boys need something here? Aside from a tow out of the mud?”
It was the second time in ten minutes we’d been called boys. It wasn’t sounding any better.
“I’m looking for my brother,” Vinnie said. “He was with the Albright party.”
Helen stopped writing and looked up at us.
“Christ, Albright,” Gannon said. “You guys are looking for him, too?”
“Was there somebody else looking for him?”
“Yeah, two other guys, just yesterday.”
“Did they say who they were?”
“Nah, they just wanted to know where Albright was. I told them the same thing I’ll tell you. The Albright party came and left. And good riddance.”
“Albright and his men were here, then,” I said. “Last week.”
“That’s right. I flew them back down on Saturday morning. They were gone by noon. Biggest bunch of jackasses I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting. Even worse than these guys out here. I swear, Helen, it’s just not worth it anymore.”
She finished up her bill and gave it to him. “Here, send them on their way,” she said. “So we can have some peace. Did you see Ron down there? He’s probably done with the butchering.”
“He’s just wrapping it all up,” Gannon said.
“These men who were here looking for Albright,” I said, a sudden thought hitting me. “Did one of them have a big nose?” I was wondering if the two men who caused the trouble at the bar in Wawa were the same men who were here at the lodge.
“Yeah,” Gannon said. “Matter of fact. He had a real smart mouth, too.”
“Sir,” Vinnie said. “Please. What can you tell me about Albright and the men he was with?”
“Ain’t much more to tell,” he said. “We flew them out to Lake Agawaatese and then we flew them out a week later.”
“Right here,” she said, pointing to a map on the wall above the desk. “See, we’ve got seven different lakes. Agawaatese is up here.” She stretched to put her finger on the upper right corner. “Good lake for moose, although the cabin could use a little work.”
“There were six men, right?” Vinnie said.
“No, five.”
That stopped Vinnie for a second. “I thought there were six, but somebody might have canceled at the last minute.”
“There were five of them,” Gannon said. “Albright and his partners. What did he call them? His ‘executive partners.’ I was expecting a bunch of hotshots with cell phones and hundred-dollar loafers. But when they got here, eh? They were such thugs. My God, Helen puts up with a lot of shit from all the men who come up here, but these guys-”
“Needless to say,” she said, “I passed on their offer to take me up to the lake with them.”
“That just got them even more riled up, eh? They were ready to kill something. I couldn’t get them out of here fast enough. And when I flew them back, hell, I made sure Helen wasn’t even here at the lodge. She shouldn’t have to put up with guys like that.”
“Hank, I had to go into Timmins anyway,” she said. “Don’t make it sound like you were protecting me.”
He waved that one off. “Bunch of clowns. President Albright and his executive partners, my ass.”
“They weren’t all partners,” Vinnie said. “My brother was with them.”
He shook his head. “The man said they were all partners.”
“My brother was the guide.”
He looked back and forth between us. “Let’s get a couple of things straight here,” he said. “Number one, if those men were gonna use a guide, they’d use our guide. We got an Indian fellow out there who knows these lakes inside and out. You don’t need to be bringing in your own guide from the states to hunt our moose, okay? If you’re dumb enough to do without any guide at all, that’s a different story. Number two, when this Albright called us, he made it crystal clear that he was bringing up four men who worked with him. And that they wouldn’t be needing a guide. I tried to talk him out of it, but he dug in his heels. No guide necessary. He said they were all experienced hunters, and they didn’t need our help. So I said, suit yourself, sir. If you don’t want to actually find any moose, you go right ahead up there by yourselves. And that’s what they did.”
“Which kind of explains why they didn’t bring any moose back with them,” Helen said. “Not that they’d listen to that.”
“You got that right,” he said. “They came back dirty and tired, and pissed off at everything. And I told them, I said, you didn’t even see the back end of a moose the whole time you were up there, eh?”
“No matter what they said,” Vinnie said, “my brother did not work for Albright. I mean, just for the few days maybe. That’s what he might have meant.”
“I told you,” he said. “We got this Indian fellow-”
“I know, you’ve got your own Indian. I’m telling you, Albright was just trying to get around your little rule, okay? He brought his own Indian with him. My brother.”
The man looked at Vinnie, like he was really seeing him for the first time. It was something I’d witnessed before, many times. Some people look at Vinnie and see an Indian right away, like those idiots in the bar in Wawa. Others don’t see the Indian in him until he points it out.
“He did look like you,” Gannon said. “God damn.”
“He never came back home,” I said. “That’s why we’re here. He should have been home four days ago.”
Gannon looked at Helen and then shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about that. I flew them back out and they left. And fast. Lord knows they had nothing to load except the gear they were carrying. They were all driving this big SUV thing.”
“A Chevy Suburban,” Vinnie said.
“Yeah, a black one. Looked brand-new. They all piled in and left. Like I said, they were out of here by noon. Plenty of time to get back to Michigan the same day. If they didn’t feel like driving all the way back to Detroit, I suppose they would have spent the night somewhere.”
“My brother lives in the U.P. They would have dropped him off that night.”
“Yeah, they would have. Like you say, that same night.”
“He never came home,” Vinnie said.
Gannon threw up his hands. “I don’t know what to say. Although, come to think of it-”
“What?”
“Oh, I’m just trying to remember. On their way out, this Albright clown was saying something about how they didn’t get their moose, and they were in no hurry to get back home. So maybe they’d have to go have some fun somewhere else.”
“Like where?”
“He didn’t say. I was just assuming he meant they’d hit some casinos or some clubs or something. I didn’t think much of it at the time.”
“Do you have a phone number for this Albright?” I said. “Or an address?”
“He paid with a Visa number,” Helen said, “so I don’t have a check. I’m not sure he ever gave me an address.”
“You’ve got to have his address,” I said. “That’s just normal business practice, isn’t it?”
She looked at me, and then at Gannon. “I’m not sure we even qualify as a business right now.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to criticize. We’re just trying to find out what happened to Tom-” I caught myself. “Uh, Tom’s brother.” Real smooth, Alex.
She shook her head and looked through another pile of papers. Finally, she came up with a three-by-five card. “Here’s his phone number.” She read off the same cell phone number Vinnie already had.
“You don’t have anything else?” I said. “Not even another number in case of emergency?”
“Just this one,” she said.
Vinnie ran one hand through his hair. “What do we do now, Alex?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Let me think.”
Gannon stood there watching us. Helen was staring at the floor. It seemed ridiculous that we’d drive all the way up here and then leave so quickly.
