Winter of the Wolf Moon Read Online Free PDF

right?”
    I looked at him. “Yes,” I finally said. “You knew what you were doing.”
    “Okay,” he said. “But the problem is, most people, they look at me and they don’t see that. You know what I mean? They look at me and they think of that goofy fat kid who used to sit in the back of the class.”
    “Prudell—”
    “Alex, I’m not saying I
remind
them of that goofy fat kid. I’m saying I
was
that goofy fat kid, okay? Everybody I went to school with, they’re still in Sault Ste. Marie. They still see me like that. You know how hard that is to deal with?”
    “So what do you want me to do?”
    “I want you to be my partner.”
    “Oh God,” I said. “Are you kidding me?”
    “McKnight-Prudell Investigations,” he said. “Although, I don’t know, maybe Prudell-McKnight sounds better.”
    “Prudell, come on …”
    “Okay, McKnight-Prudell. We’ll put your name first.”
    “Just stop,” I said. “Please.”
    “We’d be perfect,” he said. “You’re an ex-cop. You
look
like an ex-cop. You’re not from around here. You don’t talk like you’re from around here. And you’ve got that.” He looked at my chest. “You know, you’ve got that bullet thing going for you.”
    I just looked at him.
    “You really have a bullet in there, right?” he said. “Next to your heart? Do you have any idea how great that sounds? People hear that, they think, ‘Now this guy is like somebody out of a movie.’ ”
    “Yeah, that’s kinda what I was hoping for,” I said. “That’s exactly why I let myself get shot in the first place.”
    “No really, Alex—”
    “Just stop right there,” I said. “Listen to me. I don’t want to be a private investigator. It’s the last thing in the world that I want to be.”
    “I get it,” he said. “You just don’t want to be my partner.”
    “It’s got nothing to do with you. I just don’t want to be one. Becoming a P.I. was the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life, you understand me? Nothing but bad has come of it.” I wasn’t about to tell him the whole story. I didn’t even like thinking about it.
    “Will you think about it?” he said. “Will you do that much at least?”
    “There’s nothing to think about,” I said. “I’m not a private investigator anymore. And I’ll never be one again.”
    “Fine,” he said. He got up from the chair and put his coat on.
    I tried to stand up. My legs had other ideas. If Prudell ever wanted another chance to kick my ass, today would be a great day for it. “Look,” I said. “If anybody ever asks me about it, I’ll send him your way, okay?”
    “Sure,” he said. “You do that. Thanks a lot.”
    I gave up and sat back down. Prudell left the place, slamming the door behind him.
    “What was
that
all about?” Jackie said.
    “Nothing,” I said. “I just ruined his life again.” I took a drink of my American beer and nearly choked on it. “Goddamn it, Jackie. I am not going to sit here and drink this.”
    “Canada’s thirty miles that way,” he said, pointing north. “You know the way.”
    “I might just do that,” I said. “As soon as I can walk again.”
    I sat there for another couple of hours. The place started to fill up with snowmobilers. I overheard a lot of talk about which trails were smooth and how fast the Yamaha was compared to the Polaris compared to the Arctic Cat. It was fascinating. Finally, when I had heard enough about fucking snowmobiles and I was tired of sitting next to a perfectly good fire with a fucking pathetic American beer in my hand, I told my body that it was moving whether it liked it or not. “I need some air,” I said to Jackie as I left. “I’m going to Canada.”
    “Don’t bother coming back,” he said.
    “In your dreams,” I said, and then I was out in the cold air, snowflakes coming down like a million white butterflies. I stood there for a long time, just listening to the silence. It was hard to even imagine the storms of November, the