“McKnight. Do not do anything, do you hear me?”
“Did somebody go over to the Trembleys’ house?”
There was a brief silence on the line. “Yes,” she finally said. “Alex, please tell me what’s happening.”
“I don’t know.”
“Just sit tight. We’re on our way.”
“Okay.”
“Promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”
“Can’t do that,” I said. I hung up.
I slowed down as I came up to the sharp turn in the road. I knew the moose probably wouldn’t be standing there again, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I cleared the corner. No moose. But what the hell-
I slammed on the brakes. There was a car off the road, in the same spot where my truck had ended up. I sat there looking at it for a while. It was a black sedan. I recognized it.
I got out of the truck, leaving the driver’s side door open. I took two steps, then turned around and went to the back of my truck. I reached down under the bumper and felt inside for the gun Leon had hidden. It was held in place with tape. When I pulled it out, it felt cold and heavy in my hand.
I went around the back of my truck and approached the car, moving slowly. I couldn’t see anybody inside. My boot sank six inches into the mud as soon as I stepped off the road. I leaned on the car and made my way another couple of steps, then bent down and looked through the driver’s side window. It was unlocked. When I opened the door, I smelled the gasoline.
I replayed that night in my head. Red Albright’s brother Dallas with his big friend Jay along, the way they stopped us on my road. The look in his eyes. He promised us he’d find out who else was involved in his brother’s death. What were his exact words? He’d turn them inside out.
I popped the trunk release, then fought my way back through the mud to the road. When I looked into the trunk, I saw the gasoline cans. It made sense, in a horrible kind of way. If you found out who burned your brother to death, and you had a dark enough mind, you’d be tempted to take your vengeance in exactly the same way.
I noticed one other thing as I closed the trunk. There was a board on the edge of the road. It was covered with mud, so I didn’t see it at first, but as I knelt down beside it, I saw a dozen long nails pointing straight up, with three nails in the middle bent over. I looked on the other side of the car, and thought I could make out yet another board half buried in the mud.
That note on the table, it was put there for a reason. “This was a trap,” I said out loud.
And then I heard the first gunshot. The sound was deadened by the wet air, but I could tell where it was coming from. I got back in my truck and drove the last mile to the lodge. The mist got heavier as I got closer to the lake.
I heard another shot. I slowed down. I sure as hell didn’t want to drive right into the middle of it. There was a turn here, I thought. One final turn in this road and then it ended under those big trees.
I still couldn’t see very well, but I guessed I was just about there, so I stopped. I turned the truck off, grabbed Leon’s gun again, and stepped out onto the road. I listened hard, but there was nothing to hear but the sound of the truck’s engine settling.
I started walking slowly, as quietly as I could. I didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t see more than fifty feet ahead of me. But I figured what the hell, at least nobody could see me. As soon as I came around that last bend in the road, I saw a truck parked among the trees. The fog was too thick to make out the plate number, or even the color. I had to get closer.
I kept low to the ground and made my way to one of the big trees. I leaned against it for a moment and then looked around it at the truck.
It was Vinnie’s.
All the way up here, it had been an idea, a feeling in my gut, based on a couple of maps on his computer, and a newspaper clipping about God knows what. Now it was real. Vinnie was here.
Another shot ripped through the air. This one was a lot closer. I couldn’t imagine who was pulling the trigger or how they could even see where they were shooting.
Another shot. This one took me right down onto the ground. I heard another sound right after it, something long and low, like the air being let out of a balloon.
“God damn it,” I said under my breath. “Vinnie, where are you?”
The sound stopped.
The fear started building in my stomach. Hold on, Alex. It’s time to do something here. I picked Leon’s Ruger off the ground and brushed the dirt away. I knew it was a modern gun, with. 45 caliber shells, but it looked like an antique in my hand, like something from the Second World War. If I had to use it, I hoped it would be enough.
I made my way from tree to tree. The mist seemed to be drifting in and out now, circling around me like wraiths. I had to keep moving forward. I didn’t know what else to do. The lodge started to take shape, the wooden roof appearing above me. I put my back to the wall of the butcher’s shed, holding my weapon with two hands. All the training I had, a million years ago, it all came back to me. Gun up, peek around the corner, draw back. It’s clear, lead with the gun, keep low. Move quick without hurrying. I edged around the door to the shed, gun ready. I can shoot in any direction.
I’m coming, Vinnie. You better still be alive.
I moved along the base of the wall, heading for the front of the building. I stopped at the corner, caught my breath, then took a quick look up the stairs. They were empty. I looked around at everything else-another small building by the dock, the dock itself leading out into nowhere, the lake still hidden behind the thick wall of fog. I didn’t know where anyone was, or who would shoot at me if I moved, but I felt totally exposed crouching down by the wall. Here goes nothing.
I went up the stairs, swearing at every creak and groan of the wood. When I was on the front porch, I stuck my head up over the windowsill for one second, then back down. Did I see somebody in there? I needed to look again. Just wait a few seconds. Count to five. One… two…
That’s as far as I got. The next gunshot was like an explosion going off inside my head. My legs went out from under me and I started sliding down the stairs, until another blast ripped the wood apart.
They’re right on top of me. I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m dead.
Back up I went, scrambling up the stairs on all fours. I threw the door open and rolled inside the lodge as another shot took out the screen window. The sound of it was still roaring in my ears as I lay there, wondering if I was hit and just didn’t know it yet.
And where the hell was my gun, anyway?
I looked all over the floor for it. This is great, Alex. This is so fucking great.
Then out of nowhere, a voice. “Don’t move.”
I looked up. Helen St. Jean was sitting in the corner, her legs drawn up to her chest. The rifle barrel was pointed at me over one knee.
“Helen,” I said. “It’s me. Don’t you remember?”
“Don’t move,” she said. “Don’t come any closer.”
I put my hands up. “Helen, where’s Vinnie?”
She didn’t say anything.
“You’ve got to tell me where Vinnie is.”
She lifted the barrel of the rifle off her knee and pointed it right at my heart.
“Helen, please don’t point that at me.”
I could see the gun shaking in her hands.
“You need to give me that gun,” I said. “Those men outside, they’re gonna come up here.”
She looked at me. She was breathing hard.
“Helen, you need to give me that gun. Those men will come up here and kill us.”
She looked at the window. I kept my hands up as I slowly bent down toward the floor. The big table and all the chairs were gone. It was one big empty room now. “I’m coming over there,” I said. “Okay? I’m coming over there so we can fight them together.”
She kept looking back and forth between me and the window. As I got down on my knees and started inching over to her, she didn’t follow me with the rifle. I took that as a good sign.
“You give me that gun,” I said. “I promise you, I’ll shoot them if they come through that door. Okay?”
