Fifty Grand

by Adrian McKinty

  “Look, Don Esteban, it’s ok. I can handle this. He seems to be a little taken with me, but what should I tell him?”

  “This is so fucked. I hit a deer. And that was a week before that accident. I was with Manuelito and Danny Ortega. We swiped an old doe. Jesus. And besides, everyone knows what happened to that dead Mex.”

  “Oh—”

  “Oh yeah, that’s no secret, one of our friends up the hill killed that poor bastard. Those fuckers. Briggs covered it up for them, I’ll bet my life on that.”

  “One of the Hollywood people?”

  “They can do anything they want in this town. That’s why we gotta squeeze a big tip outta them. Has anyone mentioned tips to you yet? Christmas isn’t far off.”

  I ignored the sidetrack. “So I should I tell the investigator it was one of the Hollywood people?”

  “No, no, don’t tell him anything. This isn’t our concern. Say nothing.”

  “Ok.”

  “But I know. Oh yeah, they think they can keep me out of the loop? That’s bullshit. Yeah, and just between you and me I’m pretty sure I know who did it.”

  “Who?”

  “Well, I can’t say over the phone. It’s not exactly confidential formation. You remember him. He smashed up that big white Bentley. You know who I’m talking about? From the party? I think he’s one of the houses you clean. No big secret.”

  Silence.

  Youkilis.

  And everybody knows.

  And no one cares.

  “Are you still there, María?”

  “Yes.”

  “You sweet-talk him, María, don’t let anyone touch my car. I’ll fucking kill them.”

  “Ok.”

  “Ok. Good. Hold the fort. I’ll be back. See you Monday.”

  It wasn’t late. The room clock said nine but Paco was already asleep, exhausted from a day’s overtime.

  I needed sleep too.

  Quietly I stored my supplies in the backpack and wrote a quick note for Paco. It didn’t convey much of anything. “Paco, you’ve been more than a friend, but this next step belongs to me alone. If all goes well I will see you tomorrow before I take the bus to Mexico. If all does not go well, I want to thank you for everything. Love, María.”

  I read it, reread it, thought of crumpling it, left it.

  I laid out my clothes, the backpack, the keys to Esteban’s car.

  I climbed under the sheet. Closed my eyes.

  My head hurt. The wires were all fucked.

  Next door a man stumbled in, drunk. He pushed his bed across the floor with an ugly screeching noise. He started to sing. Paco didn’t stir. Poor kid. I examined his face. The bruise on his cheek from New Mexico had turned yellow. He looked young, vulnerable. We were all vulnerable. We were all on the box here. Above the trapdoor.

  Time went past without sleep choosing to descend.

  I looked at my watch. Ten minutes to eleven.

  Fuck this. Call Ricky. Talk to him.

  The lobby. Deserted. Early for America but late Mex time. Everyone up since four digging ditches or removing brush or cleaning rooms or minding kids or making food.

  I took out the calling card and rang him direct. Please be in, just this once, hermano.

  “Ciao,” he said.

  “Isn’t that goodbye?” I asked him.

  “Honey, it’s you!”

  “It’s me.”

  “How are you?”

  “Good . . . Listen, Ricky, I thought I would let you know, I’m going to try for it tonight.”

  A pause. “Is it our boy?” he asked cautiously.

  “Yes. You were spot on, Ricky. I’ve wasted enough time.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t want to say over the phone.”

  “Of course. Sorry.”

  A longer pause. My phone card minutes being eaten up.

  “I talked to Mom yesterday. She sent you a message,” he said at last.

  “From Mother? There’s a message from Mom?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What is it?”

  “Well, you know how she is,” Ricky said sheepishly, preparing me for something about Yoruba gods or a warning about rapists or a request to pick up some oranges for Dad so he could sell them at the Pan American Games.

  Ricky cleared his throat. “She says to tell you that she cast the fifty-second hexagram. You’re to study the fifty-second hexagram. I think it’s a reference to the I Ching.”

  “Yeah. I know. Did Chinese my first year, remember?”

  “Yeah.”

  More silence, more talk without words.

  “What happened to her, Ricky? Do you think it was Dad leaving or the time in jail?”

  “Nah. It’s just one of those things.”

  A voice in Ricky’s apartment asked him something. “Hold on,” Ricky hissed with his hand over the receiver.

  Let him go. He can’t help. “I have to run. I love you, Ricky.”

  “I love you too, big sis. Remember, you don’t have to do anything, you can just come home.”

  “I know.”

  “Be careful.”

  “I will.”

  “Bye.”

  “Ciao.”

  I hung up, looked at the phone. Ricky hadn’t helped. I didn’t feel validated. I felt worse. I felt bad and cheap, as if this whole thing was some monstrous vanity project. Jack and I weren’t that far apart. I should have seen it in the desert. Should have seen it before now.

  The script fluttered in the wind: Mercado walks back to her room. Close-up on her face. She looks tired. She turns the door handle. The door creaks. She goes inside. The room is filled with moonlight . . .

  Too slow. Skip to the end. Is that me walking on Malecón or am I on some slab in the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office?

  The last page had been ripped out.

  I sat on the bed. Good old Paco, still out for the count. A million TV ads for sleep aids in this country. You want a good night’s sleep? Work like a fucking Mexican.

  I slipped between the sheets, set the alarm for two hours hence. Pulled the covers over my eyes and tried to get some z’s. After all, two hours was better than nothing and there was going to be an even longer day ahead.

  CHAPTER 16

  GUNMETAL

  T

  he highway goes silent. The forest holds its breath. The mountain sleeps. The image of the fifty-second hexagram is also a mountain—the youngest son of heaven and earth. The male principle is at the top, the female principle beneath. It is a hexagram denoting stillness. But in the Book of Changes rest is only equilibrium between forces. Movement is always on the verge of breaking out. Why that one, Mother? But then again, why any of it? Why the cards, the yarrow stalks, the Santería church? Why would someone who has no future care about the future?

  My eyes flutter. Open.

  The floor. The wall. The two beds.

  I haven’t slept.

  Paco’s still out. I can tell when he’s deep down because it’s almost as if he’s dead. When he does meet the horseman they’re going to have to hold a mirror over his mouth.

  As if reading my thoughts, he smiles. One of those little grins that means so many things. He’s got back doors, does Paco.

  I walk to the window. Snow coming down like cherry blossoms. Floating. Not the way I imagined it to be. In the old reel-to-reel Soviet flicks that we used to get on Saturday nights it always seemed harder, more painful, somehow. Not soft like this. Why would all those French soldiers fleeing Moscow complain about this? It’s beautiful.

  My watch says 12:30. It’s already Monday. Shit. I have to go.

  I grab my clothes, open the front door, ease out the heavy backpack.

  Better to get dressed on the outside walkway than risk having to deal with him. If I tell him he can’t come, he’ll see it as an assault on his manhood.

  Snowflakes as big as mandarin oranges. I put out my hand and catch a few. Lick them off.

  Dress: black
jeans, black long-sleeved T-shirt, thick black sweater, black ski mask, light jacket, black gloves, black sneakers. I check the backpack: rope, knife, sledgehammer, duct tape, road map, two guns.

  Snow over everything.

  It’s ok.

  I zip the main pocket, heave it on my shoulders, go downstairs.

  Ice crystals on the bottom steps. The smell of pine and laurel.

  I walk to the Range Rover, throat dry, eyes filled with tears, knees shaking.

  Not cut out for this. They saw that in Cuba, or they would have promoted me before now or invited me to join the DGI. They knew I wasn’t made for the rough stuff. Few women go high in the Party brass, but some do and are rewarded with those elusive travel visas to Vietnam or North Korea or China.

  They don’t hand those out to lightweights. Like me.

  I take out the car key, press the button, the car unlocks. Always seems like a miracle.

  I shiver. Get in, put the key in the ignition, start the engine, turn on the heat.

  “Now what?”

  Get on with it, that’s what. But I sit there, warming my hands over the vents. Reluctant to move. The gun’s been bothering me. I wonder if Mr. Jones is still awake.

  The gun.

  Esteban’s cell phone.

  On the second ring Mr. Jones picks up. “Hello?”

  “Mr. Jones, I’m sorry to bother you at this hour, you probably remember me, I was the lady who broke into your house.”

  “Yeah, what can I do ye for? In the market for another weapon? I’m up, I’ll be up for a couple of hours.”

  The Range Rover purrs into life. Very quiet. I like that. Almost as quiet as Jack’s Bentley. I put the ski mask on, drive out onto Lime Kiln Road.

  Mr. Jones’s lights are the only ones still burning.

  A little tremor of doubt. Maybe he has hard feelings.

  Park. Walk the drive. Ring the bell.

  No answer.

  This isn’t about the gun. Who gives a fuck about the gun? What the hell am I doing here? It’s what the PNR psychologist would call “displacement activity.”

  It’s bullshit, is what it is.

  The truth is I don’t want to see Youkilis. I don’t want to torture the truth out of him even if he does deserve it.

  I ring the bell again. While I’m waiting I take the ski mask off.

  Finally Mr. Jones opens the door. He’s wearing a coat, dark blue jeans, and work boots. He’s covered with mud.

  “So that’s what you look like. Figured you was older. Come in, come in.”

  I sit down in the living room. Funky smell. TV blaring. He turns it off.

  “Drink?” he asks.

  “Sure.”

  He comes back with a mug a quarter filled with clear liquid. I drink it. It doesn’t burn like Havana moonshine.

  “It’s good,” I say.

  He smiles. “Excuse the dirt, I was out checking my traps,” he says.

  I nod. “I’d like to show you something,” I say.

  I produce the gun. He takes it, holds it up to the light.

  “A thousand dollars,” he says. “It’s a fair price. I can get three times that, but you can’t.”

  “I just want to know about it. It looks unusual.”

  He nods. “You’ve a good eye. It is unusual. Real collector’s item. It’s a Russian Stechkin APS pistol, Cuban-made, 1993 to 1999—you can tell that because it’s manufactured from gunmetal, not stainless steel—good stock, sights set for twenty-five meters, at one point it was fitted with a silencer, it—”

  “Gunmetal” catches my attention.

  “Excuse me, what? Gunmetal? I’ve heard that before. What is that?”

  “Gunmetal is a type of bronze, an alloy of copper, tin, and zinc. Where I’m from—Macon County, Alabama—they still call it red brass.”

  “It’s a metal? That’s what they make guns out of?”

  He laughs. “Not anymore. Everybody uses steel. That’s how I spotted this little beauty right away. I don’t know if you know much about Cuba, but after the USSR collapsed they couldn’t get steel. Went back to gunmetal for their Stechkin knockoffs.”

  I nod but I’m confused. My PNR pistol was a standard Chinese revolver. I’d never seen one of these before.

  “So where did this gun come from, I mean, who has these?” I ask.

  “I reckon they made about two thousand of ’em. I can check my book. As far as I know—and what I don’t know ain’t worth shit—they was for KGB, the Cuban KGB, whatever they is.”

  “The DGSE, internal security, or the DGI, Raúl Castro’s secret police.”

  “Yeah, something like that. Where’d you get it?”

  The room spinning, the walls closing in.

  I get up. “I have to go. You can keep the gun. I don’t want it.”

  He shakes his head. “This belongs to you,” he says.

  Ok. I throw it in the backpack, forget about it.

  A thank-you. A goodbye. Even a good luck.

  I get out, breathe the cold air.

  What does it mean?

  Dad had a spook’s gun. Did they send someone to kill him? Had he survived the attack and taken the gun? Was he a spook himself?

  No, they were after him. That’s why he was calling himself Suarez and living as a Mexican. Had he stolen the gun in Havana? Bought it? Killed someone? How long had he been planning his defection? What exactly happened that weekend we went to Santiago?

  Too many questions. Information overload.

  Fuck it. Just drive.

  I get in the car. Hit the lights. Back to town. Malibu Mountain. The Old Boulder Road.

  Cruise. Watson. Tambor. Tyrone. Lights off.

  Youkilis. Lights on.

  Park the car. Cut the beams. Wait . . . Wait . . . Wait.

  Snow stops. Moon comes out.

  A car drives past. Damn it. Can’t sit here all night.

  “I’ll kill half an hour at the motel and then come back,” I say to myself.

  Down the hill.

  I pull into the motel parking lot and there, standing in front of me with his arms folded, is Paco.

  T-shirt, boxer shorts, coat, cigarette, no shoes. Furious. A button winds down the driver’s-side window. “Francisco, you’ll catch your death, go back inside,” I say like a big sister.

  He walks to the Range Rover. “I’m not cold. Where are you going?”

  “That’s my business.”

  He shakes his head. “No. It isn’t. It’s our business. We’re in this together.”

  “Nicaraguan idiot. You’re out of your depth.”

  “I think it’s you that’s out of your depth,” he says.

  He reaches into the car and tries to grab the keys.

  “Fuck off!” I tell him and push his hand away.

  “Get out of the car!” he hisses.

  “Who do you think you are?”

  “I’m someone who doesn’t want to see you get killed. Get out of the car.”

  “Why the hell should I?”

  Paco thinks for a moment. “For one thing, you don’t know that Esteban’s changed his plans. He’s going to be back tomorrow morning by seven and he seems the type that’ll notice if his fucking car is missing. He’ll call the cops. How long were you planning on taking it?”

  Two-hour drive to the lake. One-hour interrogation. Two hours back. Not enough time. On my return the police would be looking for a stolen car.

  “Mierde,” I mutter.

  Paco nods. “Let me get dressed. I’ll drive you to the house.”

  “What good will that do?”

  “You can steal Youkilis’s car,” Paco says with a wolfish grin.

  He’s figured out everything.

  I underestimated him. What else have I got wrong?

  “Won’t someone report that his car has been stolen?” I ask.

  “Who? Youkilis will be in the trunk, going wherever it is you’re taking him, and you can leave a note on the kitchen table that says, ‘Gone for drive, b
ack at noon’ or something . . . Right?”

  “Right.”

  “Good, now wait there,” he says and runs upstairs to pull on his jeans and a sweater.

  I shift to the passenger side.

  Make a decision.

  Whatever else he says, he’s not coming with me.

  “You’re not coming with me,” I tell him when he returns.

  “Why not?”

  “This is personal. This is nothing to do with you. And . . . and I want to do it by myself.”

  He doesn’t answer. “Did you hear what I said?” I ask him.

  He turns to look at me. He nods, slowly. “I heard and I know why you said it,” he replies hesitantly.

  “But what?” I ask.

  “But I’m just not sure you can handle it. Kidnapping a man from his house, interrogating him. It’s not you.”

  “I’m a cop. I’m in the Cuban PNR. A detective. I’ve done my fair share of shaking people down, bracing defendants. All the heavy play, all the games. I know what I’m doing.”

  “A cop? You?”

  “Me.”

  He coughs to hide his skepticism. “Well, ok, but when I was a kid in Nicaragua—”

  “Jesus, if I never hear that line again . . .”

  “This is pertinent.”

  “I don’t want to hear it.”

  “Your loss. I am a fucking font of knowledge,” he says with a laugh.

  “Come on, I don’t have time for this.”

  Paco fakes a hurt look, nods, reverses the Range Rover out of the spot, and heads it up the mountain.

  “How did you figure it was Youkilis?” he asks.

  “I could ask you the same question.”

  “The way you looked at him. It was the way you looked at those men in New Mexico.”

  “I had him from the get-go. My brother, Ricky, ran the garages and found that only two cars had been brought in that weekend. An old lady called Mrs. Cooper whose story checks out and Jack Tyrone’s Bentley.”

  “Tyrone.”

  “Yeah, except that Jack was in L.A.”

  “So you think Youkilis was driving Tyrone’s car?”

  “That’s what I’m going to find out.”

  Paco looks at me doubtfully, knitting the eyebrows of his kid’s face. “You’ve covered all the angles?”