I thought-”
“What?”
“I thought the men were gone. I thought maybe… I don’t know… maybe they didn’t do anything. Maybe they flew them back. Then Hank told me. It’s done, he said. That’s what he said to me. It’s done.”
“You knew, Helen.”
She picked her hands up out of her lap. She held them up for a moment and then let them drop again.
“Yes,” she said, in a voice so low I could barely hear her. “Yes, I knew.”
“What about DeMers?”
“He didn’t even know those men were up here. Not until after. They came out to the lodge, Claude and his partner-what was her name?”
“Reynaud,” I said. “Natalie Reynaud.”
“They came out here that morning, when the call came up from Detroit about the missing men. That’s when Hank took him aside and told him what had happened. I thought Claude would strangle him.”
“What was he going to do about it?” I said. “He was a police officer.”
“Yes, and he had taken an oath. He said that to Hank. He had to turn us in. All of us. But then-”
“What?”
“He didn’t. He just didn’t.”
I thought about DeMers, about the way he had treated us. The hot and cold act, and everything he had said and done to convince us to go home and to stay there. It all made sense now. It was tearing him up. And the two of us digging around up here was the last thing in the world he had wanted.
“What about later?” I said. “When he flew up there with Hank?”
“I was there when Claude came over. He didn’t have his partner this time. He said that you and Vinnie had flown up to the lake, and that you were still up there. Hank got his rifle and tried to put it in the plane, and Claude asked him what the hell he was doing. Hank said he’d have to take care of things if you and Vinnie had found out what he and Ron had done. Claude told him that wasn’t going to happen. They were going to fly up and bring the two of you back. And if you had found out, then we’d all just have to deal with it.”
She looked back at Vinnie again.
“Claude said there was already one innocent man dead. He wasn’t going to let it happen to two more.”
Vinnie nodded his head once.
“I swear to God,” Helen said. “I thought that was going to be the end of it. I thought Claude would take care of it and it would all be over. But Hank must have sneaked that rifle onto the plane somehow. They flew up there… And Hank, he must have-”
She started crying.
“He was protecting us,” she said. “That goddamned fool. He didn’t want any of this to touch us. Now he’s gone. Claude is gone. Ron and Millie are gone. Everybody’s gone except me.”
Maskwa got up from his chair and went to her. He stood over her and gently placed one hand to the side of her face. Vinnie stayed in the corner. He was looking up at the ceiling now, blinking away the tears.
“You weren’t coming up here for revenge,” Maskwa said. “You came up here to help them.”
“I had my friend at the News run their names,” Vinnie said. “It was so easy to find that article. I knew it would be just as easy for anybody else. Alex was there when Albright’s brother stopped us. He saw the look in his eyes. And the way they both seemed to think about it, like they had some idea… I knew they’d find them sooner or later.”
“Would you have done the same for Ron?” I said. “If you had gotten to him in time?”
He closed his eyes. “It has to stop somewhere, Alex. Okay? Those kids died in that fire. Hank and Ron, they killed Albright and those other men. And my brother with them. They burned them up. So Albright’s brother came up to kill some more. More fire. More goddamned fire, Alex. What am I supposed to do? Go burn some more of them?”
Maskwa kept his hand on Helen’s face. Vinnie opened his eyes again and watched the two of them.
“No more,” Vinnie said. “This is where it ends. Helen has to go away. She has to go somewhere where they won’t find her.”
“I know where we can go,” Maskwa said. “I can get the plane ready.”
I didn’t have to ask what they were talking about. I knew there were a dozen places they could take her, like maybe Moosonee, on James Bay. Once she was there, she could either go to one of the other reserves on the Ontario side of James Bay, or take the ferry over to Quebec.
Nobody would ever find her. Not the police. Not the men from Detroit.
I knew Vinnie had done this once before. A woman was in trouble and he took her into his family, a family that extended for thousands of miles, across all borders. And he made her disappear. Now I was seeing it firsthand.
“No,” Helen said. She took Maskwa’s hand away from her head. “You’re not taking me anywhere.”
“Helen, you have to-”
“No, Vinnie. I waited until Alex and Maskwa got here, so they could hear the whole story. Now it’s time for you and me to go to the police.”
“I don’t think you want to do that,” Vinnie said.
“I’m not going to run away,” she said. “I’m going to tell them everything that happened.” She hesitated. “Everything except Claude. There’s no reason to pull him into this. He died a hero. Let him stay a hero.”
“They’ll find out eventually.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” she said. “But I don’t have to tell them.”
“Helen..” Vinnie said. He tried to find some words but couldn’t.
“Let’s go,” she said. “Let’s go do this right now.”
They tried to talk her out of it, but it was obvious her mind was made up. A few minutes later, we were standing outside in the cold dead yard, watching Vinnie and Helen drive away. Helen looked at us through her window, then lifted her hand and put it flat against the glass.
I said my own goodbyes to Maskwa, this incredible man, and to Guy and his mother. I got in my truck and started down the road. There were snowflakes in the air. I drove down the empty highway, all the way to the station in Hearst, and parked next to Vinnie’s truck. I knew it would be a long wait, so I settled in and went to sleep.
A couple hours later, I picked my head up and saw Vinnie coming out of the station. He was alone, and he looked as tired and miserable as any man I had ever seen.
He gave me a nod and got in his truck, and then I followed him all the way home.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
That winter came in as if it wasn’t really sure of its mission. It would snow a few inches, then stop. We never got buried. It would go down to zero at night, but we didn’t have any of those thirty-below nights where you worry about your pipes freezing.
I spent Thanksgiving with Jackie and his son, the three of us alone in the Glasgow. The place was open that night, but nobody else came in until after nine o’clock. I left the place and drove over to Vinnie’s mother’s house and finished up my Thanksgiving night with my new adopted family.
We had one big snow in early December, but aside from that the winter stayed mild and some of the snowmobilers even canceled their reservations. That meant a little less noise and fewer drunken fools running into each other. Somehow I adjusted.
When Christmas came, I had my busiest holiday in years. I started out over at Vinnie’s mother’s house again, had lunch with Jackie, and then I headed over to Leon’s house for dinner. I gave toys to his kids and a bottle of wine to Eleanor, and they actually seemed to enjoy having me around this time. It helped that I wasn’t asking Leon to do any private eye work.
Until after dinner.
Eleanor was putting the kids to bed when I told him what I was thinking about. I had seen what Vinnie had
