When I could see again, I saw that it was Bennett holding the flashlight. His other hand was wrapped around the long barrel of a deer rifle. Ham stood next to him, with another flashlight and another rifle. They were flanked by Jackie and Gill, each with yet another rifle. I recognized Jackie’s as an old Winchester lever action he had lying around. It hadn’t been fired in years.
I tried hard to breathe. “Start talking,” I said.
“The door fell on you,” Bennett said.
“What are you doing here?”
“We blew it right off the hinges. Thing must weigh a hundred pounds.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Ham, get him off the ground.” His son tried to pick me up. I slapped him away and got up on my own.
“How’d you find us?” Bennett said.
“Easy, I followed the idiot tracks. Now are you gonna tell me what’s going on?”
“We were supposed to meet Blondie here,” he said. “He was supposed to be here an hour ago.”
“And you were all sitting here with fucking deer rifles? Waiting to shoot him? Look at you guys.”
“What else are we gonna do, Alex? He’s the one who’s making this happen.”
“Jackie,” I said, looking him in the eye. “Look at you. And you, Gill.”
“You weren’t supposed to be here,” Jackie said. “This isn’t your problem. Why did you come here?”
“Knock it off, okay? You’ve been pushing me away since this whole mess started. And I hope you cleaned that old gun, for God’s sake. I’m surprised it didn’t blow up right in your hands.”
“I was going to call you,” Bennett said. “Jackie made sure I didn’t. He’s just looking out for you.”
“Why were you going to call me, Bennett? So I could come join your little posse? Did you actually think he’d fall for this? Why didn’t you just tell him to go to the shooting range? Here, go stand down there, right in front of that target? How dumb do you think this guy is?”
“Alex, it was his idea.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He picked this place,” Bennett said. “He told me to be here at nine o’clock. Actually both of us.”
“Who, you and me?”
“That’s what he said. Make sure you bring the money, and Alex.”
“He was just playing you,” I said. “There’s no way he’d walk into this. He was seeing what you’d do. Hell, he may be out there right now, watching us.”
Bennett walked out the open doorway, into the night. He stood on the dock, looking out at the river. At this point it was a good two miles across. The lights of Soo, Canada burned in the distance. “You really think he’s out there? On a boat or something?”
“If he is, you certainly put on quite a show for him.”
“Fuck,” he said. “That son of a bitch.”
“Bennett, this guy’s a pro. He’s been playing around with you. With all of us. He wants that money.”
“There is no money. I told him that.”
“He doesn’t believe you.”
“What are we gonna do?”
“Where’d you guys park?” I said.
“There’s a lot down by the bridge,” he said. “Jackie picked us up at the bar. Why?”
“You should take everybody home, Jackie. Margaret’s worried out of her head, not to mention being short- handed on a Saturday night. I’m gonna get back up to Paradise. I got a bad feeling all of a sudden.”
“Why?” Jackie said. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just thinking, maybe he’s not out on that river. Maybe he had another reason to get us out here.”
“What, you mean to draw us away?”
“I hope I’m wrong,” I said. “Go make sure Margaret’s okay. I’ll call her on the cell phone. And Jonathan, too.”
We all walked back out of the alley together. The four men all jumped into the bed of my truck and I took them back up Portage Street to the parking lot. It occurred to me as I was driving, all I need now is a police car stopping us. He’d find four men in the back, all with recently-fired rifles. Three of them would even have open bail bonds. That’s all we’d need to make the evening complete.
I dropped them off at Jackie’s car, then headed back east to Paradise. I caught a look at myself in the rearview mirror. I was filthy with all the dust and other crap from the floor of that building, that on top of all the bruises I already had going. I was definitely not pretty.
I called Margaret, and was glad to hear her voice when she answered. I told her Bennett and Ham would be there any minute now. Then I called Jonathan.
“I’m on my way,” I said. “Jackie’ll be a few minutes behind me.”
“What did he get mixed up in this time?” Jonathan said.
“You don’t want to know. Have you seen the blond guy again? The one who left you the torn-up hundred?”
“I haven’t, no.”
“If you do, call me right back,” I said. “I’ll see you soon.”
I hung up and took a deep breath. Everybody was in one piece, at least for the moment. “What are you up to, Blondie?” I said. “What the hell’s your game?”
When I hit town, the Glasgow Inn was a welcome sight. I’d go in and wash my face in the bathroom, have a couple of cold Canadians. By the time Jackie got here, I’d almost be ready to forgive him for being such a jackass.
As I pulled into the parking lot, another pickup truck came roaring by, right behind me. I opened my door, stepped out, looked up the road, and then up into the night sky. I saw a great black dragon rising above the treeline, obscuring the silver clouds behind it, the stars, the moon.
Smoke.
That was one of the volunteer firemen racing by. He was headed north.
I got back into the truck and sprayed gravel. When I turned onto my service road, I was expecting to see the fire truck parking in front of my cabin. It wasn’t.
“What the hell’s going on?” I said. Then it hit me.
I kept driving down the road, all the way to the end, to the last cabin. As soon as I turned around the last bend, I saw the truck. Paradise Volunteer Fire. A bright flume of water hung in the sky, lit by the floodlights from the truck. There were seven or eight other vehicles all spread around the place. One of the men looked back at me as I got out. He had his rubber boots on, his fire hat, but no coat.
Flames. There were flames, orange and yellow and blue.
“Mr. McKnight,” he said.
I didn’t hear him. I walked past him, toward the cabin. I got so close I could feel the heat on my face.
“Mr. McKnight! Stand back from there!”
I felt myself being pulled backward. I kept staring into the flames. This was my father’s masterpiece, the best thing he ever built, and the last.
It was burning up before my eyes.
Three hours passed. It was well after midnight when the firemen left. They didn’t want to leave anything hot, not with all the dry brush around. “Last thing we want is a forest fire,” the man said. “Do you have any idea how this happened?”
I didn’t have anything to say to him. I just stood there and watched the men as they soaked the remains of the cabin with a fine spray of water, back and forth, back and forth. The water hung in the air and collected on my face, but I didn’t wipe it off. I clenched my hands into fists, released them, and then clenched again, over and over.
“This thing went up fast, Mr. McKnight. Please don’t touch anything until the arson investigator gets here.”
“I won’t,” I said.
“We’ll be back tomorrow to make sure nothing’s smoking.”
