Snowjob (35 page)

It was a relief to be under the bright lights and in the bustle of the crossing point. I picked up a liter of Black Velvet and a bottle of Chloe at the duty-free and drove over both bridges to the Canadian side. Here I had to tell white lies to the woman in the immigration booth. I’d been in the United States for a vacation. I hadn’t acquired anything.

On the 401 across southern Ontario, the facilities are right on the highway itself. They’re all soulless franchises with standard food and full-service gas stations. The fillup cost me twice what it would have done in Watertown and the hamburger was blah but I was ravenous. The hunger of fear. The same fear made me ring home, tingling with concern while I waited for the phone to be picked up.

Fred answered, sounding cheerful and normal.

“Hi, love. Just wanted to let you know I’m just east of Kingston, right on schedule.”

“Well, good. But listen. Who the Sam Hill is A.M.? Is it some rich widow from the ski slops of old Vermont?” Her voice was teasing but she wanted to know, badly.

“No, it’s a Mafia heavy called Antonio Mucci. I just had a most interesting talk to him on Highway 81 in New York State.”

“Well, he must have broken the bank,” she said. “You’ll never believe the roses he’s sent.”

“To you?”

“To all of us. ‘Mr. and Mrs. Reid Bennett and family. With thanks. A.M.’ There’s four dozen of them. They came from Parry Sound. The woman said the order cleaned out the store.”

I was standing with my forehead pressed against the side of the phone partition. A woman passing by with food on a cardboard tray looked at me oddly and I straightened up.

“That’s good news,” I said. “It means he’s out of my debt which is the way it should be. He’s heavy.”

Her voice had puzzlement all through it. “I don’t understand.”

“You will. I’ll explain it all when I get home.”

She laughed. “First things first.”

We said goodbye and I hung up and headed back to my car, carrying a raw burger for Sam. In my mind it was some kind of sacrificial offering. He took it carefully from my fingers and swallowed it in two gulps. His reaction cheered me up. “Looks like everything’s back to normal,” I told him and drove off west up the 401.