Kirk Russell: Counterfeit Road

‘How badly was the doctor hurt?’

‘Broken wrist, concussion, and some bruises.’

Raveneau would have to check out Candel’s record, but it didn’t change the photos his mom had saved.

‘Let’s talk about your dad. Was he a boat captain?’

Candel stared then smiled.

‘You really don’t know shit about him, do you?’

‘No, I really don’t.’

‘His first name was Jim. He was an airline captain not some fucking crab boat captain. He flew for the Navy in the Vietnam War and then for some airline that went out of business. Pan something.’

‘Pan Am?’

‘Yeah, Pan Am and then United Airlines between Hawaii and San Francisco. That was his gig, a bus driver in the sky. He did the Honolulu run for a long time. My mom was like the stewardess he got pregnant then ditched. But even when he dumped her she was still in love with him. She never would have made this call. She would never give you this box. She’d be crying right now if she could see me giving up the great Captain Jim Frank, asshole of the skies.’

‘Did she call him Captain Frank?’

‘She called him Captain. Is that weird or what?’

‘How close were you and your mom?’

‘Yeah, I know how I sound, but we were tight. My mom and I were close.’

‘Do you miss her?’

‘I definitely miss her.’

That quieted him for a moment, and then he signaled the bartender, ready for another. After he got the bartender’s attention he started sliding the rubber band holding the shoebox top on. It snapped before he could do that. He lifted the lid. He moved his drink to make room and said, ‘She was in a van with this friend of hers and this guy ran a red and hit them on Folsom.’

‘It must have been very hard.’

‘It was really horrible. I dream about it a lot, but the thing was it looked like she was going to pull through. She was talking again. Then she had a bad night and I was there the next morning when Dr Leonard came through. He’s the doctor I knocked down. There was another doctor or wannabe, an intern who was worried about her, but Leonard shut her down. I overheard it. Probably none of it would have happened if I hadn’t heard Leonard say he had an appointment and he’d be back in at three that afternoon.

‘But he didn’t come in until like seven o’clock, and basically by the time they figured out she had an infection it was too late. Her internal injuries were so bad she went fast. But, OK, I know you’re just here for the photos. Thing is, she’s in some of these.’

‘I’ll get copies made and get this back to you.’

‘I just want the ones of her back. I don’t care about him or any of the slides or any of the rest.’

‘I’m going to make copies and get everything else back to you. Keep going with your story about Dr Leonard.’

‘After she died, I blamed him and started following him, like stalking him, weird stuff I would never picture myself doing. At first I was going to kill him. In the end I just kind of tackled him hard and he hit his head on a car bumper and trashed his wrist on the street. I totally lost it.’

He took a sip of the new drink then turned to Raveneau.

‘I was like waiting my whole childhood for my dad to show up because my mom made it sound like it was always just about to happen. But he never showed, you know, never once.’

‘What was your mom’s name?’

‘Allyson. Allyson Candel.’ He took a significant swallow, halved his drink. ‘I hated him from the time I was twelve. I’m hoping you take him down.’

‘Is that why you called? I’m wondering because I’m picking up some resentment toward your father.’

Candel smiled at that. He smiled and his face completely changed.

‘You’ve got a sense of humor, dude. Here he is. This is him in the war, the one in Vietnam.’

He handed Raveneau a photo of a young man standing near the nose of a fighter jet on the deck of what was probably an aircraft carrier.

‘You look like him.’

‘Except I’m a failure and he was flying jets when he was my age. Here’s another with his friends from the war. They all stayed friends. That one on the right was his best friend. I don’t remember his name. Here’s one when he flew for United.’

Raveneau studied a photo of Jim Frank in a United Airlines uniform and then glanced at Candel. Candel didn’t need any DNA test. This was father and son, right to the cowlick on Candel’s left side. Good looking guy, Captain Frank. Raveneau didn’t doubt he attracted women. Candel handed him another six or seven photos and Frank had his arm around the waist of a woman in a bikini. Frank wore bright red swim trunks. Surf broke behind them.

The next photo and the one after it were landscape shots. ‘Where were these taken?’

Candel shook his head. ‘Don’t know, probably Hawaii. He lived there. He definitely lived there when she was there.’

‘Which island?’

‘Check out the back of the photo.’

Raveneau flipped it over and read ‘The house, Big Island.’

Candel slid the box toward him.

‘Got to go, dude, my friends are here.’

‘Give me your cell number.’

Candel scratched his number on a bar napkin and waved at two young women and a man working their way through the bar crowd. Before moving on, he said, ‘I want one thing in return. You bust him, I want to be there.’

‘He’s not a suspect.’

‘When he becomes one, when you go after him, you call me. Give me your word on that, man.’

‘I’m not going to do that, but I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll talk more.’

Celeste sat under a street light on the curb next to a dumpster, a black plastic garbage can on wheels next to her like a best friend. He tasted dust and sweat as he kissed her, and when he emptied the garbage can Sheetrock dust billowed out and enveloped him. He had a pretty good idea what her answer would be, but asked anyway.

‘How did it go?’

‘We failed all the inspections. Want to see?’

She showed him where the fire marshal who had reviewed and stamped the plans months ago now wanted her to add two more fire sprinkler heads. That meant draining the system, cutting into the walls, adding the sprinkler heads, patching, painting, and calling for another re-inspection. The Sheetrock dust that had spread through the almost finished space was from cutting into the finished walls.

‘It’s like fallout,’ she said. ‘It’s everywhere.’

There was also a code problem with the main flue and she unfolded a Health Department correction notice on the bar top for him to read. This was the day she had hoped to have everything to do with the City of San Francisco signed off and done. She pointed at two employees of the mechanical sub and said softly, ‘Double overtime,’ then brushed a strand of hair back from her cheek and acknowledged, ‘They’ve got me. I can’t do anything about it. Sprinkler sub is back at six in the morning. I have to get it done. I have to pay the overtime. The tables are delivering tomorrow. I don’t know where I’m going to put them.’

‘What does this do to opening day?’

‘I’m opening no matter what.’

Raveneau thought about Captain Frank and Ryan Candel’s story as he helped her clean. It was another hour and a half before the mechanical subcontractor finished. After he left they ate sandwiches and split a salad and a bottle of red wine at a place that served until midnight.

Then they went back to his place, an apartment on top of an industrial building at the edge of China Basin. Wind blew off the bay tonight and there was rain coming, but it was just the wind right now and he sat out on the deck as Celeste showered. The night was cold though not too cold and it felt good to sit out here and think. When he turned Celeste was in a T-shirt and otherwise naked.