Kirk Russell - Shell Games

“The owner of the boat you stole is very unhappy and looks like the wrong guy to rip off,” Marquez said. “He’s big, looks mean, I’d be careful.”

“I didn’t steal his boat.”

“You found it?”

“Look, warden, or whatever you are, man, they dropped me at Marina Bay. They told me what I was going to do tonight, okay. I do it or they mess up my girlfriend. That’s the way it’s been since Sausalito. I’ve been on a boat with a bunch of fucking Mexican divers, working off what they say I owe them.”

“Who are they?”

“I got tricked into all this by Bailey. I’m not going to bullshit you and pretend I wasn’t involved but I didn’t know what was going on.”

“Who are you working for?”

“I don’t know. Like I said, it was all Bailey’s thing.”

“Where’d the Emily Jane dock?”

“Eureka. Then they moved me to another boat and said I owed them, if you can believe that. But I never owed anything. It was bull-shit and I didn’t tell that Vietnamese guy I was buying any abalone. He made that story up when you guys got there. Obviously, you were watching the dude already.”

“They threatened your girlfriend so you cooperated with them.”

“Yeah.”

“Where are these Mexican divers from?”

“Baja.”

“How many divers?”

“Four, and me.”

“What’s the name of the boat?”

“El Gordo Burrito.” Heinemann laughed, but it was more of a bark, and not really a big dog bark, more like a guy who was nerv-ous and a little scared. Vain guy and not too bright was Marquez’s take. “I don’t know the name of the boat. If we weren’t diving, we were below deck like some sort of sweatshop, man.”

Marquez didn’t know what to do with that. It was farfetched, but could be true from the way he was talking. It was too off-the-wall to make up and would explain Heinemann disappearing.

“Was Bailey ever on that boat?”

“Fuck if I know.”

Back to attitude. Other than this story about a dive boat and threatening his girlfriend, he’d given them little since they’d hand-cuffed him in Point Richmond. He’d sung a David Bowie song as they’d driven him here, and then listened to the charges, including abetting in the assault of a peace officer, as though he was listen-ing to a waiter recite a menu. And he hadn’t asked for a lawyer yet, which might mean he wanted to try to deal his way out.

“They’ll kill my girlfriend if I started telling you a bunch of shit I don’t know about anyway,” Heinemann said. He took a drink of Pepsi and the brown soda dribbled down his chin before he could wipe it with his elbow.

He’s not lying about being afraid of whoever he was diving for, Marquez thought, then asked, “Are you in college?”

“What?”

“Are you enrolled at UC Santa Cruz?”

“No, well, I mean, I plan to.”

“Your girlfriend thinks you’re going to school there. You lie to her, why wouldn’t you lie to us?”

“She knows, man. Meghan knows what’s up.”

“She lied to us?”

“I’m not saying she lied.”

“Someone lied.”

“What’s the big deal about a fucking college?”

“The big deal is you keep coming up in the middle of these lies. You want us to believe you, but you don’t come across very believable. Tonight, you’re caught with a stolen boat buying illegal abalone and what you did in Sausalito could bring felony charges. You’re in a bad way, Mark. This story about working on a slave diving ship-why did you owe them for Sausalito if you held up your end? You picked up the abalone and transferred most of it to the Emily Jane. You got Bailey to use his boat.”

“Bullshit, I got Jimmy to do anything.”

“We’re getting this from Bailey. He’s going to testify against you. He’s pissed off you burned him.”

“Fuck him, he’s not pinning any shit on me. I’ve done one thing here, man. I dove for money. I needed the bucks to repair my boat and I’ll tell a judge that.”

“That’s not the way Bailey tells it. You want to read the tran-script?” There wasn’t any transcript, nothing to show him, but Heinemann’s hesitation said he may not have been in contact with Bailey. “We might have a copy with us.” Marquez looked at Shauf, said, “Mine’s gone to the DA, what about yours?” She shook her head. “Okay, I guess we don’t tonight, but I’ll get you a copy. I don’t have a problem with you reading it; I’ll drop it by your cell, if you want.”

“It was Bailey that got me into this. He offered me five bills for the Point Reyes dive and helping move it in Sausalito. But that was all and you already know what happened. You ask Meghan if she’s seen me since. I’ve been like a captive on a slave ship, man, and then they brought me out for this bullshit tonight.”

“Another problem I have,” Marquez said, “is that you and Jimmy go back a ways. What I’m hearing is you two were work-ing together in San Diego a lot of years ago, so it makes it hard to believe he sucked you into this.”

“I was never in San Diego.”

Marquez reached out and shut off the recorder. “I’m going to let you take that back,” he said. “But you’ve only got about three seconds to decide.”

“I got out of all that. I put that behind me and Meghan will tell you I’ve been thinking about going back to school. I don’t deal drugs anymore. That was a bad phase of life.”

“You berth three down from Jimmy at Pillar Point and you want to tell us that’s coincidence.”

“I thought we were talking about ab diving. I’m getting fuck-ing confused.”

“We’re talking about all of it.”

“I don’t deal drugs anymore. If you think I’m in with Jimmy on that, you’re wrong.”

“Convince me about you. I want to believe we’re not wasting our time talking to you but so far it seems like we are. It’s getting late and you keep repeating the same story but you don’t explain away the inconsistencies, so it’s looking like you’re blowing smoke at us.”

“I’m just telling the truth, man.”

“About a diving slave ship? Come on, Mark, give us a break.”

“I’m not shitting you.”

“We found your girlfriend’s pickup at Marina Bay here in Richmond, but you say you were dropped off by boat. Do you want to say Jimmy drove it up here? Maybe Meghan gave him the keys and we should arrest her? That what you’re saying?” He stared at Heinemann. “No answer? Okay, maybe we ought to bag it and get some sleep, let you get in there and meet your cellmates.” Marquez glanced down at a sheet. “Twenty years in prison. That’s what I get when I add up what you’re charged with. You’re way past abalone but you don’t seem to get that we can make it swing one way or the other.”

“Man, you keep changing subjects. I can’t fucking keep up.”

“Okay, tell us about the Emily Jane, and this is your last chance.”

“I just ran for the boat. Your warden had her fucking knee on my back when they pulled guns on you.”

“Tell us about the men on the Emily Jane.”

“I don’t know about them. They never let me in the cabin and they dumped me on a dock in Eureka and then I got on the other boat.”

Earlier, Heinemann said he’d run to the Emily Jane because that’s what Bailey had said to do if anything went wrong. Marquez looked over at Shauf. “I’m going to find a bathroom,” he said. “When I get back we’ll wrap this up.” He paused before going out the door, looked at Heinemann. “Tomorrow isn’t the same for us, I want you to understand that. Tomorrow, every day after that you can talk to your lawyer instead of us.”

“Whatever.”

“Whatever?”