It took us a good two hours to clear Whitefish Point. The sun came out and warmed our backs as we rode the waves. A freighter went by us, heading the opposite way, toward the locks. The sound of the motor, the constant rise and fall of the deck, the spray in our faces-it all became mind-numbing, almost hypnotic. I looked at the GPS read-out on the console. We were approaching 47 degrees north, and 85 degrees west. The coordinates were still more than an hour away.
This was the biggest lake in the world, over thirty thousand square miles of open water, bigger than a few states. It all made terrible sense, why Blondie would bring us out here. Nobody would see us. There was no law out here, no consequences. And the lake was deep enough to hide a dead man. Or two dead men. Or three. You just dump them overboard and they disappear forever.
As we passed the 47th parallel, Vargas started to hang back further and further behind us. Soon his boat was no more than a speck on the horizon.
“We’re almost there!” Bennett said, looking at the GPS.
I picked up the binoculars and looked ahead of us.
There. I saw the boat. It was too far away to see any details, but it was there. Time to get ready.
I took my revolver out and put it on the shelf behind the gunwale. It would be easier to get to that way. I looked in the binoculars again. It was a big boat, about the same size as Vargas’s. It looked like it was pointed away from us. I could make out one man standing at the back rail, and it looked like he was holding a serious weapon-some sort of assault weapon, no doubt. A real one.
I untied the anchor from its rope and tied it onto the handle of the money bag.
“What are you doing?” Bennett yelled.
“They’re gonna shoot us as soon as we’re in range!” I said. “Unless I give them a reason not to!”
We got closer. Bennett throttled down to half speed. The man at the back rail was watching us through his own pair of binoculars. It was Blondie’s brother. I couldn’t see Blondie yet. Or Jackie.
“Show time!” I said. I put Leon’s video watch on my left wrist, then turned it on. An image appeared on the monitor-first the sky, then the side of the boat. I grabbed the bag and the anchor.
My hands were shaking.
Chapter Twenty-two
I held the bag out over the rail, with the anchor on the outside. I wanted them to see it. I wanted them to know one simple fact right away-if they shot me, the money would end up taking a bath, in about five hundred feet of water.
I saw Blondie’s brother holding the gun in one hand now, and waving at me with the other. It looked like he was yelling something, but I couldn’t hear it over the sound of the motor.
“Bring it in easy,” I said to Bennett, without turning to look at him.
“Where’s Jackie?” he said. “I don’t see Jackie!”
“He’s gotta be there,” I said, mostly to myself. “Come on, Jackie. Where the hell are you?”
As we came closer, I could hear what Blondie’s brother was saying. “Get back from the rail! Move back or I’ll shoot!”
“Go right ahead!” I yelled back. “You shoot and this money goes right to the bottom of the lake!”
He looked over his right shoulder. There, in the shade of the awning, I could make out two men. As we came even closer, I could see Jackie standing in front of Blondie. Jackie had silver duct tape over his mouth, and his hands were behind his back.
“Get about twenty feet away,” I said to Bennett. “And move that monitor out here a little more.”
He moved the throttle down to just above an idle. Then with his foot he pushed the chair out into the middle of the deck.
“What is that thing?” Blondie said. I could see his pistol now, pointed at Jackie’s head. “Do you want to see your friend die right now?”
“I wouldn’t do that,” I said. Blondie’s brother had his rifle pointed at my chest. I tried hard to ignore him. It wasn’t working.
“Take that anchor off the bag,” Blondie said. “You’ve got three seconds.”
I snuck a look behind me. As I looked at the monitor, I turned my left arm, the one holding the bag, just so. Their boat appeared on the monitor, but the rolling of the waves made it hard to maintain a steady shot.
“McKnight, did you hear me? Take the anchor off!”
I swallowed hard. It was time to do something truly stupid. Across the water, I looked at Jackie, into his eyes.
“You better smile, Blondie,” I said. I had to keep my voice natural, like there was nothing to it, like I wasn’t scared out of my skull. “You want to make a good impression on Mr. Isabella, don’t you?”
That one got to him. He couldn’t hide it. His brother looked up from the rifle barrel.
“McKnight, what are you talking about?”
“You’re on a live feed right now,” I said. “Look at this monitor, Blondie. Mr. Isabella is watching everything you do.”
It was hard for him to see from twenty feet away, but he looked at the monitor with wide eyes, like it was something out of his worst nightmare. “What the fuck…”
“You made a mistake, Blondie. You took the wrong guy. You didn’t realize how tight these two men are. Jackie and Mr. Isabella, they’re like brothers. Isn’t that right, Jackie?”
Come on, Jackie, I thought. Play along.
Jackie nodded. Blondie wrapped his arm around Jackie’s neck and pressed the gun right against his temple.
“I’m not buying any of this, McKnight. Now throw that bag over. Right now.”
A sound. In the distance, a motor.
“Who is that?” Blondie yelled. His face was bright red now. “I told you, anybody else shows up, your friend dies!”
“It’s just a few of Mr. Isabella’s men,” I said. “They’d like to have a word with you.”
Blondie and his brother looked at each other. For an instant I was tempted to go for my gun.
No, not yet, Alex. Not yet.
“I know you’re not an idiot,” I said. “You know what’s gonna happen when Isabella’s men get here. No matter what you do to us, these guys are gonna kill you. Give us Jackie and we’ll give you the money. You’ve got a head start, you can be long gone by the time they get here.”
Blondie’s brother was pointing the rifle at my chest again.
“Take the money,” I said. I was about to put my free hand into the bag, to grab some bills and show them to him.
Bad idea, Alex. They’ll think you’re going for a gun.
Blondie squeezed his arm hard around Jackie’s neck. He kept looking out at the open water.
“Don’t be a fool!” Bennett said. “Take the goddamned money!”
No, Bennett, no. This we do not need right now.
“Those guys are gonna cut you into a million pieces!”
Shut up, Bennett. Shut up shut up shut up.
“It’s seven hundred thousand dollars, you stupid fuckheads! Take the money and run! While you still can!”
“Throw the bag over,” Blondie said.
“Give us Jackie first,” I said.
“Throw the bag over!”
“Jackie first.”
The boat was coming closer. I didn’t dare look. But I was sure they had all four men standing at the rails- Leon, Jonathan, Ham, and Gill, with Vargas at the wheel. I could only imagine what it looked like, four men in black, with huge black guns. I hoped it was enough.
