Kirk Russell - Shell Games

“Can you believe that?” Petersen asked, her voice soft and quiet. “If the Marlin was in port the crew could walk up and be our backup.”

Li wasn’t a mile from where the Marlin regularly docked, but the boat was on patrol. Marquez called Hansen, let him know where they were, that they were waiting. He talked with Li again, reassuring him. Then Li’s phone rang, sharp and hard and loud in the truck. New instructions came and Li got on the freeway east-bound again, took the 580 cutoff and headed north toward the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge before reversing himself at the toll plaza. The caller said get off in Point Richmond, then directed him to the tunnel and ran him out the empty road toward Brickyard Landing and the marina there.

Marquez remembered a rock quarry filled with water, a dirt road running through the low humped rockbound hills behind the marina. It was another way to approach Brickyard, but after think-ing about it he discarded it, and drifted the SOU in, one, then a second car down the long open road past the shoreline park and around the curve. To the left was a condo project built into the low rounded hills, and to the right, the harbor and the dark water reflecting the marina lights. The first warden turned up toward the condos, would have to talk to the guard at the gate.

Li had parked near Brickyard Cove Marina, and Marquez drove the road now, was the only car to follow Li’s truck and anyone watching was watching now. He brought Petersen in behind him as Li got out and walked into the marina parking and stood where they’d told him to wait, away from the boats at the lot perimeter and under the lights. Marquez scanned the shingled and wood-sided buildings surrounding the marina lot. The metal-roofed condos across the street were quiet, a few lights on, no one visible outside, glass faces staring across the water. He drove past and parked, nodded to Petersen as she joined him and slipped her hand into his, walking side by side with him, leaning into him as they ran their ploy.

They walked out slowly along the dock, Marquez wearing a billed cap, an old leather coat, Petersen’s hand firm and strong hold-ing his hand. They passed a line of houses with boats docked out front as Alvarez reported steadily through an earpiece Marquez wore.

“I really am going to miss you,” Petersen said, making light of it, though he knew that was her shyness. She was tender and made her way in the world with joking and humor, even with those they’d just busted. It was the innate mark of her gentleness. “I’m so used to seeing that big old scarred head of yours.”

“You make me sound like an old elephant.”

“In a way you are.”

“I’m going to miss you, too. I really am.”

“Roberts will tell you how to run things.”

“Bet on that.”

“John, how come you never had any kids? I mean, you were alone so long before Katherine and Maria.”

“I had girlfriends.”

“Yeah, I was one of them. You know what I mean.”

“I thought I told you once.”

“I don’t think so.”

“There was someone who I thought I was going to be with for-ever and she got killed on a trip we made together to Africa. This was a long time ago and we were pretty young and stupid about where we camped. I got drafted at the tail end of Vietnam, but never shipped out, and when I got out Julie and I went to Africa. Do you see Li still?”

“Yes.”

“We were going to travel for a year and were doing it on next to no money and camped near a game preserve in Kenya. I went into town for supplies one afternoon and came back and she was gone. When she didn’t come back that night I got to the local police and their first reaction was she’d gone off with another man. I found her two days later by driving around with one of the locals and watching the buzzards. She’d been raped and shot, then dumped in the grass less than a mile from where we’d camped. The animals had already gotten to her and it was the hardest thing of my life. I had a real hard time accepting it. When you’re young you think everything has got to work out the way it should.”

“Who killed her?”

“They suspected elephant poachers, three men they held for a while and then released. I had their names and I went to find them later and planned to kill them. But I found I couldn’t do it because there hadn’t been enough proof it was them. Turn toward me, face me like you want to be close to me and tell me what you see on the silver-gray boat down at the end.”

“At the very end of the dock?”

“Yeah.”

“Nothing. No, wait, there is somebody moving around. You are good at this, you know that.”

“Hug me like we’re a couple.”

“No, hug me, and tell me you’ll come visit after the baby is born.” He held her and thought he could feel Julie with them on the dock. “God, I’m sorry, John.”

“Long time ago, now.”

“He’s out of the boat and heading down the dock.” Marquez talked into his wire mike. Shauf was sitting partway up a flight of wood steps at the condo complex and couldn’t see any other players and there was no confirmation yet the boat man was coming up to meet Li. Alvarez waited near an old railroad siding at the curve. Neither could see anything happening but could get there fast if it went down. “He’s watching us, John.”

“We’re looking at the ocean. Tell you what, let’s sit down here with our backs to him and look out at the water.” They sat down and a few minutes later Marquez turned his head as though he was just talking to Petersen. “He’s hiding in the shadows, hanging out about halfway to Li,” he said. “Looks like he’s thinking it over and may be talking to someone, could be waiting for somebody.”

They waited and looked out on a bay that was flat and quiet, the water a smooth charcoal color under the dock lights. He felt his pulse in his fingertips. He willed the man hiding in the shadows to approach Li.

“How long do you think he’ll watch?” she asked.

“Until he’s sure.”

Marquez called Li now, told him to pull the mike slowly from his ear after they’d finished talking. Told him to get out and look around. Told him there was a man sitting in the shadows thirty yards to his right. And Shauf reported Li getting out, Li standing with his hands on his hips, Li moving out in front of his truck, looking around, and then walking back and getting inside, starting the engine, headlights coming on, and then the man was up and moving toward Li. He came around to Li’s window and there was a conversation and Li’s truck rolled slowly forward with the man trailing, looking down at the dock again, checking the road behind and the haze of lights at the condo complex. The coolers packed with abalone the SOU had loaded in Li’s truck began to move down toward the man’s boat. In the distance Marquez made out the lights of the Marlin as it cleared Angel Island.

“Fifty-four feet of stainless catamaran coming fast,” he said, “subtle as a Doberman.” They got slowly to their feet and he watched Hansen slow the boat down and then he turned with Petersen as Alvarez and Shauf rolled into view. Li and the man had made their second trip down the dock each carrying one end of a cooler, seem-ingly oblivious to the people moving around them, and that didn’t feel right. They came back up the steps to the rear of the Toyota and when Marquez raised his badge the man hesitated as though he might run. But there was nowhere to go and the team closed around him.

“Mark Heinemann,” Marquez said, “it’s good to see you. We’ve been looking all over for you. The bad news is you’re under arrest.”

Marquez paused, taking in Heinemann’s now earnest face, the styled haircut he must pay real money for, razored lines at the neck, hair that wanted gel to complete the look, making him the best-looking diver along the coast as he dropped off the back of a rusted urchin bucket. They’d driven him to the Richmond Police Station, borrowed an interview box, got him a token Pepsi, and listed off the probable charges, including boat theft, all of which seemed to baffle Heinemann as though it had been someone else and not him, his frowning puzzled look saying this wasn’t the movie he’d been cast for. There’d been some mistake, which he was willing to help get cleared up. The old Vietnamese guy at Brickyard Landing, well, he didn’t even know him, in fact, had only offered to help him move the coolers because he happened to be on the dock and the Vietnamese guy had asked. Heinemann worked it so hard that Shauf couldn’t hide a smile and covered her lips with her hand.