Blood is the Sky

Chapter Nine

A couple of constables showed up within three minutes of my call. They weren’t Reynaud and DeMers, that was for sure. They were both in their thirties, both rock hard if a few pounds overweight, the way cops get from sitting around too much. One had scar tissue laced through both eyebrows. An old boxer, I would have bet money on it. Probably a middleweight. The other guy had never been hit in the face, and he had a deep suntan, even by American standards. I was guessing a lot of time on a fishing boat.

They pulled up behind my truck, radioed in the basics-exact location, license plate of the vehicle, our names-and then stood there for a moment, looking at us. The cop with the suntan took out a first-aid box and wrapped up Vinnie’s right hand, while Boxer Face took a few steps down into the ditch. He came back up and stopped right in front of me.

“Did you break the window, sir?”

“That was me,” Vinnie said. The man turned and looked at him, then addressed me again.

“As of this morning, we’ve been trying to locate five men who didn’t make it back to America after a hunting trip.”

“I know,” I said. “We spoke to two other constables this morning.”

“So how did you end up finding this vehicle?”

“We got lucky. We were driving by and we saw it.”

“And the reason you broke into it?”

“I told you,” Vinnie said. “I did that.”

“I heard you the first time,” the cop said. “Maybe you guys shouldn’t say anything else for the moment, eh? I think we need to take you back to the detachment.”

“Are we under arrest?”

“Not at the moment,” he said.

“This man had nothing to do with this,” Vinnie said. “It was all me.”

“Vinnie, shut up,” I said. “Just cool it.”

We all stood there while my man went to the car and talked on the radio. They’d need some more men down here, to set up a crime scene and to take over while they transported us to the detachment.

Twenty minutes later, constables DeMers and Reynaud arrived. DeMers was driving. I saw his grim face through the windshield as he slammed on the brakes. He got out of the car and came over to us, probably moving faster than he had in twenty years. He looked at us without saying a word, then took a flashlight off his belt and climbed down the drainage ditch to the Suburban. After fighting his way through the brush, he shined the flashlight into the interior. He stopped short when he got to the shattered window. Constable Reynaud stayed up on the road. She looked at me and shook her head slowly.

And this time around she looked even better. It was a hell of a thing to notice under the circumstances, but damn.

As DeMers was fighting his way back, he tripped over something and ended up flat on his face. When he stood up again, both knees were soaking wet. “Son of a bitch,” he said. When he was finally back on the road, he tried brushing himself off. It didn’t do much good.

He came and stood in front of me. “The window,” he said.

“That was me,” Vinnie said. I wanted very badly to smack him in the face.

“Yeah, I sorta figured that,” he said, eyeing Vinnie. “The bandage on your hand was my first clue. You wanna tell me why you broke in?”

“I wanted to see if Tom’s stuff was in there.”

“And was it?”

“Yes.”

“I saw some wallets on the backseat. Did one of those belong to your brother?”

“Yes. I mean, it was actually my wallet.”

“Your wallet was in the vehicle.”

“The wallet I let Tom use.”

“Naturally,” DeMers said. “Because he was supposed to be you.”

“Yes.”

“I trust you left the wallet in there. You didn’t remove it, did you?”

“No.”

DeMers nodded his head, then came back to me. “How about you, Alex? Did you compromise the crime scene, as well?”

“No,” I said.

“I suppose you know better, being an ex-cop and all.”

“That plus the fact it wasn’t my brother’s stuff in there.”

He narrowed his eyes. He was about to say something but stopped. “I’ll take these men,” he finally said to the other cops. “You guys stay here.”

DeMers opened up the back of his car and motioned us inside. He didn’t look me in the eye as I walked by him. He looked down at the ground and it sounded like he was trying very hard to measure his breathing.

As soon as we were set, he flipped the car into gear and turned it around. He drove through Calstock, back to the main highway, and took a left, pushing eighty-five as he hit the highway. Reynaud was frowning as she watched him drive. She looked back at us, catching Vinnie’s eye for a quick second before settling on me. “Claude, please take it easy,” she said, turning away from me. “You wanna get in a wreck three months away from retirement?”

“These guys,” he said. “God damn it all.”

“I know,” she said. “I know. Just take it easy.”

About a half hour later, we hit a small town. He pulled into a parking lot, next to a long single-story building. The sign read

ONTARIO PROVINCIAL POLICE,HEARST DETACHMENT.

DeMers opened the car door and let us out. “This way,” he said. He led us through the front door, past the reception area, down a hallway, into an interview room. It looked like most every other interview room I had ever seen. A table and four chairs, gray walls, a big mirror on one of them. Before he could close the door, another officer stuck his head in and gave us all a quick once-over. He had white hair and the kind of face I’d often seen on desk cops-the kind that could register ten levels of irritation, and today it looked like he had turned it up to seven or eight. The man called DeMers out into the hallway, while Reynaud stayed with us. She sat down on the opposite side of the table.

“Is that his superior?” I said.

“The detachment commander, yes. Staff Sergeant Moreland.”

“He doesn’t look happy.”

“I don’t think he is.”

“You said DeMers is three months away from retirement?”

“Yes.”

The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead.

“How long have you been a constable?” I said. I couldn’t help thinking, if I were twenty years younger, or even ten years, and I was still on the force, and this woman was my partner-how would I handle it? In eight years as a cop in Detroit, I never had a female partner.

“Five years,” she said. “Do we really need to talk about this?”

“Okay,” I said. “I just have one more question for you.”

“What’s that?”

“I know how tough it can be for women cops. I don’t imagine it’s changed much.”

“And your question is?”

“Getting stuck way up here, miles from anywhere, is it a test or a punishment?”

She looked at me. If she was going to answer, she didn’t get the chance. The door swung open and DeMers came back into the room. His knees were still wet.

“All right,” he said as he sat down. “All right.” He took off his glasses and went into his whole cleaning routine again. If he were my partner, he’d get to do that about three or four times before I grabbed the damned glasses and broke them in two. “Here’s where we are. We were already searching for some trace of those missing men. The Mounties were helping us out. Now that we have the vehicle, we’ll take it over to the main detachment in Timmins, see what they can come up with. Of course, we already know a couple of things they’re gonna find, don’t we?”

He paused and looked at both of us.

“They’ll find a lot of shattered glass,” he said. “Some blood. They’ll find the wallets, which might be the most important piece of evidence. But, of course, they’ll all be moved and they’ll have a new set of fingerprints on them. That’s gonna make their job a hell of a lot harder.”

He stopped again. The lights buzzed above our heads. I wondered if anyone was watching us through the two-way mirror.

“Here’s the thing,” he said. “I asked you to go back to Michigan. Instead of doing that, you guys headed right over to the Constance Lake Reserve. You wanna start by explaining that one?”

“I thought I saw a young Indian at the lodge,” I said. “I thought he might know something that could help us. Constance Lake is the nearest reserve, so I figured that’s where we’d find him.”

“Did you?”

“No, he wasn’t there.”

“Have you ever been on the reserve before today?”

“No, of course not.”

“You have no connection to anyone there.”

“No,” I said. “How could I?”

“And you, Mr. LeBlanc? You haven’t said anything yet. Do you have any connection to anyone on the Constance Lake Reserve?”

“No,” Vinnie said. He sat there with arms folded across his chest.

“You live on a reservation in Michigan, don’t you?”

“No.”

DeMers looked a little surprised. “Even so, you felt comfortable trying to contact this young Indian Mr. McKnight said he saw at the lodge.”

“I saw him, too.”

“So you went to find him, but he wasn’t there. Then you left.”

“Yes.”

“Who spotted the vehicle?”

“I did,” Vinnie said.

“That’s pretty amazing. The vehicle was deep in the woods.”

“Maybe thirty or forty feet,” Vinnie said. “I happened to be looking out the window.”

DeMers turned to his partner. “I still think it’s amazing,” he said. “Don’t you?”

She thought about it for a moment, or at least pretended to. “I think it’s safe to say it was amazing, yes.”

“I know I wouldn’t have spotted that vehicle,” DeMers said. “Not in a million years. Now, if I knew to look for it, that would be a different story.”

“We didn’t know it was there,” I said. “You don’t even have to take our word for it. Just think about it.”

“The fact that you broke into the vehicle makes me wonder,” he said. “Maybe you were trying to retrieve something important.”

“And then we called you,” I said. “Instead of just leaving.”

“You knew it would be found eventually. Why not just call it in and get it over with?”

“What are you suggesting?”

“That you either had a very good reason to find that vehicle and break into it. Or else you were so lucky you just happened to stumble over it, and so stupid that you’d intentionally compromise a crime scene. Which is it?”

“I don’t know about lucky,” I said, “but we’ll cop a plea on stupid.”

Vinnie gave me a quick look. He kept his arms folded.

“Those men left the lodge five days ago,” DeMers said. “Instead of going home, they did God knows what, and their empty van ends up ditched in the woods, just outside the reserve. Which, as you know, is most definitely not on the way to anywhere. Certainly not on the way home. So you tell me. What do you think happened?”

“One of those men is my brother,” Vinnie said.

I recognized the tone of voice. Please no, I thought. This would be a bad time to run out of fuse again.

“You got the Mounties helping you now?” Vinnie went on. “It’s about time. Why don’t you get out there, too? Instead of asking us all these stupid questions.”

“Vinnie, knock it off.”

“Why don’t you go change your pants,” he said. “And then get out there and look for them.”

That was enough for DeMers. He stood up and told us to do the same. Then he led us out of the conference room and deep into the back of the building. There were three holding cells there, all of them empty. The doors were open. He showed us into the first of the cells and slammed the door shut behind us.

“Are we officially charged?” I said.

“How does obstruction of justice sound?” he said.

“You didn’t Mirandize us yet. You should have done that before asking us all those questions.”

He came back to the bars and put his face six inches from mine. I could see my reflection in his glasses. I could smell his aftershave. “First of all,” he said, “we’re in Canada. They call it the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Second of all-”

“What is it?”

He put his hands on the bars. Once again, just when I expected him to explode, he surprised me. “You guys are making this really hard,” he said. “Don’t you see that?”

I didn’t say anything.

“We’re trying to find these guys, eh? We’re trying to do our jobs. Why can’t you just let us do that?”

I was about to answer him, but he cut me off.

“You think that helps us? Breaking into the van and messing everything up? For God’s sake, guys. Didn’t I tell you to go home?”

“Constable-”

“You can call me Claude, all right? Will you do that?”

I hesitated. “Claude-”

“We’re on the same side, eh? All of us, including my partner. We’re just trying to find those men.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, nothing. Why don’t you try cooperating for a change, eh? Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re causing?”

I wasn’t sure what to say.

“Just sit tight here for a minute,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” He walked away, shaking his head.

Vinnie was already sitting down on one of the two beds in the cell. There was a small sink between them, and a metal toilet. I sat down on the other bed. It was softer than I thought it would be. As holding cells went, these were deluxe accommodations.

“What the hell is going on?” Vinnie said. “It’s like he’s Jekyll and Hyde or something.”

“Son of a bitch,” I said.

“What?”

“I know what he’s doing.”

“He’s trying to trick us? Set us up for something?”

“No,” I said. “Not at all. That little show in the room, that was for his boss, the staff sergeant. The guy must have been behind the glass.”

“What are you talking about?”

“DeMers is springing us,” I said. “Don’t you see? He ran us through the wringer because he had to, just on the face of it. But now he’s going out of his way to get us out of it.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Because we’re such nice guys.”

“Seriously, Alex.”

“I don’t know, Vinnie. He’s been a cop a long time. He must know we’re being straight with him. So he blows off a little steam and then he does the right thing. He’s gonna kick us out of here.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Remember the last time you were in jail?” I said.

“What about it?”

“It was a crappy cell, you had three strangers in there with you, and your face was a mess.”

“I remember.”

“You’re moving up in the world.”

“Is that supposed to be funny?”

I sat back on the bed and leaned my head against the hard wall.

“Let me ask you something else,” I said. “Why would that van be ditched in the woods like that?”

“DeMers was right about that road,” Vinnie said. “It’s not on the way to anywhere, except the reserve.”

“When you were looking through those wallets, did you happen to notice if the cash was missing?”

He looked up at me. “There was no cash.”

“How about credit cards?”

“Those were gone, too.”

“You think it’s a coincidence Guy’s mother was acting so strange?”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “If he was involved in this, he wouldn’t dump that vehicle a mile from the reserve.”

“No, not if he had a choice. Hell, I don’t know.”

Vinnie stared at the floor. “How long do you think we’re gonna be here?”

“I’ll bet you he comes back in five minutes,” I said.

He was back in four. Reynaud was with him.

“Ready to go?” he said as he opened the cell door.

“You guys don’t know how to play this game,” I said. “This cell feels like a three-star hotel.”

“You should see the food,” he said. “Same stuff we eat in the cafeteria.”

“Canadians,” I said. “You probably give them beer, too.”

DeMers slammed the door shut and led us down the hall. “What are you guys gonna do as soon as you get outside?” he said.

“Is my truck here?”

“We towed it over, yes.”

“Then I’m gonna get in and drive home.”

“Good man,” he said. “If you don’t, God help me, I’ll find you and kick your ass all the way home myself.”

I smiled at that one. Reynaud smiled, too. Just a little bit.

“That’s not meant to be funny,” DeMers said. “I’m doing you a favor here. Don’t make me regret it.”

“We’re going,” I said. “And I suppose we owe you some thanks.”

He shook it off. “Thank me by never letting me see your face again.”

When we hit the front door, we could see that the world had changed in the past hour. It was late in the afternoon, and there was snow in the air. The wind was swirling it around in every direction. It hit us when we opened the door. As we walked to the truck I took one last look behind me. They were both standing there watching us through the glass. I gave them a little wave, but they didn’t wave back.

I fired up the truck and got us the hell out of there. The town was right on the highway, so it was just a matter of pointing us west, back to 631. We’d take that south and if we made good time, we’d be home by midnight.

“It’s too bad you won’t see her again,” Vinnie said.

“What do you mean?”

“Constable Reynaud. She’s strong and quiet, like a wolf.”

“You’re so full of it.”

“Myeengun. That’s the Ojibwa word for wolf.”

“Thank you.”

“Shit, I should call home,” he said, picking up the cell phone and turning it on. “We actually might have a signal here.”

“There must be a cell tower in Hearst. Better call now before we get too far away.”

“It says you missed seven calls.”

“Are there any messages?”

“No, the little envelope thing would appear, right?”

“Right.”

“No, no messages. They must have called and hung up.”

“It’s probably your family,” I said.

“Yeah, probably.” He dialed the number and waited. A few seconds later, he had his mother on the phone. He described what we had found, and how he didn’t know what it meant yet, and how everyone was looking for them and she shouldn’t let herself imagine the worst. I could tell by the look on his face that she was already doing just that.

At that point, Vinnie listened to something his mother was saying, and didn’t seem to like it. “They did what?” he said. “How could you let them do that? You didn’t have to let them, even though they asked.” He rubbed his forehead while he listened some more. “No,” he said. “No, no, no, no. Oh, God.” It went on that way for another minute or two, until he finally told her we were on our way home and that she should just sit tight until we got there. Then he hung up.

“What’s going on?” I said.

“The Michigan State Police came to the house already.”

“That was fast.”

“They told her about the vehicle, and they asked her a bunch of questions about Tom. Then they asked if they could search his room.”

“And she said yes.”

“Of course she said yes. It wouldn’t have occurred to her to say anything else. And none of my uncles were around.”

“Did they find anything?”

“A bag of marijuana.”

“How big?”

“Not big at all. But under the circumstances-”

“I thought he was clean now.”

“Yeah, well, I guess he was still smoking a little weed now and then. Just to mellow out. That’s exactly what he would have told me. Just to mellow out.”

“How’s your mother doing now?”

“We’ve got to get home, Alex. She doesn’t know what to do with herself.”

“We’re going,” I said. I pushed the pedal down. The snow was still swirling around in the air, making crazy designs all over the road, but it wasn’t sticking yet.

“By the way, those calls on your cell phone, they weren’t her.”

“No?”

“No. You want me to check? You’ve got call history, right?”

“Yeah, but you’ve got to go into the menu and turn that little wheel. Here, let me have it.”

He handed me the phone. Before I could do anything, it rang in my hand. I looked at the display. The call was coming from a 313 number. That meant Detroit, although if it was a cell phone, the caller could have been anywhere at that moment. I hit the button and said hello.

“Who is this?” It was a man’s voice.

“This is McKnight,” I said. “Who is this?”

“Somebody left a message on Red’s machine,” the man said. “They left this number.”

“That was my friend,” I said. “We were trying to find out if he’d gotten back home yet. Who am I speaking to?”

The signal wavered. For a few seconds all I heard was static, until finally the voice broke through again. “The police said they found Red’s van in the woods up there. You wanna tell me what’s going on?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” I said. “Are you gonna tell me who you are or not?”

“Red is my brother, all right? Now just tell me what the fuck is going on up there.”

“You gotta talk to me first,” I said. “You’re one of the men who came up here, aren’t you? Are you the guy with the big nose?”

“Friend, you are really pushing your luck. You know that?”

“You were up here, looking for Albright,” I said. “Where are you now?”

The line was silent for a few seconds. I wasn’t sure if I was still connected. Finally, the voice came back on. He spoke slowly, as if he could barely control himself. “I will find out who you are. And I will break every bone in your body. You got that? Every fucking bone in your body. And when I’m done, I’ll go back and break every bone again. Okay? Are you hearing me?”

He said a few more words, but I didn’t catch them. Then the signal went out for good. I threw the phone on the seat.

“What was that about?” Vinnie said.

“One of those other men who were up here,” I said. “He said he was Red’s brother. He must have gotten into Albright’s phone messages.”

“What did he say?”

“He just wanted to know what’s going on up here. You should’ve heard this guy, Vinnie. I gotta tell ya, this is getting worse by the minute.”

“His brother’s missing. I can relate to that. Of course he’s gonna be mad.”

“No, it’s more than that. He sounded like the kind of guy who gets mad for a living.”

“Meaning what? You think Tom got hooked up in something?”

“It doesn’t look real good right now. You’ve got to admit it.”

He didn’t say anything.

There was no need to push it any further, so I settled in for the long drive. The snow started to let up. I drove for a while, never thinking about looking in the rearview mirror. Up here, you don’t even need one.

I heard the buzzing noise, then finally looked up and saw the motorcycle closing on us from the rear. My first thought was the police-this was DeMers coming to hunt me down like he said he would. But no, he’d be the last man on earth to get on a motorcycle.

My second thought was the phone call. Red’s brother had connections in Canada, and this was his way of letting us know he didn’t appreciate my attitude.

The motorcycle moved over to the other lane and drew even with me. The rider gestured for me to pull over. He had a black helmet on, so I couldn’t see his face. But I recognized the blue-and-white coat. I pulled over.

The motorcycle fishtailed as it came to a stop in front of us. The rider got off and walked over to us. He shook his hands. With no gloves, they must have been colder than hell. When he got to the truck, I rolled down my window. He took his helmet off.

“You always drive that fast?” he said. He had long dark hair, dark eyes, and the wide cheekbones of a full-blooded Indian. He looked in past me at Vinnie.

“You must be Guy Berard,” I said.

If he was surprised, it didn’t show. “You’re McKnight and LeBlanc. I’ve been trying to catch up to you ever since you left the police station.”

“How’d you know we were there?”

“I saw you guys on the road,” he said. “Where that van was. I saw the police take you away.”

“Yeah? And how did you know who we were?”

He gave me a slight smile. “My mother told me all about you.”

“You were at home, weren’t you,” I said. “How come you were hiding from us?”

“Can we go talk about this somewhere? I’m freezing my ass off.”

“What do you know about the men on the hunting trip?” Vinnie said.

Guy looked past me again. The two of them stared at each other for a long moment. “You’re the brother.”

“Yes,” Vinnie said.

“We need to talk,” he said. “Follow me.”

“Why should we?” Vinnie said. I was surprised at the hard edge in his voice. “If you know something about my brother, just tell me now.”

The wind came up again. It kicked up a riot of snowflakes. Guy buried his hands in his armpits.

“I’ll tell you one thing,” he said. “And then you can decide if you want to hear the rest. I was there at the lodge on Saturday.”

“We already figured that out,” Vinnie said. “That’s the day Tom’s group flew back from the lake.”

“Did you talk to them?” I said.

“No, not that day,” Guy said. “They were already gone.”

“Okay, so what’s the big deal?” Vinnie said.

“I don’t think they came back that day at all,” he said.

“What are you saying?” I could feel Vinnie sliding over on the seat.

“I’m saying I think they either came back on a different day,” he said. “Or else they never flew out to that lake in the first place.”