“A bag of marijuana.”
“How big?”
“Not big at all. But under the circumstances-”
“I thought he was clean now.”
“Yeah, well, I guess he was still smoking a little weed now and then. Just to mellow out. That’s exactly what he would have told me. Just to mellow out.”
“How’s your mother doing now?”
“We’ve got to get home, Alex. She doesn’t know what to do with herself.”
“We’re going,” I said. I pushed the pedal down. The snow was still swirling around in the air, making crazy designs all over the road, but it wasn’t sticking yet.
“By the way, those calls on your cell phone, they weren’t her.”
“No?”
“No. You want me to check? You’ve got call history, right?”
“Yeah, but you’ve got to go into the menu and turn that little wheel. Here, let me have it.”
He handed me the phone. Before I could do anything, it rang in my hand. I looked at the display. The call was coming from a 313 number. That meant Detroit, although if it was a cell phone, the caller could have been anywhere at that moment. I hit the button and said hello.
“Who is this?” It was a man’s voice.
“This is McKnight,” I said. “Who is this?”
“Somebody left a message on Red’s machine,” the man said. “They left this number.”
“That was my friend,” I said. “We were trying to find out if he’d gotten back home yet. Who am I speaking to?”
The signal wavered. For a few seconds all I heard was static, until finally the voice broke through again. “The police said they found Red’s van in the woods up there. You wanna tell me what’s going on?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” I said. “Are you gonna tell me who you are or not?”
“Red is my brother, all right? Now just tell me what the fuck is going on up there.”
“You gotta talk to me first,” I said. “You’re one of the men who came up here, aren’t you? Are you the guy with the big nose?”
“Friend, you are really pushing your luck. You know that?”
“You were up here, looking for Albright,” I said. “Where are you now?”
The line was silent for a few seconds. I wasn’t sure if I was still connected. Finally, the voice came back on. He spoke slowly, as if he could barely control himself. “I will find out who you are. And I will break every bone in your body. You got that? Every fucking bone in your body. And when I’m done, I’ll go back and break every bone again. Okay? Are you hearing me?”
He said a few more words, but I didn’t catch them. Then the signal went out for good. I threw the phone on the seat.
“What was that about?” Vinnie said.
“One of those other men who were up here,” I said. “He said he was Red’s brother. He must have gotten into Albright’s phone messages.”
“What did he say?”
“He just wanted to know what’s going on up here. You should’ve heard this guy, Vinnie. I gotta tell ya, this is getting worse by the minute.”
“His brother’s missing. I can relate to that. Of course he’s gonna be mad.”
“No, it’s more than that. He sounded like the kind of guy who gets mad for a living.”
“Meaning what? You think Tom got hooked up in something?”
“It doesn’t look real good right now. You’ve got to admit it.”
He didn’t say anything.
There was no need to push it any further, so I settled in for the long drive. The snow started to let up. I drove for a while, never thinking about looking in the rearview mirror. Up here, you don’t even need one.
I heard the buzzing noise, then finally looked up and saw the motorcycle closing on us from the rear. My first thought was the police-this was DeMers coming to hunt me down like he said he would. But no, he’d be the last man on earth to get on a motorcycle.
My second thought was the phone call. Red’s brother had connections in Canada, and this was his way of letting us know he didn’t appreciate my attitude.
The motorcycle moved over to the other lane and drew even with me. The rider gestured for me to pull over. He had a black helmet on, so I couldn’t see his face. But I recognized the blue-and-white coat. I pulled over.
The motorcycle fishtailed as it came to a stop in front of us. The rider got off and walked over to us. He shook his hands. With no gloves, they must have been colder than hell. When he got to the truck, I rolled down my window. He took his helmet off.
“You always drive that fast?” he said. He had long dark hair, dark eyes, and the wide cheekbones of a full- blooded Indian. He looked in past me at Vinnie.
“You must be Guy Berard,” I said.
If he was surprised, it didn’t show. “You’re McKnight and LeBlanc. I’ve been trying to catch up to you ever since you left the police station.”
“How’d you know we were there?”
“I saw you guys on the road,” he said. “Where that van was. I saw the police take you away.”
“Yeah? And how did you know who we were?”
He gave me a slight smile. “My mother told me all about you.”
“You were at home, weren’t you,” I said. “How come you were hiding from us?”
“Can we go talk about this somewhere? I’m freezing my ass off.”
“What do you know about the men on the hunting trip?” Vinnie said.
Guy looked past me again. The two of them stared at each other for a long moment. “You’re the brother.”
“Yes,” Vinnie said.
“We need to talk,” he said. “Follow me.”
“Why should we?” Vinnie said. I was surprised at the hard edge in his voice. “If you know something about my brother, just tell me now.”
The wind came up again. It kicked up a riot of snowflakes. Guy buried his hands in his armpits.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” he said. “And then you can decide if you want to hear the rest. I was there at the lodge on Saturday.”
“We already figured that out,” Vinnie said. “That’s the day Tom’s group flew back from the lake.”
“Did you talk to them?” I said.
“No, not that day,” Guy said. “They were already gone.”
“Okay, so what’s the big deal?” Vinnie said.
“I don’t think they came back that day at all,” he said.
“What are you saying?” I could feel Vinnie sliding over on the seat.
“I’m saying I think they either came back on a different day,” he said. “Or else they never flew out to that lake in the first place.”
Chapter Ten
We followed Guy back to the reserve. I got a little anxious driving by the crime scene again. There were five OPP cars parked up and down the road, along with three cars from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. A thin yellow tape was stretched from tree to tree, forming a loose circle around Albright’s Suburban. Some of the officers on the scene looked up at us as we passed, but nobody stopped us.
Just for the hell of it, I turned my cell phone back on. Our new friend from Detroit had called three more times just in the past few minutes, and left one message. I tried calling in to hear it, but the signal faded out almost
