“Okay.”
“We did the best we could.”
“I know. Thank you.”
When they were gone, it was just me and a pile of black rubble. The chimney was left standing, the chimney my father built with his hands, stone by stone. It stood alone in the clearing now, looking strangely out of place.
I don’t know how long I waited there, or what I was even waiting for. I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t walk away.
Finally, I did. I took the truck back to my cabin, went inside, and sat down in a chair. I stared at the floor until the phone rang. I looked at the clock. It was 1:42 in the morning.
“McKnight,” the voice said.
“I’m going to kill you,” I said.
“Hold onto those dreams. It’ll keep you young.”
“I swear to you, Blondie. I’m going to kill you.”
“Yeah, we covered that. Have I made my point yet? You guys gonna come through for me or what?”
“There’s nothing to come through with, you stupid fuckhead. I had nothing to do with the robbery, first of all. And even if I did, there was thirty thousand in that safe, and nothing more.”
“I know who Vargas is,” he said. “I know what kind of scam he’s got going on. That’s the only reason I bought into this. What I get for working with amateurs, I guess. Never again, eh? When Seanie gave up his share, that was like the first clue, you know what I mean? He gave it up because he knew there was a lot more. Hell, he might have had it stashed right on his person, underneath that big bag he was wearing. Would’ve taken more balls than I thought he had, but hell, why not? Maybe he did. As soon as your other three friends ended up arrested, it all sort of came together, didn’t it. When I found out who you were, this mystery guest who wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place, it all made sense. I know all about you, McKnight. I thought you acted pretty cool when I had that gun on your head. Now I know why. You knew what the score was that night. You were in on this from the beginning.”
“You got it all wrong, Blondie. Everything you said is totally wrong.”
“Right now, what I really need you to do is understand something, McKnight. You gotta know what you’re dealing with here, eh?”
“I know what you are, Blondie. Believe me, I’ve seen ’em a lot better. Torching a cabin, that’s really chickenshit stuff, you know that? Why don’t you come here and talk to me face to face?”
“Oh, we’ll do that one, McKnight. We’ll most definitely do that one, eh?”
“How about tonight? How about right now?”
“Patience, eh? You Americans, I swear. What you need to do is round up all the money and go to O’Dell’s place. I’ll call you there tomorrow morning at eight o’clock.”
“There is no money, Blondie. Simple as that. When are you gonna get that?”
“I’m thinking Vargas had at least a half million in that safe, McKnight. It might have been more. If it was, I’ll just have to trust you to come through with the rest of it. I know you’re an honorable man. You’re the one with the cool head, too, so I’d appreciate it if you did all the talking tomorrow. We’re gonna do this one out in the open. I mean real open, eh? I suggest you have a boat ready. I’ll be giving you some GPS coordinates for a position out on the lake. That’s where we’ll meet you.”
“I’m not going to be there, Blondie. It ain’t happening.”
“I think you will be, McKnight. I know you’re a lonely old man, with no family, nobody you really care about. Except maybe one person.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I got somebody here you should talk to.”
There was a brief silence on the line, and in that one horrible moment I knew who it would be, before he even spoke. He dropped the men off, then he came back by himself. If he had made it home, he would have called me by now. I was too far out of my head to notice that he hadn’t.
“Alex, it’s me.”
“Jackie. My God. Jackie…”
“I’m sorry, Alex. I’m sorry.”
Chapter Twenty
I picked up Jonathan on my way to O’Dell’s place. He came down the back stairs rubbing his eyes. As soon as he saw me, he knew something was wrong. While he got dressed, I went back out to the parking lot and looked at Jackie’s car. The driver’s side door was still open, the dome light still on. A dozen moths were flying around inside. The night had turned cold.
I told him what I knew as I drove. He listened to me and didn’t say a word. Finally, when I was done, he said, “What are we gonna do?”
“We’re gonna get him back,” I said.
“How?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
When we got to O’Dell’s place, Gill was already there. He was sitting at a table with Bennett and Ham. Margaret was pouring him a cup of coffee. Together they looked like the most tired, most miserable four people in the world. It was almost three in the morning.
When we were all sitting down together, Margaret included, I repeated once again everything Blondie had told me on the phone.
“He wants us to meet him out on the open water?” Bennett said. “How crazy is this guy?”
“How did Jackie sound when you talked to him?” Gill said.
“As good as can be expected,” I said. “Although he didn’t say more than a few words.”
“Why aren’t we calling the police?” Jonathan said.
“We can’t call the police,” Bennett said.
“Why not?”
“They’ll kill him if we do,” Bennett said. “This is between him and us.”
“Fuck that,” Jonathan said. “I’m calling them right now.”
Ham and Bennett both stood up to stop him.
“All right, knock it off,” I said. “Jonathan, sit down. We’ll keep that as a possibility. Although I’m not even sure who we’d call at this point. We don’t know where this is gonna happen, whether it’s Canadian water or American.”
“Hell, the police will just fall all over themselves,” Bennett said. “And probably get Jackie killed. Look what they’ve done so far.”
“Everybody just relax,” I said. “Drink some more coffee. We’ve gotta think of something.”
“I can get some money together,” Bennett said. “But not that much on such short notice. We’re gonna have to tell him we don’t have it yet.”
“He’s not gonna buy that,” I said. “He thinks we have it already, remember?”
“I can get some money,” Gill said. “I can talk to some tribal members.”
“We shouldn’t be paying anybody anything,” Ham said. “We’ve got them outnumbered. All we need is a good plan.”
“Like what?” Jonathan said. “Let’s hear your plan.”
“I don’t have one yet,” Ham said. “I’m just saying…”
“I don’t think it matters if we have the money or not,” I said. “Either way, I don’t think they’re planning on doing this in the middle of the lake and then letting us leave.”
We all sat there for a while thinking about that one. It didn’t do much for the mood.
“Where’s your other son, anyway?” I finally said to Bennett. “Shouldn’t he be here?”
“Why should he be here?”
