A Stolen Season (24 page)

“Where’s Laraque?”

“Never mind him. You need to deal with me now.”

“I told you I wouldn’t talk to anybody else.”

“You don’t understand what I’m trying to tell you. Laraque is out of the game. You can’t talk to him.”

“First thing you can do, you can take Mr. Dress-Up here back to Canada. Was this Laraque’s idea, by the way? Send a stooge over here to take his place? Is that the kind of man he is?”

“Alex, listen to me…”

“Second thing, you tell the real Laraque he has twenty-four more hours to get his ass over here.”

“You see, that’ll be hard to do, on account of his being very dead right now. Unless you’d care to join him. Maybe you can talk to him on the other side. I don’t know.”

“What are you talking about? Who killed him?”

“Who do you think, genius?”

“You did? Why would you do that?”

She shook her head. “I know you’re a man, so I’ll try to talk slow here. I killed the boss so I could take over the operation. You understand me?”

“That’s not a good enough reason,” I said. “Not compared to mine.”

“Whatever you say, Alex. Just get over it, because we’re not joking around here. Why don’t you wise up and tell us where the stuff is right now, before we really hurt you?”

“Who’s we? You and your caddy here?”

“No, not him. Jacques is my driver. He’s quite harmless.”

“Then who are you talking about?”

“And just for the record, this whole fake Laraque thing, it wasn’t my idea. I thought it was a little over the top myself.”

“Whose idea was it? Who are you talking about?”

“I think that’s your cue, Babe,” she said. She raised her chin, said it loud enough for anyone else to hear, anyone who might be waiting in the trees.

I heard the footsteps. I turned and saw the man. I recognized him in a second.

It was Cap.

He had a gun just like Rhapsody’s, with the same long suppressor screwed onto the end of the barrel. He walked over to me with a smile, like he was renewing his acquaintance with a long-lost friend.

“Alex and I have come to an agreement,” Rhapsody said. “Your idea was ridiculous.”

“Is that right?” He moved closer to me, never taking his eyes from mine. He put his gun in his back pocket for a moment, just long enough to pat me down and to take Leon’s gun out of my jacket pocket. I waited for him to go down each of my legs, to find the ankle holster.

But he didn’t.

“Alex saw right through it,” she said. “Jacques never had a chance.”

“The man wanted Laraque,” Cap said. He transferred Leon’s gun to his right hand and threw it in a high arc. It splashed in the middle of the channel. Then he started to walk around me in a slow circle. “So we gave him Laraque. I thought it would be easier this way.”

The fake Laraque put his hands up. “Hey,” he said, “you didn’t tell me this guy would be here.”

“Shut up, Jacques,” she said.

“No, this guy’s crazy. I didn’t sign up for this.”

“Just shut the fuck up.”

“Seriously. I’ll let you guys work this out. I’ll be right over here.”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“The hell I’m not. I just quit.”

Cap turned from me and shot him twice in the throat.
Shoomp shoomp,
two muffled shots like the sound a nail gun would make. Me on the roof of my cabin, nailing down a shingle. That was the exact sound.

At first, the man showed nothing but surprise. He tried to speak, but couldn’t make a sound, his vocal cords obliterated with everything else as the blood rushed down the front of his coat. He went to his knees, looking at the ground like he still couldn’t quite fathom what had happened to him. He tried to speak again. Then he pitched sideways and spent the next few seconds staring up at both of us.

“Was that necessary?” she said.

“You told me he wasn’t even a good driver.”

I watched the man die on the ground. It occurred to me, maybe this was one of his reasons for shooting him in front of me, so I’d know exactly what he was capable of.

“I thought you were long gone,” I said to him. “After you tried to trick me into going after Mr. Gray.”

“What’s this?” she said. “This sounds interesting.”

“Never mind,” he said. He kept circling me. “It was just an idea, a spur of the moment thing.”

“I thought you weren’t afraid of Gray,” she said.

“I just put a bullet in his head two days ago. Does that sound like somebody who’s afraid of anybody?”

“You killed Gray?” I said.

He stopped in front of me. “Yes, I did. Now tell me where the guns are, or you’ll get the same deal. I promise you.”

“I think he was afraid of you, too,” she said to me. “I think that’s why he came up with this idea.”

“Rhapsody…”

“‘Get Jacques to pretend,’” she said, imitating him, exaggerating the swagger in his voice. “‘McKnight won’t know any better. If he ends up killing him, so what?’”

“What do you think?” he said to me. “Do you think I’m afraid of you?”

“I think you talk pretty big,” I said, “when your woman has your back.”

He made like he was going to turn away, then surprised me with a punch right in my gut. It folded me in two. I went with it, going all the way to the ground, feeling for the mini automatic under my pant leg. Lift and fire, if I do it fast enough…

No. Not yet. Either one of them would mow me down in a second.

“Okay, enough chit-chat,” Cap said. “Where are the guns?”

Play this out, I thought. Buy some time, figure out what the hell is going on.

“They’re out there,” I said, pointing to the water. I was struggling to get my wind back. Laraque was dead. Gray was dead. I couldn’t believe it was all coming down to these two.

“What are you talking about, McKnight? Out there where?”

“I have to take you to them.”

“What did you do, hide them on some island like a pirate?”

“That’s exactly what I did, yes.”

He leaned down closer to me. “Do you have any idea how much you’ve fucked up my life already? Do you?”

“The man says he’s going to take us to the merchandise,” Rhapsody said. “So let him do it.”

“You actually believe him?”

“He looks like a smart man. He knows if he gives everything back, we’ll let him walk away.”

He grabbed me by the back of the collar. “Where are they, McKnight?”

“He said he’d take us to them,” she said. “Are you deaf?”

“I’m not falling for it,” he said. “I swear to God…”

“You got a better idea?”

“Yeah, I do.”

He put the gun against my temple.

“That would be smart,” she said. “We’d definitely get the guns back that way.”

He made a long muffled sound in his throat as he let go of me. I was starting to see the way things were between them. They obviously had a long history together.

“We need to clean up here first,” she said. “Why don’t you drag Jacques into the boathouse?”

“We can take him on the boat,” he said. “Dump him in the water.”

“I’m not riding in the boat with him. Just put him in the boathouse for now. You take him back out and dump him later.”

“McKnight can do that.” He kicked me. “On your feet.”

“He’s still recovering from you little cheap shot, Cap. Just shut the fuck up and drag Jacques’s ass into the boathouse, will you?”

“Rhapsody, I’m going to say this once. We’re partners now. That means you don’t get to talk to me that way anymore.”

“Pardon me. Will you please relocate Jacques to the boathouse? Is that better?”

He stared her down for a while, then he finally hooked his wrists under the dead man’s underarms and started dragging him.

“Let’s go,” she said to me. She waved me forward with her gun, careful not to step in the blood. “Cap, you better hose this all off when we’re done, too.”

He spat sideways and kept dragging. When we got to the door, he dropped the man for a moment and rummaged around in his pockets for the key to the door.

“Do you really need a key?” she said.

“I suppose not,” he said. “On account of our friend breaking into the place. Real smooth, McKnight. Did you use a sledgehammer?”

“I thought your pal Brucie was watching over things,” she said. “Where is he?”

“We can go see him if you like. But I don’t think he’s in any state to receive visitors.”

“Just open the door,” she said. “It’ll be dark by the time we get out there.”

He did as he was told. Then he dragged the dead man in and left him on the gangway.

“How far are we going, McKnight?” Cap jumped into the boat and turned around, the gun pointed at my chest.

“It’s not far,” I said. “I’ll take the wheel.”

“Like hell you will. You’re going to sit there and you’re going to tell me where to go.”

I got in and sat down on one of the chairs. Rhapsody sat across from me, a good six feet away. Cap climbed up to the captain’s chair and started the engine. A minute later, we were pulling out into the channel.

“Which way?” Cap said, his voice raised enough for me to hear him over the engine. “To the right?”

“Yes,” I said. “Go all the way out to the lake.”

He turned around and looked at me, then at Rhapsody.

“You heard the man,” she said. “Go to the lake.”

He shook his head and swung the wheel to the right, flipping on the GPS to follow the safe route, same as I had done. I sat there and thought about what was happening, and what my options were. With Laraque gone…Hell, it just wasn’t making any sense to me.

“Did you really kill him?” I said to Rhapsody. “I can’t see you doing that.”

“Is that a compliment or an insult?”

“Now you’re trying to collect his guns. You really are taking over.”

“That’s the idea.”

“And if Cap here really took out Mr. Gray, then I’m looking at both ends of the deal now. You’ve got the Canadian side and Cap has the U.S. side.”

She looked out the boat at where we were going, then back at me.

“I hope you can trust him,” I said. “He seems a little psychotic to me.”

Cap looked back down at us. “Just tell us where to go,” he said. “Other than that, you can keep quiet.”

“I’m just making an observation,” I said. “The two of you don’t seem to get along so well.”

I was fishing now. I was trying to find any kind of leverage I could, or anything I could use to distract them, even for a moment.

“We get along fine,” she said. “When we have to.”

“Whatever you say. It’s not my business. I’d just be a little worried about having a partner who’s so unstable.”

“Cap and I go way back, Alex. We’re the ones who hooked up Laraque and Gray to begin with.”

“You had this planned all along? Wait for the right moment and then take over?”

She smiled at me. I wasn’t getting anywhere. I needed something else, something to throw them off course.

“How far are we going?” Cap said. “Do I stay in this channel?”

“All the way out,” I said.

“Then what?”

“I’ll remember when we get there.”

He took both hands off the wheel for a moment to tighten the suppressor on his gun. He looked down at me as he did it.

“You’re not messing with us here,” Rhapsody said. “Are you? Because I’d be really disappointed.”

“Would I do that?”

“You don’t want me to be disappointed, Alex. Believe me.”

“I understand.”

She had her gun in her lap now, her right hand still gripping the handle. There has to be something, I thought. What would Leon do?

“Things must be kind of hot right now,” I said. “Maybe killing two cops wasn’t such a great idea.”

“Yeah,” Cap said without turning around, “maybe that wasn’t such a great idea.”

“Don’t start,” she said.

“Start what?”

“Did you hear me? Don’t even go there now. It was an unavoidable mistake.”

“You still don’t think I would have figured it out before shooting the guy?”

“How could you?”

“Well, let’s see…If I went to his apartment…Yeah, maybe I would have noticed something first. His badge on the table, maybe? His official Mountie coffee mug? His diploma from the police academy on the fucking wall?”

He stopped himself, closed his eyes for a few seconds, like he was counting to three. When he finally looked back at the GPS, he had to jerk the boat hard to the left to get back on course. Rhapsody almost fell out of her chair. I had a sudden vision of her gun falling out of her hand, me making my move. But the moment passed.

“Nice driving,” she said. “Is there anything you don’t do well?”

“Go fuck yourself,” he said. “And ask your buddy where we’re going here. We’re almost out in the lake.”

“Keep going straight for a while,” I said. “Hold the same direction.”

She killed Natalie’s partner, I thought. Probably with that very gun. But over here in Michigan…There was no way Cap could have killed Natalie. Unless…

Wait a minute, why would they even kill them at all? If they didn’t even know they were cops until afterward…

“McKnight,” Cap said. “I’m starting to think you’re just stalling here.”

“A few more miles,” I said. “Hold your course.”

If they didn’t know they were cops…then they must have thought they were real gun dealers.

“I don’t remember any islands out here,” Cap said. “You’re taking us right out into the middle of fucking Lake Huron.”

If they thought they were real gun dealers…

God damn it. They thought they were competitors. They had this takeover all set up, until these new players arrived on the scene. Hell, that’s probably why Cap and Brucie were stuck here for a few days. Maybe it wasn’t the weather. Maybe it was Laraque trying to play the two U.S. angles off each other, work a better deal.

“McKnight, you’d better say something. Or I swear to God I’ll kill you right now.”

Natalie and her partner didn’t die because their cover was blown.

They died because their cover
wasn’t
blown.

“McKnight?”

She killed Resnik, picked up his cell phone, and got my number. Gave that to Cap. Hell, that might have been a big surprise to him. Or maybe not at all. Maybe it explained a lot, why me and Vinnie were trying to drive him away. It would have all made perfect sense if he thought I was part of Natalie’s supply chain.

So he came over to my cabin…thinking I was already dead, of course. But so what? Nobody else would have known that. I would just be missing at that point. He came to my cabin and he saw Natalie’s Jeep there. Not my truck. Again, which would have made sense to him. I was just down the road, but he didn’t know that.

He opened the door and found Natalie inside. He must have figured she had come there looking for me, and when I wasn’t there, she had just settled in to wait for me.

Did he tell her she was waiting for a dead man? Did he say one word to her before he gunned her down in cold blood and then left?

Cap cut the engine and let the boat drift. He came down the stairs.

“Start talking,” he said, leveling the gun at my head. “Where are they?”

“You killed her,” I said. “You killed Natalie.”

“Yeah, no kidding. That’s what I do, remember?”

I wanted to go for my gun right then. I wanted to empty every round into his body. Then take his own gun from him and do it all over again.

“Cap, just cool it,” Rhapsody said. “Let me do this.”

“You’ve done enough,” he said. “Look at where it got us.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Look at us,” he said, gesturing in every direction. “You don’t think this is strange?”

“It’s strange, yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Cap. It’s strange.”

“And yet you seem to be going along with it just fine. Take the boat out to the middle of the fucking lake. No problem.”

“I’m just playing it out,” she said. “I’m taking Alex at his word.”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t you?”

“What else are we supposed to do?”

“Nothing. You’re right. Everything’s going great. As soon as Alex gives us the guns back, wherever the hell they are, we go and make the switch. The other boat’s not even that far from here, eh? St. Joseph Island’s right across the lake.”