Die a Stranger: An Alex McKnight Novel Page 20

  “What, you mean just leave the boat out there?”

  “It’s a piece of crap,” she said. “And it’s not even ours.”

  “Vinnie LeBlanc and Buck Carrick,” I said, my head still pushed back onto the rough wood of the railing. “They came to the island with you, right?”

  She looked at me, deep in thought.

  “Who are you, really?” she said. “Tell me the truth.”

  “My name is Alex. I’m a friend of Vinnie’s. I came here looking for Vinnie and his cousin. I swear to God, if you’ve done anything to them…”

  She didn’t bother to laugh at that. She gave Sugarpie a little nod and he pulled the chair back up. He kept one hand on my shoulder, just in case.

  “Did you come alone?” she said. “No, wait, that person who called you…”

  I hesitated over that one, trying to decide which was better, the truth or a lie. I settled on a little of both.

  “I’m not alone,” I said. “I’ve got five other people on the island with me. You’ll never get away, believe me.”

  “Where were all of your friends when I found you at the dock?”

  “They were on the ferry. I flew over separately and I was waiting for them. By now, they’re all over the island. Five men, all looking for me. And for you. They know everything about you.”

  “That’s a lie.”

  “All we want is Vinnie and Buck,” I said. “You give them to us and you walk away.”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry to tell you,” Harry said, “but you’re a little too late for that.”

  “Harry, shut up,” the woman said.

  “I’m not shutting up, Jo. Don’t tell me to shut up.”

  “Just be quiet for one second so we can think this through.”

  “There’s nothing to think about. We made our deal and now we can get the hell out of here.”

  A phone rang. They looked at each other until finally she remembered my cell phone in her pocket. She took it out and opened it.

  “This time it’s a 313 number,” she said. “That’s Detroit.”

  It took me a second to figure it out. Then it came to me. It was Janet Long, returning my call from this morning. An actual FBI agent on the phone, but a hell of a lot of good it would do me now.

  “Now I know he doesn’t work for Corvo,” Harry said, taking the cell phone from her. “I mean, look at this thing.”

  He tossed it to Sugarpie, who looked at it with wonder, like an archaeologist examining a dinosaur bone. When he was done, he dropped it onto the table, next to the ashtray.

  “That’s one more of my friends,” I said, trying to put a little edge into it now, like this was just an inconvenience to me, something that happened all the time. “They must be all over the place by now. Maybe even right outside. I tell you, all you gotta do is give us Vinnie and Buck. We have no interest in you at all.”

  “And I told you it’s too late,” Harry said.

  His wife reached over and gave him a little cuff on the cheek. Not quite a slap, but a hell of a lot stronger than a love tap.

  “Ow,” he said. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”

  “Take off those wet clothes,” she said. “Then get your ass into the house. We have to talk about this.”

  “What about him?” the man said, nodding at me.

  “Dumpling’s getting the zip ties. They’re out in the car, right?”

  “No, they’re in the house.”

  “Well, go get one, genius. And take off those clothes before you ruin the deck.”

  She watched him walk into the house, leaving a wet trail behind him. He was clearly doing things in the wrong order and she looked at me, shaking her head, like I was supposed to be on her side all of a sudden.

  “You need to tell me what happened to Vinnie and Buck,” I said to her. “Are they alive or not?”

  “You need to stay quiet and relax,” she said, as if that were possible. “But yes, they’re alive. Maybe you’ll even get to see them.”

  She gave me a grim smile and now I had no idea what to think. Then Harry came back through the door with a plastic zip tie about a foot long.

  “He’s going to put this on your wrists,” she said to me. “It’s for everybody’s benefit. Then we’ll take you to see your friends.”

  Harry stopped dead and looked at her like she was crazy. She raised one eyebrow at him and gestured to me, like, get on with it already.

  “Hands together,” he said to me. “Don’t try anything funny.”

  I put my hands in front of me. In one smooth expert motion he lassoed my wrists and pulled the zip tie tight.

  “Do the ankles, too,” she said. “Just for now.”

  “You said get one zip tie. I only brought one.”

  “So go get another. But first take off your—”

  He let out a breath and went back into the house before she could finish. On his way back out with the second zip tie she smacked him in the back of the head. He stopped and looked at her and I thought for a second they were gonna start swinging, but then he got down on one knee in front of me.

  “Feet together,” he said. “Slightly off the floor.”

  The second zip tie was a little bigger. He was able to slip it around my feet and pull it tight. This was not the first time he had done this. Probably not even the first time today. Wherever Vinnie and Buck were, I was pretty sure they were wearing the exact same things.

  “Okay, now what?” he said.

  She just looked at him until the light bulb finally went on. He stripped out of his wet suit right there on the deck, down to a tight little Speedo swimsuit. He was in decent shape for his age, but it still didn’t exactly flatter him. There was a key on a plastic lanyard wrapped around his wrist. He took that off and tossed it on top of the wet suit.

  “All right, I’m gonna go have a quick chat with Mr. Olympia here,” the woman said. “Sugarpie’s gonna keep you company.”

  The tie around my ankles was even tighter than the one around my wrists. I couldn’t have gotten up out of the chair even if the house had been on fire. But Sugarpie pulled up the other chair right in front of me and sat down. He folded his arms and watched me. All I could do was sit there and look at his tattoos. A dragon and some barbwire around the biceps, all brilliantly original work. Some birds and some Chinese characters, and for some reason a clock on his chest with the hands at twelve and three.

  I got tired of looking at his ugly skin and his ugly face. So I put my head down for a while and just hoped to God that Vinnie and Buck were still alive.

  Dumpling came back up the steps and onto the deck.

  “I couldn’t find the zip ties,” he said. “We’re gonna have to—”

  He stopped dead when he saw me trussed up like a turkey.

  “Your turn to watch him,” Sugarpie said. “I need a little smoke.”

  Dumpling took his place in the chair, giving me a whole new set of tattoos to study if I wanted to. This guy had more space to work with, but he obviously hadn’t spent the money. Half of his ink was cheap stuff that looked like it had been drawn by a kindergartner.

  The sliding door opened again. Harry and Jo came back out.

  “Okay, Alex,” she said, her voice different now. Like I was their houseguest and she had kept me waiting way too long. “Here’s what we’ve decided. It’s good news.”

  She paused and looked to her husband for confirmation. He just stood there. His hair was still wet.

  “Harry’s gonna go put on some clothes,” she said. “Then we’re going to go for a drive. Have you ever been to Beaver Island before?”

  “Where are Vinnie and Buck?” I said.

  “I’ll take that as a no. In which case, we really need to take you on the tour. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

  She looked at me with her eyebrows raised, like she actually expected an answer.

  “Harry, go get dressed,” she said to him, “and boys, put your shirts on. You look like a couple of monkeys.”
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  “Where are they?” I said. “God damn all of you.”

  Dumpling looked up at her to see if she was offended, but she just smiled at him and gestured for him to get up and put his shirt on. He shrugged and then hauled himself to his feet. Sugarpie had picked up the joint and was busy smoking it down to nothing. Dumpling gave him a look and grabbed his shirt off the railing.

  When Harry finally came back out, his hair was dry and it was sticking out in both directions. He had glasses on now, and the overall effect was that of an eccentric English professor. The kind who sells marijuana by the planeload and who knows how to zip tie your hands and feet.

  “Okay, it’s time to go,” Jo said. She still had the gun, of course. Something told me she wouldn’t have trusted her husband with it. Not for a second.

  Harry cut the zip tie from my ankles. He left the tie around my wrists. They led me off the deck, all four of them, to the driveway. I looked around for some way to distract them. Some way to escape. I didn’t see any opportunity. None at all.

  Harry opened the back door and motioned for me to get in. Sugarpie got in behind me, and then Dumpling squeezed himself in on the other side. Then Harry got behind the wheel and Jo sat beside him. She didn’t bother pointing the gun at me, and I didn’t blame her. What the hell was I gonna do?

  “Time to go set you free,” she said in a voice as cheerful as an icicle. “Just like a little bird.”

  Then we were off. It was a beautiful, picture-perfect day on the island, and I was being driven to my own execution.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  They drove back into town first, right back to the dock. I looked out the window, trying desperately to catch sight of Lou. But he was off the ferry and it was getting ready to head back to Charlevoix now. Lou might have been a block away, walking around, looking for me, but there was no way for me to know. Even if I’d seen him, what could I have done? With these men on either side of me, how could I have drawn his attention?

  Harry stopped at the edge of the dock entrance. He and Jo got out. All of a sudden both of the back doors were open and I could see daylight on either side. Freedom just a few feet away. But then Sugarpie closed his door and stood there talking to Harry. Jo still had the other door open and she gave Dumpling a kiss right on the mouth that lasted at least three seconds. Something a little strange going on there, if I had bothered to think about it. She gave him the gun and he weighed it in his hand for a moment before pointing it right at my gut. He was smiling and wearing just a touch of Jo’s lipstick.

  Jo came around to the other side of the vehicle as Sugarpie took Harry’s place behind the wheel. She leaned and gave Sugarpie another three-second kiss on the mouth.

  “Remember,” she said, “if you’re not back here in time to catch the ferry, just take the next one. We’ll take your car from Charlevoix and go on ahead. We’ll be waiting for you.”

  “Why can’t you just wait for us?” Sugarpie said. “We can all go on the last ferry together.”

  “You’ll be okay. You’re big boys.”

  “I don’t think you should go to the house alone. What if Corvo shows up?”

  “He’s got no reason to do that, Sugarpie. We’re all square now.”

  Not that it’s any consolation to me, I thought, but those two are in for a real surprise today. Corvo already did show up, and he’s got quite a flair for redecorating.

  “I don’t like it,” Sugarpie said. “I think you should wait for us.”

  “You just hush your mouth,” she said, patting him on the cheek. “You got money for something to eat?”

  “Yeah, I got money.”

  “Okay, then we’ll see you on the other side.” She gave him another kiss and then she closed the door. As Sugarpie drove off, I caught one more glimpse of the two of them. Harry waving, Jo blowing more kisses in the air. Then we were on the road out of town, riding south.

  I kept looking for Lou. Here now at least I’d have the chance to catch his attention. Bang my head against the glass, let him see me. Whatever it took. But I never saw him.

  As they drove me down the coast, eventually turning into the interior of the island, I started to wonder if I had made a big mistake. Maybe I should have made my stand there at the house, told them I knew they weren’t going to shoot me. Not right there on the porch. Not in cold blood. Maybe they would have balked if I had done that.

  Or maybe they wouldn’t have. These were some seriously deranged people, that much was clear now. Maybe Harry would have taken the gun and shot me, just to prove something to Josephine. Or maybe she would have done it herself. Hell, every time I looked her in the eye, I felt like I was seeing something fundamentally defective, like somebody had forgotten to install all the circuit boards in the factory. I had a sick feeling that she could have shot me without thinking twice about it. Then gone inside and taken a nice afternoon nap.

  I turned and looked at Dumpling.

  “That’s right, old man,” he said. “It’s showtime now.”

  “Where are they right now?” I said. “In a boat? Is that what I heard?”

  “Who said that?”

  “Harry said that. He said they were in a boat.”

  “So yeah, they are. They’re in a boat. With the money.”

  “Why do they need to be in the boat?” Even as I said it, I already knew the answer.

  “That’s part of the deal. Two Indians. One million dollars cash.”

  “For Corvo,” I said. “That’s who we’re talking about.”

  “We don’t need to talk about him.”

  “Why not? Are you afraid of him?”

  “Shut the hell up,” he said. “Just keep quiet.”

  “Or what, are you gonna shoot me?”

  He jabbed the gun barrel into my ribs. Hard. I spent the next two minutes trying to breathe again.

  “What you’re telling me,” I finally said, “is that they sold out Vinnie and Buck to save their own skin. That’s what you’re telling me.”

  “Nobody will miss them.”

  “I happen to know they sold out a dealer in Sault Ste. Marie, too. You know what happened to him?”

  “I have a feeling you’re gonna tell me,” he said, “whether I care or not.”

  “Corvo tortured him. He cut him up and let him bleed to death. At least, that’s what it looked like.”

  “You saw it?”

  “After the fact, yeah.”

  “Okay, then,” Dumpling said. “So now we know. Thanks for the information.”

  “You guys don’t get it.”

  “What?”

  “They’ll do anything to save themselves. Anything.”

  “What are you saying?”

  I tensed up, waiting for another jab in the ribs.

  “Don’t you think it’s funny? Having you drop them off at the dock? You think they’re really gonna wait for you?”

  “All right,” Sugarpie said from the front seat. “Everybody shut the hell up right now.”

  “You both know I’m right,” I said. “You both know you’re next.”

  Dumpling jabbed me again and everything flashed white.

  “He said shut up. So just shut up.”

  My whole side was in spasm now. I tried to relax my muscles. Breathe. Relax. Breathe.

  “You’re making this easy,” he said. “I’ll give you that much.”

  I didn’t know where we were. We’d left the shoreline and now it was just trees on either side of us. Now and then the trees would break and I’d see wetland. Yes, plenty of swamps around here, I thought. That’s where we’re going. Far away from anyone else. My body won’t be found for days. Or weeks. Or maybe never.

  These guys weren’t going to give me anything close to a fair shot at getting away, that much I knew for sure. Certainly not with my wrists still zip-tied together. But I had to try something. Even if it was a long shot. At some point, I had to roll the dice.

  I looked around the backseat. There was nothing to grab on to. I looke
d above me, below me, to both sides. Then I looked out the windshield. Still nothing but trees. Then I looked at the rearview mirror.

  A car behind us.

  A white car.

  I tried not to show any reaction. I let out a breath, closed my eyes, dipped my head down. Counted to ten. Then I opened my eyes and looked around again, just happening to glance at the rearview mirror.

  I couldn’t quite make out what kind of car it was. I definitely couldn’t see the driver’s face. But the driver sat tall enough, I thought for sure it was a man, and I couldn’t make out anybody in the passenger’s seat.

  One man driving a white car, just like the car Lou had rented. Who even buys white cars anymore? They all go to rental companies, right?

  We made a right turn. There was an interior lake on our left. I took another quick look at the mirror. The white car could have turned the other way, but it hadn’t. It was still about forty or fifty yards behind us.

  “Is that car following us?” Sugarpie said.

  “You’re being paranoid,” Dumpling said, without even looking out the back window. “There’s like five roads on the whole island, remember? There’s always somebody behind you.”

  “Yeah, but this guy said he had a bunch of friends with him.”

  “And you believed that? Come on.”

  We went down the road about another mile. Sugarpie slowed down as we came to another intersection. He was peering into the rearview mirror. He could have gone straight and stayed on the same road. He could have taken a right and gone back north on another road. He chose option C—take a left and drive down a trail that wasn’t a road at all.

  “The car went straight,” he said as he started rumbling down the trail. We were in a Jeep Cherokee, after all, so it wasn’t entirely crazy.

  “Told you,” Dumpling said. “Now slow down so you don’t get us all killed.”

  “If I slow down, we sink in the soft ground. Speed is life. That’s what the pilots say.”

  “Yeah, well, we’re not in a plane.”

  “Just relax. We’re almost there.”

  The car didn’t follow us, I thought. That could mean one of two things. Either it was Lou and he made a quick decision not to take the car down this rough trail. Or it wasn’t Lou. And really, why should it have been? Why should I be so lucky as to have him show up when I really needed him?