“This is my friend I told you about,” Raburn said, and Ludovna looked at Marquez without saying anything. He pulled his suit coat back so it didn’t brush against the stainless-steel table and the fish they’d unloaded. He leaned over to smell the sturgeon.
“It’s old,” he said.
“No, it’s not,” Marquez answered, giving it back to him, reading him as a bully.
“Who the fuck are you again?”
“John Croft, and it’s great to meet you. Sorry we’re late. The fish was on ice as soon as it came out of the water. Then it was in Abe’s freezer.”
“Are you going to tell me I don’t know fish?”
“I don’t know anything about you, so I don’t know what you know or don’t know. But I know about this sturgeon.”
“Yeah, yeah, you know about this sturgeon.” He stared hard at Marquez. “Where’s the caviar?”
The cooler was behind the seats in the pickup, and Raburn went to get it. He carried it in and put the cooler down on a stainlesssteel counter, opened it, removed the bowl with the caviar, and peeled back the Glad wrap. Ludovna dipped a finger in the eggs.
“Tastes like mold, like shit.”
“Let’s just load it back in the truck,” Marquez said to Raburn, saying it evenly, meaning to disrupt the show here. “I don’t need this tonight. I’ve got plenty of people I can sell to.”
He didn’t wait for an answer from Raburn and picked up the bowl and resettled it in the cooler before starting toward Raburn’s old Ford.
“Stop the fuck where you are and bring it back.”
When he turned, Marquez saw Ludovna pointing a finger at him, and Nike Man with a gun showing but still tucked in his waist. Meanwhile the employee lowered the rolling door. Marquez set the cooler down on the concrete, and Ludovna registered that but turned to Raburn.
“You’re a drunk and you’re stupid. You think you can fool me, but I have a dog smarter than you. You don’t deserve anything, but I’m going to pay some money tonight. I’m going to give you half, then you leave, and if this happens again then we never do any more business.”
Marquez looked to his left at the big sinks they rinsed fish in, drains that could handle fish guts. He looked at the small amount of money on the table representing all the sturgeon species was worth tonight, looked at the men who were destroying it, and crossed to where the money lay on the stainless-steel counter. He picked up four one-hundred-dollar bills, clean new notes Ludovna had counted out. One bill fluttered to the floor.
“Pick it up,” Ludovna said. “You take two bills and leave the rest. Pick the one you dropped up.”
Marquez picked up the bill off the floor and laid it on top of the other three, then walked back over to the cooler, everyone watching as he carried the cooler to one of the big sinks and sloshed eight pounds of caviar into the sink. Repackaged as Caspian beluga in two-ounce jars it might have brought fifteen thousand dollars. He swiveled the spigot, the water gushed, and a stream of gray eggs flowed toward the drain. They rolled and swirled in the water and sucked down the drain as Ludovna yelled and Nike Man pulled his gun.
“Keep your money. We’ll take the sturgeon home with us, too.”
Marquez swept the eggs with his hand and washed another pound down the drain, the water a torrent getting the upper hand now. Soon the sink would be clean. Eggs popped against his palm. Ludovna crossed to him, saw the last go down the drain, and drove an open palm into Marquez’s shoulder, pushing him back. His face was dark red. A shine had started on his forehead, and Nike Man held the gun with both hands, aimed at Marquez’s head.
“What the fuck did you just do?”
“We’re not selling anymore. You didn’t like my caviar, so I threw it out. I’m the one taking the loss, so tell your goon to put his gun down.”
“He’ll shoot you and we’ll feed you down the drains.”
Ludovna said something in Russian, and the goon racked the slide. Marquez froze, his wet hands flat on the stainless-steel table. “You fuck,” Ludovna said. “You make one step and he’s going to kill you. Put your head in the sink. I’ll wash your blood down the drain, you fuck.”
“I don’t cheat people. I don’t sell bad product, but how good did you expect it to be this time of year?”
Ludovna turned abruptly to Raburn.
“I should kill you both.” Then to Nike Man, “Search him, and if he moves, shoot him.”
Nike Man checked him for a wire, doing it quickly and efficiently from behind. Ludovna waited until that was done.
“The caviar was moldy.”
Marquez gauged the change in Ludovna.
“It wasn’t the best,” Marquez agreed.
“It’s shit.”
“I did the best I could with it.”
“It’s still shit.”
Ludovna moved over close to him. He was close enough that Marquez could feel his breath and smell the cologne again.
“You keep two hundred dollars tonight.”
“I don’t want any money, and you can keep the sturgeon. It was all a mistake. It was a mistake asking Abe if he knew anyone who’d be interested in doing business long term. I’m interested in a relationship. I want someone I can call without a lot of complication when I have a fish to sell.”
Ludovna smiled, repeated Marquez’s words, making them sound weak. “A relationship.” He put a hand on Marquez’s shoulder and squeezed too hard. “That’s what you want, a relationship. Okay, next time we’ll have a drink together. You come to my house.” His voice changed, was quieter. “You want to do business with me, then I have to know who you are, okay?” He massaged Marquez’s shoulder, rubbing the skin between his fingers. “You come to my house.”
“Sure.”
“You get another fish and you call me.”
“All right.”
“When you come to my house you come alone.”
Marquez nodded. Ludovna continued to stare at him, his breath on Marquez’s face. Then he stepped back. He insisted Marquez keep two hundred dollars. He smiled and patted Raburn on the back, and all the problems were over.
15
Marquez rented a room at Lisa’s that night. She had four rooms side by side up the road from the marina building. He parked his truck where he could see it from the window and brought his gear in. The confrontation with Ludovna had taken something out of him and left him tired. The main marina building was down the road a hundred yards, and he could see part of the roof and a corner of the deck. The lights were off in the bar, or he might have walked down and sat for a little while. He was hungry, but that could wait too.
The door squeaked as he unlocked it and went in. He put his gear bag down, showered, and lay on the narrow bed. The foam mattress wasn’t much, but it was enough tonight. He lay on his back looking out on the darkness, thinking about what had happened, and then about Katherine and Maria, wondering how the trip was going. Katherine wouldn’t mind the SOU coming to an end. She might even buy a bottle of champagne to celebrate. His head turned with images of the confrontation with Ludovna, Nike Man racking the slide. Before falling asleep he decided he’d bring some gifts when he visited Ludovna next. The guy’s anger was mercurial, but he could probably get through to him. He did not remember falling asleep, but his cell phone woke him at 2:15.
“Hold for a second,” he said, found his pants, his coat, and walked out barefoot to his truck. It was Selke.
“Where are you, Marquez?”
“At Lisa’s Marina.”
“You’re not far from us. We’re around the back side of Dead Horse Island. You’ll see the lights and the vehicles.”
“What’s there?”
“The body of a woman. The body isn’t in good shape, but I want you to take a look at her.”
Selke’s voice seemed to come at him from a distance. He’d talked himself into believing she hadn’t been abducted. He packed his gear, swung the small pack onto his shoulder, and the neighbor’s fist hammered the shared wall as Marquez tried to get the door lock to work. A man’s muffled swearing carried into the night, and Marquez didn’t turn his headlights on until he got up to the main road.