North of Nowhere (20 page)

“He’s tied up at the moment, Alex. You remember that gun I had stuck to your head at your little poker party? Your friend is getting the same treatment right now.”

“I swear to God, if anything happens to him…”

“If anything happens to him, it’ll be your fault, Alex. It’ll mean that something didn’t happen exactly as it was supposed to. Are we clear on that?”

“Tell us what to do.”

“That’s more like it. I want you and Bennett to meet us at a certain location on the lake. I’m going to give you the GPS coordinates. Are you ready?”

“Go ahead.”

He gave me the latitude and longitude in digital format. I wrote them down and showed them to Bennett.

“Bennett drives, and you carry the money, Alex. Nobody else is in the boat. We see anybody else, Jackie’s dead. We see a gun, we see somebody’s hand on a radio, we see a fucking seagull that looks suspicious, Jackie takes one in the temple. Are we clear on that one, too?”

Bennett held up a map of the lake and pointed to the general area. It was well past Whitefish Bay, into the heart of the lake.

“This position is almost a hundred and fifty miles away,” I said. “You know we can’t take a small craft out there. The weather can change in a second.”

“The weather is the least of your problems, my friend. We’ll see you there at noon.”

“At noon,” I said.

Bennett threw up his hands.

“We need more time,” I said. “I don’t think this boat can go that fast.”

“Let me put it to you this way, Alex. We’ll be there at noon. If you’re not there, Jackie’s going for a little swim.”

He hung up.

“Let’s go,” I said. “We’ve got a little less than four hours.”

We all piled out the back door. I told Margaret I’d call her on my cell phone as soon as we got back into range. “If you don’t hear from us by four o’clock,” I said, “call the police.”

Bennett and I got into the boat he had borrowed. Vargas drove the other boat, with Leon, Ham, Jonathan, and Gill aboard. The idea was they’d hang back about three or four miles behind us, and then catch up after we’d made contact.

“Wait, you need this,” Leon said, as he set a television monitor on the chair next to Bennett’s captain’s chair. He plugged it into the cigarette lighter.

“What’s this?” Bennett said.

“My wristwatch video camera,” he said. “Alex is going to put it on and keep it pointed at them. They’ll get to see themselves on the screen.”

“I don’t get it. What’s that going to do?”

“Just wait ‘til Alex tells them Mr. Isabella is watching them on a live feed. That should put the fear of God in them.”

Bennett watched me put the watch on. “There’s an actual camera in there?”

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get going.”

Leon went back to the other boat, and then we all headed down the river and into the bay. Bennett pushed the throttle all the way forward. We were doing about thirty-five knots. The sun was finally starting to burn off the morning fog.

“Do you have enough gas?” I said. I had to yell over the din of the motor.

“I hope so!”

I thought about asking him why he hadn’t thought of that before. I let it go.

“This is all my fault!” he yelled.

“Don’t worry about it now!”

“I thought that money could do some good for my son! Like money could ever be good for anybody!”

I nodded my head.

“Money is bad, Alex! It’s that simple!”

“Okay, Bennett!”

“I hate it!”

“Just drive the boat!”

He frowned and shook his head. I looked behind us. Even with the heavy cargo, Vargas’s boat was having no problem keeping up with us.

Oh hell, the cargo, I thought. You should have had him take all that stuff out of the cabin, get a little extra speed. You gotta think, Alex. You gotta keep your head on straight. Jackie needs you.

It took us a good two hours to clear Whitefish Point. The sun came out and warmed our backs as we rode the waves. A freighter went by us, heading the opposite way, toward the locks. The sound of the motor, the constant rise and fall of the deck, the spray in our faces—it all became mind-numbing, almost hypnotic. I looked at the GPS read-out on the console. We were approaching 47 degrees north, and 85 degrees west. The coordinates were still more than an hour away.

This was the biggest lake in the world, over thirty thousand square miles of open water, bigger than a few states. It all made terrible sense, why Blondie would bring us out here. Nobody would see us. There was no law out here, no consequences. And the lake was deep enough to hide a dead man. Or two dead men. Or three. You just dump them overboard and they disappear forever.

As we passed the 47th parallel, Vargas started to hang back further and further behind us. Soon his boat was no more than a speck on the horizon.

“We’re almost there!” Bennett said, looking at the GPS.

I picked up the binoculars and looked ahead of us.

There. I saw the boat. It was too far away to see any details, but it was there. Time to get ready.

I took my revolver out and put it on the shelf behind the gunwale. It would be easier to get to that way. I looked in the binoculars again. It was a big boat, about the same size as Vargas’s. It looked like it was pointed away from us. I could make out one man standing at the back rail, and it looked like he was holding a serious weapon—some sort of assault weapon, no doubt. A real one.

I untied the anchor from its rope and tied it onto the handle of the money bag.

“What are you doing?” Bennett yelled.

“They’re gonna shoot us as soon as we’re in range!” I said. “Unless I give them a reason not to!”

We got closer. Bennett throttled down to half speed. The man at the back rail was watching us through his own pair of binoculars. It was Blondie’s brother. I couldn’t see Blondie yet. Or Jackie.

“Show time!” I said. I put Leon’s video watch on my left wrist, then turned it on. An image appeared on the monitor—first the sky, then the side of the boat. I grabbed the bag and the anchor.

My hands were shaking.

I held the bag out over the rail, with the anchor on the outside. I wanted them to see it. I wanted them to know one simple fact right away—if they shot me, the money would end up taking a bath, in about five hundred feet of water.

I saw Blondie’s brother holding the gun in one hand now, and waving at me with the other. It looked like he was yelling something, but I couldn’t hear it over the sound of the motor.

“Bring it in easy,” I said to Bennett, without turning to look at him.

“Where’s Jackie?” he said. “I don’t see Jackie!”

“He’s gotta be there,” I said, mostly to myself. “Come on, Jackie. Where the hell are you?”

As we came closer, I could hear what Blondie’s brother was saying. “Get back from the rail! Move back or I’ll shoot!”

“Go right ahead!” I yelled back. “You shoot and this money goes right to the bottom of the lake!”

He looked over his right shoulder. There, in the shade of the awning, I could make out two men. As we came even closer, I could see Jackie standing in front of Blondie. Jackie had silver duct tape over his mouth, and his hands were behind his back.

“Get about twenty feet away,” I said to Bennett. “And move that monitor out here a little more.”

He moved the throttle down to just above an idle. Then with his foot he pushed the chair out into the middle of the deck.

“What is that thing?” Blondie said. I could see his pistol now, pointed at Jackie’s head. “Do you want to see your friend die
right now
?”

“I wouldn’t do that,” I said. Blondie’s brother had his rifle pointed at my chest. I tried hard to ignore him. It wasn’t working.

“Take that anchor off the bag,” Blondie said. “You’ve got three seconds.”

I snuck a look behind me. As I looked at the monitor, I turned my left arm, the one holding the bag, just so. Their boat appeared on the monitor, but the rolling of the waves made it hard to maintain a steady shot.

“McKnight, did you hear me? Take the anchor off!”

I swallowed hard. It was time to do something truly stupid. Across the water, I looked at Jackie, into his eyes.

“You better smile, Blondie,” I said. I had to keep my voice natural, like there was nothing to it, like I wasn’t scared out of my skull. “You want to make a good impression on Mr. Isabella, don’t you?”

That one got to him. He couldn’t hide it. His brother looked up from the rifle barrel.

“McKnight, what are you talking about?”

“You’re on a live feed right now,” I said. “Look at this monitor, Blondie. Mr. Isabella is watching everything you do.”

It was hard for him to see from twenty feet away, but he looked at the monitor with wide eyes, like it was something out of his worst nightmare. “What the fuck…”

“You made a mistake, Blondie. You took the wrong guy. You didn’t realize how tight these two men are. Jackie and Mr. Isabella, they’re like brothers. Isn’t that right, Jackie?”

Come on, Jackie, I thought. Play along.

Jackie nodded. Blondie wrapped his arm around Jackie’s neck and pressed the gun right against his temple.

“I’m not buying any of this, McKnight. Now throw that bag over. Right now.”

A sound. In the distance, a motor.

“Who is that?” Blondie yelled. His face was bright red now. “I told you, anybody else shows up, your friend dies!”

“It’s just a few of Mr. Isabella’s men,” I said. “They’d like to have a word with you.”

Blondie and his brother looked at each other. For an instant I was tempted to go for my gun.

No, not yet, Alex. Not yet.

“I know you’re not an idiot,” I said. “You know what’s gonna happen when Isabella’s men get here. No matter what you do to us, these guys are gonna kill you. Give us Jackie and we’ll give you the money. You’ve got a head start, you can be long gone by the time they get here.”

Blondie’s brother was pointing the rifle at my chest again.

“Take the money,” I said. I was about to put my free hand into the bag, to grab some bills and show them to him.

Bad idea, Alex. They’ll think you’re going for a gun.

Blondie squeezed his arm hard around Jackie’s neck. He kept looking out at the open water.

“Don’t be a fool!” Bennett said. “Take the goddamned money!”

No, Bennett, no. This we do not need right now.

“Those guys are gonna cut you into a million pieces!”

Shut up, Bennett. Shut up shut up shut up.

“It’s seven hundred thousand dollars, you stupid fuckheads! Take the money and run! While you still can!”

“Throw the bag over,” Blondie said.

“Give us Jackie first,” I said.

“Throw the bag over!”

“Jackie first.”

The boat was coming closer. I didn’t dare look. But I was sure they had all four men standing at the rails—Leon, Jonathan, Ham, and Gill, with Vargas at the wheel. I could only imagine what it looked like, four men in black, with huge black guns. I hoped it was enough.

“Holy fuck,” Blondie said.

His brother didn’t look up. He kept his rifle leveled at my chest. “We’re not running,” he said.

“Look at them,” Blondie said.

“We’re not running,” the brother said. “I think it’s a trick.”

I hung the bag a little further out over the water. The weight of the anchor was making my forearm muscles burn. But I knew if I pulled it in for a second, a bullet would rip right through me.

Then, a voice from behind me. “Put the guns down!” It sounded like Leon, yelling into a megaphone.

The brother didn’t even blink. “You’re gonna die, McKnight.”

Blondie pushed Jackie out from under the awning. “Stay back!” he yelled. “I’ll put a bullet in his head if you get any closer!”

“Put the guns down
now!
”

I knew Vargas’s boat couldn’t come too close, or they’d see right through everything. The tape on the guns, the cheap windbreakers. It would all fall apart.

“You’re blowing your chance,” I said. “If you give us Jackie right now, you still might make it out of this alive.”

“I’ll kill him, McKnight. I swear to God.”

I looked at Jackie. His eyes were closed.

“You’re dead!” Bennett said. “Give him up now or you’re dead!”

“Shut up,” I said. “Bennett, just shut up.”

“Those are Isabella’s men and you are fucking dead!”

“Those aren’t his men,” Blondie’s brother said, without even looking up at them. “There’s no way.”

“No matter what,” I said, “you’re still outnumbered. That you can see. You’ll never get out of this alive.”

“So be it,” Blondie said. “I guess that’s the way it goes down.”

Everything froze. Seconds ticked by. This is it, I thought. I waited for the first blast.

Instead, a voice.

“Hey, Marcus! Derrick!” I turned and saw Vargas standing at the rail of his boat. He was holding up the transmitter from his radio. “It’s Mr. Isabella. He wants to talk to both of you.”

That broke the spell. At the sound of his name, Blondie’s brother turned and fired his rifle, knocking Vargas right off his feet. As I dove to the deck, I caught a flash of Blondie’s gun coming away from Jackie’s head, and pointing right at me. I heard glass exploding behind me, Bennett crying out and then going down hard on the deck. There were more gunshots, from Blondie’s boat, from Vargas’s boat. And in the middle of all of it, a splash in the water.

I grabbed my revolver from the gunwale shelf and came back up with both hands wrapped around it. I didn’t see Jackie. Where the fuck was Jackie? Blondie’s brother came out from under the railing, firing at Vargas’s boat. I put him in my sights and pulled the trigger. There was an explosion right next to my ear, sending a spray of wood into my face. I went down again. I saw Bennett lying on the deck. He was bleeding from the forehead, but his eyes were open. “Stay down,” I said.

“Jackie’s in the water,” he said. “I saw him dive in.”

I heard two more shots, and then the sound of a boat’s propeller churning the water. Somebody was moving.

I looked over the gunwale. Blondie was at the wheel. The boat was moving away from us, and moving fast. Vargas’s boat kicked up, and came our way.

“Look out for Jackie!” I yelled. “Where is he?”

I scanned the water. I couldn’t see him.

“Where are you, Jackie? Where the fuck are you?”

There!

I dove in, felt the sudden icy shock of the water. I swam to where I had seen him, struggling against the waves and the brutal cold. When I finally got to him, he was fighting hard to keep his head above the water. With his hands tied behind his back, and his mouth taped shut, it was a losing battle.

“I got you, Jackie! I got you!”

I grabbed onto him, tilted his head back, and tried to do the lifeguard’s crawl. My body was already numb. Even in the middle of July, the lake is so damned cold. You’ve got a few minutes and then you’re done.

Vargas’s boat got to us first. Ham came down the side ladder, one leg in the water, and grabbed Jackie. He lifted him like a rag doll, and passed him over the side. Then he came back for me, put one of those long arms around me, and pulled me out of the water.

I landed on the deck, pulled myself up to my hands and knees. I tried to breathe. When I looked up, Jonathan and Gill had already pulled the tape off of Jackie’s mouth. They were busy untying his hands.

Vargas lay on the deck behind them.

Oh God no. It came back to me. Blondie’s brother hitting him point-blank, knocking him right over.

Vargas picked his head up. He looked at me and then put his head back down.

“Vargas!” I crawled over to him.

“Don’t touch me, McKnight. Just let me catch my breath.”

“What happened? I saw you go down.”

“He got me right in the chest,” he said. “Son of a bitch.”

“What? How are you—”

“You think I’d come out here with you clowns without my vest? What do you think I am, crazy?”

I looked down at his body. The big black vest was so obvious, but I hadn’t even noticed it. “You’re wearing Kevlar?”

“You think Kevlar would have stopped that bullet? From an assault weapon? This is ceramic.” He winced as he reached up to give it a little tap. “I had it in the cabin. But I only had one. Sorry, I was selfish.”

“What were you doing on the radio?” I said. “You said their names.”

“Marcus and Derrick. The Forsythe brothers. I called Isabella and found out their real names.”

“You really called him?”

“Things didn’t look good,” he said. “I figured I had no choice.” He pushed himself up to a sitting position. “Oh God, that hurts. I’m gonna have a hell of a bruise tomorrow.”

“Alex.”

I turned and saw Jackie’s face. He looked like a drowned rat. It was a beautiful sight.

“Are you okay?” I said.

“I need a drink.”

“You’re shivering,” I said. “We got to get you warmed up.”

“I don’t see my father,” Ham said. “Where the fuck is my father?”

“Oh God,” I said. “He’s still on the boat.” I stood up on shaky legs and looked out over the rail. The boat was fifty feet away, but I couldn’t see Bennett. “Let’s get over there.”

“I’m on it,” Vargas said, slowly sitting himself down into his captain’s chair. He turned the boat.

Bennett was still lying on the deck, his forehead bleeding. The blood had run into his eyes, and down his nose. Ham jumped over the rail and landed with a great thud on the other boat’s deck. Leon’s monitor fell off the chair.

“Be careful, goddamn it!” Bennett said. “You’re gonna kill yourself!”

“You’re bleeding,” Ham said. “Did you get hit?”

“Of course I got hit. By about fifty pieces of flying glass.”

“We’ve got to stop this bleeding.”

“Never mind that,” Bennett said. “Where’s Jackie? Is he all right?”

“He’s fine,” Ham said. “Everybody’s fine.”

Bennett closed his eyes. “How the fuck did we get away with that?”

“Come on,” Vargas said. “We have to catch that boat.”

“Why?” I said.

“Do I even have to tell you? If he gets away, you know he’s gonna come back for us.”

“I think I killed his brother,” I said. “I’m not sure.”

“All the more reason,” Vargas said. “Come on, he’s gonna lose us.”

I tried to think of a good reason to argue with him. It didn’t come.

“Gill, you better go in the other boat. One of you will have to drive, while the other takes care of Bennett. Vargas, you’ve got a first aid kit?”

“In the cabin,” he said. “Right on the wall.”

Gill went in and grabbed it, and then climbed over the side ladder to Bennett’s boat.

“You guys go right back home,” I said. “We’ll meet you back there.”

“Be careful,” Gill said.

“Jonathan, you better take Jackie down below, see if you can warm him up.”

“I’ve got some blankets,” Vargas said. “Lower cabinets on the left.”

As soon as Gill was in the other boat, Vargas kicked the throttle all the way forward and headed after Blondie. I sat in the chair next to him, and Leon sat right behind us. The cold air was rushing over me, making me shiver just as hard as Jackie was.

“You better get a blanket, too!” Leon said. “You’re all wet!”

I went into the cabin. Jackie was taking off his wet clothes while Jonathan stood by with the blankets.

“Let me have one of those,” I said.

Jackie grabbed my arm and looked me in the eye.

“You’re a damned fool,” he said.

“I know.”

He kept looking at me. Finally, he smiled. “Good thing.”

I went back out with the blanket wrapped around me and sat next to Vargas.

“You’re bleeding a little bit,” he said.

I touched my cheek and felt the blood.

“Splinters,” I said. “The bullet just missed me.”

Vargas kept the throttle open. Some clouds had rolled in. The wind was whipping the waves up to three feet. We were bouncing hard.

“Why didn’t you call Isabella from the beginning?” I said.

He looked at me.

“I’m not complaining,” I said. “I’m just wondering. Wouldn’t it have made things a lot easier?”

“You don’t just call Isabella on the phone. You certainly don’t ask him questions about other people in the business.”

“I understand,” I said. “Of course, calling him up on the radio…What did you do, call his boat?”