Iron Lake

The wind is fierce as Cork drives to Harlan’s house, with the radio forecasting another storm and even lower temperatures. Cork parks at the end of the driveway and, taking his gun, walks alertly toward the house. When a shot comes from the direction of the house, he dives into the brush. Cork isn’t sure that Harlan fired the shot, or that it was aimed at Cork. He creeps toward the cabin.

The cabin door is open, and all the lights are on. A man is silhouetted in the doorway, rifle at his side. Cork yells, “Stop! Police!” and the figure fires in his direction, then runs into the woods. Inside the cabin, Cork finds Harlan shot in the back. Cork calls the sheriff’s office, but Harlan dies before the ambulance arrives. Cork explores Harlan’s home while he waits for the sheriff.

Although the house is dirty, the walls are lined with framed photographs of the woods and environment. Cork finds a darkroom and negatives of what appear to be more wildlife shots. As he hears the ambulance arriving, he returns to the living room. He sees the corner of a manila folder peeking out from underneath Harlan’s body, labeled “Jo O’Connor.” Inside, he finds photographs of Jo and Sandy having sex in his hot tub, taken from the woods near Sandy’s house. He hides the folder under his coat.

When Wally arrives, Cork says he doesn’t know what Harlan wanted to show him and leaves. It is nearly midnight when Cork gets home. Jo isn’t back yet, but Rose and the children are sleeping. Cork hides the folder and changes for bed, but he can’t sleep. When Jo comes home, he confronts her about the affair. Jo says she didn’t like keeping the secret but was worried about rumors affecting Sandy’s political career. The date stamps on the photos prove they were taken before Jo and Cork’s separation. He tells Jo to leave, then stares out the window at the snow.

Jo lies in bed until dawn, remembering the spearfishing tragedy. She and Cork had held each other afterward, but she’d felt nothing—their relationship was already done. After Sam died, Cork retreated into himself and it had just gotten worse.

In the morning, Cork and Jo go into her office to talk. She tells him that the affair began in St. Paul when she and Sandy were dealing with the aftermath of the shooting. She reminds him that, at that point, she and Cork were barely speaking. She let him believe their separation was his fault because it was easier for her.

Cork goes to Sam’s Place, where Art Winterbauer is waiting to fix the furnace. He feeds the geese, who seem quiet. Helmuth Hanover’s car stops in the drive. Although Helmuth does a decent job of reporting the local news, his editorial columns are often devoted to hard-right politics. Helmuth doesn’t like Cork and takes every opportunity to castigate him in print. Helmuth wants to talk to Cork about Harlan’s death. Wally told him about Harlan calling Cork, and Helmuth also heard that the Windigo called Harlan’s name. He points out that Cork was present at both the judge’s and Harlan’s deaths. Cork ignores him and walks away.

After Helmuth leaves, Cork drives to Sandy Parrant’s office. Jo told Sandy to expect him. Their talk turns contentious and Cork loses his temper. He leaps at Sandy and they fight briefly, but Sandy’s assistant interrupts them. After she leaves, Sandy asks Cork where he got the photographs and warns that if he releases them, Sandy will ruin him.

Cork sits in his car and examines the folder, which is covered in doodles. He notices that Jo’s name is written by a different hand. He goes back into the building and studies a photo in the lobby, signed by Judge Parrant. The handwriting matches Jo’s name on the folder. Cork realizes that the judge owned the folder before Harlan had.

Cork drives to Henry Meloux’s cabin. They have a cigarette together. Cork tells Henry that Harlan Lytton is dead, and asks if Henry was hiking to the casino that night to tell Russell Blackwater that the Windigo called his name. Henry admits it.

Next, Cork goes to Molly’s house and lets himself in. When she gets home from work, Molly isn’t surprised to see him, but she is angry. Cork wants to talk about Jo and Sandy, but Molly already knew they were together. She didn’t tell him because she didn’t want to seem manipulative. She reminds Cork that they are through, and tells him that she deserves “to feel that you need me as much as you need air to breathe” (225).

It is December 20, one day away from the shortest day of the year. Snow is in the forecast again. At Sam’s Place, Cork finds the door unlocked. He hears someone inside, bursts through the door, and finds Jenny, who has cleaned up the mess for him. She heard about Harlan’s death and is scared. She also asks him about the Windigo, but he brushes it off as a story. Before Jenny leaves, she tells Cork that there is a message on his answering machine from the sheriff’s office. Cork drops Jenny at home and stops by the sheriff’s office to get his gun back.

Cork goes to Russell’s office at the casino. He tells Russell that Henry heard the Windigo call his name, but Russell brushes it off. Cork asks why Russell wasn’t at the judge’s memorial service, theorizes that he wasn’t invited, and wonders at the lack of respect that shows. Cork can tell it makes him angry. Russell says that he is in business for the reservation, not for connections to white men.

Cork returns to the judge’s house. The door is unlocked, with a broken pane of glass. Cork doesn’t know exactly what he’s looking for but understands now that the judge’s power doesn’t just come from his money—the envelope proved that. Further, if the judge did this to Jo and Sandy, he did it to others, providing a possible motive for his murder.

In the study, he finds Wally searching the bookshelves. Wally asked Henry about the Windigo, but Henry denied it. Cork says of course he did because Wally is white. Cork debates telling Wally about the photographs but decides not to.

As Cork stands on the porch, smoking a cigarette, he hears two gunshots inside the house. He runs inside and finds Wally shot in the leg; the assailant is gone. Cork runs outside to hear a snowmobile start up. It shoots out onto the lake, heading for Aurora. In his truck, Cork follows the snowmobile onto the ice. He hears a collision—the snowmobile plowed through a fish house, but the driver is gone. Cork pulls out his gun and stands near his headlights to better see the area.

The driver fires from the dark and hits Cork’s headlight. A shard of glass embeds in Cork’s gun hand and he loses his gun. The driver gets back on the snowmobile and Cork follows him again. After the collision, the snowmobile is leaking oil, making it easy to follow. The snowmobile drives off the edge of the ice and into open water. Cork tries to pull the driver from the water, but can’t. The police arrive soon after, and rescue divers pull Russell Blackwater’s body out of the water.

Cork moves back into Sam’s Place. The next morning, he finds a note from Father Tom, asking him to call. When he goes out to feed the geese, he finds them gone.

Cork goes to the sheriff’s office. Wally has checked himself out of the hospital and is there with Sandy. There is a white filing cabinet on the floor, looking out of place. Wally thinks he understands everything that’s been happening. He has a manila folder with Russell Blackwater’s name on it—the contents show that Russell was embezzling from the casino. Wally thinks that Harlan was blackmailing Russell, so Russell killed him. After Sandy leaves, Wally tells him he got the folder and the white file cabinet from a storage locker. Sigurd found the key on Harlan’s body. Cork is suspicious of Sigurd’s find and Wally’s conclusions.

Cork looks through the filing cabinet and finds a file with Sandy’s name on it. Before Wally can stop him, he opens the file. It contains photos of Sandy with several different women in his hot tub. Wally wonders what he should do with the files, and Cork says he should burn them. Cork asks if anyone found his gun at the scene last night, but no one did.

Cork decides to go fishing. He chips a hole in the ice and sets up a chair, pulling out a bottle of peppermint schnapps. He hears a snowmobile, and Father Tom pulls up on his Kawasaki. Cork shares his schnapps, and he and Tom talk about recent events. After Tom leaves, Cork considers Wally’s theory, still unsatisfied. He pulls up his line and returns to his truck. Next to it is a puddle of oil from Father Tom’s Kawasaki.

Cork goes to Sam’s Place and calls Darla LeBeau. He asks about Paul and Joe John, but she claims not to have spoken to them. Cork wonders what she is hiding, and why. When he returns to Wally’s office, the sheriff tells Cork that he burned the files. Cork asks whether there was a file on Wally in the cabinet, and if that’s why he burned it. Wally doesn’t answer.

Cork goes to Father Tom’s office to talk about Darla, Paul, and Joe John. Tom tells him that Darla knows where Paul is, but is keeping it a secret because she’s scared for him. Tom adds that he hasn’t seen Joe John. Cork asks Tom to remind Darla that he isn’t sheriff anymore, so “nothing I’m told is official” (266). He offers Darla and Paul protection.

Wanda Manydeeds arrives to plan Russell’s memorial with Tom. Cork reminds her that Russell knew the Windigo called his name but didn’t listen. She says that she heard that the Windigo called Cork’s name, and he says it’s true, but he is ready.