North of Nowhere: An Alex McKnight Novel

by Steve Hamilton

  I took the gun out of my truck with me, and approached the nearest building. The front door had a “15” stenciled on the glass. There was a thick layer of dust on the glass, and nothing but total darkness behind it. All the door needed was a big spider web, but apparently even the spiders had given up on the place.

  I moved to the next building. This door was solid wood, and there was an “13” scratched on it with white chalk. The next one down had to be 11.

  It was a two-story building with a metal roof. It had probably held a lot of cargo off the river, back when it was in business. You could have done something with it if you had enough money—maybe turn it into a bar or something. Nobody had thought of that yet. I tried the front door. It was locked.

  There was a narrow alley on one side of the building, a wider alley on the other—wide enough that you could drive a vehicle around to the back. I took the wide alley, passing under a few dark windows, all made from those thick squares of glass you see in old factories and other places you’re glad you never have to see the inside of. The ground was rutted and overgrown with weeds. The light of a half moon was reflected in a hundred small puddles.

  When I got around to the back of the place, there was an old wooden loading dock and a semi trailer that looked like it had been sitting there for thirty years, everything glowing in the moonlight like something out of a black-and-white movie. Bennett, I’m going to kill you, I said to myself. If you’re not dead already.

  I went up some cement stairs to the loading dock. There were two large roll-down doors that I wasn’t going to try opening. Beyond that was a regular metal door. I stood there for a moment, deciding how to play it. I could have yelled Bennett’s name, but I didn’t want to spook anybody if they were in the middle of something.

  Okay, I thought, just go in quiet. If you see something going on, then do whatever you have to do. If you don’t see anything, then start calling out some names.

  The door was ajar. It made a horrible metallic screech as I pushed it open.

  It was dark inside.

  Okay, time to make some noise. “Bennett!”

  The gun blast ripped through everything. I fell to the ground. It was all sudden noise and pain and fear as another blast hit the wall behind me, then another. Then a great weight fell onto my back, and I thought, this is it. I’m dead right here.

  “It’s me!” I yelled. “It’s Alex!”

  There was a silence, or at least no more gunshots. With the ringing in my ears, it felt like I’d never hear true silence ever again. The weight on my back pressed me to the ground.

  Finally, a voice. “Alex? Is that you?”

  “Yes!”

  “Are you all right?”

  “Get this off of me!”

  I heard footsteps, and then the weight was lifted off my back, whatever the hell it was. Strong arms grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me up to a sitting position. “Alex, my God,” somebody said.

  A light came on, blinding me. “Oh shit. Look at him.”

  “Will somebody tell me what the fuck is going on?” I said. “You almost blew my head off!”

  The light kept blinding me.

  “And will you get that flashlight out of my face?”

  When I could see again, I saw that it was Bennett holding the flashlight. His other hand was wrapped around the long barrel of a deer rifle. Ham stood next to him, with another flashlight and another rifle. They were flanked by Jackie and Gill, each with yet another rifle. I recognized Jackie’s as an old Winchester lever action he had lying around. It hadn’t been fired in years.

  I tried hard to breathe. “Start talking,” I said.

  “The door fell on you,” Bennett said.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “We blew it right off the hinges. Thing must weigh a hundred pounds.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Ham, get him off the ground.” His son tried to pick me up. I slapped him away and got up on my own.

  “How’d you find us?” Bennett said.

  “Easy, I followed the idiot tracks. Now are you gonna tell me what’s going on?”

  “We were supposed to meet Blondie here,” he said. “He was supposed to be here an hour ago.”

  “And you were all sitting here with fucking deer rifles? Waiting to shoot him? Look at you guys.”

  “What else are we gonna do, Alex? He’s the one who’s making this happen.”

  “Jackie,” I said, looking him in the eye. “Look at you. And you, Gill.”

  “You weren’t supposed to be here,” Jackie said. “This isn’t your problem. Why did you come here?”

  “Knock it off, okay? You’ve been pushing me away since this whole mess started. And I hope you cleaned that old gun, for God’s sake. I’m surprised it didn’t blow up right in your hands.”

  “I was going to call you,” Bennett said. “Jackie made sure I didn’t. He’s just looking out for you.”

  “Why were you going to call me, Bennett? So I could come join your little posse? Did you actually think he’d fall for this? Why didn’t you just tell him to go to the shooting range? Here, go stand down there, right in front of that target? How dumb do you think this guy is?”

  “Alex, it was his idea.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “He picked this place,” Bennett said. “He told me to be here at nine o’clock. Actually both of us.”

  “Who, you and me?”

  “That’s what he said. Make sure you bring the money, and Alex.”

  “He was just playing you,” I said. “There’s no way he’d walk into this. He was seeing what you’d do. Hell, he may be out there right now, watching us.”

  Bennett walked out the open doorway, into the night. He stood on the dock, looking out at the river. At this point it was a good two miles across. The lights of Soo, Canada burned in the distance. “You really think he’s out there? On a boat or something?”

  “If he is, you certainly put on quite a show for him.”

  “Fuck,” he said. “That son of a bitch.”

  “Bennett, this guy’s a pro. He’s been playing around with you. With all of us. He wants that money.”

  “There is no money. I told him that.”

  “He doesn’t believe you.”

  “What are we gonna do?”

  “Where’d you guys park?” I said.

  “There’s a lot down by the bridge,” he said. “Jackie picked us up at the bar. Why?”

  “You should take everybody home, Jackie. Margaret’s worried out of her head, not to mention being short-handed on a Saturday night. I’m gonna get back up to Paradise. I got a bad feeling all of a sudden.”

  “Why?” Jackie said. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m just thinking, maybe he’s not out on that river. Maybe he had another reason to get us out here.”

  “What, you mean to draw us away?”

  “I hope I’m wrong,” I said. “Go make sure Margaret’s okay. I’ll call her on the cell phone. And Jonathan, too.”

  We all walked back out of the alley together. The four men all jumped into the bed of my truck and I took them back up Portage Street to the parking lot. It occurred to me as I was driving, all I need now is a police car stopping us. He’d find four men in the back, all with recently-fired rifles. Three of them would even have open bail bonds. That’s all we’d need to make the evening complete.

  I dropped them off at Jackie’s car, then headed back east to Paradise. I caught a look at myself in the rearview mirror. I was filthy with all the dust and other crap from the floor of that building, that on top of all the bruises I already had going. I was definitely not pretty.

  I called Margaret, and was glad to hear her voice when she answered. I told her Bennett and Ham would be there any minute now. Then I called Jonathan.

  “I’m on my way,” I said. “Jackie’ll be a few minutes behind me.”

  “What did he get mixed up in this time?” Jonathan said
.

  “You don’t want to know. Have you seen the blond guy again? The one who left you the torn-up hundred?”

  “I haven’t, no.”

  “If you do, call me right back,” I said. “I’ll see you soon.”

  I hung up and took a deep breath. Everybody was in one piece, at least for the moment. “What are you up to, Blondie?” I said. “What the hell’s your game?”

  When I hit town, the Glasgow Inn was a welcome sight. I’d go in and wash my face in the bathroom, have a couple of cold Canadians. By the time Jackie got here, I’d almost be ready to forgive him for being such a jackass.

  As I pulled into the parking lot, another pickup truck came roaring by, right behind me. I opened my door, stepped out, looked up the road, and then up into the night sky. I saw a great black dragon rising above the treeline, obscuring the silver clouds behind it, the stars, the moon.

  Smoke.

  That was one of the volunteer firemen racing by. He was headed north.

  I got back into the truck and sprayed gravel. When I turned onto my service road, I was expecting to see the fire truck parking in front of my cabin. It wasn’t.

  “What the hell’s going on?” I said. Then it hit me.

  I kept driving down the road, all the way to the end, to the last cabin. As soon as I turned around the last bend, I saw the truck. Paradise Volunteer Fire. A bright flume of water hung in the sky, lit by the floodlights from the truck. There were seven or eight other vehicles all spread around the place. One of the men looked back at me as I got out. He had his rubber boots on, his fire hat, but no coat.

  Flames. There were flames, orange and yellow and blue.

  “Mr. McKnight,” he said.

  I didn’t hear him. I walked past him, toward the cabin. I got so close I could feel the heat on my face.

  “Mr. McKnight! Stand back from there!”

  I felt myself being pulled backward. I kept staring into the flames. This was my father’s masterpiece, the best thing he ever built, and the last.

  It was burning up before my eyes.

  Three hours passed. It was well after midnight when the firemen left. They didn’t want to leave anything hot, not with all the dry brush around. “Last thing we want is a forest fire,” the man said. “Do you have any idea how this happened?”

  I didn’t have anything to say to him. I just stood there and watched the men as they soaked the remains of the cabin with a fine spray of water, back and forth, back and forth. The water hung in the air and collected on my face, but I didn’t wipe it off. I clenched my hands into fists, released them, and then clenched again, over and over.

  “This thing went up fast, Mr. McKnight. Please don’t touch anything until the arson investigator gets here.”

  “I won’t,” I said.

  “We’ll be back tomorrow to make sure nothing’s smoking.”

  “Okay.”

  “We did the best we could.”

  “I know. Thank you.”

  When they were gone, it was just me and a pile of black rubble. The chimney was left standing, the chimney my father built with his hands, stone by stone. It stood alone in the clearing now, looking strangely out of place.

  I don’t know how long I waited there, or what I was even waiting for. I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t walk away.

  Finally, I did. I took the truck back to my cabin, went inside, and sat down in a chair. I stared at the floor until the phone rang. I looked at the clock. It was 1:42 in the morning.

  “McKnight,” the voice said.

  “I’m going to kill you,” I said.

  “Hold onto those dreams. It’ll keep you young.”

  “I swear to you, Blondie. I’m going to kill you.”

  “Yeah, we covered that. Have I made my point yet? You guys gonna come through for me or what?”

  “There’s nothing to come through with, you stupid fuckhead. I had nothing to do with the robbery, first of all. And even if I did, there was thirty thousand in that safe, and nothing more.”

  “I know who Vargas is,” he said. “I know what kind of scam he’s got going on. That’s the only reason I bought into this. What I get for working with amateurs, I guess. Never again, eh? When Seanie gave up his share, that was like the first clue, you know what I mean? He gave it up because he knew there was a lot more. Hell, he might have had it stashed right on his person, underneath that big bag he was wearing. Would’ve taken more balls than I thought he had, but hell, why not? Maybe he did. As soon as your other three friends ended up arrested, it all sort of came together, didn’t it. When I found out who you were, this mystery guest who wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place, it all made sense. I know all about you, McKnight. I thought you acted pretty cool when I had that gun on your head. Now I know why. You knew what the score was that night. You were in on this from the beginning.”

  “You got it all wrong, Blondie. Everything you said is totally wrong.”

  “Right now, what I really need you to do is understand something, McKnight. You gotta know what you’re dealing with here, eh?”

  “I know what you are, Blondie. Believe me, I’ve seen ’em a lot better. Torching a cabin, that’s really chickenshit stuff, you know that? Why don’t you come here and talk to me face to face?”

  “Oh, we’ll do that one, McKnight. We’ll most definitely do that one, eh?”

  “How about tonight? How about right now?”

  “Patience, eh? You Americans, I swear. What you need to do is round up all the money and go to O’Dell’s place. I’ll call you there tomorrow morning at eight o’clock.”

  “There is no money, Blondie. Simple as that. When are you gonna get that?”

  “I’m thinking Vargas had at least a half million in that safe, McKnight. It might have been more. If it was, I’ll just have to trust you to come through with the rest of it. I know you’re an honorable man. You’re the one with the cool head, too, so I’d appreciate it if you did all the talking tomorrow. We’re gonna do this one out in the open. I mean real open, eh? I suggest you have a boat ready. I’ll be giving you some GPS coordinates for a position out on the lake. That’s where we’ll meet you.”

  “I’m not going to be there, Blondie. It ain’t happening.”

  “I think you will be, McKnight. I know you’re a lonely old man, with no family, nobody you really care about. Except maybe one person.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I got somebody here you should talk to.”

  There was a brief silence on the line, and in that one horrible moment I knew who it would be, before he even spoke. He dropped the men off, then he came back by himself. If he had made it home, he would have called me by now. I was too far out of my head to notice that he hadn’t.

  “Alex, it’s me.”

  “Jackie. My God. Jackie…”

  “I’m sorry, Alex. I’m sorry.”

  Chapter Twenty

  I picked up Jonathan on my way to O’Dell’s place. He came down the back stairs rubbing his eyes. As soon as he saw me, he knew something was wrong. While he got dressed, I went back out to the parking lot and looked at Jackie’s car. The driver’s side door was still open, the dome light still on. A dozen moths were flying around inside. The night had turned cold.

  I told him what I knew as I drove. He listened to me and didn’t say a word. Finally, when I was done, he said, “What are we gonna do?”

  “We’re gonna get him back,” I said.

  “How?”

  “I’m not sure yet.”

  When we got to O’Dell’s place, Gill was already there. He was sitting at a table with Bennett and Ham. Margaret was pouring him a cup of coffee. Together they looked like the most tired, most miserable four people in the world. It was almost three in the morning.

  When we were all sitting down together, Margaret included, I repeated once again everything Blondie had told me on the phone.

  “He wants us to meet him out on the open water?” Bennett sai
d. “How crazy is this guy?”

  “How did Jackie sound when you talked to him?” Gill said.

  “As good as can be expected,” I said. “Although he didn’t say more than a few words.”

  “Why aren’t we calling the police?” Jonathan said.

  “We can’t call the police,” Bennett said.

  “Why not?”

  “They’ll kill him if we do,” Bennett said. “This is between him and us.”

  “Fuck that,” Jonathan said. “I’m calling them right now.”

  Ham and Bennett both stood up to stop him.

  “All right, knock it off,” I said. “Jonathan, sit down. We’ll keep that as a possibility. Although I’m not even sure who we’d call at this point. We don’t know where this is gonna happen, whether it’s Canadian water or American.”

  “Hell, the police will just fall all over themselves,” Bennett said. “And probably get Jackie killed. Look what they’ve done so far.”

  “Everybody just relax,” I said. “Drink some more coffee. We’ve gotta think of something.”

  “I can get some money together,” Bennett said. “But not that much on such short notice. We’re gonna have to tell him we don’t have it yet.”

  “He’s not gonna buy that,” I said. “He thinks we have it already, remember?”

  “I can get some money,” Gill said. “I can talk to some tribal members.”

  “We shouldn’t be paying anybody anything,” Ham said. “We’ve got them outnumbered. All we need is a good plan.”

  “Like what?” Jonathan said. “Let’s hear your plan.”

  “I don’t have one yet,” Ham said. “I’m just saying…”

  “I don’t think it matters if we have the money or not,” I said. “Either way, I don’t think they’re planning on doing this in the middle of the lake and then letting us leave.”

  We all sat there for a while thinking about that one. It didn’t do much for the mood.

  “Where’s your other son, anyway?” I finally said to Bennett. “Shouldn’t he be here?”

  “Why should he be here?”