“We gotta go,” Reed said. “I don’t know how, but somebody knows something. We can’t take the chance.”

“Go where?”

Reed pointed at the packs on the table. “In the morning, we’ll hike up into Canada. Once we’re across the border, we can use the cash we have left to either hide out or hightail it to a new beginning.”

“Are you serious? What about my inheritance?”

“Won’t do you no good in prison. When things cool down, we can see about getting you back to St. Paul. But right now, we have to play it safe.”

The door to Pip’s bedroom squeaked open and his little face peeked around the corner. It was Spud who spoke to him. “What do you need?”

The boy looked at Reed, hesitant, but then in a soft voice said, “Can you turn my phone on?”

“What phone?” Reed asked.

Pip stepped out from behind the door and held out a cell phone. “The one Spud gave me.”

CHAPTER 47

When Max walked into the cabin, Lyle was sitting at the table looking at the laptop screen. He had the shotgun in his hand and the twenty-two leaning against the wall, a half-empty bottle of whiskey beside his elbow. He hadn’t shaved in a while, and tufts of hair jutted out uncombed from the side of his head. He looked up at Max with eyes rimmed in dark shadows. “He veered north of town,” Lyle said.

Max eyed the bottle and wondered how long Lyle had had it, and how long it had taken to go from full to half full.

Lyle said, “I’m not sure, but I think he stopped. The dot hasn’t moved for a couple minutes.”

Max leaned in to look at the screen and could smell the alcohol on Lyle’s breath. The blue dot was about ten miles away as the crow flies, but twenty-five miles by road. “It’s possible the phone lost its signal. That’s out in the middle of some pretty heavy woods.” He loaded the Google satellite view and zoomed in. The area was thick with trees, but he saw a small rectangle of what looked like a roof. He zoomed in as far as he could. “It’s a cabin.”

Lyle pulled a map up on his cell phone and homed in on the cabin’s location. Then he grabbed the shotgun and headed for the door. Max hesitated, unsure about his partner’s state of mind. He had kind of blocked Lyle’s truck in, but with a little effort, Lyle would be able to get around him. It would be better if Max drove, both for the safety of the trip and to have some control over Lyle, just in case. He picked up the twenty-two and followed.

Max tossed the twenty-two into the backseat, but Lyle held on to his gun and climbed in, riding shotgun in every sense of the word. “Go down to Sixty and head east,” Lyle said.

“When we get there, if we see any sign of Pip, we call Bolger.”