Salvage by Stephen Maher

funeral.”
    â€œWhen’s that gonna be?” asked Scarnum.
    â€œSoon as the Mounties release the body,” said Angela. “What are you gonna do now?”
    â€œI’m going to go back to town and try to find out why these guys killed Jimmy,” said Scarnum. “Seems to me that whoever killed him might wish me ill. I’d like to know who told those Mexicans that I got their cocaine. I’d like to convince that person to tell the Mexicans that I don’t.”
    He looked down at her tummy. “And it seems to me that whoever killed Jimmy owes you some money for the kid.”
    â€œHow you gonna do all that?” she asked.
    â€œI’ll tell you when I figure it out,” he said. “So, tell me,” he asked her, “who do you think Jimmy was moving drugs for?”
    â€œI don’t know,” said Angela. “You know what he was like. He was always out drinking with sketchballs. Could be anyone.”
    â€œAmos told me that five times Jimmy paid him to call in sick,” said Scarnum. “First time was right after Christmas. If he brought in one hundred kilos at a time, that’s five hundred kilos in five months — a thousand kilos, I suppose, if they cut it by half. That’s a lot of coke. I don’t think Jimmy’s buddies from the Anchor would be able to move that kind of volume.”
    Angela didn’t say anything.
    â€œAngela,” Scarnum said, “did Jimmy spend time with Falkenham? Did he ever meet with him? Any reason to think that he might have been the coke buyer?”
    Angela looked out the window and lit a cigarette. “I don’t know how much to tell you,” she said.
    â€œTell me everything,” he said.
    â€œAll right,” she said, and she turned to face him, pulling her legs up on the seat and leaning her back against the passenger-side door. “Don’t blame me if you don’t like it.”
    Scarnum took one of her smokes and lit it. “I won’t,” he said, and he looked at her to show that he meant it.
    â€œWell,” she said. “You know how I told you either you or Jimmy could be the father of my baby?”
    â€œYuh,” said Scarnum.
    â€œWell, so could Falkenham,” she said. “We all partied together. Me and him and Jimmy and Karen.”
    Scarnum’s features didn’t change. “And you fucked Bobby?” he said. “You wouldn’t be the first one.”
    â€œYou don’t get it,” she said. “I fucked Bobby. And Jimmy fucked Karen. And Karen and I, uh, made out. We all did it together.”
    Scarnum kept his eyes on the road, then looked at her to show he wasn’t bothered. “How’d it start?” he asked.
    â€œYou ever see me in my little black dress?” said Angela. “It’s silk, cut down to here.” She lifted her breasts and pulled down her T-shirt with her thumbs so that Scarnum could almost see her nipples.
    â€œI think I’d remember that,” he said.
    â€œYeah, well, I wore it to the SeaWater Christmas party. Bobby noticed it, and so did Karen — maybe her more than him — and when the party ended, we went for a drink up to  Twin Oaks.” After Karen took up with Falkenham, he bought an old mansion on the Peninsula ­— where the richest of the summer people live. Like all the grand houses of Chester, it had its own name: Twin Oaks. “We went to Karen’s studio, an old fish shed on their wharf that she’s fixed up. It’s got a wood stove, huge picture window looking over the bay, her paintings all over the place. And there’s a big bed in there.
    â€œSo, we did some lines and it was killer coke. The same stuff we did the other night on your boat. Then we got crazy. We started dancing and fooling around. Next thing you know, me and Karen were making out. That got the boys awful horny. Then I felt Jimmy behind me, and I kept making out