to tell her about my meeting with Vargas-we never did get around to talking about Leon.
“Is he home?” I said.
“No, he isn’t,” she said. “I don’t know where he is.”
“Was he gone all day?”
“Ever since this morning, yes. He left the house with a real black cloud over his head, Alex. I’ve never seen him like this. I thought he was supposed to be loving this private investigator thing.”
“Tell him to call me,” I said. “As soon as he gets in, no matter how late.”
She promised she would, and wished me a good night.
Leon never called.
The next morning, I worked out on the hard floor of my cabin, doing push-ups, sit-ups, whatever else I could think of. Then I went outside and ran down my road, all the way to the end and back. I was glad it was a deserted old logging road, with nobody around to see me walk the last quarter mile. I went inside and hit the shower. Then I went down to Jackie’s place.
As soon as I reached the main road, I saw the police cars. As I got closer, I saw more and more of them. They were all parked in Jackie’s lot. Maybe ten of them, maybe twelve. I couldn’t count at that point. I could barely think.
I pulled off to the side of the road, just before his lot began. I got out of the truck and walked to the front door of the place. I saw Soo police cars on one side, Michigan state police on the other. I was about ten feet from the door when a state trooper stepped right in front of me. He put his hands up like he was going to have to catch me.
“This building is closed, sir. You’re going to have to step back.”
“What happened?” I said.
“Please, sir. Nobody’s allowed on these premises. You’re going to have to leave.”
“Tell me what’s going on,” I said. “Where’s Jackie?” My imagination ran through all of the possibilities, none of them good. My stomach felt like it had been turned inside-out.
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you again…”
“The owner is my friend,” I said. “Just tell me what happened.”
The trooper looked to the sky. He was just a kid, no more than twenty years old. “Your friend has not been harmed,” he said. “I hope that puts your mind at ease, sir. Now, please…”
The front door opened, and out stepped Roy Maven.
“Maven, what the hell’s going on here?” I said.
“Take it easy, McKnight. Unless you’d rather spend the rest of the day sitting in the back of a squad car…”
“Where’s Jackie?”
“He’s inside,” he said, stepping up next to the kid. “I’ll take care of this gentleman, Trooper. Thanks for the help.”
“I want to see him,” I said.
“You can’t do that. He’s under arrest.”
“Under arrest? For what?”
“Receiving stolen goods, for one,” he said. “Conspiracy to commit armed robbery. We’ll see what else comes up.”
I stood there and looked at him, the hot sun bouncing off the police cars. I waited for it to make sense. It didn’t happen.
“Maven, this is insane. This is something Vargas did, right? Is that what this is about? Because I gotta tell ya-”
“The only thing Vargas did was get himself robbed at gunpoint,” he said. “We served a search warrant to your friend Mr. Connery a couple of hours ago. We’ve already found one of the stolen items hidden in his bedroom.”
“What? What did you find?”
“At this very moment, we’re also executing search warrants against Bennett O’Dell and Gill LaMarche. All three of them will be taken down to the station and charged within the hour. As a material witness I should advise you that you’ll be contacted soon for more questioning. I think that’s about all I need to say right now.”
It took a little while to absorb that. All three of them, arrested. “Why are you here?” I finally said. “The other two are in your town. Why are you out here in Paradise? To rub my face in it?”
“This is a Soo case, McKnight. You know that. I came out to this one because I knew you’d show up eventually. You’d want to know what the hell was going on and nobody would tell you. Which means you’d get all tangled up with some poor trooper and you’d end up getting arrested yourself. With me here, I can at least tell you what you need to know, and save you some embarrassment. That’s why I’m here, McKnight, not because I’m getting any enjoyment out of telling you this.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m sure this is breaking your heart.”
“Hey, I’m trying to give you something here. I know this must be frustrating, seeing your best friend arrested.”
“If you’ve got a warrant,” I said, “you had to have something to give you probable cause. What is it? What did Vargas come up with?”
“I told you, this isn’t Mr. Vargas’s doing. Beyond that, you know I can’t discuss the details of this case.”
“Tell me,” I said.
He let out a long breath, took his hat off, and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. “Well,” he said, “I suppose you’re gonna find out pretty soon anyway.”
“Find out what?”
“We’ve got a videotape, McKnight. We’ve got the whole thing, in living color.”
“What are you talking about? How in the world did you-”
I stopped. Somehow, I knew what he was going to say, before he said it.
“We got the videotape from your ex-partner,” he said. “Good old Leon Prudell.”
Chapter Nine
I wanted to do something, get in the way, demand to talk to somebody, tell them they were making a mistake. But I knew I’d be about as effective as Vargas’s little dog, barking and nipping at their heels, without changing a damned thing. So I just sat there waiting in my truck, the windows down so I didn’t suffocate in the heat, watching the cops go in and out of Jackie’s place. At one point, Jackie was led out the front door. He was blinking in the sudden glare of the sun, his hands in cuffs. I got out of the truck and stood there watching as they took him to one of the Soo police cars. What could I do?
They opened the back door for him. He looked up just before he got in, caught my eye, and gave me a look that I couldn’t quite figure out. I’ve seen a lot of people taken away in a squad car. First-timers look completely stunned and defeated, the way an animal looks when a lion has it by the throat. Career criminals, on the other hand, try to look cool about it, like it’s no more than a taxi ride. Jackie didn’t look like either one of those. Hell, he almost looked like he was amused by it all. He gave me a little smile and a nod before he bent his head down and slid into the car.
I resisted the urge to follow them all the way to the police station. I knew it would take a while to process him, and even longer if they tried to question him. The best thing I could do at that moment was stick around and try to find his son, make sure he was okay, and ask him if Jackie had a good lawyer.
The cops were there about another hour. The state troopers left first, then the Soo police. The last man out apparently had the key to the place. He locked the door and tested it to make sure it was shut tight, and then he and his partner got in their vehicle and kicked up some gravel on their way out of the parking lot. With everybody gone, the place had an eerie calm to it. The only sounds came from the bees buzzing in the wildflowers on the edge of the parking lot, and the waves breaking on the rocks a hundred yards away.
