“Now you’re trying to collect his guns. You really are taking over.”
“That’s the idea.”
“And if Cap here really took out Mr. Gray, then I’m looking at both ends of the deal now. You’ve got the Canadian side and Cap has the U.S. side.”
She looked out the boat at where we were going, then back at me.
“I hope you can trust him,” I said. “He seems a little psychotic to me.”
Cap looked back down at us. “Just tell us where to go,” he said. “Other than that, you can keep quiet.”
“I’m just making an observation,” I said. “The two of you don’t seem to get along so well.”
I was fishing now. I was trying to find any kind of leverage I could, or anything I could use to distract them, even for a moment.
“We get along fine,” she said. “When we have to.”
“Whatever you say. It’s not my business. I’d just be a little worried about having a partner who’s so unstable.”
“Cap and I go way back, Alex. We’re the ones who hooked up Laraque and Gray to begin with.”
“You had this planned all along? Wait for the right moment and then take over?”
She smiled at me. I wasn’t getting anywhere. I needed something else, something to throw them off course.
“How far are we going?” Cap said. “Do I stay in this channel?”
“All the way out,” I said.
“Then what?”
“I’ll remember when we get there.”
He took both hands off the wheel for a moment to tighten the suppressor on his gun. He looked down at me as he did it.
“You’re not messing with us here,” Rhapsody said. “Are you? Because I’d be really disappointed.”
“Would I do that?”
“You don’t want me to be disappointed, Alex. Believe me.”
“I understand.”
She had her gun in her lap now, her right hand still gripping the handle. There has to be something, I thought. What would Leon do?
“Things must be kind of hot right now,” I said. “Maybe killing two cops wasn’t such a great idea.”
“Yeah,” Cap said without turning around, “maybe that wasn’t such a great idea.”
“Don’t start,” she said.
“Start what?”
“Did you hear me? Don’t even go there now. It was an unavoidable mistake.”
“You still don’t think I would have figured it out before shooting the guy?”
“How could you?”
“Well, let’s see…If I went to his apartment…Yeah, maybe I would have noticed something first. His badge on the table, maybe? His official Mountie coffee mug? His diploma from the police academy on the fucking wall?”
He stopped himself, closed his eyes for a few seconds, like he was counting to three. When he finally looked back at the GPS, he had to jerk the boat hard to the left to get back on course. Rhapsody almost fell out of her chair. I had a sudden vision of her gun falling out of her hand, me making my move. But the moment passed.
“Nice driving,” she said. “Is there anything you don’t do well?”
“Go fuck yourself,” he said. “And ask your buddy where we’re going here. We’re almost out in the lake.”
“Keep going straight for a while,” I said. “Hold the same direction.”
She killed Natalie’s partner, I thought. Probably with that very gun. But over here in Michigan…There was no way Cap could have killed Natalie. Unless…
Wait a minute, why would they even kill them at all? If they didn’t even know they were cops until afterward…
“McKnight,” Cap said. “I’m starting to think you’re just stalling here.”
“A few more miles,” I said. “Hold your course.”
If they didn’t know they were cops…then they must have thought they were real gun dealers.
“I don’t remember any islands out here,” Cap said. “You’re taking us right out into the middle of fucking Lake Huron.”
If they thought they were real gun dealers…
God damn it. They thought they were competitors. They had this takeover all set up, until these new players arrived on the scene. Hell, that’s probably why Cap and Brucie were stuck here for a few days. Maybe it wasn’t the weather. Maybe it was Laraque trying to play the two U.S. angles off each other, work a better deal.
“McKnight, you’d better say something. Or I swear to God I’ll kill you right now.”
Natalie and her partner didn’t die because their cover was blown.
They died because their cover wasn’t blown.
“McKnight?”
She killed Resnik, picked up his cell phone, and got my number. Gave that to Cap. Hell, that might have been a big surprise to him. Or maybe not at all. Maybe it explained a lot, why me and Vinnie were trying to drive him away. It would have all made perfect sense if he thought I was part of Natalie’s supply chain.
So he came over to my cabin…thinking I was already dead, of course. But so what? Nobody else would have known that. I would just be missing at that point. He came to my cabin and he saw Natalie’s Jeep there. Not my truck. Again, which would have made sense to him. I was just down the road, but he didn’t know that.
He opened the door and found Natalie inside. He must have figured she had come there looking for me, and when I wasn’t there, she had just settled in to wait for me.
Did he tell her she was waiting for a dead man? Did he say one word to her before he gunned her down in cold blood and then left?
Cap cut the engine and let the boat drift. He came down the stairs.
“Start talking,” he said, leveling the gun at my head. “Where are they?”
“You killed her,” I said. “You killed Natalie.”
“Yeah, no kidding. That’s what I do, remember?”
I wanted to go for my gun right then. I wanted to empty every round into his body. Then take his own gun from him and do it all over again.
“Cap, just cool it,” Rhapsody said. “Let me do this.”
“You’ve done enough,” he said. “Look at where it got us.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Look at us,” he said, gesturing in every direction. “You don’t think this is strange?”
“It’s strange, yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Cap. It’s strange.”
“And yet you seem to be going along with it just fine. Take the boat out to the middle of the fucking lake. No problem.”
“I’m just playing it out,” she said. “I’m taking Alex at his word.”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t you?”
“What else are we supposed to do?”
“Nothing. You’re right. Everything’s going great. As soon as Alex gives us the guns back, wherever the hell they are, we go and make the switch. The other boat’s not even that far from here, eh? St. Joseph Island’s right across the lake.”
They’re distracted, I thought. They’re totally focused on each other right now. This will buy me another second.
“That’s the plan,” she said. “If you’ll let us get on with it.”
“We just zoom right over there. Your guys are waiting for us?”
“Yes, Cap. For God’s sake…”
Right hand to pant leg, lift, remove the gun. Fire. How quickly can I do this?
