CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I WAS STILL standing in the parking lot when Maven got there. The rain had stopped and then started again, driven by the northwest wind. I just stood out there and let it hit me like buckshot.

“Where is it?” Maven said as he slammed his car door.

“Inside.”

“Did you open it?”

“Yes,” I said. My voice sounded like it belonged to someone else.

“You know it’s evidence, McKnight. Why in the hell did you open it?”

I just looked at him. “It was addressed to me,” I said. “I wanted to read it.”

“Well, goddamn it, what are we standing out here in the rain for?”

He started for the door.

“Are you coming in or not?” he said.

“You don’t need me,” I said.

He shook his head and then went inside. I stood out there alone in the parking lot, looking at nothing. I felt cold all the way through my body. The bullet inside me seemed to vibrate in time with my heartbeat.

Finally, Maven came back out. He had the plastic bag in his hand, the letter inside. He looked at me, then down at the letter, and then back at me again. “McKnight,” he said, “you get more fucking stupid every day, did you know that?”

I didn’t say anything.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”

I just looked at him. I couldn’t comprehend what he was saying.

“We could have had the whole force out looking for him thirty minutes ago,” he said.

I heard the front door to the Glasgow open and close behind us. Maven kept standing there, staring me in the eyes. As he spoke I could see a small bead of spit forming on his bottom lip.

“You’re standing out here in the fucking rain while your friend is on the fucking bottom of the lake, McKnight.”

I just stood there.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he said. “Don’t you care that your best friend is feeding the fucking fish right now?” The spit hit me in the face as he gave me a good shove in the shoulder.

And then it all came apart. I grabbed him by the neck with both hands. I squeezed with all my strength, with everything I had left inside me. If I could have, I would have torn his head right off his body.

His knee came up and caught me in the groin, and then his hand was on the back of my arm, driving me down onto the ground. I twisted free and started swinging. That’s when Jackie tackled me.

“Alex, for God’s sake!” he yelled as he sat on top of me. He still had his white apron on.

“Get off me,” I said.

“You need to go look for Fulton,” he said. “You don’t need to get arrested right now.”

“Too late,” Maven said, rubbing his neck. “You should have told him that before he assaulted me.”

Jackie got off me and pulled me to my feet. “Maven, I’m a witness to what happened here. You struck him first and then he retaliated. I would have done the same thing myself. Now, will the two of you just cut this shit out and go find the guy? Maybe he’s still alive. Has that occurred to you?”

Maven went back to his car and pulled out the radio. I went to my truck. “McKnight,” I heard him say, “where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m going to go find Edwin,” I said.

“The fuck you are. Get back here.”

I didn’t even look back at him as I got in the truck and sent the gravel flying. In my rearview mirror I could see him with his hands in the air.

I sped down the main road toward the highway. I knew I needed to get back to the reservation, start at the Bay Mills Casino. That was the last place Edwin was seen. I picked up the cellular phone and called the Fulton house. Please answer it, Uttley. Don’t let Edwin’s mother get it.

Uttley answered. “Alex,” he said. “I just called your cabin.”

“Lane, listen very carefully,” I said. “I received another note from … him. Rose. Whoever he is.”

“Oh God.”

“He got Edwin, Lane. At least that’s what the note said.”

“I can’t believe this.”

“Lane, you’ve got to put up a good front for Mrs. Fulton. Until we find out for sure.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m on my way to the casino,” I said.

“You called the police?”

I checked my rearview mirror, half-expecting to see Maven’s car speeding to catch up with me. “Yes, they know about it,” I said.

“I’m coming out there, Alex.”

“Lane, no. I think you better stay with Mrs. Fulton and Sylvia.”

“I can’t do that, Alex. I have to help you. Besides, if I stay here, Mrs. Fulton will know that something is wrong. It’s like she can read my mind.”

“All right, all right,” I said. “I’ll meet you at the casino. Hurry.”

I hung up and kept driving. I thought about what Maven had said. Why didn’t I tell him about Edwin when I called? He was right, they could have started searching right away. Why did I just go stand out there like that, listening to the wind and the waves?

Just like in that apartment. When Rose drew that gun. I froze. I am so fucking pathetic.

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. For some reason, Sylvia came into my mind. The way her skin felt the last time we were together. The look in her eyes as she watched me watching her robe slip to the floor.

God help me. Why am I thinking about this? I am losing my mind.

When I got to the casino, I saw Soo Police cars. Maven must have called them from his car. The tribal police were there, as well, probably wondering what the Soo Police were doing on the reservation. I had just been there a matter of hours ago, but that was when I expected to find Edwin throwing his money away at the blackjack tables. Now the morning light, muted by the rain, made the casino look sinister and out of place, like a madhouse.

I pulled up next to the front entrance and went inside. The place was maybe half-full even on a miserable morning like this one. As soon as I got inside the door, a Soo officer stopped me. “Mr. McKnight,” he said, “you’re not supposed to be here.”

I recognized the officer. It was the same man I saw at the motel and then again behind the restaurant. “I’m just trying to help,” I said. “We have to find him.”

“The chief said if I see you I’m supposed to arrest you.”

I grabbed him by the shoulders. “Then you didn’t see me, okay? Please.”

“I think you should go home,” he said. “We’ve got every officer out looking for him.”

“You know he drove a silver Mercedes, right?”

“Yes,” he said. “And we have the plate number.”

“Good,” I said. “Have you found out anything here? I know he was here last night around six o’clock. Do you have anything else?”

“Mr. McKnight …”

“Tell me, damn it,” I said. “Have you found out anything else?”

“No,” he said. “Everybody who was here last night has gone home. They’re calling some of those people right now.”

“All right,” I said. “Keep at it. I’m going to go start working some of the roads.”

“You were a police officer once, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Go,” he said. “I didn’t see you.”

“Thank you,” I said.

Outside, I searched the main parking lot. There was no sign of his car. I walked around the building, looking through all of the cars in the employee lot in back.

When I got back to my truck, Uttley had just pulled up in his red BMW. When he got out of the car he was out of breath like he had just run the whole way. “Alex, my God,” he said. “Tell me this is just a bad dream.”

“I’m going to go start looking for his car,” I said. “Why don’t you do the same. We’ll split up.”

“No, let me come with you,” he said. “I have a good map. We can be more thorough that way.”

“Fine, get in,” I said.

He grabbed his map and jumped in my truck. As I left the parking lot I looked over at him. He closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Is Mrs. Fulton okay?” I asked.

“Not really,” he said. “I think she knows something is wrong.”

“How about Sylvia?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t see her before I left. I think she was in her room.”

I tried to breathe. Think, Alex. Think of what to do. “The water,” I said. “Let’s start working the shore roads, look for his car.”

“Go up through the rez,” he said, unfolding his map. “We’ve got to start with Lakeshore Drive.”

When we hit the shoreline we started to see Soo Police cars, as well as a few state cars and even some county cars. Maven had apparently called everyone.

The sky was growing darker. The rain came down even harder.

We worked up Lakeshore Drive all the way to Iriquois Point. We stopped there at a little parking lot overlooking the lighthouse. I tried to picture Edwin sitting there in his car, looking out at the water. I tried to make it happen in my mind. But his car wasn’t there.

“I think we need to go out more,” I said.

“What, away from town?”

“It’s just a feeling,” I said. “There’s too many people around here. Even late at night. I would think he’d want something more isolated.”

“Makes sense,” he said, shifting the map. “So just keep going. We’ll work our way all the way around the bay.”

We headed west. There were a lot of cottages and vacation homes overlooking the water. Another state car passed us.

“At least we’ve got everybody out here looking,” he said.

We looked down long driveways and through the pine trees for some sign of his car. There was no sound apart from our breathing, the rain, and the rhythmic stroking of the windshield wipers.

“This is my fault,” I finally said.

“What are you talking about?”

“All of it. It’s my fault.”

“You can’t think that way.”

“I brought it here.”

“No,” he said. And then we were silent again.

We kept driving, kept looking. The trees grew thicker here as we made our way into the heart of the forest. “His car has to be here somewhere,” Uttley said.

“There’s not much out here until we hit the road to Paradise,” I said. “Maybe we should just go right there and start—”

“Wait, I think I saw something,” he said. “Go back to that driveway.” I pulled the truck over and put it into reverse. We both looked down at a small cottage. There was a silver car parked next to it, but it wasn’t a Mercedes.

“Sorry, false alarm,” he said.

“This is hopeless,” I said. “We’re never going to find his car. Even if we do …” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Just keep going,” he said. He looked me in the eyes. “Go.”

We kept working our way down the road. There weren’t many driveways this far out in the woods. We slowed down by each one and then sped up to the next.

I don’t know how many driveways we checked. I lost all track of time. The rain came on harder.

Finally, Uttley said, “Alex, look.” There was a cottage that looked closed up for the winter. Parked next to it was a state trooper’s car.

And next to that was a silver Mercedes.

“Oh God, Alex.”

I took the truck down the driveway and pulled in behind the trooper’s car. We got out to look at the Mercedes.

“This is Edwin’s car,” Uttley said. We looked through the windows. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

“It’s unlocked,” I said.

“We shouldn’t touch it, though, right?”

I nodded. My whole body was numb.

“Where are the troopers?” he said. The place was deserted.

“Let’s go see,” I said.

We made our way down a dirt path to the beach. As soon as we got near the water we could see the troopers. They were standing over a rowboat. One was bent over it like he was looking at something. The other was looking up at the rain, sheltering his face with one hand and holding a radio with the other. We could hear the faint crackling and then a metallic voice breaking in.

I ran down the beach, working hard to make my way over the stones. Uttley was right behind me. As we approached the boat, the troopers looked up at us. “Who are you?” one of them said.

“What did you find?” I said.

“I need to know your name, sir,” he said.

“I’m Alex McKnight,” I said. “I’m …” What do I say? “I’m a friend of Edwin Fulton. What did you find?” I looked into the rowboat.

“Please, sir,” the trooper said, “you can’t touch anything.”

“I know that,” I said. “I just want to—”

I saw blood. On the side of the boat. It was mixing with the rain and washing down into a pool of faint pink.

And floating in that pool, driven by the wind into a slow spiral, was a single red rose.

The second trooper, the one who was bent over the boat, looked up at the first. “Call them again,” he said. “This rain is messing everything up.”

“They said they’re on their way.”

“Damn it all.”

I went closer to the boat. I stood right over it and looked down at the blood. Uttley stood behind me, his arms wrapped around his body to keep his coat from whipping in the wind.

“Sir,” the trooper said, “you really need to step away from that.”

I ignored him, looking down at the oarlock. I got down on my knees and looked at it closely. I tried to find my voice, but I could not speak.

The troopers needed to do something about this. They needed to collect this evidence before the wind blew it away.

Wrapped around the oarlock were several strands of long blond hair.

The hair was thick and coarse. Like the hair that would come off a long blond wig.