North of Nowhere

Chapter Twenty-two

I held the bag out over the rail, with the anchor on the outside. I wanted them to see it. I wanted them to know one simple fact right away-if they shot me, the money would end up taking a bath, in about five hundred feet of water.

I saw Blondie’s brother holding the gun in one hand now, and waving at me with the other. It looked like he was yelling something, but I couldn’t hear it over the sound of the motor.

“Bring it in easy,” I said to Bennett, without turning to look at him.

“Where’s Jackie?” he said. “I don’t see Jackie!”

“He’s gotta be there,” I said, mostly to myself. “Come on, Jackie. Where the hell are you?”

As we came closer, I could hear what Blondie’s brother was saying. “Get back from the rail! Move back or I’ll shoot!”

“Go right ahead!” I yelled back. “You shoot and this money goes right to the bottom of the lake!”

He looked over his right shoulder. There, in the shade of the awning, I could make out two men. As we came even closer, I could see Jackie standing in front of Blondie. Jackie had silver duct tape over his mouth, and his hands were behind his back.

“Get about twenty feet away,” I said to Bennett. “And move that monitor out here a little more.”

He moved the throttle down to just above an idle. Then with his foot he pushed the chair out into the middle of the deck.

“What is that thing?” Blondie said. I could see his pistol now, pointed at Jackie’s head. “Do you want to see your friend die right now?”

“I wouldn’t do that,” I said. Blondie’s brother had his rifle pointed at my chest. I tried hard to ignore him. It wasn’t working.

“Take that anchor off the bag,” Blondie said. “You’ve got three seconds.”

I snuck a look behind me. As I looked at the monitor, I turned my left arm, the one holding the bag, just so. Their boat appeared on the monitor, but the rolling of the waves made it hard to maintain a steady shot.

“McKnight, did you hear me? Take the anchor off!”

I swallowed hard. It was time to do something truly stupid. Across the water, I looked at Jackie, into his eyes.

“You better smile, Blondie,” I said. I had to keep my voice natural, like there was nothing to it, like I wasn’t scared out of my skull. “You want to make a good impression on Mr. Isabella, don’t you?”

That one got to him. He couldn’t hide it. His brother looked up from the rifle barrel.

“McKnight, what are you talking about?”

“You’re on a live feed right now,” I said. “Look at this monitor, Blondie. Mr. Isabella is watching everything you do.”

It was hard for him to see from twenty feet away, but he looked at the monitor with wide eyes, like it was something out of his worst nightmare. “What the fuck…”

“You made a mistake, Blondie. You took the wrong guy. You didn’t realize how tight these two men are. Jackie and Mr. Isabella, they’re like brothers. Isn’t that right, Jackie?”

Come on, Jackie, I thought. Play along.

Jackie nodded. Blondie wrapped his arm around Jackie’s neck and pressed the gun right against his temple.

“I’m not buying any of this, McKnight. Now throw that bag over. Right now.”

A sound. In the distance, a motor.

“Who is that?” Blondie yelled. His face was bright red now. “I told you, anybody else shows up, your friend dies!”

“It’s just a few of Mr. Isabella’s men,” I said. “They’d like to have a word with you.”

Blondie and his brother looked at each other. For an instant I was tempted to go for my gun.

No, not yet, Alex. Not yet.

“I know you’re not an idiot,” I said. “You know what’s gonna happen when Isabella’s men get here. No matter what you do to us, these guys are gonna kill you. Give us Jackie and we’ll give you the money. You’ve got a head start, you can be long gone by the time they get here.”

Blondie’s brother was pointing the rifle at my chest again.

“Take the money,” I said. I was about to put my free hand into the bag, to grab some bills and show them to him.

Bad idea, Alex. They’ll think you’re going for a gun.

Blondie squeezed his arm hard around Jackie’s neck. He kept looking out at the open water.

“Don’t be a fool!” Bennett said. “Take the goddamned money!”

No, Bennett, no. This we do not need right now.

“Those guys are gonna cut you into a million pieces!”

Shut up, Bennett. Shut up shut up shut up.

“It’s seven hundred thousand dollars, you stupid fuckheads! Take the money and run! While you still can!”

“Throw the bag over,” Blondie said.

“Give us Jackie first,” I said.

“Throw the bag over!”

“Jackie first.”

The boat was coming closer. I didn’t dare look. But I was sure they had all four men standing at the rails-Leon, Jonathan, Ham, and Gill, with Vargas at the wheel. I could only imagine what it looked like, four men in black, with huge black guns. I hoped it was enough.

“Holy fuck,” Blondie said.

His brother didn’t look up. He kept his rifle leveled at my chest. “We’re not running,” he said.

“Look at them,” Blondie said.

“We’re not running,” the brother said. “I think it’s a trick.”

I hung the bag a little further out over the water. The weight of the anchor was making my forearm muscles burn. But I knew if I pulled it in for a second, a bullet would rip right through me.

Then, a voice from behind me. “Put the guns down!” It sounded like Leon, yelling into a megaphone.

The brother didn’t even blink. “You’re gonna die, McKnight.”

Blondie pushed Jackie out from under the awning. “Stay back!” he yelled. “I’ll put a bullet in his head if you get any closer!”

“Put the guns down now! ”

I knew Vargas’s boat couldn’t come too close, or they’d see right through everything. The tape on the guns, the cheap windbreakers. It would all fall apart.

“You’re blowing your chance,” I said. “If you give us Jackie right now, you still might make it out of this alive.”

“I’ll kill him, McKnight. I swear to God.”

I looked at Jackie. His eyes were closed.

“You’re dead!” Bennett said. “Give him up now or you’re dead!”

“Shut up,” I said. “Bennett, just shut up.”

“Those are Isabella’s men and you are fucking dead!”

“Those aren’t his men,” Blondie’s brother said, without even looking up at them. “There’s no way.”

“No matter what,” I said, “you’re still outnumbered. That you can see. You’ll never get out of this alive.”

“So be it,” Blondie said. “I guess that’s the way it goes down.”

Everything froze. Seconds ticked by. This is it, I thought. I waited for the first blast.

Instead, a voice.

“Hey, Marcus! Derrick!” I turned and saw Vargas standing at the rail of his boat. He was holding up the transmitter from his radio. “It’s Mr. Isabella. He wants to talk to both of you.”

That broke the spell. At the sound of his name, Blondie’s brother turned and fired his rifle, knocking Vargas right off his feet. As I dove to the deck, I caught a flash of Blondie’s gun coming away from Jackie’s head, and pointing right at me. I heard glass exploding behind me, Bennett crying out and then going down hard on the deck. There were more gunshots, from Blondie’s boat, from Vargas’s boat. And in the middle of all of it, a splash in the water.

I grabbed my revolver from the gunwale shelf and came back up with both hands wrapped around it. I didn’t see Jackie. Where the fuck was Jackie? Blondie’s brother came out from under the railing, firing at Vargas’s boat. I put him in my sights and pulled the trigger. There was an explosion right next to my ear, sending a spray of wood into my face. I went down again. I saw Bennett lying on the deck. He was bleeding from the forehead, but his eyes were open. “Stay down,” I said.

“Jackie’s in the water,” he said. “I saw him dive in.”

I heard two more shots, and then the sound of a boat’s propeller churning the water. Somebody was moving.

I looked over the gunwale. Blondie was at the wheel. The boat was moving away from us, and moving fast. Vargas’s boat kicked up, and came our way.

“Look out for Jackie!” I yelled. “Where is he?”

I scanned the water. I couldn’t see him.

“Where are you, Jackie? Where the fuck are you?”

There!

I dove in, felt the sudden icy shock of the water. I swam to where I had seen him, struggling against the waves and the brutal cold. When I finally got to him, he was fighting hard to keep his head above the water. With his hands tied behind his back, and his mouth taped shut, it was a losing battle.

“I got you, Jackie! I got you!”

I grabbed onto him, tilted his head back, and tried to do the lifeguard’s crawl. My body was already numb. Even in the middle of July, the lake is so damned cold. You’ve got a few minutes and then you’re done.

Vargas’s boat got to us first. Ham came down the side ladder, one leg in the water, and grabbed Jackie. He lifted him like a rag doll, and passed him over the side. Then he came back for me, put one of those long arms around me, and pulled me out of the water.

I landed on the deck, pulled myself up to my hands and knees. I tried to breathe. When I looked up, Jonathan and Gill had already pulled the tape off of Jackie’s mouth. They were busy untying his hands.

Vargas lay on the deck behind them.

Oh God no. It came back to me. Blondie’s brother hitting him point-blank, knocking him right over.

Vargas picked his head up. He looked at me and then put his head back down.

“Vargas!” I crawled over to him.

“Don’t touch me, McKnight. Just let me catch my breath.”

“What happened? I saw you go down.”

“He got me right in the chest,” he said. “Son of a bitch.”

“What? How are you-”

“You think I’d come out here with you clowns without my vest? What do you think I am, crazy?”

I looked down at his body. The big black vest was so obvious, but I hadn’t even noticed it. “You’re wearing Kevlar?”

“You think Kevlar would have stopped that bullet? From an assault weapon? This is ceramic.” He winced as he reached up to give it a little tap. “I had it in the cabin. But I only had one. Sorry, I was selfish.”

“What were you doing on the radio?” I said. “You said their names.”

“Marcus and Derrick. The Forsythe brothers. I called Isabella and found out their real names.”

“You really called him?”

“Things didn’t look good,” he said. “I figured I had no choice.” He pushed himself up to a sitting position. “Oh God, that hurts. I’m gonna have a hell of a bruise tomorrow.”

“Alex.”

I turned and saw Jackie’s face. He looked like a drowned rat. It was a beautiful sight.

“Are you okay?” I said.

“I need a drink.”

“You’re shivering,” I said. “We got to get you warmed up.”

“I don’t see my father,” Ham said. “Where the fuck is my father?”

“Oh God,” I said. “He’s still on the boat.” I stood up on shaky legs and looked out over the rail. The boat was fifty feet away, but I couldn’t see Bennett. “Let’s get over there.”

“I’m on it,” Vargas said, slowly sitting himself down into his captain’s chair. He turned the boat.

Bennett was still lying on the deck, his forehead bleeding. The blood had run into his eyes, and down his nose. Ham jumped over the rail and landed with a great thud on the other boat’s deck. Leon’s monitor fell off the chair.

“Be careful, goddamn it!” Bennett said. “You’re gonna kill yourself!”

“You’re bleeding,” Ham said. “Did you get hit?”

“Of course I got hit. By about fifty pieces of flying glass.”

“We’ve got to stop this bleeding.”

“Never mind that,” Bennett said. “Where’s Jackie? Is he all right?”

“He’s fine,” Ham said. “Everybody’s fine.”

Bennett closed his eyes. “How the fuck did we get away with that?”

“Come on,” Vargas said. “We have to catch that boat.”

“Why?” I said.

“Do I even have to tell you? If he gets away, you know he’s gonna come back for us.”

“I think I killed his brother,” I said. “I’m not sure.”

“All the more reason,” Vargas said. “Come on, he’s gonna lose us.”

I tried to think of a good reason to argue with him. It didn’t come.

“Gill, you better go in the other boat. One of you will have to drive, while the other takes care of Bennett. Vargas, you’ve got a first aid kit?”

“In the cabin,” he said. “Right on the wall.”

Gill went in and grabbed it, and then climbed over the side ladder to Bennett’s boat.

“You guys go right back home,” I said. “We’ll meet you back there.”

“Be careful,” Gill said.

“Jonathan, you better take Jackie down below, see if you can warm him up.”

“I’ve got some blankets,” Vargas said. “Lower cabinets on the left.”

As soon as Gill was in the other boat, Vargas kicked the throttle all the way forward and headed after Blondie. I sat in the chair next to him, and Leon sat right behind us. The cold air was rushing over me, making me shiver just as hard as Jackie was.

“You better get a blanket, too!” Leon said. “You’re all wet!”

I went into the cabin. Jackie was taking off his wet clothes while Jonathan stood by with the blankets.

“Let me have one of those,” I said.

Jackie grabbed my arm and looked me in the eye.

“You’re a damned fool,” he said.

“I know.”

He kept looking at me. Finally, he smiled. “Good thing.”

I went back out with the blanket wrapped around me and sat next to Vargas.

“You’re bleeding a little bit,” he said.

I touched my cheek and felt the blood.

“Splinters,” I said. “The bullet just missed me.”

Vargas kept the throttle open. Some clouds had rolled in. The wind was whipping the waves up to three feet. We were bouncing hard.

“Why didn’t you call Isabella from the beginning?” I said.

He looked at me.

“I’m not complaining,” I said. “I’m just wondering. Wouldn’t it have made things a lot easier?”

“You don’t just call Isabella on the phone. You certainly don’t ask him questions about other people in the business.”

“I understand,” I said. “Of course, calling him up on the radio…What did you do, call his boat?”

“Yeah, I called his boat.”

“On the open airwaves.”

“Yeah. He actually sounded real friendly on the radio, like I was his best buddy and he was happy to hear from me. That’s not a good sign. Like I said, things weren’t looking too good here. Otherwise I wouldn’t have done it.”

I looked out at the water. There was no sign of Blondie’s boat.

“How do you know which way he went?”

“Nearest dock for him is Batchawana Bay. I figure that’s where he’s headed.”

“How far is it?”

“From here, maybe an hour, hour and a half,” he said. “Of course, that’s where Isabella’s boat is, too. This could get interesting.”

We rode the waves for another half hour before we finally saw him. Even with the cargo, Vargas’s boat was a lot faster.

“We got him,” he said. “We’ll run him down in about five minutes. Do you want the honors?”

I didn’t know what to say. I looked at Leon. I had shot Blondie’s brother in the heat of the moment. Now, to kill Blondie in cold blood…

I thought about Jackie, his hands tied behind his back, his mouth taped, the gun pressed to his head.

I thought about my father’s cabin, reduced to ashes.

Could I do it?

“Where’s he going?” Vargas said. “He’s turning.”

We watched the boat turn north. Then we saw why.

“Holy fuck,” Vargas said. “It’s Isabella.”

It was hard to tell from a distance, but the boat coming at us had a long hull, and it was kicking up water like a high-performance racing boat.

“We gotta get out of here,” he said. He turned the boat hard, sending everything on the deck sliding from one side to the other. As we sped away, I went to the back rail and watched the big boat turn to intercept Blondie. Even over the sound of the motor, over two miles of open water, we could hear the shooting. Any doubts I may have had about killing Blondie in cold blood were about to be made a moot point.

“I hope Blondie puts up a good fight,” Vargas said. “It might slow them down a little bit.”

“Will they come after us?” I said.

“I wouldn’t bet against it right now.”

“Is he your contact in Canada?” Leon said. “The one you deliver the appliances to?”

Vargas looked at each of us, then back at the water. “Not him directly. But he has a hand in it. I missed the drop yesterday because of the weather, and today I came out to shoot up the Forsythe brothers. It’s not exactly the way he likes his business partners to act.”

Vargas kept pushing the boat at top speed. The waves were up to four feet now. Jonathan poked his head out of the cabin, asked if we could ease up on the bouncing a little bit. The look on my face sent him back into the cabin without another word.

Isabella’s boat was getting closer. It wasn’t going to catch us soon, but it was going to catch us. Vargas didn’t look behind him. He kept the boat going straight. I checked the GPS-we were still two hours from home.

Leon went scrambling across the deck, trying to collect up the rifles. The waves made it look like he was on a trampoline.

“Don’t even bother!” Vargas yelled. “If they catch us, we’re dead. No matter what.”

Leon sat down on the deck and held onto the rail. The sky grew darker, the waves picking up to six feet. It was slowing us down to under twenty knots. We could only hope it was slowing down the boat behind us just as much.

By the time we made it to Whitefish Bay, they had closed the gap to a half mile. I kept waiting for the first bullet.

Then I saw my second beautiful sight of the day. It was a Coast Guard patrol boat, forty feet of nautical authority, in gleaming white with the distinctive orange stripes. There was another boat right next to it.

Bennett.

“We have to dump these weapons!” Leon said. Before we got any closer, Leon and I rounded up the four taped-up rifles, along with my revolver, and slipped them off the back end of the boat. As we did, we could see Isabella’s boat doing a quick U-turn. They were close enough for me to see two men at the rail, looking right at us. They were both dressed in black, with black sunglasses.

“I never thought I’d say this,” Vargas said, “but thank God for the U.S. Coast Guard. If you don’t mind, I’d rather not thank them in person. Those boys can get a little nosy.”

He set a new course to the southwest, tracing a mile-wide circle around the two boats. When the Coast Guard boat finally pulled away and headed for the river, Vargas took us closer to Bennett.

He was nowhere to be seen. It was just Ham and Gill, calmly sitting at the controls, waiting for us to pull up to them. The rough water made it hard to get close.

“What happened?” I said to them. “Where’s Bennett?”

On cue, the cabin door opened. Bennett poked his head out, his forehead wrapped in bandages. “Are they gone?”

“We ran out of gas,” Gill said. “We had to radio the Coast Guard. We were afraid you might miss us coming back in. Bennett went down below so they wouldn’t ask too many questions. As it was, we had to explain this shattered windshield.”

“We just got ourselves a first-class reaming, too,” Ham said. “All the time they’re filling us up, they’re bitching at us about being out here in the open water, with the weather turning bad, and running out of gas. They must think we’re the biggest fucking idiots on the lake.”

“I’m not sure I’d argue with them,” I said. “Come on, let’s go home.”

We headed down the bay, toward the river. With nobody chasing us now, we could take our time. I went in and checked on Jackie. He was wrapped up in the blankets, and snoring.

“Are you telling me he slept through all that?” I said.

“As soon as the bouncing stopped,” Jonathan said. “That’s when he went out.”

“We’ll be home soon.”

“When do I start thanking you, Alex?”

“Next time you pull out my bar tab.”

He gave me a tired laugh. I slapped him on the shoulder and went back up to the deck.

Leon had taken over the wheel. Vargas was sitting by the back rail now, rubbing his left shoulder.

“You’re gonna be hurting tomorrow morning,” I said.

“Yeah, well, considering the alternative, I’ll take it.”

“How much of a problem are you gonna have now? With Isabella, I mean.”

“I think I’m done with that gig now,” he said. “I just retired.”

“Will they let you do that? Just walk away?”

“They’ll have to. I’m done.”

“All that talk about building houses up here, the new Bay Harbor-Isabella was behind that, too, wasn’t he?”

“He was. I think that’s done now, too.”

“Maybe that’s for the best.”

He looked at me. “Yeah, I suppose it is. It obviously wasn’t doing me any good. All it did was make me a target.”

“I don’t know how this day would have gone without your help. I don’t think it would have ended well.”

“I figured it would be in my best interest to keep you all alive. Somebody’s got my money, after all. You promised me the full story, Alex. I’m waiting.”

I told him what I knew, about Bennett and his son, about the money being long gone now. “You’re gonna have to take this up with Bennett,” I said. “I don’t know what else to tell you.”

“We’ll have a little chat about it.”

“When we get back to his place, why don’t you come in and have a drink?”

“I’ll catch up to you later,” he said. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll stop by.”

“You sure?”

“I want to go home and let Miata out. He’s been inside all day. Cynthia just will not take that dog for a walk.”

“Maybe you should go somewhere else,” I said. “You know, lie low for a while. Hell, maybe you should hire Leon again. After today, I think he can take care of anything.”

“I appreciate the thought,” Vargas said. “But don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”

When we got to Bennett’s place, we all climbed down off the boats. Jackie was awake now, and none too happy about making his way down a ladder wearing only a blanket. When we were all on the dock, Vargas gave us all a long look, nodded once, and then pulled away.

“Hey, Alex,” Bennett said. “Whatever happened to the money bag?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know, the bag with the two thousand dollars in it?”

“I must have dropped it in the lake, Bennett. I’m real sorry about that.”

“Don’t even worry about it, Alex. I’m not saying you should’ve held onto the bag. I was just asking.”

“I need a drink,” I said. “I think we all do.”

I was the last one off the dock. I looked down the river, saw Vargas at the wheel of his boat, just before he disappeared around the bend.

It was the last time I’d see him alive.