Winter Counts(74)

Dennis thought for a second. “Possibly. Worth a shot to go out there. Worst-case scenario, we drive back here. Either way, this buy is shot to shit. Let me take you back to your house, and I’ll head out to the gang’s shack.”

“Take me back? No fucking way. I’m in this, all the way.”

“We don’t know what’s going on out there. I let you ride along today as a courtesy. But you’re going back to your place. Nonnegotiable. I can drive you, or you can walk.”

It had come to this. But there was no way I was abandoning Nathan after leading him into this clusterfuck.

“Then you better put the cuffs on me,” I said. “If you think you can. Because I’m getting in that car.” I squared off in my stance, facing him. “Nonnegotiable.”

He stared at me, wondering if I was going to back up my challenge.

I looked right back at him.

“All right,” he said. “Get in.”

WE TOOK OFF FOR VALENTINE, where Loco and the others stayed and did their business. While we drove, Dennis started to tell me about the dealers’ cabin.

“Yeah, I know about it,” I said. “The one at the travel park, outside of town?”

“You know where it is? Did Nathan tell you?”

“No, I did some digging and figured it out. Drove out and took a look.”

He shook his head in disgust. “Goddamn, we had to do a shit-ton of surveillance to locate the place. You go inside?”

“No, just watched it for a while. I saw Rick Crow there.”

“Not surprising. Let me check with Mike, see where he’s at with the Charger.”

He made a call on his cell phone while we sped down Highway 83 to Nebraska. I listened to his end of the call as best I could while I watched the road shimmer in front of us.

“Damn,” he said. “Mike can’t locate the vehicle.”

“What? He can’t find the car?”

“That’s what he said. He’s still looking.”

I was close to boiling over, but I kept my temper in check. It took about thirty minutes to get to the campgrounds. We pulled into the entrance of the Pay-E-Zee and stopped. Same story as before, the place looked deserted, a ghost town. There was one beat-up camper parked off to the side but I couldn’t see any vehicles parked by the cabin in the back. The gang’s place. Dennis circled slowly around to the rear, a few hundred yards from the cabin behind some bushes.

“We’ll monitor it. If we’re lucky, they’ll come by and we can pick up the wire again. Mike’s driving back to the reservation to see if he can locate them.”

We waited in silence for a while. The only movement came from the wind and the birds. Dennis checked his phone periodically for text messages.

“Fuck this, I’m going in,” Dennis said. “Wait here, just stay put.”

He slipped out of the car and walked over to the cabin. First, he peered inside the window, then he tried the front door, which was locked. Then he went around to the rear. I watched closely, waiting to see if he’d found anyone inside. I opened the car’s window so I could hear any sounds of a struggle—or gunshots.

Nothing. Minutes passed with no sign of Dennis. Something must have happened. Maybe they’d been lying in wait and got him from behind. Maybe they’d shot him, and I didn’t hear.

My only option was to go in. I looked around Dennis’s car for weapons. Nothing under the seat. Nothing in the glove box, just a car manual and some tire wheel locks. That was fine, I had my Spyder knife with me. And my fists.

I stepped out of the car and pondered my strategy. I didn’t know how many were inside or if they were strapped. My best weapon would be surprise, so I decided I’d kick the front door open and burst in, then improvise. I walked slowly over to the cabin and stood by the door, waiting for the right moment.

Just then the front door swung open, and Dennis appeared. He saw me by the door and looked at me with a puzzled expression. “What are you doing?”

“Ah, nothing. Checking things out,” I said. “You were in there a long time.”

“They’re gone. Place is empty. No one left.”

Before he could object, I went inside to see for myself. A little bit of trash on the floor in the living room, a dirty bathroom, and some food wrappers in the kitchen, but no sign that anyone was still living there. The only thing remaining was a faint odor of burned matches and some other scent I couldn’t place. I was happy to get out and go back outside.

“Where do you think they went?” I asked.

“Tough to say. They’re smart, they move around. Might have rented another place.”

“What do we do now?”

“Not much we can do. We’ll head back and wait to hear more.”

Just then, Dennis’s phone rang. He picked it up and listened, then said, “Where are you? Are you—” Then he put the phone down. I waited for him to say something.

“It was Nathan. He said he’s going to a friend’s house.”

I paused for a second.

“The emergency code,” I said. “He’s in trouble.”





25


Dennis walked away and immediately began making calls. I followed him, trying to listen in, but he held up his hand. My first thought was that Nathan was pranking us, using the code as a bad joke, but that was stupid. He was letting us know that things had gone wrong, but why had he hung up on Dennis? He hadn’t said anything about his location, which meant that the dealers must be close to him and listening in. What sort of trouble was he in? Had they discovered the wire?