Die a Stranger: An Alex McKnight Novel Read online

  “Patel, Singh, Alyeshmerni,” Lou said, going down the list. “Yeah, I’m thinking we’re not going to find our long-lost friend of Vinnie or Buck here.”

  “We need to find something on the rez itself,” I said. “But even if we find the right place, how are we gonna know? If they came down here to get Buck treated off the books, how can you expect the doctor to talk to us about it?”

  “That’s the tricky part,” Lou said as we got back into the car. “We’ll have to rely on the old eyeball test.”

  I looked over at him.

  “You know the eyeball test,” he said. “I mean if you were any kind of cop…”

  “I know the eyeball test,” I said. “You ask them a question and you watch their eyes. If they’re lying, you’ll know it.”

  “So you’ve done it before.”

  “A few hundred times. Once in a while it even works.”

  We spent the next half hour driving around, looking for the clinic. We knew it had to be there. Any decent reservation would have a walk-in clinic and this one was so far beyond decent. We drove by the Soaring Eagles Casino and it was truly spectacular, even bigger than the Sault tribe’s Kewadin. It even had its own entrance road, with a big sign arching over it. We kept going past that and finally found the clinic just a few blocks to the south. It was called the Nimkee Medical Clinic, and, no surprise, it looked so clean and new and state-of-the-art, you’d feel lucky to be wheeled through the front doors with a bullet in your head.

  “I can’t believe any of this,” Lou said as he drove through the parking lot. There was a covered canopy you could stop under, complete with valet parking, so you could walk into the place without being bothered by the weather. “I told you about the Paiutes in Moapa Valley, right? With the coal plant next door?”

  “You mentioned it, yes.”

  “You know what kind of…”

  He took a breath.

  “Never mind,” he said. “If these people are making a good life for themselves, then more power to ’em. I’m gonna go talk to somebody.”

  “You’re going to?”

  “We’re on the rez now, Alex. Besides being an obvious paleface, you look like a cop, too.”

  I didn’t fight him too hard. Probably because I knew he was right. This was the one place I’d be of no use to anybody. I sat there and babysat the car while he walked through the front doors. I looked at my watch. It was almost three o’clock. This day had started up in Sault Ste. Marie, staking out Dukes, rousting him, getting his story. Then down to Cadillac to see just how badly one could trash a nice farmhouse, not to mention four vehicles. Now we were here on the Saginaw rez, still trying to retrace Vinnie and Buck’s steps. It didn’t feel like the longest day of my life quite yet, but then the day was still young.

  A few minutes later, Lou came barreling back out the front door. He didn’t look happy. He got into the car, slammed the door, and started the ignition. As soon as it was in gear, he laid down tracks and we were out of that parking lot in seconds.

  “Slow down!” I said. “What the hell happened?”

  “We’re supposed to be one people,” he said, sounding more like he was talking to himself than to me. “One big family, no matter what.”

  “Lou…”

  “One people. That’s what the word means, right? Anishinabe. The people. One people. That doesn’t mean anything anymore?”

  I let him burn it off on his own. A few minutes later he had stopped talking, but he was still driving a little bit too fast.

  “I take it that didn’t pan out,” I finally said.

  “I just asked them if anybody from Bay Mills had come down to the clinic. I told them there were two men, and that one of them was my son. ‘He’s my son,’ I said. ‘I’m looking for my son.’ You think that would evoke a little empathy, right? But no. As soon as I walked up to the desk, that woman is already looking up at me like I’m some kind of criminal or something. I didn’t even get to finish explaining and she had already called security.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “A few more seconds, hell, I might have been arrested in there. Just because I was looking for my son.”

  “You mentioned that part about them being from Bay Mills,” I said. “You said that before she called for the goons?”

  “Why does it matter?”

  “I’m just asking. Did you mention Bay Mills at the beginning of the conversation?”

  “Yeah. I guess so.”

  “Somebody got the word out,” I said. “You remember how antsy everybody got when you were asking about Vinnie yesterday? We might just get that same reaction on every other reservation in the state. If anybody comes snooping around, asking about two men from up north…”

  “You might be right,” he said. “I should have had you come in after all.”

  “Where are we going, anyway?”

  He was driving back toward the center of town. But then as we were about to pass the entrance to the casino, he made a hard left.

  “What are we doing here?” I said.

  “You got any better ideas? This is where half the tribe is, probably. Somebody might know something. At the very least, we can put your theory to the test, see if every Indian in Michigan is really looking out for suspicious strangers. Besides, I could use a drink about now.”

  We parked in a lot filled with at least a thousand other cars. It was the heart of the afternoon, on a gorgeous Michigan summer day, so what better place to spend it than inside a casino, pumping money into a slot machine? We took the long walk across the hot pavement and went inside, feeling the sudden icy chill of the air conditioning. Lou found the bar in twenty seconds and the bartender in twenty-one. He ordered a shot and a beer. I asked the man for a Coke.

  “You’ve been driving all day,” I said. “When we go back outside, it’s my turn, okay?”

  He looked at me over his shot and then he downed it in one swallow. The bartender filled him back up and he downed that one, too. The beer was apparently just for show.

  “Hey, friend,” he said to the bartender. “How long you been working here?”

  “Five years.” The man had the wide face of an Ojibwa, along with the calm eyes and the black hair.

  “You ever been up to Bay Mills?”

  “Nope.”

  “You don’t know anybody from up there?”

  “Don’t believe so.”

  “I was born there myself. Haven’t been around for a while, but if I came down here looking for help, where would I go?”

  “I don’t follow you, sir.”

  “I’m just saying, if I was in trouble and I needed somebody to help me out. You know, patch me up and send me on my way?”

  “I think I know what you mean,” he said, sliding right into an acting job so blatant it was like he was reading his lines off a cue card. “I’m gonna go get somebody to help you. Wait right here.”

  He disappeared through a door at the far end of the bar. Lou took out a twenty-dollar bill, threw it onto the counter, and took off for the door. When I caught up to him in the parking lot, he was taking the keys out of his pocket. I grabbed them from his hand and got into the driver’s seat before he could say a word. He got in on the other side and told me to get going. A minute later we were out on the main road, heading back toward town. I couldn’t remember the last time I had driven a car instead of a truck. It felt strange to be so low to the road.

  “You were right,” he said. “The word is out. Anybody looking for two men from Bay Mills is an automatic red flag.”

  “I don’t know what we can do now. Next place we stop, we’re likely to be arrested.”

  “You don’t carry an old badge or anything?”

  We were back on Pickard, heading right back to the Five Guys. Presumably there was nowhere else to go but back to the freeway. And back home.

  “I technically have a private-investigator license,” I said. “But I don’t use it.”

  “Excuse me?”

  �
��It doesn’t matter anyway. I don’t have it with me.”

  “You never told me you were a private eye. We could have—”

  “Look, it doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t have helped, believe me. It never does.”

  “I don’t even understand what you’re saying. How can you not—”

  I hit the brakes and nearly sent him through the windshield. There was a horn blaring right behind me and the screech of tries, and I suppose I almost did get us killed right there. But I didn’t even notice.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” Lou said.

  “Look there,” I said, pulling off the road. “We didn’t even notice it the first time we came by here.”

  It was a low, squat building made of brick, not unlike a dozen other buildings all up and down the street. The thing that set this one apart was the statue of a dog out front. It was painted white with black spots, like a Dalmatian, and it was wearing sunglasses.

  “I bet they take the glasses off that dog when it rains,” I said, “and put on a raincoat.”

  He just looked at me like I had lost my mind.

  “You still don’t know why I stopped.”

  “No, I most certainly do not.”

  “Read the sign.”

  “Isabella County Animal Hospital.”

  “Keep reading.”

  “What, it’s just the names of the—”

  He stopped.

  “Ronald Carrick, DVM,” he said.

  “You can practically smell the hamburgers from here,” I said, nodding toward the Five Guys. “Perfect place to stop after you leave this office. And if I’m not mistaken, there aren’t a whole hell of a lot of Carricks running around who don’t belong to Bay Mills.”

  It was one of the family names that dominated the reservation, right up there with Parrish, Teeple, and LeBlanc.

  “You realize,” Lou said, “this means Buck got fixed up by a vet instead of a doctor.”

  “A vet is a doctor. What do you think the D in DVM stands for?”

  We got out of the car and went inside. There was a diploma from Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine on the lobby wall. Next to that were some newspaper clippings, all to the effect that Ronald Carrick was one of only a handful of Ojibwa tribal members in the state with such a degree. We didn’t have to read any further. We knew we were in the right place.

  “Can I help you guys?” The voice came from the receptionist. She was sitting behind a high counter, and she looked young enough to be a student at the local college, Central Michigan.

  “I need to speak to Dr. Carrick,” Lou said. “It’s very important.”

  “I’ll see if he’s free.”

  She left the room and I started to wonder how we should play this. That’s when the doctor came out. He stepped around the counter and came right up to us. He was wearing the standard white coat, and he had that same barrel chest that Buck had. He was a Carrick, all right. Maybe even a first cousin.

  He took one look at Lou, saw that old LeBlanc face, and all of a sudden we had a new version of the eyeball test, one that told us everything we needed to know.

  *

  He put us in a back room, like we were a couple of dogs who needed our annual checkup. As we sat there, I couldn’t help wondering if the whole thing was a ploy to call the tribal police, no matter how much it seemed like the doctor was buying Lou’s story out in the lobby.

  We waited and we waited, until finally the doctor came in and closed the door behind him.

  “I apologize,” he said. “I had to finish up with some patients. But I don’t have any appointments now, so we should be able to talk.”

  He sat down in the only remaining chair and smoothed his white coat over his knees. He looked rattled.

  “Dr. Carrick,” I said. “We need to find Vinnie and Buck. They were here, weren’t they?”

  He nodded, looking down at the floor for a moment.

  “Buck must be your cousin, right?”

  “One of many,” he said, smiling. “I barely remembered him.”

  “They came to you for help,” I said. “Buck was injured?”

  “Right here,” he said, pointing to his underarm. “In the axilla. He was shot once. The bullet passed right through. He was very lucky.”

  “Did they say how it happened?”

  “If I had any idea they were in serious trouble,” he said, “I would have acted differently. You have to believe me.”

  “It’s okay,” Lou said. “You helped them. We understand, and we appreciate it. Please just tell us what happened.”

  “Okay,” he said, taking a long breath. “I’m sworn to secrecy, but I figure if you’re really Vinnie’s father … And it’s not like I have any official doctor-patient confidentiality here.… Anyway, this was what, three days ago? They came down here, it was late at night. Like really late. I live in the house just behind the practice here. They knocked on the door and I was thinking it must have been an animal emergency. A dog hit by a car or something. I get calls like that all the time, but usually they don’t come to the house. Anyway, I open the door and there’s my old cousin Bucky, holding his arm against his chest. I can see that he had been bleeding. Vinnie was with him. I recognized his name, but I don’t think I ever met him before. Although I guess technically Vinnie’s my cousin, too, like a second cousin or once removed, or whatever. I only went to college for eight years and I still don’t know how that works. Anyway, they came in and they told me that Vinnie was cleaning a gun at Buck’s house and it accidentally went off. And that they were afraid to go to the hospital because they’d have to report it and Vinnie would get in big trouble. I guess he’s been in jail before.”

  “Is that true?” Lou asked me.

  “No. Not really.” I was thinking of the one time Vinnie got charged with assault, when he went after somebody in the parking lot with his hockey stick. Somebody who definitely had it coming. But the charge was later dropped.

  “It was just part of the story,” the doctor said. “I see that now. At the time it made a certain amount of sense. In a bumbling sort of way. But anyway, I told him I was a vet and he said he didn’t think it was serious, and fortunately he was right. The shell might have just grazed one of his upper ribs, but otherwise it was basically skin damage. I was able to patch him up pretty easily and I even had some antibiotics to give him. People pills, not animal pills. I thought it was the right thing to do.”

  “When did that feeling change?” I said.

  “Well, they stayed at my house overnight. Buck was just lying around the next day, resting, while Vinnie was outside cleaning his truck. I guess there was a lot of blood in it. That’s when I started wondering, I mean, it’s like three hours to get down here. If he was really bleeding that much, it was a really stupid thing to do, no matter how much trouble you thought Vinnie might get into. I even asked him, I said, ‘Is this really what happened?’ He said yes, but I could kinda tell he was lying.”

  “Vinnie’s a terrible liar,” I said.

  “Yeah, well, apparently he called somebody at the rez, told them everybody was okay and that they’d be home soon.”

  “When was that?”

  “That was the next day. He asked if he could use the phone in my office, instead of at the house. Which sorta seemed weird. It’s like he didn’t want Buck to hear it.”

  “But you were there? You heard him on the phone?”

  “I heard some of it. He just said, you know, we’re both okay. Tell our family. Tell somebody else. I don’t remember the name.”

  “Alex.”

  “Yeah, that’s it. He said, tell Alex not to worry. Tell him not to do anything stupid. We’re okay and I’ll explain everything when I get home.”

  He stopped and looked at me.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “This was all kind of a shock when you came in. I know you told me your name, but I don’t think I caught it. So are you—”

  “Alex, yes. Doing something stupid. But go
on.”

  “Okay, so, later that night, it was Buck’s turn to get on the phone. I don’t know who he was talking to, but it was all about these people who wanted Buck and Vinnie to come see them, how they were going to take care of everything.”

  “That’s gotta be the Kaisers,” Lou said. “Harry and Josephine Kaiser. Do you recognize those names?”

  “No, I didn’t catch the names, sorry.”

  “But they said they were going to take care of everything? What were they going to do?”

  “He didn’t say. I was thinking maybe they must have had a good lawyer or something. But then I was thinking, no, not if it’s just an accidental shooting. So I guess I really had no idea what he was talking about. They were just going to take care of everything, he said. That’s it.”

  “Vinnie went along with this?”

  “No, not at first. But I think Buck wore him down. They ended up leaving yesterday morning, and I know they weren’t going home.”

  “What time did they leave?”

  “Eleven thirty? Noon, maybe? They were just hanging around for a while, then Buck went to make a phone call. He came back and said they had to get going right away.”

  “Did he say why?”

  “No. But all of a sudden they were in a hurry, and off they went.”

  I looked at Lou. I could tell he was thinking the same thing. Yesterday must have been the day when everybody involved in this situation got their wake-up call. It was time to run and not look back.

  “So they left in a big hurry,” Lou said.

  “Yeah, they did. I guess that’s when I sort of knew for sure. Not only was their story complete bullshit, but they were obviously in some kind of serious trouble. Vinnie kept saying they should just go home, but Buck was saying, no, these people were their only hope. Heck, I wanted them to stick around and have some lunch at least, but they just took off.”

  “Well, they stopped at the Five Guys down the road for some hamburgers,” I said. “Something tells me Buck doesn’t go that long without eating, no matter how much of a hurry they’re in. But if you can think of anything else they might have said…”