North of Nowhere: An Alex McKnight Novel

by Steve Hamilton

  Anyone with information pertaining to the case was asked to contact Chief Roy Maven immediately.

  “Quite a write-up, huh?” Jackie’s son said.

  “I think some people will be locking their doors in Sault Ste. Marie tonight,” I said. “And keeping their shotguns loaded.”

  Jackie just listened to us talk about it. He didn’t say anything himself.

  “Jackie, are you gonna tell me what’s bothering you?” I said. “Or are you just gonna keep moping around the place?”

  He looked at me without smiling. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to ruin your evening.”

  “Relax,” I said. “If you’re still working on what happened, I understand.”

  “Good,” he said. “I’m glad you understand. I gotta go change the tap.”

  I looked at his son. He just shrugged his shoulders.

  Two minutes later, Jackie was back. “I’m sorry, Alex,” he said. “I shouldn’t take it out on you.”

  “Don’t apologize,” I said. “If you want to talk about it…”

  “I will,” he said. “In a few days. Okay? Give me a few days.”

  “Whatever you say, Jackie. I’ll be here.”

  He smiled for the first time since I had walked into the place. “Yeah, I don’t think I’ll have any trouble finding you.”

  I left a couple of hours later, after finishing the paper and another cold Canadian or two. Instead of turning onto my road, I kept going north, all the way to the top of Whitefish Point. I got out and walked past the Shipwreck Museum, out onto the beach. There was real sand here, unlike most of the rocky shoreline on this lake. I walked west, picking up driftwood as I went. The surf broke against the sand. The sun went down and put on its show for me. It was the right way to end the day.

  When I got back to my cabin, I stood just inside the door, trying to figure out what was wrong. Nothing was missing. Nothing was out of place. And yet, somehow, I knew someone else had been there.

  I looked at the door. There was no sign of forced entry. I looked at the windows, found two of them open and unlocked. I always left them open in the summertime, and never thought about intruders way the hell out here in the woods.

  I walked around the place, trying to figure it out. If nothing was stolen, and I had nothing worth stealing in the first place…If nothing was destroyed or even moved…Then somebody was looking for something. And apparently didn’t find it. Assuming it happened at all. Assuming I wasn’t just acting paranoid after the strange day I had just lived through…

  Vargas. Could he have sent somebody to search my cabin while I was out on the lake with him? I wouldn’t put it past him.

  “Oh, Leon,” I said out loud. “You didn’t do this, did you?”

  I called his number. I owed his wife a call back, anyway. When she answered, I realized I didn’t have much to tell her about my meeting with Vargas—we never did get around to talking about Leon.

  “Is he home?” I said.

  “No, he isn’t,” she said. “I don’t know where he is.”

  “Was he gone all day?”

  “Ever since this morning, yes. He left the house with a real black cloud over his head, Alex. I’ve never seen him like this. I thought he was supposed to be loving this private investigator thing.”

  “Tell him to call me,” I said. “As soon as he gets in, no matter how late.”

  She promised she would, and wished me a good night.

  Leon never called.

  The next morning, I worked out on the hard floor of my cabin, doing push-ups, sit-ups, whatever else I could think of. Then I went outside and ran down my road, all the way to the end and back. I was glad it was a deserted old logging road, with nobody around to see me walk the last quarter mile. I went inside and hit the shower. Then I went down to Jackie’s place.

  As soon as I reached the main road, I saw the police cars. As I got closer, I saw more and more of them. They were all parked in Jackie’s lot. Maybe ten of them, maybe twelve. I couldn’t count at that point. I could barely think.

  I pulled off to the side of the road, just before his lot began. I got out of the truck and walked to the front door of the place. I saw Soo police cars on one side, Michigan state police on the other. I was about ten feet from the door when a state trooper stepped right in front of me. He put his hands up like he was going to have to catch me.

  “This building is closed, sir. You’re going to have to step back.”

  “What happened?” I said.

  “Please, sir. Nobody’s allowed on these premises. You’re going to have to leave.”

  “Tell me what’s going on,” I said. “Where’s Jackie?” My imagination ran through all of the possibilities, none of them good. My stomach felt like it had been turned inside-out.

  “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you again…”

  “The owner is my friend,” I said. “Just tell me what happened.”

  The trooper looked to the sky. He was just a kid, no more than twenty years old. “Your friend has not been harmed,” he said. “I hope that puts your mind at ease, sir. Now, please…”

  The front door opened, and out stepped Roy Maven.

  “Maven, what the hell’s going on here?” I said.

  “Take it easy, McKnight. Unless you’d rather spend the rest of the day sitting in the back of a squad car…”

  “Where’s Jackie?”

  “He’s inside,” he said, stepping up next to the kid. “I’ll take care of this gentleman, Trooper. Thanks for the help.”

  “I want to see him,” I said.

  “You can’t do that. He’s under arrest.”

  “Under arrest? For what?”

  “Receiving stolen goods, for one,” he said. “Conspiracy to commit armed robbery. We’ll see what else comes up.”

  I stood there and looked at him, the hot sun bouncing off the police cars. I waited for it to make sense. It didn’t happen.

  “Maven, this is insane. This is something Vargas did, right? Is that what this is about? Because I gotta tell ya—”

  “The only thing Vargas did was get himself robbed at gunpoint,” he said. “We served a search warrant to your friend Mr. Connery a couple of hours ago. We’ve already found one of the stolen items hidden in his bedroom.”

  “What? What did you find?”

  “At this very moment, we’re also executing search warrants against Bennett O’Dell and Gill LaMarche. All three of them will be taken down to the station and charged within the hour. As a material witness I should advise you that you’ll be contacted soon for more questioning. I think that’s about all I need to say right now.”

  It took a little while to absorb that. All three of them, arrested. “Why are you here?” I finally said. “The other two are in your town. Why are you out here in Paradise? To rub my face in it?”

  “This is a Soo case, McKnight. You know that. I came out to this one because I knew you’d show up eventually. You’d want to know what the hell was going on and nobody would tell you. Which means you’d get all tangled up with some poor trooper and you’d end up getting arrested yourself. With me here, I can at least tell you what you need to know, and save you some embarrassment. That’s why I’m here, McKnight, not because I’m getting any enjoyment out of telling you this.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m sure this is breaking your heart.”

  “Hey, I’m trying to give you something here. I know this must be frustrating, seeing your best friend arrested.”

  “If you’ve got a warrant,” I said, “you had to have something to give you probable cause. What is it? What did Vargas come up with?”

  “I told you, this isn’t Mr. Vargas’s doing. Beyond that, you know I can’t discuss the details of this case.”

  “Tell me,” I said.

  He let out a long breath, took his hat off, and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. “Well,” he said, “I suppose you’re gonna find out pretty soon anyway.”

  “Find out what?�
�

  “We’ve got a videotape, McKnight. We’ve got the whole thing, in living color.”

  “What are you talking about? How in the world did you—”

  I stopped. Somehow, I knew what he was going to say, before he said it.

  “We got the videotape from your ex-partner,” he said. “Good old Leon Prudell.”

  Chapter Nine

  I wanted to do something, get in the way, demand to talk to somebody, tell them they were making a mistake. But I knew I’d be about as effective as Vargas’s little dog, barking and nipping at their heels, without changing a damned thing. So I just sat there waiting in my truck, the windows down so I didn’t suffocate in the heat, watching the cops go in and out of Jackie’s place. At one point, Jackie was led out the front door. He was blinking in the sudden glare of the sun, his hands in cuffs. I got out of the truck and stood there watching as they took him to one of the Soo police cars. What could I do?

  They opened the back door for him. He looked up just before he got in, caught my eye, and gave me a look that I couldn’t quite figure out. I’ve seen a lot of people taken away in a squad car. First-timers look completely stunned and defeated, the way an animal looks when a lion has it by the throat. Career criminals, on the other hand, try to look cool about it, like it’s no more than a taxi ride. Jackie didn’t look like either one of those. Hell, he almost looked like he was amused by it all. He gave me a little smile and a nod before he bent his head down and slid into the car.

  I resisted the urge to follow them all the way to the police station. I knew it would take a while to process him, and even longer if they tried to question him. The best thing I could do at that moment was stick around and try to find his son, make sure he was okay, and ask him if Jackie had a good lawyer.

  The cops were there about another hour. The state troopers left first, then the Soo police. The last man out apparently had the key to the place. He locked the door and tested it to make sure it was shut tight, and then he and his partner got in their vehicle and kicked up some gravel on their way out of the parking lot. With everybody gone, the place had an eerie calm to it. The only sounds came from the bees buzzing in the wildflowers on the edge of the parking lot, and the waves breaking on the rocks a hundred yards away.

  I got out and went to the front door. There was a handmade sign stuck on the inside. It read “Closed for the day.” I looked in. It was dark. I knocked on the door.

  Nothing.

  I went around behind the building, to Jackie’s private entrance. I knocked. I knew that Jonathan was keeping a room just above that door. He’d be sure to hear me if he was there.

  Nothing. Where the hell was he?

  As I walked back to my truck, a car pulled into the parking lot. A man got out, somebody I’d seen at the bar a few times but had never talked to. “What’s going on?” he asked me. “Is Jackie open?”

  “Jackie is closed,” I said. “Come back tomorrow.”

  “Why is he closed?”

  “Come back tomorrow.”

  The man huffed at me and got back in his car. On his way out, he kicked up even more gravel than the cops.

  As I drove into the Soo, I called Leon’s office. He wasn’t there. I left a message for him to call me as soon as he could. I called his home number next—no Leon, no Eleanor. I left the same message.

  Then I called Jackie’s number and left a message for his son. I’ll be at the station, I said. Come on down when you can.

  When I got to the City-County building, Jonathan was already there.

  “Alex!” he said when he saw me. “I’ve been calling you!”

  “How’d you get here?” I said. “I didn’t see you at the Glasgow.”

  “At first they told me I should stick around,” he said. “Then later they told me to leave. They said to call the station later to find out his status. But hell, where was I gonna go? I’d be going crazy. So I just came down here.”

  “I must have missed you,” I said. “Tell me everything that happened.”

  “Let’s see,” he said. He took a long breath and ran his fingers back through his hair. “They came this morning. I don’t know, maybe nine o’clock, nine-thirty. There were half a dozen Soo policeman, and half a dozen state troopers. Chief Maven was with them. He said they had a warrant to search the entire building. There were a couple of guys there having breakfast—Maven chased them out, told them we were closing down for the rest of the day. They had my father sit down at one of the tables with a Soo man watching him the whole time. Then, God, they went through everything, Alex. They started in the bar and just worked their way through the whole house. My room. My father’s room. Maven came down—that’s when he told me to leave. I think the official arrest happened as soon as I was gone.”

  “What did they find?” I said. “Do you have any idea?”

  “No, Alex. I can’t even imagine.”

  “Have they told you anything about what’s happening to him right now?”

  “They said he’d be here a while. I don’t know if they’re questioning him now or what.”

  “If they are, I hope he has the sense to keep his mouth shut.”

  “He didn’t do anything, Alex.”

  “I know that,” I said. “Even so, he should keep his mouth shut for now. What about a lawyer? Does he have a lawyer, do you know?”

  “There’s a man in Brimley,” he said. “He’s done work for my father before. You know, a will, stuff like that. I gave him a call but he wasn’t in, so I left him a message to get down here.”

  “Okay, good,” I said. “If all goes well, they’ll set bail by the end of the day.”

  “We’re gonna bail him out, right? We don’t want him spending the night in jail.”

  “We’ll bail him out,” I said. “Don’t worry. We’ve got to get a bondsman down here. Problem is, I think Leon is still the only bondsman in town.”

  “So we get him.”

  “No, we can’t do that,” I said. “I’ll explain later. I’m trying to remember—when Leon got into that business, he told me that the next closest bondsman was all the way down in Mackinaw City. There’s a phone book over there—go look up ‘Bail Bonds’ in the yellow pages and see if you can find him. I want to go talk to Maven again.”

  “Okay, if you think that’s a good idea…” He didn’t look like he thought it was. I wasn’t so sure myself, but I didn’t know what else to do.

  There was a receptionist sitting there at the front desk. I waited for her to get off the phone and then I asked her if I could see Chief Maven. She told me that Chief Maven was extremely busy at the moment, and asked me if I wanted to leave a message. I asked her to please call him and tell him that Alex McKnight wished to speak to him immediately regarding today’s arrests. She thought about that for a second, then picked up the phone and called him. “He’ll see you now,” she said. “Do you know where his office is?”

  “I’m afraid I do.”

  He was waiting at his door when I got there. I went in and sat down in my usual chair.

  “I assume you wish to add something to your original statement?” he said. “The one you gave to the officers on the night in question? I’ve got some paper here if you want to write it down.”

  “Am I a suspect now?”

  “Not at this time, no. But if you do know anything else about this matter, and you wish to make a statement now…”

  “I don’t know anything else.”

  “Even though your best friend and two of his friends all appear to be involved in this, you have no further information yourself?”

  “They were not involved,” I said. “The only other information I have for you is that you’ve made a big mistake.”

  He leaned back in his chair. “A big mistake. So I should be letting them go right now. Is that what you’re saying?”

  “I want to ask you a couple of questions,” I said.

  “McKnight, I got a lot of work to do here.”

  “First of all, w
hen can I see Jackie?”

  “When he makes bail,” he said. “Assuming he does. It hasn’t been set yet.”

  “Did he ask for a lawyer?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t talked to him yet.”

  “What’s on this videotape you’ve got?”

  “I can’t discuss that.”

  “You said Prudell made the tape,” I said. “I don’t see how that was possible. He called Vargas that night. He was apparently following his wife around. According to Vargas, she was at a hotel with Swanson. If he was tailing her, how could he have taped anything at Vargas’s house?”

  “Same answer,” he said. “I’ve got nothing to say about that right now.”

  “He wasn’t there,” I said. “It’s as simple as that. Even if he supposedly came over to the house, I tell you, he wasn’t there. What could he have taped?”

  Maven looked at his watch.

  “Those three men were lying on the floor,” I said. “At gunpoint. What the hell can be on a videotape that would implicate them? This doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I can see why you’re puzzled, McKnight. I’ll say that much.”

  “Vargas did this,” I said. “You’ve got to realize, Maven, this is all Vargas. I had a run-in with him yesterday. He warned me he was going to do something.”

  “I’d advise you to stay away from Vargas. In fact, I’ll do more than just advise you…”

  “What did you find in Jackie’s bedroom?” I said. “Money from Vargas’s safe? Is that what it was? Is that what you found at Bennett’s and Gill’s?”

  Maven just looked at me.