CELL PHONE, THE CLOTHES HE WORE IN THE ROBBERY, EVERYTHING. JUST NOT THEM.
SPIKIC: YOU’VE BEEN UP YOUR ASS AND KNOW SHIT! YOU HAD BETTER ‘UNDERSTAND’ VERY QUICKLY, MY FRIEND.
VUGOVIC: WE ARE WORKING ON THE HOUSE AT THE BEACH, AND HIS APARTMENT CONTAINED SOME INTERESTING DETAILS. IT SEEMS HE WAS MILITARY. NAVY.
SPIKIC: SO WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU? HE HAS A BOAT?
VUGOVIC: DISCHARGE PAPERS SAY HE WAS A LIEUTENANT. AND THERE WAS ACCOMMODATION FOR BEING WOUNDED. IT MAKES ME WONDER ABOUT UNDERWOOD. I FEEL OUR QUARRY MAY BE MORE FOX THAN DOVE.
SPIKIC: PARENTS, FIND HIS PARENTS OR FRIENDS AND TRUSS THEM UP LIKE GAME BIRDS. THAT WILL FLUSH HIM OUT OF HIS MOTHER’S ASS.
VUGOVIC: THERE WAS NO ADDRESS BOOK, NO LETTERS. THIS MAN HAD VERY LITTLE IN HIS PLACE OTHER THAN EXERCISE EQUIPMENT, A TV, CLOTHES—IT WAS LIKE A MOTEL ROOM, LIKE HE EXPECTED TO LEAVE ANY DAY. YET HIS LANDLADY TOLD US HE HAD BEEN THERE FOR FIVE YEARS.
SPIKIC: WHAT OF THE CUNT?
VUGOVIC: HER PLACE WAS THE SAME. AND SHE, TOO, WAS MILITARY, A NAVY DIVER.
SPIKIC: A DIVER? MAY GOD FUCK YOU IN THE EYES, VUGO, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
VUGOVIC: A NAVY DIVER IS SOMETHING LIKE SPECIAL FORCES. THEY BOTH WERE EX-MILITARY, SO TO MY THINKING THEY WERE USED TO LIVING THE MILITARY LIFESTYLE OF VERY FEW POSSESSIONS, MOBILITY. THIS COULD BE MORE DIFFICULT THAN WE BARGAINED FOR. THESE ARE SOLDIERS.
SPIKIC: THEY ARE NAVY AND THEIR CUNTS CAN’T HOLD WATER! IF YOU CAN’T FUCK THEIR MOTHERS ON THEIR FATHERS’ GRAVE YOU ARE NO BETTER, AND GOD WILL FUCK YOU AND MAKE YOU HIS SPITTOON! FIND THEM! YOU WERE A SOLDIER, AND YOU ARE A SOLDIER! WOLVES EAT WOLVES! FIND THEM!
*END*
Eleven
It was two that afternoon by the time I wedged my bike into a legal space on Main Street in Flushing. It was my third stop, at East Trading Jewelers in Flushing, Queens. On a Sunday afternoon, the Chinatown thoroughfare was jostling with Asians of every stripe on errands. Trudy and I used to have some incredible meals here after seeing Doc Huang. I could never remember what it was called—Spicy and Tasty? Tasty and Spicy? The place had the most incredible string beans with minced pork. Never much of a string bean fan, either of us, and this was our favorite dish, along with the sesame dan-dan noodles. Both of which were good dishes for Trudy to learn how to use chopsticks. I’d never have a chance to eat there again.
Yet my plans had to include making sure I kept my energy up. At a food cart I grabbed a twenty-ounce cola.
Sipping sugar and caffeine, I pushed into East Trading Jewelers, the display cases glowing with gold, the walls festooned with pictures of wedding rings and moist brides.
“I help you today?” A plump Chinese girl with too much eye shadow was behind the counter. She was squeezed into one of those silk sheath dresses.
“Doc Huang is expecting me.”
“Yes, please, this way.”
I followed her wiggle through some back curtains past a small lunch room and bathroom to an office door with a Chinese good-luck emblem tacked on it. She rapped a knuckle on the door.
“Come!”
She closed the door behind me as I stepped into Doc Huang’s lair, the walls lined with locking cabinets above low tables fitted with lamps and magnifiers. Fluorescents under the cabinets ringed the room with light. In the middle of the room was yet another table with a lamp and a magnifier and a plump Chinese woman in a pink pantsuit: Doc. She had taken off her magnifying goggles and held them with one hand. In the other she held a wedding ring with a modest brilliant-cut stone that flickered under her lamp.
She tilted her big head at the ring. “This stone is crap. My cousin wants a thousand for it, and my family will be pissed if I don’t give him the thousand. What would you do?”
“I wouldn’t give him the thousand. I’d tell him all the reasons why: the muddy color, the uneven faceting. I’d tell him I was doing him a favor by giving him five hundred and that if he accepted the money, it was
SPIKIC: YOU’VE BEEN UP YOUR ASS AND KNOW SHIT! YOU HAD BETTER ‘UNDERSTAND’ VERY QUICKLY, MY FRIEND.
VUGOVIC: WE ARE WORKING ON THE HOUSE AT THE BEACH, AND HIS APARTMENT CONTAINED SOME INTERESTING DETAILS. IT SEEMS HE WAS MILITARY. NAVY.
SPIKIC: SO WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU? HE HAS A BOAT?
VUGOVIC: DISCHARGE PAPERS SAY HE WAS A LIEUTENANT. AND THERE WAS ACCOMMODATION FOR BEING WOUNDED. IT MAKES ME WONDER ABOUT UNDERWOOD. I FEEL OUR QUARRY MAY BE MORE FOX THAN DOVE.
SPIKIC: PARENTS, FIND HIS PARENTS OR FRIENDS AND TRUSS THEM UP LIKE GAME BIRDS. THAT WILL FLUSH HIM OUT OF HIS MOTHER’S ASS.
VUGOVIC: THERE WAS NO ADDRESS BOOK, NO LETTERS. THIS MAN HAD VERY LITTLE IN HIS PLACE OTHER THAN EXERCISE EQUIPMENT, A TV, CLOTHES—IT WAS LIKE A MOTEL ROOM, LIKE HE EXPECTED TO LEAVE ANY DAY. YET HIS LANDLADY TOLD US HE HAD BEEN THERE FOR FIVE YEARS.
SPIKIC: WHAT OF THE CUNT?
VUGOVIC: HER PLACE WAS THE SAME. AND SHE, TOO, WAS MILITARY, A NAVY DIVER.
SPIKIC: A DIVER? MAY GOD FUCK YOU IN THE EYES, VUGO, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
VUGOVIC: A NAVY DIVER IS SOMETHING LIKE SPECIAL FORCES. THEY BOTH WERE EX-MILITARY, SO TO MY THINKING THEY WERE USED TO LIVING THE MILITARY LIFESTYLE OF VERY FEW POSSESSIONS, MOBILITY. THIS COULD BE MORE DIFFICULT THAN WE BARGAINED FOR. THESE ARE SOLDIERS.
SPIKIC: THEY ARE NAVY AND THEIR CUNTS CAN’T HOLD WATER! IF YOU CAN’T FUCK THEIR MOTHERS ON THEIR FATHERS’ GRAVE YOU ARE NO BETTER, AND GOD WILL FUCK YOU AND MAKE YOU HIS SPITTOON! FIND THEM! YOU WERE A SOLDIER, AND YOU ARE A SOLDIER! WOLVES EAT WOLVES! FIND THEM!
*END*
Eleven
It was two that afternoon by the time I wedged my bike into a legal space on Main Street in Flushing. It was my third stop, at East Trading Jewelers in Flushing, Queens. On a Sunday afternoon, the Chinatown thoroughfare was jostling with Asians of every stripe on errands. Trudy and I used to have some incredible meals here after seeing Doc Huang. I could never remember what it was called—Spicy and Tasty? Tasty and Spicy? The place had the most incredible string beans with minced pork. Never much of a string bean fan, either of us, and this was our favorite dish, along with the sesame dan-dan noodles. Both of which were good dishes for Trudy to learn how to use chopsticks. I’d never have a chance to eat there again.
Yet my plans had to include making sure I kept my energy up. At a food cart I grabbed a twenty-ounce cola.
Sipping sugar and caffeine, I pushed into East Trading Jewelers, the display cases glowing with gold, the walls festooned with pictures of wedding rings and moist brides.
“I help you today?” A plump Chinese girl with too much eye shadow was behind the counter. She was squeezed into one of those silk sheath dresses.
“Doc Huang is expecting me.”
“Yes, please, this way.”
I followed her wiggle through some back curtains past a small lunch room and bathroom to an office door with a Chinese good-luck emblem tacked on it. She rapped a knuckle on the door.
“Come!”
She closed the door behind me as I stepped into Doc Huang’s lair, the walls lined with locking cabinets above low tables fitted with lamps and magnifiers. Fluorescents under the cabinets ringed the room with light. In the middle of the room was yet another table with a lamp and a magnifier and a plump Chinese woman in a pink pantsuit: Doc. She had taken off her magnifying goggles and held them with one hand. In the other she held a wedding ring with a modest brilliant-cut stone that flickered under her lamp.
She tilted her big head at the ring. “This stone is crap. My cousin wants a thousand for it, and my family will be pissed if I don’t give him the thousand. What would you do?”
“I wouldn’t give him the thousand. I’d tell him all the reasons why: the muddy color, the uneven faceting. I’d tell him I was doing him a favor by giving him five hundred and that if he accepted the money, it was
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