time, looking down at me.
“What is it?” I said.
“Seriously, are you gonna be all right? You look like shit”
“That’s how I feel,” I said. “But yes, I’m gonna be all right.”
“I got a case of Molson waiting for you,” he said. “Just let me know.”
“Bless you,” I said.
He gave me another funny look and left me to myself. I sat there in the chair and watched the fire. The wind kept blowing outside. An hour later, I finally got off my lazy ass long enough to use the bathroom. While I was up I went over to the window and pulled the curtains open, looked out at some snowmobiles buzzing by and then down the road toward the Brass Anchor Motel. I could just see the corner of the sign through the trees.
This is insane, Alex. There are two men holed up in that motel, waiting for you to do something. And you’re holed up here in the bar doing absolutely nothing, waiting for somebody else to find out who they are and why they’re watching you.
I went to the bar and grabbed the phone. When I reached the sheriff’s office, I asked for Bill. He wasn’t in. I left a message for him to call me at the Glasgow Inn. I went back to my chair by the fire for all of two minutes and then I got back up and picked up the phone again.
What was that number? I couldn’t remember it. It might have changed by now, anyway. It’s been over fourteen years. I called Information in Detroit, asked for the number for my old precinct. When I had the receptionist on the line, I went through every name I could think of-my old sergeant, a couple detectives, every officer I could think of. None of them were in the precinct anymore. I asked to talk to the desk sergeant on duty. When she switched me over, I tried to explain to him that I was a former officer, and that I needed to run a license plate. He wasn’t buying it. I couldn’t blame him.
I walked around the room a couple times, went back to the window and looked down the road again. Then I remembered a couple more names of old police officers I had worked with. I went back to the phone and tried them out on the receptionist. Nothing. Everybody I had worked with, they were all gone. I wondered if most of them were even cops anymore.
My old partner, I didn’t have to wonder about.
Leon came in a little while later, letting in a cold blast of air as he opened the door. You wouldn’t confuse the man with a GQ model to begin with, but now he looked horrible. His unruly red hair was even more of a mess than usual, and the rings under his eyes made me wonder if he had slept at all in the last three days. He looked even worse than I did.
“What the hell happened to you?” I said.
“I’ve been working, Alex. I’ve been looking for Bruckman. I just wanted to swing by, check on our friends at the motel, see how you’re doing.” He came over to the bar and sat on a stool.
“Have you slept, for God’s sake?”
“Here and there,” he said. “In the car. I’ve been trying to hit the stores and restaurants during the day, and then again during the evening, along with the bars.”
“What, are you crazy? Where have you been-”
“In Canada,” he said. “Remember? We know he’s probably in Canada somewhere.”
