When they got ready to leave, Shauf threw out, “You know, the shutdown is hanging over everybody, and I don’t mean the Feds. I mean the end of us. What’ll happen with you and me?”
“I’ll put you up for captain, and I’ll go plant tomatoes with Cairo.”
“Yeah, everybody is going to be a captain. But really, what are you going to do? Are you really thinking of hanging it up? What would you do then?”
“Go to work for the Feds; they’ve got all the money.”
“Isn’t that the truth? Or the Highway Patrol. Every time I think about what they make compared to us it pisses me off.”
Marquez knew he wouldn’t quit on this case. He’d find a way to shut down these sturgeon poachers, and if it meant doing it without his badge, he’d cowboy it and find a way to stay legal. He felt a strong rush of emotion.
“I’ve got to know what happened to Anna. I want the truth there. And I’m not walking away from these poachers. I’ll sink a few boats first.”
“Great. I’ll visit you in prison. Maybe you can bunk with Torp, Perry, or Crey when they get back in.”
Marquez’s phone rang, and he smiled at Shauf. “It’s Crey.”
“What’s going on, big man?” Crey asked.
“Not much, just sitting around.”
“Are we still on for tonight?”
“Nothing has changed on my end.”
“See you at Lisa’s around dark. We’ll get it all figured out tonight. We’re going to make some money, bro. Life is a big rock candy mountain.”
“I was just thinking that. See you there.”
Marquez hung up. He held the phone in one hand and smiled at Shauf.
“What’s funny?”
“Nothing. Let’s get out of here.”
26
Marquez found Lisa down on her dock replacing a couple of rotted deck boards. He helped her cut and screw into place a new pressure-treated piece of two-by-six. The last gold reflection off the river caused her to squint as she stood and faced him, and she wiped chips of the arsenic-laced wood off her cheeks. He rolled up her power cord as they talked.
“Richie’s friends are already here,” she said. “Or they were half an hour ago. They were asking about you again. I was going to call you as soon as I finished this. They said they’re meeting you here for dinner. Their last names are Torp and Perry. They make me uncomfortable.”
“They should. Did they rent a room?”
“One room for the two of them. I put them as far away from you as I could.”
“What about Crey?”
She shook her head, and that said it all. Marquez had told Crey he was staying here, and Crey had told “the boys.” No doubt they figured to get the chain of command straight tonight with Crey standing off to the side and innocent. Marquez walked up from the dock with Lisa. He prepaid his room, then moved his truck up there. He’d switched out of the Scout. He talked to Shauf again from the room.
“I just heard Bell quit,” she said. “He handed Baird his badge and a letter of resignation this morning, then walked out. I’m surprised he didn’t stick around to watch us twist in the wind.”
Had to be about his divorce, Marquez thought, and listened quietly, thinking about people who’d left. Who you thought would stick didn’t and vice versa. He knew he’d be gone too when the SOU shut down.
At dusk he left the room and walked down to the marina. Crey, Perry, and Torp were already at the bar. Torp spotted him first and nudged Perry as Marquez walked in. Might as well warm it up right away, Marquez thought.
“I didn’t know it was a party,” he said to Crey. “Or weren’t you able to get a babysitter?” He looked at Torp and Perry. “Just kidding, guys, and I’ll buy you a drink if you take it outside.”
Maybe they were here to vet him for Crey. Crey was moody and quiet, so it was possible it had rained on the big rock candy mountain this afternoon.
“Man, you are some kind of asshole,” Perry said.
“You two bring it out in me.”
Crey settled it down, and they moved from the bar to a table and ordered drinks. Lisa turned on the Christmas lights, and the different colors lined the windows and cast a glow on the deck. Two couples came in for dinner as it got darker, and right around the second round of drinks or maybe their third, Perry got interested in the young woman who worked nights as a waitress. He waved her over.
“How’d you like to dance on my lap?”
Marquez leaned over to talk to Crey, though he made sure Perry and Torp could hear. “Can’t you feed him outside and then put him in the car until we’re done? There are people in here trying to eat, and I can’t think with him around.”
That lit up Perry. Anger was bright in his eyes. He pointed a finger at Marquez.
“This is going to get squared up.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Perry lifted the empty bread basket and waved it. “Chiquita. Bread.”
“Get him out of here,” Marquez said.
“You boys go to the bar,” Crey said to them. “The man and I are going to talk.”
They didn’t move, so Marquez stood and said he was going to use the restroom, figuring that would give Crey time to sort it out. In the hallway on the way, there was a poster of Anna Burdovsky. “Missing.” “Feared Abducted.” When he got back Crey nodded toward Perry and Torp standing at the bar.
“These guys don’t get why you’re all over them. Why not give it a rest?”
“Why are they staying here tonight?”
“Is that what this is about?”
“You tell me. Are they here because I’m here?”
“You’ve got to make your peace with them, my man. However you do it, it’s got to happen. They’re part of my crew.”
“You don’t need them.”
“They’re all I’ve got to put between me and anyone watching. I’m not a big operation. I’m not like the Russians.”
“Right, and I keep hearing about these Russians. Maybe I should be doing business with them.”
“You don’t want to deal with them.”
The waitress returned and took their dinner orders. Marquez saw Lisa handing Torp and Perry menus. They’d taken seats at the bar.
“What do you think of the chick that runs this place?” Crey asked, following his eyes.
“I like her.”
“Yeah, she’s cute.” Crey sighed. “You’ve got to back off a little, man. You’re not a bad guy but you’re making problems I don’t need.”
“I keep saying the same thing over and over; I’d rather deal straight with you.”
“Lou is pretty quick with a knife, and you’ve got him angry. I want you to apologize tonight. Why do you have such a hard-on for them?”
“Why’d you ask me about Lisa?”
“Because she’s alone here and she’s got to be lonely.” Crey gave him a sly smile. “She needs somebody to keep her warm at night.”
In his room before walking down to the marina deck, Marquez had read through what Ehrmann left for him at DFG. Torp was a registered sex offender who had to report his whereabouts. The home address for him was Sherri La Belle’s address in Stockton. She was the owner of the gold Le Mans Perry and Torp had traded for the van.
“Here’s what bothers me,” Marquez said. “They stick out. Like that car of theirs.”
“The Le Mans is gone. They traded it for a van.”
“But you know what I mean.”
Torp also had two strikes, and Marquez wasn’t much of a fan of California’s three-strike system. There wasn’t enough flexibility in the way the law got applied. In some cases the application of the law was immoral. In the case of a man named Santos Reyes, for example. Reyes had perjured himself on a driver’s license application and taken the test for a cousin who couldn’t read so that his cousin could work as a roofer. Reyes had two priors, one for robbery a decade before, and a burglary as a juvenile in ‘81. He got his third strike for the driver’s license fiasco, and in consequence twenty-six to life.
“It’s more complicated than you know about. Liam is a good mechanic. He works on my charter boat, and I need him.”