Die-Off

by Kirk Russell

  Hauser didn’t wait for an answer and Marquez’s focus now was on a van that had stayed well behind him most of the drive and exited ten miles ago in Dixon but was behind him again, which might mean they were just trying to get an edge on the traffic by running up the frontage road off to his right. He decided to be more cautious getting to the Sacramento safehouse.

  ‘People imagine that we can reverse climate change at the eleventh hour, but that won’t be the case.’

  ‘How soon can you return the money?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I’m asking how easily you can return the money. If you return it and you give us the biologist’s name we can work something out.’

  Marquez knew what would happen next. He heard the phone click as Hauser hung up and called Captain Waller and let him know he was coming into Sacramento.

  ‘Come here first, John. The ENTR people are all over us. They know people in the Governor’s office. The chief is on the phone with the governor right now and the Governor is telling us to back off ENTR. He wants to meet with you as soon as he’s off the phone with the Governor. Who are these people?’

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  In a funny way it was Barbara Jones who got them there, calling Marquez the next morning at dawn as he drove north on 99. She sounded as if she was well past her first cup of coffee and ready to lock and load.

  ‘Matt Hauser embezzled, stole, transferred eight million dollars to a secret account, and I don’t really care why. I mean that. I could care less why he took it. I want it back and Hauser doesn’t want to go to prison or defend himself against lawsuits that will go on for fifteen fucking years, so I’m calling you again. He’s not listening to his lawyers and this thing is on the edge of getting ugly and public. Consider this my reach out. You might be the only one who can convince him before it’s too late and in return we’ll triple the resources we’re putting into finding these illegal hatcheries.’

  ‘You now agree they exist.’

  ‘Someone grew the pike you found so they must exist.’ She paused before adding what didn’t need to be said. ‘ENTR denies any involvement.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Here’s something else for you to think about. Matt Hauser started coming apart seven to nine months ago, long before Fish and Game heard of him. People he works with started getting odd emails, some of them threatening, some delusional, like proposing ENTR spend ten million on a campaign to raise public awareness of who he is with the goal of getting him nominated for a Nobel Prize. I mean that. He wrote stuff like that. He felt that his name being in circulation, even if it was just Internet chatter, would benefit ENTR.

  ‘But the real thing is his wife has had an open affair with one of the founding partners and Hauser has known and the stress has unraveled him. I’m telling you this because some people at the top making the decisions about how to deal with this current problem are sympathetic and would like to see Hauser avoid embezzlement charges.’

  ‘You’re full of surprises.’

  ‘I’m like that and I’m just bringing you up to speed because we want to continue what’s been a great relationship with your department.’

  ‘Wonderful.’

  ‘It is and we want to keep it that way and really when you look at all the evidence against Hauser and where he’s at now that his job and credibility are gone, it’s a pretty good offer for him. He’s got forty-eight hours to take it.’

  ‘And I’m the messenger?’

  ‘He calls you and he calls his wife. We can’t really ask her right now. We’re talking to his lawyers, but you know what that’s like.’

  ‘I’ll let him know.’

  ‘And we’ll keep working the pike problem. We’re very interested in finding out who’s behind the fish stocking. We don’t want our reputation damaged so maybe it’s time to share. If you agree, let’s start today.’

  ‘I agree but I don’t have anything to share right now.’

  ‘But you’re hearing me.’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘I’ve also got a little advice. You’ve got a reputation for pushing the boundaries. Don’t do that with ENTR. You could end up needing a lawyer like Hauser.’

  ‘You have a nice day, Barbara.’

  Marquez broke the connection. Last night he and the tech, Chen, came up with a list of properties off Brookline Road and Wheeler was on standby if they needed help from the air. He figured that was their best move today: eliminate as many sites as they could and continue searching, Marquez on the road and with binoculars and on the phone with Chen who looked down with the real-time Google Earth. It was a limited approach, but if Soliatano wasn’t lying this time then they were already close.

  Marquez was twenty-two miles from highway 99 off a rural road and on a dirt track above a stand of oaks talking to Chen on his cell when Barbara Jones’ white Audi A4 sped by on the road below. He got just enough of a look at her to say, ‘We may have just gotten lucky.’

  Jones was white, black, and Asian—mostly white but her beauty was from the other two and the intermingling. Her skin glowed with radiant energy as the first ray of sunlight caught her face. She held a phone to her ear and then was gone, speeding into the next curve.

  Marquez chased and when he caught sight of her car he hung well back. He missed where she turned off, but a mile later knew she had and backtracked, found it, and called Chen.

  ‘I think it was just given to us. Here’s an address. See what you can find out. It looks like a ranch.’

  He called Wheeler and stayed clear until he was overhead to the south and reporting a car leaving on an access road to what he called a cattle ranch with grapevines. Then Chen came back with an answer.

  ‘The property was foreclosed on a year and a half ago and bought by a partnership.’

  ‘That could fit. What’s the name?’

  ‘Ravil Vineyards.’

  ‘Okay, she’s gone. I’m going wine tasting. Try to find out more.’

  Ten minutes later he was on an asphalt road that wound through low hills and former pasture land that held only rye grass and thistle now. As he approached the buildings he slowed and saw two carpenters putting new batt and board siding on the face of a building. Near them was a pickup. He didn’t see any other vehicles.

  The carpenters took him in and from their looks he guessed she had asked them to keep an eye out. He got out, putting on his coat as he walked up to them, a cold wind blowing from behind him and in the distance Mt. Lassen with new snow.

  ‘Hey, I’m late and looking for my boss. Did you see a white Audi roll through here with a super-hot babe at the wheel?’

  ‘Dude, you just missed her.’

  ‘How long ago?’

  ‘Fifteen minutes.’

  ‘Fuck.’ Marquez pulled his phone and made sure they saw it. ‘I’ll call her. See you. Thanks.’

  He turned the car around and they were still watching and he didn’t take any photos, but he could tell he was good with them. They weren’t going to call her and he had seen enough to know his next move. He called Chen.

  ‘There’s a lot of new construction. Give me some directions to the county building department and call ahead and see if there’s a building inspector or someone I can talk to. There are two carpenters out there working. I’ll come up with something for the inspector.’

  It took him forty minutes to find the building department and half an hour to convince a building inspector who had done his morning rounds and was planning to eat lunch at his desk and be in the office the rest of the afternoon to make the drive back with him. The inspector knew the story: 140-acre family ranch, quarreling kids who inherited it and no one to work it, then an investment banker who knew nothing about growing grapes who bought just before everything crashed in 2008. Now there was a new set of fools who thought they were going to make money with aquaculture. The inspector turned.

  ‘Why does Fish and Game have a problem with aquaculture?’

  ‘We don’t.’

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sp; ‘So does that mean they’re doing something else?’

  ‘It does but I can’t say much.’

  ‘How sure are you?’

  ‘Pretty sure and there are a couple of carpenters working there that I don’t want to get another look at me.’

  ‘I can chase them off. There’s not supposed to be any more work out here until they renew the permit, but you want a look inside.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Then that’s up to them but I bet I can get them to let me inside.’

  Marquez took in the inspector again. He saw a middle-aged guy ten pounds overweight wearing jeans with an oversized belt buckle and boots, and a tucked-in button-down shirt. He looked like he knew who he was and could pull off whatever was needed.

  The inspector got one of the carpenters to unlock and let him into the concrete building built back into a hill. The lights came on inside and Marquez saw how big it was and all about wine storage when it was built. He watched the inspector and the carpenter walk back out, the carpenter going to shut the door and the inspector hesitating and the carpenter nodding.

  The door stayed open and the inspector slowly walked down with the carpenter and across to where the second man was still at work on the siding. When they were far enough away and the carpenters facing the inspector, Marquez walked in. He smelled fish and found round concrete raceways still dark and damp. He checked the equipment, took photos, and emailed those to Chen. He reached into a tank after finding fish scales and gathered samples and got back to the car before the building inspector started back his way.

  As they drove out, the inspector asked, ‘Did you get what you need?’

  ‘I did and thank you.’

  ‘I’m big on trout fishing. We go up to the Feather River from here and I’m not one of those who waits around for the stocking dates. I like to work for it.’

  Marquez understood what he was saying. DFG posted the dates on the department websites when a lake would get stocked with fish. Those stockings included trout big enough to take and a certain amount of fisherman watched the stocking dates and showed up same day or the day after. It wasn’t hard to catch regulation size fish that had spent their lives being fed in a tank.

  ‘The people I’m looking for aren’t growing trout.’

  ‘What are they growing?’

  Play it close or talk to this inspector who was also a fisherman? He went with his gut.

  ‘Northern pike.’

  ‘That’s no good.’

  ‘Not good in any way.’

  ‘It looked like they knew you were coming and cleared everything out.’

  ‘It does.’

  It did and could mean the pike project was more evolved and the situation worse than he thought, but more likely Barbara Jones was here today to make sure everything was out and shutdown and if that was true she knew what she was looking for. He thought about that a moment. He liked her and that disappointed him.

  With the building inspector’s help Marquez gathered a lot more information before leaving. He got the name, Stream Systems Aquaculture, and later in the afternoon wrote a search warrant application to get back into the building, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to tip his hand with Jones yet. He did get scales and one small dead fish and that would get looked at this afternoon at the Fisheries Branch. He was still debating going back into the building today when Katherine called.

  ‘John, Maria is hurt and I don’t know how badly. I’m on my way to the hospital.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘She fell!’

  ‘Fell where?’

  ‘I don’t know where. She was skateboarding. That stupid sport! She may have a concussion and broken ribs. She was trying to find someone that inspector up in Yreka wants to talk to, someone she knows. I’ll call you from the hospital. Where are you?’

  ‘In Sacramento but I’ll leave now. Call me when you know anything.’

  ‘She shouldn’t have been looking for anybody. Why can’t you keep Voight away from her?’

  ‘Call me.’

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  When Marquez got home the front door was unlocked and lights were on throughout the house. He guessed Katherine left in a frightened hurry. He had talked with her twice on the way home and learned that Maria had a good-sized bump on her head but no concussion. Her right clavicle and two ribs were broken and the road rash on her right shoulder and elbow was going to hurt for a while. Katherine called now as he walked through the house.

  ‘We’re on our way home but we’ve stopped to pick up a pizza. I’m inside getting it and Maria is in the car. She says she’s hungry but you know how she is. As soon as she gets hurt she tries to make everything normal. It isn’t going to work this time, but you and I can eat the pizza and at least she’s not bouncing around in the car and the pain pills should start working. They wouldn’t give her any painkillers until they were sure she didn’t have a concussion. She’s got a couple of Norco in her now.’

  ‘How bad are the ribs and the collar bone?’

  ‘The collar bone didn’t separate and that’s good and she says it doesn’t hurt or at least not right now. The orthopedist said clavicle breaks hurt some people a lot and some not at all. Two ribs are cracked and they definitely hurt her. The orthopedist said six weeks on the clavicle or collar bone and less on her ribs. Remember the tattoo on her right shoulder? It’s gone.’

  ‘Okay, tell me again what happened.’

  ‘She was skateboarding down a steep hill with Kevin and Ridley and a car ran a stop sign below them and she collided with Ridley and fell when they were all trying to avoid the car. Remember, these were the two guys she was never going to hang out with ever again. The Siskiyou inspector talked her into calling them and Kevin decided it would be fun to loan Maria a longboard she had never ridden and then ride some steep hills together.’

  ‘Like they used to.’

  ‘Exactly, except that Maria hasn’t ridden in years and they knew that. By the way they couldn’t stick around at the hospital because they had to get to a party. Hey, John, the pizza is ready. We’ll see you at home.’

  Marquez opened a beer and sat out on the back deck looking out through the darkness toward the ocean and thinking about the conversation with Barbara Jones. When he heard a car out front and car doors open and shut he stood. He saw the sling and Maria limping but with her stoic face on, a look Katherine claimed she got from him.

  ‘What’s up, Dad?’

  ‘I’m having a beer and thinking about some new friends I’ve met. I just got home. How are you feeling?’

  ‘Crummy. My shoulder hurts and my elbow and the rest is a drag, but it was my fault. I screwed up. The board is a total carver and I kind of freaked because a car ran a stop sign and blew my turn. I haven’t been on a board in awhile.’

  ‘I thought you were done with boarding.’

  ‘I wanted to get Kevin to talk to me and he was pretty stand-offish. I kind of dropped these guys a few years ago and he hasn’t forgotten.’

  Marquez couldn’t touch her head or put an arm around her. He put a hand lightly on her back.

  ‘Dad, don’t do that, it hurts my ribs and my collar bone. ‘I’m going to take a shower.’

  Maria showered and didn’t feel like eating when she got out. She leaned back on pillows on the couch with a blanket over her legs and studied him before asking, ‘You’ve broken ribs, what should I do?’

  ‘Not much you can do. Try not to cough, sleep on the other side, take hot showers, and breathe as deep as you can stand, a little deeper every day, but mostly wait it out and try not to whine too much.’

  ‘I’m going to whine.’

  ‘Aspirin works for me.’

  She thought about that a moment. ‘This all sucks.’

  ‘It does.’

  ‘It’s because of Voight.’

  ‘Getting on the board is because of Voight?’

  ‘Kind of.’

  ‘I wouldn’t go there.’

  She no
dded then looked away and didn’t have any of the pizza or salad but sipped on a glass of red wine to mess with her mom who didn’t want her to have any because of the pain killers, and Marquez and Katherine ate most of the pizza and salad. Marquez talked about Voight and asked about Kevin and Ridley and Maria touched her wounds and glanced at him like she had something to say but wasn’t ready yet.

  Her mom listened quietly and Marquez knew that Katherine’s view of Kevin and Ridley was that neither was ever going anywhere in life. They were both several years older than Maria and raised in well-to-do homes with a lot of opportunity but hadn’t yet done much with it, but mostly she never trusted what their interest in Maria was.

  Marquez remembered the friendship of the threesome differently. It was strongest when Maria was a senior in high school. There was chemistry and a bond. Maria was killer at sports and Kevin and Ridley had liked it that she was quiet about that yet competitive. Both of the guys were natural athletes. They didn’t fit into organized high school sports but they were the pair who would snowboard down the steep chute and off a cliff or catch the big waves in January.

  What Ridley and Kevin got in return was hanging with a cool girl who was on her way to becoming a woman. Maria grew more graceful but remained the same kind of tough and semi-fearless. Then something happened between the three of them but he and Katherine never got the full story. Maria pretty much dropped them. He had asked about it once and her answer was, ‘They’re too uninvolved. It’s like they’re always standing at the edge of the party.’

  But there was something more and he thought it had to do with Kevin and guessed it was probably Kevin who had talked her onto an unfamiliar longboard today. It was Kevin who took the bigger risks and who might be dealing dope on a much larger scale than the joints he sold in high school. Kevin had a thing he threw off that said he didn’t care what happened. He took chances he didn’t have to. When he was fifteen or sixteen another boy surfing with him drowned and it wasn’t Kevin’s fault but parents learned to keep their kids away from him.