A Stolen Season: An Alex McKnight Novel (An Alex Mcknight Novel Series)

by Steve Hamilton

  “Hey, that’s my old hometown you’re talking about.”

  “I’m sorry, but you know what I mean.”

  “Sad to say…But yes, I do.”

  “In fact, as it turned out, half the people in that room were from the States. There’s this big joint operation between the ATF and Royal Mounted. Because, of course, you know where all the guns are coming from.”

  “Of course,” I said. “But this sounds like big-league stuff. What exactly do they want you to do? You’re not telling me this whole group got together just because you—”

  “No, no. The operation’s been active for a good two months now. They’ve got this one Mountie, a guy named Don Resnik. He’s a real undercover pro. They were thinking they’d try to use him to make some kind of contact.”

  “But then what? You came along? All of a sudden they’re changing the plan?”

  “They think I’ll have a better shot at it. I’m a new face in town. Nobody will recognize me, and they said if I have this ability to make a connection with another woman…Maybe if I have the right kind of backstory to work with…Like maybe I’m here in town trying to set up some kind of deal.”

  “Natalie, doesn’t this sound kind of far-fetched to you? Do you think these people are going to fall for this?”

  “We haven’t gotten that far yet. Right now, it’s just a little test, to see if I can make the contact. But if you think about it…I’m the perfect cover, aren’t I?”

  “How’s that?”

  “A woman gun dealer…Who’s going to suspect she’s really a cop? It’s the ultimate double fake-out.”

  “Women cops work undercover all the time. Everybody knows that.”

  “Yeah, and it’s usually what? A hooker working the corner, right?”

  I thought it over for about two seconds. I hadn’t seen many solicitation stings back in my own day, but hell, prostitution was usually the least of our problems in Detroit. In any case, I knew she was right. I couldn’t think of one single time a female officer had posed as anything else.

  “So when does this happen?” I said. “When do you try to connect with Rhapsody?”

  “Tomorrow.” I could hear the excitement in her voice. And the nerves.

  “Just like that? What are you going to do, start talking to her at the supermarket?”

  “Actually, it’s a coffee shop. She stops in there every morning. I’ve got this whole script made up. I better go over it again before I go to bed.”

  I had a mixture of feelings that night. I was proud of her. I knew how important the operation must have been to everyone involved. If so many guns were really flooding the city, I knew what the effects would be. I knew that all too well. Beyond that, I was envious. She was getting into the kind of police work I would have killed to do myself, back in the day.

  But more than anything else, I was scared to death.

  Another cold day in Paradise. Jackie was starting to get a little cranky about it. I got my first cancellation. I was almost done with the roof. I wasn’t much use to anyone, though, because all I could think about was Natalie going undercover in Toronto, trying to connect with this woman named Rhapsody, and then, beyond her, with a network of international gun smugglers. I had to try pretty hard to imagine a worse group of human beings to fool around with.

  I think I hit my fingers with my hammer about four times before Vinnie finally stopped by and asked me what the hell was wrong with me. I gave him the quick version. I was up on the ladder, finishing up a row of wooden shingles. The sun was trying to fight its way through the gray clouds, finally giving up for the day. Summer was still on back order.

  “She’ll be fine,” Vinnie told me. “You know they’ll be right behind her.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said. “I know that.” Like I really believed it. Right behind her. Tell that to my old partner.

  When we were done, we had dinner at the Glasgow. We sat by the fire. My hands were sore from the cold and the hard work and from hitting them with the goddamned hammer. When it was late enough, I wished everyone a good night and went back home. The phone was ringing when I opened the door, so at least I didn’t have to sit there again like a high school kid.

  “Alex,” she said, “tell me what you did today.”

  “Never mind me. What happened with the undercover thing?”

  “Please. You first. I want to hear about you so I can clear my head a little.”

  “What’s there to say? I worked on the cabin with Vinnie.”

  “Tell me everything. What did you do?”

  She wasn’t going to let me go, so I told her the spellbinding tale of how we nailed on some more wooden shingles.

  “Is it still cold there?”

  “It’s unbelievable,” I said. “I’ve never seen it like this before. It’s almost July.”

  “It was actually kinda nice here. It was a great day for making new friends.”

  “How did it go down?”

  “Good, good. I think. I don’t know.”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  “I was in the coffee shop. I was sitting at a corner table, with a laptop. We had one car parked on the street outside, couple of guys in plain clothes. One with a newspaper, the other with a cell phone. She usually stops in around nine or nine thirty, so I was there at eight thirty, just to be sure.”

  “Were you nervous?”

  “No, not at all. Terrified, maybe. But not nervous.”

  “I got it. So go on.”

  “I was sitting there for an hour. By nine thirty, there was no sign of her. I kept sitting there, waiting. I was thinking maybe she wasn’t going to stop in today. Or maybe, hell, it’s crazy but I was wondering if she made us before she even opened the door. Just smelled something funny and kept walking.”

  “There’s no way.”

  “I know. I’m just saying, it’s the kind of thing that goes through your head. Anyway, it was almost ten, so I figured we’d have to shut it down. Then she came in. You should have seen her, Alex. She had this white jacket on, black skirt, this blouse that was sort of like a Dalmatian print. Like that woman in the movie. What was her name?”

  “What movie?”

  “With the Dalmatians. Cruella De Vill. Like her. Except younger. And better looking.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “Black-and-white shoes. She even had a white streak in her hair. She was just so…put together. Like it was almost too much but not quite. Somehow it looked good on her.”

  “What were you wearing?”

  “Oh, I was all in black. They bought me this nice black suit, with a short skirt. Black stockings, shoes, the works.”

  “I’m trying to picture that,” I said. I had a strong suspicion she looked pretty great dressed like that. It gave me a hollow feeling in my gut.

  “They got me a real Coach bag, too. Black, of course. The idea was to show a little flash, but I don’t know. Seeing her walk in, I felt totally outclassed.”

  “There’s no woman on this earth who could outclass you, Natalie.”

  She didn’t say anything for a moment. “Yeah,” she finally said. “Well…”

  “Keep going.”

  “She generally doesn’t spend much time there. She gets her coffee and leaves. So I made like I was coming back to get a refill. I was standing right behind her. You should have smelled this perfume, Alex. It smelled almost like Opium, but the top note was different.”

  “You’re losing me now.”

  “Sorry, it’s just that…I mean, it’s funny how much you notice when all your senses are on red alert, you know?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I waited a few seconds, and then I said, ‘You’re Rhapsody.’ She turned around, and she said, ‘Do I know you?’ She was pretty cold about it, too. Like she wasn’t sure if I was wasting her time. I said, ‘I hit Kingston right around the time you left. I saw you around for a few days.’”

  “Kingston?”

  “The women’s penitentiary. I
n Kingston, Ontario. It’s closed down now. But the backstory was that I was going in the same week she was going out. Like five years ago.”

  “What were you in for?”

  “Jailhouse etiquette is not to ask that question, even when you get out. But if it came up, I was in for grand theft and assault.”

  “I can see that.”

  “Yeah, thanks. Anyway, the whole point of today was for me to just say hello, let her know I recognized her. So maybe the next day, if I was there again—”

  “You could strike up another conversation.”

  “That was the idea. But she came right out and asked me what I was doing in town, if I lived there now. I told her no, I was just in town for a few days, working on putting a deal together.”

  “A deal?”

  “Yeah. She asked what business I was in. I said, ‘Personal protection.’”

  “Very nice.”

  “Then I said, ‘How about you?’ She said, ‘Oh, I’m into all sorts of things these days. It’s good to be diverse, don’t you think?’”

  “She said that?”

  “She was so smooth, Alex. And here I am with my knees knocking together.”

  “Natalie—”

  “I had a good exit line, though. As she was leaving, I said to her, ‘Nice shoes.’ You think Resnik would have thought of that?”

  “Natalie, are you sure about all of this? I mean, what’s supposed to happen next?”

  “Eventually, if we get to it, I’m going to be there in Toronto, trying to move some guns across the border. I’ll have a supplier in Michigan, and I’ll be trying to connect with the right person so I can put a deal together. I’ll be staying at the downtown Hilton with my muscle.”

  “Your muscle?”

  “Yeah, Resnik gets to play that part. He’s about six foot five, and he looks like he could wrestle a grizzly bear. He’s a real good guy, though. Ordinarily, you’d expect him to resent me for coming in and taking over the lead role. But he’s been fine with it.”

  “Natalie, I’m sorry, but this all sounds crazy to me.”

  “You sound like my CO now.”

  “Your CO thinks it’s crazy, too? Oh, that’s a good sign.”

  “He’s just looking out for me, Alex. A few days ago, I was the new kid on the block. Now I’m going undercover.”

  “You’re undercover, all right. If this goes any further, you’re gonna be about as deep undercover as you can get.”

  “They’ll take over a whole floor of the hotel, Alex. There’ll be men in the rooms on both sides, and across the hall. Cameras, microphones, the whole deal. I’ll be the safest woman in Toronto.”

  “Yeah, until the bad guys show up.”

  “They had another homicide today,” she said. “Out in Regent Park, with a gun from the States. That’s twelve already this year. Twelve people shot dead and it’s not even July yet.”

  “I hear what you’re saying, but—”

  “They told me I could keep the clothes when we’re done. Not bad, eh? What do you think?”

  What I thought was that she was making jokes about it because she had no idea what she was getting into. That she was even more scared than I was, if that were even possible.

  “Natalie, for God’s sake. Are you gonna be careful?”

  “Of course I am. When we’re all done here, you’re going to come out and visit me, right?”

  “Sure. Of course I will.”

  “I’ve got to go to bed now, Alex. I need to meet with everybody again first, then get ready for another meet at the coffee shop.”

  “You’re gonna call me tomorrow night?”

  “I honestly don’t know. I’ll try to call if I get a chance. But things might happen fast here. Once I get in the hotel, we’ll be pretty much working this thing around the clock. It’s like my whole life will be on hold for a while.”

  “I understand. Call me when you can.”

  “I will. Just don’t wait up for me, okay? It’s going to be hard enough.”

  “Hard enough? What do you mean?”

  “I’m sorry. That sounds bad.”

  “Just tell me.”

  “I’ve got to do this, Alex. Okay? I’ve got to do this the only way I can. I can’t be thinking about anything else tomorrow.”

  “All right,” I said. “I got it.”

  “I wish you were here right now. I really do.”

  “Me, too.”

  “I’ll talk to you later.”

  I didn’t want to end the call like that. But I didn’t know what else to say. I didn’t want to put any more pressure on her, didn’t want to add any more weight to her burden. I said good night and that was it.

  A week later, and I still hadn’t spoken to her. She’d leave a message every couple of days. Always during the day, never at night. I’m okay, she’d say, things are moving fast, talk to you soon. I couldn’t call her back, of course. At any moment she might have been in character, with Rhapsody or God knows who else right there in the room with her.

  Seven days, and the only time I wasn’t thinking about her were those few minutes on the night of July 4, when I was pulling those guys off the sinking boat. Otherwise, no matter what I was doing, working on the cabin with Vinnie, sitting at the Glasgow, lying in my bed and staring at the ceiling, she’d be right there in my head and I’d be wondering if she was safe.

  Seven days with me going quietly insane while Natalie put her head in the lion’s mouth.

  Chapter Three

  The morning after the boat wreck, I woke up so goddamned sore, it was like I had been in the wreck myself. My arms hurt, my back hurt, and it felt like I had somehow pulled both hamstrings. Getting out of bed was comical. I got in a hot shower and let the water pound on me until I loosened up a little bit. When I was dressing I looked outside and saw the trees bending. That plus a light rain I knew would feel like cold buckshot in the wind. It’s July 5, I told myself. This is not a hallucination. It’s really the middle of the damned summer.

  A cup of coffee and I was out the door. I could have gone down to the Glasgow for breakfast, but I wanted to get two hours of work done before I did that. I got in the truck and headed down the access road, past the second cabin my father had built, then the third, the fourth, and the fifth. They were all empty now. The people who had booked them had looked in the newspaper, had seen a high of maybe fifty-two degrees, a low of thirty-nine. They had decided they could just stay home and be miserable instead of coming all the way up here. I couldn’t blame them.

  I came to the last cabin, a half mile down the road. I had been rebuilding it for the past few months. Vinnie had been helping me when he could. Things had once gotten a little sideways between the two of us, and this is how we made up. He showed up to help one morning, and without saying a word we were good again.

  When I got out of the truck, I spent a few minutes looking around the outside. The little grooves I had cut on the bottom logs were doing their job, collecting the rain and letting it drip off away from the foundation. Thank God the roof was on now, was all I could say this morning. There’s no way we could get up there today and work on it without killing ourselves.

  I went inside the place. It was still just a rough shell at this point. I had been trying to restore it to its full glory, to make it the best cabin in the Upper Peninsula again. This was my father’s masterpiece, after all. When it was burned down…Well, it had become an obsession with me to rebuild it.

  I went inside and took my coat off. About five minutes later, I knew I either had to put the coat back on or build a fire. I wasn’t sure which was more ridiculous, but I figured the fire would make things a little cozier at least. I put some paper and wood in the new stove and lit it. That’s when Vinnie showed up. Vinnie LeBlanc, in his old denim coat with the strip of fur around the collar. His hair was tied in a ponytail today.

  “Why aren’t you using the fireplace?” he said. He was the kind of guy who never said good morning. Or goodbye.

  “
I wasn’t sure how long I’d be here.”

  “Is that draft still coming down? You’ve got to fix the flue on this thing.” He bent down and looked up the airway. This fireplace had always been his favorite part of the cabin. The way my old man had saved up all the rocks he had dug up over the years, until he had finally taken on this monumental task of building a two-story fireplace by hand. I couldn’t even imagine how he had done it alone. Hell, for that matter, how he had done any of this alone. Clearing the property, building these cabins, each one better than the last. It must have been therapy for him, after my mother had died. Something to do instead of sitting at the window, staring out at the street.

  “What are you going to start on today?” Vinnie said. “The stairs?”

  “I thought we should get the flooring in first. Then we can do the stairs.”

  He looked up at the beams crossing the room above our heads. “You want to put the second floor in before you even build the stairs to get to them?”

  “That’s what ladders are for. It’ll be easier to do the stairs after we have something to build up to.”

  “You just want to get the floor in so it’ll look almost done. I’m telling you, it’s a bad decision.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re too impulsive. You know that. You don’t do things in the right order.”

  I stood there looking at him. “You’re being a little abrupt this morning,” I said. “Even for you.”

  “Abrupt? Who says ‘abrupt’?”

  “What’s the matter, Vinnie?”

  “Nothing,” he said. He didn’t look me in the eye. “Let’s get some work done. We can do it your way if you really want to.”

  As he bent down to pick up his tool belt, I heard the little grunt he let out. I saw him stand back up a little stiffly.

  “Vinnie, what happened to you?”

  “Nothing. Come on, let’s do it.”

  “Stop,” I said. I went over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. Up close I could see the bruise on his face, just outside his left eye.

  “Who did this?”