Blood Is the Sky: An Alex McKnight Mystery by Steve Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page B

ruffling through the papers on the desk. “Let me just put one more thing on here. Gentlemen, this is Hank Gannon. He’s usually in a better mood. Hank, this is Tom and Alex.”
    He stood there looking at us. He was a tall man, with a firm jawline and a commanding air. His name fit him perfectly. With the leather coat and wide-brimmed hat, he looked like the Canadian version of a Texas Ranger. “You boys need something here? Aside from a tow out of the mud?”
    It was the second time in ten minutes we’d been called boys. It wasn’t sounding any better.
    “I’m looking for my brother,” Vinnie said. “He was with the Albright party.”
    Helen stopped writing and looked up at us.
    “Christ, Albright,” Gannon said. “You guys are looking for him, too?”
    “Was there somebody else looking for him?”
    “Yeah, two other guys, just yesterday.”
    “Did they say who they were?”
    “Nah, they just wanted to know where Albright was. I told them the same thing I’ll tell you. The Albright party came and left. And good riddance.”
    “Albright and his men were here, then,” I said. “Last week.”
    “That’s right. I flew them back down on Saturday morning. They were gone by noon. Biggest bunch of jackasses I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting. Even worse than these guys out here. I swear, Helen, it’s just not worth it anymore.”
    She finished up her bill and gave it to him. “Here, send them on their way,” she said. “So we can have some peace. Did you see Ron down there? He’s probably done with the butchering.”
    “He’s just wrapping it all up,” Gannon said.
    “These men who were here looking for Albright,” I said, a sudden thought hitting me. “Did one of them have a big nose?” I was wondering if the two men who caused the trouble at the bar in Wawa were the same men who were here at the lodge.
    “Yeah,” Gannon said. “Matter of fact. He had a real smart mouth, too.”
    “Sir,” Vinnie said. “Please. What can you tell me about Albright and the men he was with?”
    “Ain’t much more to tell,” he said. “We flew them out to Lake Agawaatese and then we flew them out a week later.”
    “Right here,” she said, pointing to a map on the wall above the desk. “See, we’ve got seven different lakes. Agawaatese is up here.” She stretched to put her finger on the upper right corner. “Good lake for moose, although the cabin could use a little work.”
    “There were six men, right?” Vinnie said.
    “No, five.”
    That stopped Vinnie for a second. “I thought there were six, but somebody might have canceled at the last minute.”
    “There were five of them,” Gannon said. “Albright and his partners. What did he call them? His ‘executive partners.’ I was expecting a bunch of hotshots with cell
phones and hundred-dollar loafers. But when they got here, eh? They were such thugs. My God, Helen puts up with a lot of shit from all the men who come up here, but these guys—”
    “Needless to say,” she said, “I passed on their offer to take me up to the lake with them.”
    “That just got them even more riled up, eh? They were ready to kill something. I couldn’t get them out of here fast enough. And when I flew them back, hell, I made sure Helen wasn’t even here at the lodge. She shouldn’t have to put up with guys like that.”
    “Hank, I had to go into Timmins anyway,” she said. “Don’t make it sound like you were protecting me.”
    He waved that one off. “Bunch of clowns. President Albright and his executive partners, my ass.”
    “They weren’t all partners,” Vinnie said. “My brother was with them.”
    He shook his head. “The man said they were all partners.”
    “My brother was the guide.”
    He looked back and forth between us. “Let’s get a couple of things straight here,” he said. “Number one, if those men were gonna use a guide, they’d use our guide. We got an Indian fellow out there who knows these lakes inside and out.