Chapter Nineteen
Later in the day, Maliki showed up with groceries. Along with the food and other necessities, he had brought a phone for Kennedy. Handing over the phone, she took it, sat down at the kitchen table, and quickly set it phone up, then she waited for her saved files to load.
To her amazement, Kennedy found a video from that night. Her finger must have hit record when she was using the phone to see what was happening. It wasn’t the best angle. They could see all the men in the room except Mr. Angelini, but his voice could be heard. They could see his hand holding the gun, but there wasn’t an angle that allowed you to see his face. They heard George state that a man named Jonny Bianchi in Minnesota had stolen the money.
Cree and Maliki found the comment about George getting caught gambling interesting. That could explain why the two men were on the reservation.
“The Seven Clans Casino is on Red Lake, and a lot of high rollers come in for the high-stake games,” Maliki reminded Cree.
Cree was already thinking of all the ways they could use the information they’d gained from the video. “Do you think this Bianchi character could be a local at the casino?”
“Let me make a call to the casino. I know a couple of the casino’s VIP hosts.” Maliki stepped outside, leaving Cree and Kennedy waiting and wondering what their next move would be.
Kennedy moved away from the table, busying herself with putting away the groceries. Her stomach was in knots. She had been serious two nights before when she told Cree and his cousin that she was done. That hadn’t changed for her. She needed Cree to get her across the border as she felt that was her only chance at getting away from the situation.
Maliki came back inside with information that eased some of the butterflies in her stomach. “Seems Johnny Bianchi is a frequent flyer at the casino and hotel. He’s also rumoured to have mob ties.”
Cree felt it was just a coincidence they ended up at Red Lake, but he still wanted to kill the two men. The reservation had plenty of area to get rid of a couple bodies. “I still think we need to do away with the two men hunting Kennedy.”
“It would be better if you got off the reservation. You could take advantage of the opportunity. While those two are busy looking for this Bianchi fella, you and Kennedy can take off,” Maliki suggested. The last thing he wanted to do was kill two men and hide their bodies. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t do it, he just didn’t want to have to do it.
Cree heard his cousin loud and clear. He didn’t want anything to come back on him. This wasn’t Maliki’s problem, it was theirs. “We would still need to make sure Dino and Chuckie are distracted. We need to make sure we have a clean getaway.”
Maliki nodded toward the girl. “Kennedy gave us the best suggestion.”
“Me?”
“Yes. The idea of causing a scene so they can be detained by the tribal police.” When Cree stared at him, Maliki chuckled. “You were thinking it. She just said it.”
Cree nodded. He could definitely cause a scene with the two men. When he suggested it, Maliki told him no. “If you get into an argument with Dino and his buddy Chuckie, they’ll know what you look like.”
“I don’t follow.”
“They’ll be gunning for you. If they see you riding out with a female, they might put two and two together.”
“I don’t think they’re that smart.”
“Do you want to chance it?”
No.”
“I can get an off-duty cop to create the distraction if need be. That’ll give us reason to detain them and time for you two to slip off the reservation.”
Maliki pulled out a paper map and laid it on the kitchen table. He helped Cree plan out a route that would get them to Montreal in four days. “With the weather we’ve been experiencing, you can’t jump across the border from here. There’s another storm coming bringing icy conditions and freezing winds. You can, however, make the run from Red Lake to Bad River Reservation.”
Cree looked at the map. Bad River was roughly six hours away. “That doesn’t get us into Canada, Maliki.”
“Hear me out.”
“I’m listening.”
“So am I.” Kennedy walked over from the kitchen to see what they were looking at.
Maliki barely glanced up at her as he showed Cree what route he figured out. “If you run to Bad River, that’s six hours.”
“I can do six hours easy,” Kennedy cut in as she sat down at the table.
“From Bad River, you head to Sault Ste. Marie.”
