Trickster's Point

by William Kent Krueger

  Meloux took back the pouch and returned it to his bandolier bag. Next he pulled out four sage bundles tied with hemp threads, which he’d prepared by lantern light that morning in his cabin while it was still dark outside. He gave a bundle to each of them and kept one for himself. From the bag, he took four shallow clay bowls painted with designs in ocher, and gave them out. After that, he carefully drew out four black turkey feathers, each quill wrapped in soft leather binding, and handed them around.

  The old Mide sat down on the snow, and the others sat with him. He set his clay bowl on the ground, untied his small bundle, and mounded the dried sage in the center of the shallow cupping. He took a box of kitchen matches from his bandolier bag and put flame to the dried sage, which began to smolder. He held his hands in the smoke to cleanse them, then used his feather to blow smoke gently across his heart and his head. He wafted smoke across each of the others in turn.

  He sang a prayer in Ojibwe, which Rainy and Stephen both clearly understood, but Cork, whose own knowledge of the language remained rudimentary at best, heard only the rise and fall of the gentle invocation.

  Then Meloux spoke in English. “All life is one weaving, one design by the hand of the Creator, the Great Mystery. All life is connected, thread by thread. When one thread is cut, the others weaken.”

  He lifted his bowl and, with his feather, encouraged the smoke across Cork.

  “We are here to help this man heal.”

  He turned toward the towering monolith beside him, and the smoke that rose from the smoldering sage drifted against the face of the rock.

  “We are here to help this place heal,” Meloux said.

  He nodded to the others, and they loosed their bundles into their own bowls. They lit the sage and stood with Meloux.

  “Stephen, you come with me.” The old Mide nodded to the north. “Rainy, you and Corcoran O’Connor go that way.” He indicated south.

  “And do what, Henry?” Cork asked.

  “Pray.”

  “What prayer?”

  “Whatever is in your heart. There are no right words, and there are no wrong words.”

  Rainy and Cork began to circle to the south. They used the feathers Meloux had given them to keep the sage embers burning and to draft the smoke against the gray stone and diffuse it into the air around them. They spoke quietly to themselves. Cork couldn’t hear Rainy’s words, but his own prayer was brief and sincere: “Give peace to this place and peace to my heart.”

  They all met halfway round and stood at the spot where, over the course of three hours, Jubal Little’s life had trickled away. The sage had burned to ash. They tipped their clay bowls, and the ashes fell and lay like faint shadows on the white snow. Cork looked across the jumble of broken talus between Trickster’s Point and the ridge slope where Willie Crane had hidden himself and had fired the fatal arrow. Above it, among the aspens that capped the top of the ridge, was the place where Willie had killed the chimook and, in doing so, had saved Cork’s life.

  “Coincidence,” Cork said. “I never believed in it much until now.”

  “Nanaboozhoo,” Meloux told him, as if that explained everything.

  “The trickster,” Rainy said, “who delights in confounding our ambitions and expectations.”

  “When I was a kid, I envied Jubal everything he’d been given,” Cork said.

  “And now?” Rainy asked.

  “Now?” Cork put his arm around her. “I feel like the richest of men.”

  The sun had risen fully, and the great stone tower was ablaze with the morning light, as if, in addition to the smudging, it was being purified with fire.

  “Anything more?” Stephen asked Meloux.

  “Yes,” the old man replied. “You send us off from this place with a prayer.”

  Which clearly caught Stephen by surprise. But Cork’s son composed himself and thought for a long moment. And this is what he said.

  O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds

  And whose breath gives life to everyone,

  Hear me.

  I come to you as one of your many children;

  I am weak. I am small.

  I need your wisdom and your strength.

  Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever

  Behold the red and purple sunsets.

  Make my hand respect the things you have made,

  And make my ears sharp so I may hear your voice.

  Make me wise, so that I may understand what you

  Have taught my people and

  The lessons you have hidden in each leaf and each rock.

  I ask for wisdom and strength,

  Not to be superior to my brothers, but to be able

  To fight my greatest enemy, myself.

  Make me ever ready to come before you with

  Clean hands and a straight eye,

  So as life fades away as a fading sunset,

  My spirit may come to you without shame.

  It was not an original prayer. Cork had heard it many times before, but he was impressed and pleased that his son knew it by heart.

  Meloux smiled and nodded and said, “It is done.”

  He collected the clay bowls, returned them to his bandolier bag, and together they walked back toward the blue lake and the rising sun.

  Praise for Northwest Angle

  “William Kent Krueger can’t write a bad book. Northwest Angle is one of his best. A complex crime novel that contains meditations on the difficulties of loving and the paths we take to reach God, this Cork O’Connor novel has everything you want in a great read: depth, action, and credibility.” —Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author

  “. . . part adventure, part mystery, and all knockout thriller . . . Catch-your-breath suspense throughout.” —Booklist

  Praise for Vermilion Drift

  “As always, Krueger’s writing couples the best of literary and commercial fiction, with intelligent, well-defined characters populating the story. Although the book contains violence, the author never makes it extraneous or graphic. He is one of those rare writers who manage to keep the suspense alive until the final page. Krueger fans will find a feast in between these covers, and for those who have yet to sample his fine and evocative writing, the book offers a complex yet completely believable plot, all tied up in words sharpened by one of the modern masters of the craft.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

  “Rock-solid prose combines with effective characterizations and a logical if complex plot for a thrilling read. This book succeeds on every level and ought to attract the author a deservingly wide readership.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)

  Praise for Heaven’s Keep

  “One of today’s automatic buy-today-read-tonight series . . . thoughtful but suspenseful, fast but lasting, contemporary but strangely timeless. Krueger hits the sweet spot every time.” —Lee Child

  “A powerful crime writer at the top of his game.” —David Morrell

  Praise for Red Knife

  “Outstanding. . . . Simply and elegantly told, this sad story of loyalty and honor, corruption and hatred, hauntingly carves utterly convincing characters, both red and white, into the consciousness. Krueger mourns the death of ideals and celebrates true old values. As Cork tells an Ojibwa friend, ‘Maybe you can’t alter the human heart . . . but you can remove the weapons’—the first step, perhaps, in blazing a trail toward sanity and hope.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “The Cork O’Connor mysteries are known for their rich characterizations and their complex stories with deep moral and emotional cores. This one is no exception. . . . If you don’t know Cork O’Connor, get to know him now.” —Booklist

  Praise for Thunder Bay

  “The deftly plotted seventh Cork O’Connor novel represents a return to top form . . . [T]he action builds to a violent and satisfying denouement.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Thunder Bay has everything that William Kent Krueger’s longtime fans have come to
expect in this lovely series—and everything it needs to entice new readers into the fold. Steeped in place, sweetly melancholic in tone, it braids together multiple stories about love, loss and family. The result is a wholly satisfying novel that is over almost too soon.” —Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author

  Praise for Copper River

  “Copper River, like each of the previous entries in the Cork O’Connor series, is a riveting thriller rich in character, incident, insight, textured plotting, and evocative prose that captures the lore and rhythms of life—and the pain and sadness of death—in America’s heartland. It’s a novel to be savored, and one that makes the reader eager for the next installment. William Kent Krueger may just be the best pure suspense novelist working today.” —Bill Pronzini, author of the Nameless Detective series and Blue Lonesome

  “This series gets darker and more elegantly written with every book. Minnesota has a become a hotbed of hard-boiled crime fiction, and the Cork O’Connor novels are among the best.” —Booklist

  Praise for Mercy Falls

  “Fast-paced action and William Kent Krueger’s ability to weave multiple plot threads without a tangle make his new novel, Mercy Falls, a page-turner. Crime and complex family dynamics combine to create a novel that will keep the reader guessing through the final pages of the tale.” —Denver Post

  “Cork, the sharp-witted small-town sheriff, continues to be an engaging and sympathetic series anchor; likewise, Krueger’s depiction of rural America and the cultural differences among its residents remains compassionate and authentic. Not just for fans of the series, the novel is a smart and satisfying mystery on its own.” —Booklist

  Praise for Blood Hollow

  ”Cork O’Connor . . . is one of crime fiction’s more interesting series leads, and Krueger’s dead-on depiction of a rural American town is as vivid and realistic as any in the genre.” —Booklist

  “Better than merely good, Blood Hollow is a brilliant, layered and moving mystery, one of the better efforts of this or any year. . . . The prose in Blood Hollow is so good and the plotting so deft that readers will be hard put to stop reading once they begin. Krueger has moved to the head of the crime fiction class with this one.” —Chicago Sun-Times

  Praise for Purgatory Ridge

  “The kind of work that is all too rare in the suspense genre, a book that combines a first-class plot with excellent writing . . . A wonderful page-turner.” —The Denver Post

  “Krueger’s page-turner . . . opens with a bang . . . The plot comes full circle as credibly flawed central characters find resolution . . . Krueger prolongs suspense to the very end.” —Publishers Weekly

  Praise for Boundary Waters

  “Krueger follows up his sure-handed debut with an equally effective second thriller featuring former Chicago cop, now former local sheriff Cork O’Connor and his adventures in the warm-spirited little town of Aurora, Minnesota . . . Krueger’s writing, strong and bold yet with the mature mark of restraint, pulls this exciting search-and-rescue mission through with a hard yank.” —Publishers Weekly

  “Cork remains a sprightly, intriguing hero in a world of wolves, portages, heavy weather, and worrisome humans . . .” —Kirkus Reviews

  Praise for Iron Lake

  “A fresh take . . . Krueger makes Cork a real person. . . . And the author’s deft eye for the details of everyday life brings the town and its peculiar problems to vivid life.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Krueger’s debut offers wonderful characters...realistic details and political deals do not slow a tense, fast pace punctuated with humor and surprise in a book that is sure to appeal to fans of Nevada Barr and Tony Hillerman.” —Booklist (starred review)

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  William Kent Krueger is the award-winning author of eleven Cork O’Connor novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Vermilion Drift and Northwest Angle. All are available from Atria Books. He lives in the Twin Cities with his family.

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  ALSO BY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER

  Northwest Angle

  Vermilion Drift

  Heaven’s Keep

  Red Knife

  Thunder Bay

  Copper River

  Mercy Falls

  Blood Hollow

  The Devil’s Bed

  Purgatory Ridge

  Boundary Waters

  Iron Lake

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2012 by William Kent Krueger

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Atria Books hardcover edition August 2012

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  Designed by Davina Mock-Maniscalco

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kreueger, William Kent.

  Trickster’s point : a novel / by William Kent Krueger.—1st Atria Books hardcover ed.

  p. cm.

  1. O’Connor, Cork (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Private investigators—Minnesota—Fiction. 3. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3561.R766T75 2012

  813’.54—dc 23

  2012021489

  ISBN 978-1-4516-4567-5

  ISBN 978-1-4516-4573-6 (ebook)