Die a Stranger

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 looked 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?

No, stay positive, I thought. You’re gonna find a way out of this. Even if you have to do something stupid, all by yourself. You’re certainly good at being stupid.

There was another trail branching off to the right. It was even rougher and narrower, if that was even possible. Sugarpie took the turn and kept going, the branches slapping at both sides of the car.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Dumpling said. “We’ll never get out of here.”

“I know what I’m doing. I’ve been down this trail before.”

“What, do you have a meth lab out here or something?”

They both laughed at that. A little too hard. They were whooping it up and in another minute they’d be shooting me and watching my body disappear into the swamp.

The ground rose slightly and Sugarpie gunned the engine. The tires spun for a moment and I thought the vehicle would be stuck for sure, but then it found purchase and we rocketed up to the top of the mound. He left the engine running, opening the driver’s door and getting out. Then he opened my door and pulled me out. I was just about to take my shot at him, but then I realized that would never work. I had to get Dumpling first, as long as he had the gun.

As I stood there waiting for him to come around from the other side of the vehicle, the mosquitoes were already buzzing around my head and landing on my neck. Officially not my biggest problem at the moment, but it was annoying as hell not to be able to slap them away.

“God damn,” Sugarpie said. “Where’s the bug spray?”

“Never mind that,” Dumpling said. “Let’s take care of this so we can get the hell out of here.”

Sugarpie grabbed my arm and pulled me over toward the front of the vehicle. The edge of the swamp was about ten feet away.

“Start walking,” he said. “Straight ahead.”

“So you can shoot me in the back?” I said. “I thought you guys had some guts.”

He grabbed me again and spun me around so that I was facing the swamp.

“Walk,” he said. “Right now.”

I turned around so that I was facing them again.

“I’m not making it easy,” I said. “If you’re gonna kill me, you’ll have to look me in the eye when you do it.”

“I’m pretty sure I can manage,” Dumpling said from behind him. “Especially now that you’re being such a pain in the ass.”

“Come do it then. Come shoot me like a man.”

“Let me do it,” Sugarpie said. He tried to take the gun from the other man, but Dumpling slapped his hand away.

This is good, I thought. I want the slower man. Now I have a two percent chance of making this work, instead of one percent.

“Right here,” I said. “Step up and do it.”

Another mosquito landed on my neck. I could feel its needle breaking through my skin.

“Don’t get any closer,” Sugarpie said. “Come on, man, give me the gun. You’ve never done this before.”

“Get away from me,” he said. “I’m not afraid of him.”

As Dumpling came closer, Sugarpie tried to pull him away. He shook him off and came even closer to me, as if to make a point.

That’s it, I thought. That’s exactly what you want to do. I’m not even going to move. Just come right up to me and prove what a big badass you are.

He took a step closer. He was holding the gun in both hands now. He was looking me in the eye.

“Shoot you like a man?” he said. “I’m gonna show my friend here how a real man does it.”

“Will you just shut up and do it?” Sugarpie said, slapping at his arm. “I’m getting eaten alive here.”

He was four feet away. I wished it were two. Hell, would have settled for three. I stood there and I watched him raise the gun slowly. I felt another mosquito on my neck. I looked at him and I saw him sweating and I thought, come on mosquitoes, why are you bothering with me? Somebody go take some blood from that big boy.

Everything was coming into sharp relief. I saw every detail, every pore in his skin, every color and contour of every visible tattoo. The face on the Jack of Hearts, watching me with its one eye from his right shoulder. I smelled the fetid half-decomposed smells from the swamp. I heard the insects buzzing and crawling and mating and dying.

And eating.

Right there, on his neck. Go for it, mosquito. Do your thing.

He flinched and tried to rub it away by shrugging his shoulder. That was my chance. That was my last chance to stay alive on this horrible blue earth. I threw my body back like I was doing the limbo, brought my right foot up toward the gun. There was a deafening blast as it went off. I didn’t even know if the bullet had hit me. I was still frozen in time, everything moving in slow motion. My foot coming up, my leg extended as far as I could make it go. I’d never played much football, being a baseball man. I’d never played soccer at all. So I never really had to kick anything. Never in life until this very moment. My desperate last-chance gamble as I felt my center of gravity going back farther and farther and I am absolutely going to fall flat on my back but if I can just manage to kick that goddamned gun out of his goddamned hand.

Impact.

First my foot.

Then my head hitting the ground. My back immediately after, knocking the wind right out of me.

I saw the gun flying in the air. Into the woods.

Dumpling was already stumbling after it. I swept at his leg and felt him falling.

The other man was coming to jump on top of me now. I rolled over just in time and I was halfway up as he climbed onto my back. I went all the way down to my knees and let his momentum take him right over me. My hands were still tied together, so I couldn’t punch him in the face. But I could take both hands together and make one big fist and try to drive his head right into the ground. I felt the bones snap as I hit him square in the nose.

Then I was back on my feet. The big man was already crashing into the brush, a good ten feet away. He was looking for the gun and I had to make a choice right then. The key’s still in the ignition, I thought. The engine’s still running. I climbed into the driver’s seat, not bothering to close the door. With both hands tied together it was a clumsy effort to shift the vehicle into Reverse, but I managed it. Through the windshield, I saw Sugarpie up on one knee now. He was doubled over and there was blood running from his nose. Dumpling was still in the brush, looking for the gun.

I stepped on the gas and felt the wheels spinning under me. Then all of a sudden I was moving backward. Too fast. I tried to steer but it was hard to do with both hands so close together. It was impossible to look behind me at the same time. The door was catching all of the branches and I heard a metallic screech in the hinges as it hit the trunk of a tree.

I was backing down the trail, doing everything I could to keep it straight. Not far to go, that much I remembered. He made this final right turn so all I have to do is back it right up and get it pointed in the right direction.

More branches scraped at the open door as the tires were throwing mud, and every other yard they were just spinning and spinning and me not going anywhere at all and then finding hard ground again and almost driving right off into the trees.

I hit the main trail and I tried to whip it around in a two-point turn but I couldn’t turn the wheel fast enough and both right tires went off the edge of the road. I gunned it and the tires were spinning again and that’s when I heard the gun go off again and this time the back window exploded.

I snapped back into real time. Everything speeding up from the slow-motion fog I was in. I looked out the open door and saw Dumpling coming down the trail, the gun raised. I reached to close the door and realized that wasn’t going to work. It would have taken several days in the body shop just to get the damned thing to close again. I gunned the engine one more time and that’s when I felt the shot ripping right through the fabric above my head. I rolled over to the other side of the front seat and opened up the far door. I dived out onto the ground.

Except there was no ground.

It was swamp. It was quicksand. I don’t know what the hell it was, but it swallowed me up and held fast as I tried to get to my feet. I tried grabbing on to the side of the car but there was nothing to hold on to. With both my hands together I could barely push myself up. I kicked at the muck and tried to roll myself out and I was counting down the precious seconds because I knew Dumpling was coming up fast on the other side of the car. When I finally managed to push myself forward, I was on both knees, then one knee, and that’s when I finally looked up and saw his shoes and tattoos on his legs. He was standing at the back of the vehicle. The gun was pointed at my head. This time, there would be no chance to knock the gun free. This time, he had me dead.

“You broke his nose,” he said.

I didn’t say anything. I was just trying to breathe.

“Get over here,” he said to Sugarpie. “Come watch this man die.”

Sugarpie was coming down the trail, holding his nose. There was enough blood to paint his shirt half red. He seemed to be wincing with every step. The blood was still running through his fingers.

Then blam! the air was torn apart by another gun blast. They both jumped at the noise.

Nobody moved for a long moment. Then Sugarpie went down. There was a hole in the side of his neck, just under his jawline. He took his hands away from his ruined nose and grasped at his throat. He tried to speak but the only sound that came out was a bloody gurgle.

“What the…” Dumpling said, looking down at him.

He looked back at me, like I had done this somehow. Like I had some sort of magic secret gun I could fire from any direction. Then he brought up his own gun again but this time he didn’t even get to aim. The next shot caught him just above the left eye. He went down, dead on the spot, his hand still holding the gun.

Lou came running down the path, holding that gun we’d taken from Andy Dukes, the gun we had stashed in the glove compartment. The gun that had forced Lou to take the ferry instead of the plane. He had the gun trained on Sugarpie, who was still alive.

“Don’t shoot him,” I said. I bent down and looked at him closely.

“Can you talk?”

He was still clutching at his throat. He was still making the gurgling noises.

“You have to tell us where they are,” I said. “Where are Vinnie and Buck?”

He spit blood at me. I felt its spray, all over my face. Whether it was intentional or just a last gasp of air, that’s something I’d never be able to find out for sure. Two seconds later, the lights in his eyes went out for good.

“Alex,” Lou said, pulling me to my feet and looking me over. “Are you shot? Are you all right?”

“How did you find me?”

Lou bent over, trying to catch his breath. After a minute of wheezing, he straightened up and took a folding knife out of his pocket and cut the zip tie. I stood there rubbing my wrists.

“I went to the post office and asked the lady at the counter,” he said. “She told me you had already been there, looking for the same house. She said there must be quite a party going on.”

“Yeah, we had a party, all right.”

I wiped the blood from my face. From the chest down, I was still covered in the thick muck.

“Just as I got there,” he said, “I saw the vehicle leaving. So I followed you.”

“Well, I’ll thank you for saving my life later,” I said. “Right now we have to find Vinnie and Buck. They’re out in a boat somewhere.”

“What? Are you serious?”

I had to bend over myself for a moment. Not so much to breathe but to fight down the bile rising in my throat. All the stress and adrenaline pulsing through my body.

“I’ll explain on the way,” I said. “Come on, we’ve got to find a boat of our own. We might not have much time.”

“Alex, what are you talking about? Where are they?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But we have to find them before Corvo does.”