Winter of the Wolf Moon (9 page)

“Abducted,” he said. “Fine. We’ll assume she was taken involuntarily.”

“You don’t have to assume,” I said. “She was.”

“Okay, Alex, I hear what you’re saying. Now it’s your turn to listen to me.” He looked down at me from
his desk, one hand on his hip, the other held out to me as if to beg for my attention. “We’re looking for them. Both of them. Okay? You gotta trust me here. Just let us do our jobs.”

“Where does he live?” I said.

“No,” he said. He put his hand on my shoulder. I could feel the strength in his grip. “No way. You’re not gonna do that.”

“Tell me where he lives,” I said. “He’s not in the phone book.”

“I’ve got every deputy out there. The state police are watching the roads. I’ve even asked the Soo police to help us.”

I let out a long breath. “The Soo police,” I said. “That’s the other thing. You’ve got a friend of mine upstairs.”

“Who’s that?”

“Vinnie LeBlanc. Your deputies said he assaulted a Soo officer.”

“Yes, we have him.”

“They also said he was drunk and disorderly,” I said. “Which is impossible. Vinnie never drinks.”

“No, I think it was a simple four-fifteen. Public disturbance. I saw him when he came in last night. He didn’t look drunk to me.”

“Then why did your deputies say he was drunk?”

“They made a mistake,” he said. “They got the code mixed up.”

“It’s because he’s an Indian,” I said. “If he got in trouble, he had to be drunk.”

“For God’s sake, Alex. You want me to call them in here so you can give them this lecture? Because I really don’t need to hear it right now.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just … goddamn it. Where is he, anyway? Can I see him?”

“He’s still in one of the holding cells,” he said. “We’re a little tight on space upstairs. You know, if he calls the reservation, they’ll come get him. Don’t you think he’d rather stay in that jail instead?”

“Somehow I don’t think so,” I said. “You’d have to know him.”

“Well, he busted up an off-duty Soo cop pretty badly,” he said. “Broke his nose, gave him a concussion.”

“How did it happen?”

“I’m not sure. The Soo guys brought him in. All I know is, it had something to do with a hockey stick.”

“Oh God,” I said. “Will you take me to him, please?”

“It’s a Soo bust,” he said. “You gotta go through them.”

“It’s your jail, Bill. The last thing I want to do right now is go see Chief Maven.”

For the first time since I got there, he smiled. “I don’t blame you,” he said. “All right, I’ll see if I can sneak you in there. If Maven finds out, though, he’s gonna be all over you.”

“Let him try,” I said. “This day can’t get any worse.”

There were four holding cells on the ground floor, simple cages with benches running along the sides, single toilets against the back wall. The county jail itself was upstairs. These cells were mainly for suspects awaiting arraignment, although today there were four or five men in each cell.

“What the hell’s going on here?” I said.

“I told ya,” he said. “We got a full jail upstairs. A lot of them are Soo busts, drugs coming over the bridge. We already called the state prison in Kincheloe. They’re gonna see if they can help us out temporarily.”

“Where’s Vinnie?”

“Last cell on the end,” he said. We walked down a narrow corridor that ran the length of the cells. Above us the fluorescent lights were humming and flickering. There was no other light, no awareness of the outside world. “I’d appreciate it if you could talk him into posting bail. I really don’t need him here, Alex.”

“What bail? He’s already been arraigned?”

“Ten thousand dollars,” he said.

“Jesus, Bill.”

“He put a cop in the hospital, Alex. A thousand-dollar bond is all he needs. You know that.”

“Didn’t he call anybody?”

“Nope. He’s just been sitting there since last night.”

“You gotta be kidding me,” I said. When we came to the last holding cell I saw him sitting on one of the benches, staring at the floor. He didn’t look up.

“Vinnie,” I said.

He was silent. There were three other men in the cell, a couple longhairs sitting together on the other bench, trying hard not to look scared. A very large, very ugly man in fatigues standing against the back wall.

“Vinnie,” I said.

Nothing.

“I’ll leave you two to get reacquainted,” Bill said.
“Remember, if Maven finds you here, I had nothing to do with it.”

“Thanks, anyway,” I said. When he was gone I pulled up one of the folding chairs that were scattered in the corridor and sat on it. I looked at Vinnie for a long time, waiting for him to do or say something. He didn’t do either.

“All right, Vinnie,” I finally said. “Are you gonna stay in here all winter or am I gonna help you get out of here?”

“I’m gonna stay in here all winter,” he said. When he looked up at me I saw he had nice shiner under his right eye.

“That’s what Indians do,” the man against the back wall said. “They get arrested so they can spend the winter in jail.”

“Thanks for the observation,” I said. “Now go fuck yourself.”

“You wouldn’t be talking like that if there wasn’t no set of bars in the way.”

“You’re right, I wouldn’t,” I said. “I’d be sticking your head down that toilet.”

He smiled. It didn’t do anything for his looks. For the rest of the time I was there, he kept staring at me, his arms folded against his chest.

“All right, tell me what happened,” I said to Vinnie. “And why the hell didn’t you call me?”

“What was I supposed to say?”

“That you were arrested and I should come get you?”

“I couldn’t do that,” he said.

“What about the tribe? They’d bail you out in a second, wouldn’t they?”

“No way,” he said. “There’s no way I’m gonna call the tribe to come bail me out.”

“No, perish the thought,” I said. “It’s so nice in here.”

“No fucking way.”

“So tell me the story, at least.”

“What story?”

“What story. That’s cute. The story of how you got arrested. Start with me leaving you at the bar the other night, and then work your way up to hitting a cop with a hockey stick.”

Vinnie let out a long, tired sigh, rubbed the swelling around his eye. “I didn’t mean to hit that cop, Alex. I didn’t even know he
was
a cop. He wasn’t in uniform.”

“So what happened?”

“He just got in the way, Alex. I was going after Bruckman.”

“Hold it,” I said. I moved my chair closer to the bars. “Vinnie, this is very important. Tell me everything that happened.”

“After you left the other night, I took a couple of the guys back to the reservation. I was going through town, there’s a gas station on the loop there, I saw Bruckman and some of his friends gassing up their snowmobiles.”

“So they
did
have snowmobiles,” I said. “But at the bar, they weren’t wearing suits—”

“No, they still didn’t have suits on. Just leather jackets. It’s pretty stupid, but then I’m not surprised.”

“That young woman you saw with them at the bar, was she with them then?”

“Yes,” he said. “She was there.”

“Her name’s Dorothy Parrish.”

“I know,” he said. He looked down at the floor.

“How do you know her, Vinnie? I asked her about you. She said she doesn’t know you at all.”

He let out a burst of air. I might have taken it for a laugh if he wasn’t sitting in a jail cell. “I’m not surprised,” he said.

“I don’t get it,” I said.

“Alex, I’ve known Dorothy Parrish since I was a little kid. She was a couple of years older than me. In high school, she was …” He shook his head. “She was so pretty, first of all. And a really good student. And popular. Everybody loved her. All the guys were hanging around her all the time. The white guys, I mean. The football players. She was the first girl from the tribe to be homecoming queen, did you know that?”

“I take it the two of you didn’t hang around together.”

“No,” he said. “Not hardly. Back then, the reservation was a bunch of shacks. It must have still been that way when you first came up here. You must have seen it.”

“Yes, I remember.”

“I suppose things are a lot better now, but back then … a lot of other kids from the tribe … well, it was hard. But not for Dorothy. She was the exception. When she was at school, at least.”

“Did you hate her for that?”

“Hate her?” he said. “I think Dorothy Parrish was the first girl I ever loved. As much as you can love somebody when you’re sixteen years old and she doesn’t even know your name. Or
want
to know your
name. I would have just reminded her of where she came from. Where she had to go home to every night. She couldn’t wait to graduate and get out of town.”

“Why do you think she came back?” I said.

“I can’t even imagine why,” he said. “She hated this place so much. I never saw her again until the other night.”

“Vinnie,” I said. “She came to the Glasgow. She was looking for me. She wanted me to help her get away from Bruckman.”

He looked at me without saying anything.

“She stayed with me last night,” I said. “In one of the other cabins, I mean. This morning, she was gone. I think Bruckman took her.”

He closed his eyes. “Oh, no,” he said. “Please no.”

“What happened with Bruckman? You said you saw him at the gas station.”

“Yes,” he said. “Dorothy was sitting on one of the snowmobiles. She was right underneath one of the lights. I could see her face. She looked so cold sitting there. So miserable. Bruckman came over to her and started yelling at her. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she started … God, Alex, she was just cringing. And then he pushed her off the back of the snowmobile. She got up and went into the store next to the gas station. When she came out all the guys were ready to go. She just stood there in front of the door for a long time, and then she got on the back of Lonnie’s snowmobile and they took off. So I followed them, Alex. I don’t know why. I just had to. I couldn’t leave. Jimmy and Buck were in the back seat, but they were totally out of it. I followed Bruckman and his gang down the loop. They were riding right next to
the road, so it was easy. They took a right on a little trail that goes west, so I lost them for a while. But I know that trail comes back out along Three Mile Road. So I just kept going west, watching for them. And then I saw their snowmobiles parked in front of Cappy’s, you know, that little place on the edge of town. I didn’t see them, so I figured they were inside warming up. I parked the car, waited for a while. I thought about going inside, but then I figured they’d recognize me. I mean, I had just played hockey with them, and then they saw me at the Horns Inn. So I just waited.”

When he stopped talking it was quiet in the cell, with only the humming of the lights above us. His three cellmates were listening intently, even Mr. Friendly against the wall. This was as much entertainment as he was going to get all day. I pulled my chair up closer to the bars. “Excuse us, gentlemen,” I said.

Mr. Friendly spat on the floor.

“So you waited,” I said, lowering my voice. “And then they eventually came out.” I know where this is going, I thought. They come out, Bruckman roughs her up again, Vinnie takes a hockey stick to him, and an off-duty Soo cop tries to break it up. And now here he sits in jail. But that’s not what he told me.

“He came out by himself,” Vinnie said. “He stood there and smoked a cigarette in the parking lot. And then Juno showed up.”

“Who’s Juno?”

“Juno’s my cousin. On my father’s side. He’s had a lot of problems in his life, Alex. He’s gotten into a lot of trouble. He did a little bit of jail time a couple
of years ago. Hell, I’m sure he sat here in this cell more than once. Anyway, he comes in and Bruckman goes up to his car. Juno rolls the window down, and I saw Bruckman giving him something. Kinda obvious what they were doing. So Juno leaves the place and heads west down Three Mile Road, out towards the rez. Bruckman’s still standing out there. It’s cold as hell, but he doesn’t seem to mind it, even though he’s only got that leather coat on. I wasn’t sure what to do next, but Jimmy and Buck are still snoring in the back seat, so I figure I’ll just keep waiting, see what happens.”

He stopped and it was silent again, his cellmates still watching him. I didn’t say anything. I just waited for him to find the right words for whatever came next.

“So what happens is, Bruckman goes into the bar for a few minutes, and then he comes back out. He’s smoking another cigarette, just standing there in the parking lot. And Juno comes back. He couldn’t have been gone more than thirty, thirty-five minutes. Just enough time to go to the rez and back. This time when Bruckman goes to Juno’s window, Juno gives
him
something. Had to be money, I’m thinking. Bruckman was giving him drugs and Juno was taking them to the reservation. So, um …” Vinnie let out a breath and swallowed. “So I started to get mad. This is my cousin and he’s taking drugs back into the reservation. And Bruckman is the guy giving him the drugs, Alex. That’s what really got to me. My own cousin, Alex.” His voice became ragged. “Goddamn it, my father’s brother’s son, is … I just couldn’t stand it, Alex. And then Dorothy comes out of the bar, and she’s standing
there under the light by the door. One second outside and already she’s looking cold again. And Bruckman’s yelling at her about something. So she went back inside. But that look on her face. This is the one member of my tribe, the one girl in my whole fucking tribe who found a way out of here, and now here she is back again with this asshole who’s selling drugs to our people. Like we don’t have a hard enough time, Alex. Like we already don’t even have the slightest fucking chance.”