Highway 61 (15 page)

Nina and Erica headed down the corridor toward the room where Jason was being treated after assuring the woman at the desk that they were, in fact, family. I excused myself and went to where Caitlin Brooks was standing.

“I didn’t want to intrude,” she said. “I have to know, though. Is Jason all right?”

“He suffered a concussion.”

“Oh my God.” Caitlin’s hand came to her mouth. “That’s really serious.”

“Not necessarily.”

I must have had three concussions in the past couple of years, and they haven’t done me any harm. At least none that I’m aware of.

“Apparently it was a minor concussion,” I said. “The docs say Jason’ll be fine. They’re just keeping him overnight as a precaution.”

“Can I see him, do you think?”

“You’ll probably be better off coming back in the morning.”

“Because of what’s-her-name, the lady?”

“That’s one reason. Listen, do you have a ride?”

“I can call somebody.”

I glanced at my watch. It was past two thirty. I pulled a wad of cash from my pocket and peeled off two fifty-dollar bills.

“Here, Cait, why don’t you take this and get a cab home. It’ll be easier.”

Caitlin took the bills.

“What do you want for it?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean what do you want me to do for the money?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

She looked from the bills to me, back to the bills, and then to me again.

“Amazing,” she said.

*   *   *

Jason was sitting up in bed and smiling at Erica, who was holding his hand, and Nina, who was standing at the foot of his bed.

“My best girls,” he said. Nina looked like she didn’t care for the label; Erica didn’t seem to mind at all. “And McKenzie, too,” he added, when he saw me enter his room.

“You and I need to have a conversation,” I said.

“Not now, McKenzie.” Truhler touched his forehead. “I have a terrible headache.” He touched his stomach. “I have some nausea, too. The docs said to watch for nausea.” He put his hands behind his head and settled against the pillow. “Besides, it’s so late.”

“Now,” I said.

“It is awfully late,” Erica said.

“Sweetie, I need five minutes to speak to your father. Alone.”

I didn’t say “Now.” She heard it just the same. Erica kissed her father’s cheek and said she’d be back to see him in the morning. Nina followed Erica out of the room. She never said a word.

“What do you want, McKenzie?”

There was a clip resembling a clothespin attached to Truhler’s index finger. A thin cord ran from the clip to a monitor that flashed his heart rate—71 beats per minute. When I approached the bed, the number increased to 74.

“Let’s talk about the men who hit you upside the head,” I said.

“I never saw them.”

I pointed my finger at him like a gun. His heart rate jumped to 80.

“Don’t even think of lying to me again, you sonuvabitch,” I said. “The guys who hit you are the same ones that jumped me at Rickie’s. Probably they’re the ones who tried to shoot me out on Highway 61, too, so you better start talking and you better talk fast.”

“Don’t yell at me, McKenzie. This isn’t my fault. It’s your fault. It’s your fault for flushing the coke. If you had turned it in like a good little citizen, none of this would have happened. Now they think you stole it; they think I’m in on it. They saw you leaving my house.”

“Who are they?”

“My suppliers, I guess you’d call them.”

“You’re dealing coke?”

“I’m not dealing.” Truhler’s heart monitor hit 84. “I wouldn’t call it dealing.”

“What would you call it?”

“I give most of it away. I give some to friends, but mostly I give it to business associates, to clients.”

“You give it away?”

“You have no idea how business works these days.”

“What are we talking about? A dozen grams a week?”

“Something like that. Maybe two dozen. Maybe a little more.”

“You’re a fucking ounce dealer.”

“Dammit, McKenzie. I’m not a dealer. I’m not making any money from it, if that’s what you think. Whenever I charge anybody, I only charge what it costs me. Eighty dollars a gram.”

The heart monitor flashed 88.

“All right,” I said. “Take it easy. Relax.”

Truhler’s heart rate slowly dropped to 78.

“Tell me about the two guys who attacked us,” I said. “Why did they conceal the coke on my car?”

“I’m really sorry about that, McKenzie.”

“I bet you are.”

“I am. I am sorry. What happened, they were my suppliers, like I said. Only because of the blackmail I was paying, I ran short of cash. I couldn’t pay them for the coke. They said maybe they could work something out, like if I arranged to transport the coke across the border for them, they’d give me a piece.”

“You sent me to Thunder Bay to mule your shit?”

His heart rate increased again.

“The blackmail thing is real,” Truhler said. “It is. When you said you were going up there, though…”

“You thought you’d take advantage of the situation,” I said.

“I thought it was harmless. You shouldn’t have known anything about it.”

“Unless I got busted at the border.”

“I said I was sorry.”

“Jeezus, Truhler.”

I stepped away from the bed. Truhler’s heart rate decreased.

“Tell me about these guys,” I said. “Who are they?”

“Big Joe and Little Joe.”

“Last names, please.”

“That’s how they were introduced to me—Big Joe and Little Joe. I don’t know their last names.”

“Who introduced you?”

“Roberta.”

“Roberta? Roberta who runs the My Very First Time online prostitution ring, that Roberta?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, this just keeps getting better and better.”

“They used to drive the girls around, drop them off, pick them up; protect them, I guess. I found out they were dealing on the side, so … Roberta found out, too. She fired them. Roberta thinks drugs, that’s trouble she doesn’t need.”

“Roberta is right.”

“What are we going to do, McKenzie?”

“There’s that we again.”

“The Joes, they think we’re in it together. They think we ripped them off. I told them what a Boy Scout you are, that it’s all just a misunderstanding, only they don’t believe it. They said they want their money or the dope. They said they’ll be back. McKenzie, what if they—what if they go after Rickie or Nina next?”

I had to give Truhler credit. He knew exactly which of my buttons to push.

“Do they know about Erica and Nina? Did you tell them that you have a daughter and an ex-wife?”

“No, but…”

“But what?”

“They can find out, can’t they?”

Yeah, they can.

“How do I contact these people?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“How did you get your girls? How did you get Vicki Walsh?”

“The only way is through the Internet, through my account, only they don’t work for Roberta anymore.”

“Did they say they would contact you again?”

“Well, yeah. Big Joe did. He said he’d let me think about what we had done for a while, then he’d come back. That was when he hit me with the pipe. ‘Call it a convincer,’ he said. He used those exact words; said it was in case I thought to try something smart. He didn’t need to do that, McKenzie. He didn’t need to hit me.”

No, he didn’t,
my inner voice said.
Which means he probably wants to hit you, too, McKenzie. You shoved a gun in his face; you stomped on his knee. It’s unlikely he’ll accept an apology.

“When he contacts you,” I said, “tell him you’ll pay the money. I figure the amount at thirty-five thousand. If he thinks it should be more, let me know.”

“I don’t have the money,” Truhler said.

I didn’t believe him. I said, “I’ll pay the money,” just the same.

“You will?” Truhler asked.

Hell no,
my inner voice said.

“That should work,” Truhler said. “What about Vicki? Oh, no, I just had a thought. What if they’re working with Vicki?”

“We won’t know until we find her. Until I find her.”

“Thanks, McKenzie.”

“One thing.”

I moved to his bed and leaned in close. His heart monitor started racing.

“Listen to me,” I said. “Listen to me very carefully. I’m going to say this slowly, so there’s no confusion. If anything happens to Nina, if anything happens to Erica, if their hair is so much as mussed because of this bullshit, you are the one I’m going to take it out on. Understand?”

By the time I had finished, Truhler’s heart was pumping over 90 beats a minute. An alarm rang, and a nurse dashed into the room.

“What’s going on here?” she wanted to know.

If Truhler had an answer for her, I didn’t wait to hear it. Instead, I brushed past the nurse and stepped into the corridor.

*   *   *

Nina and Erica were waiting for me. If they had heard any of my conversation with Truhler, they didn’t show it. Erica crossed her arms when I approached.

“Don’t you have school tomorrow?” I asked.

“I keep telling her,” Nina said.

“I’m going to take the day off,” Erica said. “I doubt I could concentrate properly anyway.”

“Rickie…”

“I have a four-point-oh average, Mom. You don’t think I can afford to take one lousy day off?”

“I could kill your father for getting you involved—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Erica said. She stepped past her mother, effectively shutting her off. If she had been my daughter I would have called her out for her rude behavior, but she wasn’t. Instead, I stood there, my feet apart, my shoulders squared, looking like a gunfighter waiting for his opponent to make a move.

“What are you going to do?” Erica asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You made me a promise. Are you going to keep it?”

“What promise?” Nina asked.

“He promised that he would help Daddy. Are you going to help him, McKenzie?”

“I keep all my promises, Erica.”

She stared at me for a few beats while her eyes welled up with tears.

“My father doesn’t,” she said.

She turned and reached for her mother. Nina pulled Erica close and hugged her fiercely.

TEN

I probably was the only person in the state of Minnesota who was happy that the temperature dipped to its November average—thirty-three degrees with a wind waffling down from the northwest to remind us that while the calendar might say it’s fall, winter had begun. The chilly weather allowed me to conceal my Kevlar vest beneath a sweater. ’Course, the vest and the sweater—not to mention the distressed brown leather jacket that I wore to cover the 9 mm Beretta I had holstered just behind my right hip—made me look like the Before photo in a diet ad. Still, a man has to do what a man has to do.

Let’s not go through that again,
my inner voice said.

Yeah, okay, I told myself.

After getting dressed, I made sure the prepaid cell phone I bought at Best Buy was charged. I had my iPhone, of course. Yet while anyone could reach me on my home phone—it was listed in all the directories—only a precious few had my cell number; at least they were precious to me. There was no way I was going to give it out to the various miscreants I expected to encounter while I searched for Vicki Walsh, including Truhler.

Still, I used my landline when I made my first call. Nina answered on the fifth ring.

“Hello?” Her voice sounded blurry and faraway.

“Hey, it’s McKenzie.”

“McKenzie? Do you know what time it is? It’s, it’s—McKenzie, it’s eight o’clock. Are you out of your mind?”

Nina owned a jazz club that closed at 1:00
A.M.
Even on a trouble-free night it might be two or two thirty before she reached her home and usually an hour later before she crawled into bed. To her, 8:00
A.M.
was the crack of dawn. Truth be told, I agreed with her. I’d probably still be in bed myself if not for the mobile alarm clock that I bought online. The clock was mounted on wheels. When I hit the snooze button it jumped off the table and rolled across the room. I had to get out of bed and chase it down in order to turn off the alarm.

“I’m sorry I woke you,” I said. “Actually, I was looking for Erica. Did she go to school after all?”

“No. Just a sec.”

I heard Nina set the phone down, and then I heard nothing for nearly three minutes. Finally Erica picked up the phone. She sounded as chipper as a songbird.

“Sorry if I woke you,” I said.

“Oh, I’ve been up for hours. I usually get up at six so I can be at school by seven to practice music. I would have slept later, but my internal clock wouldn’t let me.”

“Why didn’t you answer the phone, then?”

“I figured it was school wondering where I was. It’s hard to pretend that you have a contagious, life-threatening disease when you’re answering the telephone.”

“Yet people do it all the time. Erica, I need a favor.”

“Really? A favor from me?”

“Tell me how to gain access to Vicki Walsh’s Facebook page.”

“Why do you want to do that?”

“If I’m going to find her, I’ll need clues.”

“I could send you a link and a password.”

“Please do.”

I didn’t need to give Erica my iPhone number or e-mail address. She was one of the precious few.

*   *   *

I dropped the prepaid in my jacket pocket and headed for the door. I opened it and looked around carefully before stepping out. Big Joe and Little Joe knew where I lived, and I didn’t want to be surprised by them as I had been in the parking lot at Rickie’s. I didn’t particularly like slinking around my own house; still, a man has to do what a man has to do.

Really
, my inner voice said.
Again?

Despite what I promised Truhler, I had no intention of giving a couple of drug-dealing thugs thirty-five thousand dollars. So what if I could easily afford it? It wouldn’t be enough to make them go away peacefully. Besides, there was a principle involved. Bobby Dunston had accused me of not always knowing where the line was, and maybe he had a point, but I certainly knew that paying off the Joes would put me on the wrong side of it.