“Yeah, sorry. I’m here.”
Jackie knows what I’d do to help him out. Him or someone else I cared about. That’s why I got the big lecture in his kitchen.
“I’ll come pick you up,” Jackie said. “Just tell me where.”
“No need,” I said. “I’ve got a ride. I’ll see you soon.”
“The cops are bringing you all the way over to Paradise?”
“Yeah, no problem. I gotta go, Jackie. See ya soon.”
I hung up.
“God damn,” I said. I went to the window and looked out. It wasn’t snowing. “God damn, it’s the same thing all over again.”
It all came back, the last time someone had done this to me. Jackie had been in real trouble, and he was about to do something incredibly stupid. He was going to try to take matters into his own hands.
He didn’t want me to be a part of it. He pushed me away. He told me he didn’t need my help, that I’d just screw everything up, as always. That I should just stay out of his business.
It hurt me when he said that. It was supposed to hurt. He was driving me away, for my own good. Because he knew if I got involved, I’d go all the way down the line with him, maybe even farther. I’d be in just as much danger as he was.
“Did you do the same damned thing, Natalie? Is that why you pushed me away?”
I went back to the pay phone and dialed a different number. A man answered with the name of the motor shop and asked how he could help me.
“I need to speak to Leon Prudell,” I said. “Is he there?”
A few seconds later, he was on the phone.
“Leon, it’s Alex. I know I’ve been asking you for a lot of favors lately…”
“Name it.”
“I’m in Soo Canada right now. I was hoping you could pick me up at the bridge.”
“What happened, did your truck break down?”
“It’s a long story,” I said. “I’ll tell you when I see you.”
“I’m on my way,” he said. “You want me to come right now?”
“You think you could run home first?”
“I guess so. Why?”
This is why I was calling him. Besides the fact he could get up here a lot faster, besides the fact he was my ex-partner-Leon Prudell always had the right tool for the job.
“I’ll wait for you on the American side of the bridge,” I said. “Bring a gun.”
I stood outside the little duty-free shop, a hundred feet from the toll-booth. My head still hurt. My neck still hurt. It was too cold to be standing outside, but what the hell. I wanted to be cold. I wanted the wind to hit me in the face, maybe knock some sense into me.
Natalie needed my help. She pushed me away and I let her. Now she was gone.
I looked out over the edge of the bridge. The St. Marys River was frozen and covered with snow. Beyond that was the lake, where the ice ended and the water began, water so cold it would kill you in a minute. It would pull you down all the way to the bottom, to the hard granite, a thousand feet deep. Nobody would ever see you again.
It’s too easy to disappear around here, that’s the thing. If it’s not the lake, it’s the land around it, nearly three thousand miles of jagged shoreline, the trees, the empty places, the great wild north all around you, with an international border running through the middle. In the winter you can walk right across the ice, start the day in one country and end it in another.
I remembered all the people who had vanished up here, intentionally or not. All the people I had known myself, even Jackie for a few horrible hours, until we rode out onto the lake to find him.
Now it was Natalie. The Grant brothers, too. There was a connection. There had to be. Find them and you find Natalie. That’s the one thing I kept holding on to.
Find them.
Leon showed up, driving his little red car. He pulled over and I got in.
“My God,” he said. “Look at you. I didn’t think you could look any worse.”
I knew Chief Maven would want to see me first thing. For about half a second, I thought about having Leon take me there. “Go to the Grants’ garage,” I said. “It’s on Spruce.”
He didn’t move. He kept looking at me.
“Come on, Leon. Let’s go.”
“You gonna tell me what’s going on?”
“Did you bring it?”
“Tell me why you need the gun, Alex. Or I’m not giving it to you.”
“Just go,” I said. “I’ll tell you on the way.”
He headed downtown while I went over the whole story again. He stopped me when I got to the part about going over to Natalie’s house with Michael Grant.
“You and Grant together?” Leon said. “I thought he was one of the guys who attacked you.”
“Call it an uneasy truce,” I said. “But it gets worse. Natalie’s mother was there, in the barn. Someone had killed her.”
“Alex, my God. Do you think Marty Grant did it?”
“I don’t know. I can’t imagine anyone doing this to her. I mean, if you had seen her…”
“But somebody did. Go on.”
“Michael Grant followed me out to the barn. He had taken an old shotgun from the basement. It had been put away, with Cosmoline in the barrels. This guy knew enough to put shells in it, but that’s all he did. So the barrels exploded.”
“So if he hadn’t been a complete idiot about cleaning the gun-”
“I wouldn’t be here right now.”
“Where is he now?”
“He drove off in my truck,” I said. “Nobody’s seen him, or his brother for that matter. The police say the family is refusing to talk about it.”
“They’re protecting them. It’s only natural.”
“I think they’re probably getting them in even more trouble than they’re already in, but they didn’t ask me my opinion.”
“What about Natalie?”
I shook my head. “No idea. They’re looking for her, too. Maybe there’s something we can do that the cops can’t.”
“I’m not sure what you mean,” he said. But he didn’t press it. He kept driving. When we got to the Grants’ garage, the place was deserted. As we slowed down, though, we couldn’t help but notice another car parked a hundred yards down the street.
“They’re watching,” I said.
“Of course.”
“Let’s try the Woolseys’ house. It’s over on Twenty-fourth.”
“Let me ask you something,” he said as he turned around. “What are you planning on doing with the gun?”
I didn’t say anything.
“Are you thinking about putting a gun to Mr. Woolsey’s head and making him tell you where the Grants are?”
“We have to find her,” I said.
“Very bad idea, Alex.”
“Leon, he’s the only lead we have.”
“I’m not giving you the gun.”
“Leon…”
“You’re not thinking right,” he said. “You’ve got to stop and get your head on straight. You’re not going to be
