Windigo Island (19 page)

On the second floor there were two doors, just as there’d been on the lower level. From behind one came the sound of a television turned too loud. Jenny had yet to see her father. She looked to Daniel for explanation, but he only pointed, his finger indicating a set of hallway windows that overlooked the long balcony in front. The panes were up to let in the night air. Jenny saw that one of the window screens had been cut, a long slash down the center. Daniel slipped through the cut screen and signaled Jenny to follow. Outside, Jenny found that each of the upper units had a door that opened onto the balcony. Her father was standing at
one of the doors. He put two fingers to his eyes, then indicated a window beside the door. Daniel eased himself to the window frame and took a look. He drew back so that Jenny might look, too. The window was curtained, but the curtain wasn’t completely closed. Jenny could see an old green couch, and on it was seated the girl who’d earlier been on the back porch with the man she’d called Manny. She wore only the white tank top and shiny, lime-green bikini underwear. She was idly turning the pages of a magazine. Manny was nowhere to be seen.

Jenny’s father motioned Daniel to him but raised his hand like a traffic cop, warning Jenny to stay where she was. Daniel slid his Glock from where he’d nested it in the waist of his jeans. He worked the slide and nodded to Cork. In one hand, Jenny’s father held the crowbar. With the other, he gripped the doorknob and turned it gently. The old piece of hardware gave a rusty little cry, and Cork shoved the door open fully and rushed inside.

She was supposed to stay back, but Jenny could no more do that than she could stop her heart from beating. She bolted to the doorway.

Inside, the girl had jumped from the couch. She stood staring at Cork and Daniel, her eyes big as apricots, her mouth opened, as if for a scream that hadn’t yet come. From a doorway behind her, where Jenny could see a refrigerator and half a stove, the big man, who’d also been on the back landing, appeared, wiping his hands with a dish towel.

“Police. Hold it right there,” Daniel shouted and leveled the Glock.

The big man looked at Cork. He looked at Daniel and the sidearm Daniel held. Jenny had a sense that he might be calculating the distance between himself and the intruders and the intruders’ gun. But he did as Daniel had ordered. Until the girl finally let out her scream and charged.

She came at Daniel and threw her whole self onto him, wrapping as much of her thin body as she could around his gun arm. As soon as she’d made her move, the guy in the kitchen doorway
charged Jenny’s father. He knocked the crowbar from Cork’s hand, and the two of them tumbled in a sprawl of limbs. The man made wild beast sounds and went at her father like rage sheathed in flesh, as if murder pumped through his veins instead of blood. Daniel was doing his best to shake off the girl, but she was like glue and was trying to sink her teeth into his arm.

Both of the men Jenny cared about could use a hand. She chose Daniel. She caught the girl around the throat in the crook of her arm and squeezed to cut off air. It was a move that her father had shown her once, but that she’d forgotten until this moment. The girl let go of her hold on Daniel to claw at Jenny’s arm. Daniel used his sudden freedom to club the back of Manny’s head a good one with his sidearm. The wild man pitched forward and rolled to the floor.

The girl in the crook of Jenny’s arm had begun to ease up in her struggle.

Jenny said, “If I let you go, will you behave yourself?”

The girl nodded rapidly.

“Sure?”

“Uh-huh,” the girl managed to grunt.

Jenny released her. The girl stumbled away and stood feeling her throat as if to be certain it was all still there.

From somewhere in the back of the apartment came a barking, but the dog didn’t appear.

The girl lunged for the door to the hallway. Daniel cut her off.

“We’re not here to hurt you,” he said. “We came for that one.” He nodded toward the man who called himself Wolf and who lay groaning on the floor. “Who else is here?”

“Nobody,” she said. “Just him and me right now.”

Jenny’s father rose slowly from the floor. He gave his head an experimental turn to the right, to the left. He looked down at the man lying prone at his feet, then at Daniel. He said, “Thanks.”

“What’s your name?” Daniel said to the girl.

She glared at him and didn’t answer.

“Cherry,” Jenny said, then added more softly, “But that’s not your real name, is it?”

“Fuck you,” the girl said.

“You know someone named Sparkle?” Daniel asked.

Her mouth was silent, but her eyes said everything.
Fuck you.

“She’s okay,” Daniel told her. “Sparkle’s safe.”

The girl’s face changed. She’d been like a cornered animal, angry, maybe afraid she’d end up like Wolf, or worse. But now she seemed surprised. Amazed even.

“Okay?” she said.

“Yes. Safe. We can make you safe, too, if you let us.”

It was clear she didn’t believe him. She stared down at Wolf and shook her head. “There’s no safe now.”

“We’re after the one who calls himself Windigo,” Cork said. “We’ll get him, you can be sure of that. And you’ll be safe then, I promise.”

“Windigo? I don’t think so.”

“Can you tell us where he is?”

She shook her head again, harder this time.

“You can’t or you won’t?”

“I don’t know who you are,” she said, “but I know him and I know what he’ll do if he finds out I said anything. I mean anything.”

“Just tell us this: Do you know where he is?”

“I don’t,” she said. “I swear to God I don’t.”

“Does he?” Cork gave a nod toward Wolf, who was just now beginning to rouse himself.

She didn’t answer, and that in itself was an answer.

The dog somewhere in a back room had stopped its barking. Daniel pulled his handcuffs from where he’d hung them on his belt. Wolf tried to push himself up from the floor, but Daniel kicked his hands out from under him, and the big man went down again. Daniel knelt with his knee in Wolf’s back, grabbed an arm, cuffed the wrist, then cuffed the other. He rolled Wolf over, so that
the man looked toward the ceiling. Wolf blinked a few times, and his eyes began to focus.

Cork leaned over him. “Where’s your brother?”

Wolf took a moment to reply. When he did, it was cold and quiet. “I’ll kill you. And then my brother’ll kill you.”

“Where’s your brother?” Cork asked again.

Wolf glared up at him. “We’ll both kill you,” he said. His dark eyes traveled across Daniel and Jenny. “And then we’ll kill you and you.” He looked at the girl who’d done nothing but try to help him. “And what the hell. We’ll kill you while we’re at it.”

Cork spoke to the girl. “Do you have any duct tape?”

“In a kitchen drawer.”

“Jenny?” he said.

She went to the kitchen. The barking began again, from behind a door next to the refrigerator. She ignored the sound, found the duct tape, and brought it back. Her father took a strip from the silver roll and pressed it over the mouth of the man called Wolf.

“Let’s get him out of here,” he said.

“What about me?” the girl said.

“Do you want to stay here?” Cork asked.

She considered that possibility and gave a faint shake of her head.

“Do you have someplace to go?”

Another slight headshake.

“I’ll take you somewhere, to someone who’ll help you figure what your next move will be.”

“Not the cops,” she said.

“Not the cops,” Cork assured her. He waited, but received no response. “So, do you want to go with us?”

She looked at Jenny’s father in the same way she probably looked at every man by then. There was no trust left in her. Why should there be? And why should she trust Cork O’Connor or Daniel or even Jenny? All she knew of them was violence, whose proof lay at her feet. Although that violence had been directed
at Wolf, her keeper, her own experience probably told her that sooner or later it would be visited on her. But there was also a look on her face that seemed to Jenny old and beaten and must have been simply the realization that in her life she had no real choices.

She said, “I’ll go.”

Cork and Daniel hauled Wolf to his feet.

Jenny said, “What about the dog?”

Chapter 32

T
hey walked into Rollie’s Large Animal Clinic, and Louise looked at them curiously. “Where’d you get the mutt?”

“His name’s Ember,” Jenny said. “He belongs to Manny, but don’t hold that against him. He’s a sweet pooch.”

The old Irish setter trotted forward as if Louise were very familiar. He nuzzled the hand she held out to him. He went to Rollie Downfeather, who was keeping Louise company, and did the same.

“Where’s Henry?” Cork asked.

“Him and Lenora are sitting with Raven,” Louise said. “She wanted Henry there.”

At that moment, Meloux came from the exam room where Raven lay. When Ember spotted him, it was as if the dog had found someone lost to him long ago. He bounded to the Mide and, if he’d been smaller or Meloux larger, would have leaped into the old man’s arms.

Meloux was clearly taken with him. “Who’s this?”

“His name’s Ember,” Jenny said.

“Ember, eh? Good name.” Meloux worked his hands lovingly across the dog’s coat. “You’re old like me, but I can tell that you, too, have a lot of fire in your heart.”

“What about the man?” Louise said. “Maiingan?”

“Under a blanket in Daniel’s pickup,” Cork said. “We’ve got him trussed up like a mummy with duct tape so he can’t move or talk. We’re taking him back to Tamarack County.”

“Why so far?” Louise said.

“I want to question him in my own way. Best I do it there.”

“But what if Windigo is here, in Duluth?”

“According to Raven and the girl who was with Manny tonight, Windigo’s been gone awhile.”

“Another girl?” Louise said. “Where is she?”

“We put her in the hands of Bea Abbiss,” Jenny said.

Louise seemed satisfied. “So, we’re going to Tamarack County?”

“Not all of us,” Cork told her. “You and Daniel are heading back to Bad Bluff. I told Raven we’d protect her family. I can’t do that if they’re in Wisconsin. Lindy Duvall doesn’t know Daniel, but she knows you, Louise. You have to convince her to come to Tamarack County with her children until we’ve taken care of Windigo.”

Louise said, “I can do that.”

“Good. It’s settled. Let’s get Raven into the Explorer. The sooner we start the better.”

Lenora Downfeather brought them a wheelchair, and Jenny and Daniel helped Raven into it. Daniel wheeled her out to Cork’s Explorer. He lifted her from the chair as gently as if she were his own sister and laid her on the mattress they’d put in the back at Nishiime House.

“My family?” she asked.

Jenny watched Daniel lean over the girl, big and gentle and protective, and when he spoke, it was with such tenderness that Jenny’s heart seemed to crack. “I’m going to get them, Raven. I’ll keep them safe, I swear to you. Just rest. You’ll see them soon.”

He drew back and stood up. To Jenny, in the moonlight, he looked armored in silver.

They transferred the man who called himself Maiingan to the Explorer. He sat in the backseat, his mouth and feet taped, his hands in cuffs. Ember jumped into the vehicle, too, and made himself comfortable at Manny’s side on the broad seat. They said good-byes and thank-yous to Lenora and Rollie Downfeather.

Cork said to Louise, “You make sure you bring Raven’s family back.”

“What about my family?” she asked.

“Let your brother know what’s up. You have lots of relatives in Bad Bluff. It’s time they started looking out for one another. Once we have a fix on Mariah, we’ll make sure they’re all well protected.”

Jenny touched Daniel’s arm. “Before you go, I owe you something.” She lifted her face to his, intending to give him that kiss on the cheek she believed she’d owed him since the incident on Superior Street the night before. Instead, her kiss landed full on his lips. She stepped back, surprised—though not completely—by what she’d just done. “I’ll see you in Tamarack County.”

The big Shinnob, whose face had so often been a desert of expression, looked absolutely stunned. He said, “Okay.” He got into the truck with Louise and drove away.

Cork handed Jenny the keys. “You drive. And Henry, you can sit up front.”

“I’d rather sit beside the old dog,” Meloux said. “It will put me closer to the girl, if she needs me.”

“Your choice, Henry,” Cork said.

“You’re sure you want me to drive, Dad?”

Her father gave a curt nod. “I’ve got calls to make. A lot of wheels to set in motion. The clock’s ticking, and we don’t have much time.”

With that, they took their places in the Explorer and headed north.

• • •

It was nearing one in the morning when they pulled into the garage on Gooseberry Lane. Rose was expecting them. Rainy was there, too, something Cork had arranged. Jenny’s little Waaboo was in his bed, sound asleep. Cork carried Raven into the house. He took her to his own room and laid her down on his bed. Meloux had followed them inside the house, accompanied by the old Irish setter.

“Who’s this?” Rose asked, when the dog padded into the kitchen.

“His name’s Ember. He’ll be staying with us for a while,” Jenny said.

Trixie came from the living room, and the two dogs spent a moment nose to nose, then noses to other places. In the end, they seemed just fine with each other.

Meloux and Jenny went upstairs, where her father had taken Raven. The girl on the bed looked up at the old Mide, pleading in her eyes.

“Don’t leave me,” she said.

“Granddaughter,” Meloux replied, “that is not even a possibility.”

Cork pulled an armchair to the side of the bed, and the old man made himself comfortable in it.

“Grandfather,” Raven said, addressing Meloux for the first time in this way.

“What is it, child?”

“This is my fault,” Raven said. “It’s all my fault. Carrie’s dead. Mariah? I don’t know. I’m to blame. I lied to them.”

Behind Meloux, Cork spoke. “How did you lie to them?”

Tears ran from the corners of her bruised, swollen eye sockets. “Carrie was already messed up. Her son of a bitch stepfather was already using her. Mariah was going to be part of that, sooner or later. That asshole Verga was working on her. I told them it would be different with me. They could model. They’d have nice clothes, cars, bling. And no one like Demetrius Verga to worry about. They’d be free of all that crap, that’s what I told them. I’m a liar, grandfather. A liar and worse. So much worse.”

“What you did is done,” Meloux said gently. “What you were is not what you are and not what you will be. Rest, child. You are safe now.”

Cork said, “I have to go, Henry.”

The old man nodded. “Maiingan.”

“And after him, Windigo.”

Because he sat, Meloux had to look up at Jenny’s father, who
was standing. The old Mide studied him a very long time. “You will take me on that hunt.”

“If that’s possible, Henry, I will.”

“Do not hunt this windigo without me, Corcoran O’Connor.”

Meloux’s voice was sharper than Jenny had ever heard it. This was no request. This was an imperative. If it had been said to her, Jenny would have knuckled under in a flash and done whatever it was Meloux wanted. But her father gave the old man—his friend, his mentor of a lifetime—a long, steely-eyed look.

“I began this hunt without you, Henry. If I need to, I’ll finish it that way.”

“What does it take to kill a windigo?” the ancient Mide asked.

“The balls of a windigo,” Cork replied. Without another word, he turned and left the room.

The only light came from a small bedside lamp. Meloux sat in the dim glow, staring at the empty doorway Jenny’s father had just passed through. He said, very quietly, “No, Corcoran O’Connor. The heart.”

Jenny followed her father downstairs and into the kitchen, where Rainy intercepted him.

“Cork?”

“What is it?” Not harsh words, but impatient.

The door was open at Rainy’s back, the black of night impenetrable beyond the screen. Moths and night insects buzzed against the mesh, trying to get inside, get to the light.

Rainy spoke carefully. “I know you made me a promise in the beginning of all this, and I love you for that, but I won’t hold you to it, Cork. What you’re about to do, you don’t have to. You know that.”

“I keep my promises, Rainy. But this isn’t about a promise anymore. These men need to be taken down.”

“And you’re the only one who can do that? It won’t bring her back, Cork. It won’t change what already is.”

Jenny knew what she was saying, knew that Rainy wasn’t talking about Mariah Arceneaux or what had happened to her.

Her father didn’t answer. He stared at Rainy a long time, then turned, shoved the screen door open, scattered the flying insects, and was eaten by the night.

Rainy watched him go. “Did you see?”

“See what?” Rose asked.

But Jenny had seen it. She said, “Murder in his eyes.”