angry. He is angry at Rudy, and he is angry at me. We start to beat up Rudy a bit, you know. To make him to listen. But my heart is not in my work, because I feel bad about Linda. Hassan gets mad at me again, too. I tie Rudy’s wrists, and Hassan hits him many times. Rudy falls down and starts to kick Hassan. It was very bad.”
“Why was Hassan so mad? “asked Hester. “Did Rudy talk to Orejas and tell him to stop?”
“No. Rudy came to us first, I think. Me and Hassan. He never had a chance to talk to Orejas about it after that.”
“So why was he so mad at Rudy?”
“Because, Rudy, if he go to Orejas and tell him to stop, the experiment cannot be done, and the boss of Hassan will get very angry at Hassan.”
“So Hassan pisses off his boss…so what?”
“Boss of Hassan is very bad man. Very bad. Very important in many places. Hassan would be killed in a slow way and the way will be full of meaning to others.”
“So,” I asked, “just how did Rudy find out that Orejas was involved in the first place? Do you know? “It wasn’t adding up.
Skripkin lowered his eyes. “I am afraid that I tell Linda after we are making love. She likes Orejas, he is like a little pet to her. So she tells Rudy. But she tells him everything, you know? About me, about screwing, about all these things.” He looked up again. “Women I do not understand very well. I think very hard that if Rudy did not have so much on his mind, he might not have done what he did.”
“Good bet,” I said. “Okay, now, back to you four at the farm. Rudy was kicking Hassan. What happens next?”
“Yes. Sure. So, after Hassan is kicked by Rudy, Hassan gets very, very angry. He says, ‘Okay you motherfucker, we will see how you talk to the boss.’ He says it just that way. You understand, they are speaking Spanish to each other most of the time, okay? I don’t understand Spanish. So I don’t know all that is said. But when he wants me to know, he speaks English. You understand he is not Arab person. He is Mexican kind of person. He calls himself Hassan because he says he has come to that religion. You see?”
“I think so,” I said.
“Good. Do not forget this, that Hassan is not Arab. So he tells me and Chato in English to put Rudy in the car, in the back, and he has me in the back, too, because I am so big to Rudy. Hassan and Chato, they are in front. Chato is our driver. Hassan gets the shotgun that is in the…back. No, trunk, in trunk, and has it in now with him. He tells Chato to go to Iowa City.”
“Iowa City?”
“That is where we can meet the boss.”
“And that would be…?” asked Hester.
“Pardon, lady agent?”
“What’s the name of the person you refer to as ‘the boss’?”
“I tell you before. This is something I do not know.” He gave her an intense look. “You must believe me, lady agent.”
“I’ll try,” said Hester, dryly.
“Okay,” I said. “Then what?”
“I am feeling badly about things, and not looking at anything but Rudy, but Hassan is starting to really talk loudly at Chato about going the wrong way. So Chato, he stops in a hurry, and starts to back up, and when he does this, Rudy opens the car door and he just falls backwards out of the car, and he gets away.”
We questioned him more closely, and established that he was on the left side in the rear of the car, and that Rudy was on the right side. As Chato started to try to turn the car around on the narrow, sixteen-foot gravel road, he pulled toward the left and stopped very close to the ditch on that side. Most of that was explained with hand motions, and I was very glad we were on video. When they were stopped for a second while Chato shifted into reverse, Rudy got out the back door on the right. Skripkin figured that Rudy’s hands, being bound behind his back, had been near the door latch, and that he had grabbed it when Chato braked hard. At that point, Skripkin was trying to get out on the left side and go after Rudy, but Chato apparently didn’t realize that Rudy had gone out of the car, and started to back up. That also slowed Hassan’s exiting down, and actually knocked him over when his open car door pushed him to the ground. It also made him even madder. Skripkin said that they both were delayed for a second or two, and that Rudy disappeared around the curve. He also said that for a moment, he thought Hassan might shoot Chato for being so stupid.
It had a ring of truth. It seemed to have been the sort of total screw-up that was typical in most crimes.
“So, then what happened?” I asked.
“We were running up this road after him,” said Skripkin, “and Hassan was in front of me, and then Rudy falls to the ground. And Hassan catches him and so do I, and Hassan is very, very angry. He yells at Rudy, and Rudy, he begins to cry. I do not know what was said, but I think it occurs to Rudy that life is over. And Hassan, he calls him a motherfucker again, and then he just shoots him in the back of the head, while he is kneeling on the ground. Bang. Just like that. Very quick.”
“Just the three of you, and then just the two of you, right?” I asked. I wanted to know if they’d seen old Jacob there.
He grinned. “Good way to say it. Yes. Three, then bang, then two.”
He never mentioned seeing anyone else, so I guess Jacob Heinman had been right with his theory about the cat and the mouse.
“I was not expecting the shooting,” said Skripkin. “I was taken by surprise. I said, ‘What do we do now?’ because we had a body to get rid of. And Hassan says, ‘We leave now,’ and I did not think it wise to argue as I did not have a gun.”
“So you just took off, and left the body on the road? “asked Hester.
“Sure.”
“And you thought you should, what, take it with you?”
“If we take it back to the farm, nobody would ever see it again,” he said. “Nobody would know Rudy was dead. Leaving it on the road is stupid mistake. I search for word…ah, no money for work…Olympics say this.”
“Amateur? “I asked. It sure fit what I was thinking.
“Yes! Amateur is a good word for it.”
“That sounds right,” I said. “But I think you’re pretty damned lucky.”
“Why is that?”
“If Hassan hadn’t left the body in the road, you and Chato would have been the only other persons who would have known where it was. I got a feeling that you’re both pretty damned lucky you didn’t help him hide it, because I think he would have shot you, too.”
He thought about that. “Probably.”
“Maybe not so amateur all the time,” I said. “Okay, now, why…”
“I have question,” said Skripkin. “Can I ask?”
“Sure. Ask away.”
“This immunity that Linda is doing. Am I included? She said I was to be included.”
It was time to set that straight. “No. As far as we know, your name has never been mentioned.”
“I see.” He shook his head sadly. “Women. They tell you anything to get you to love them.” He tapped his fingers on the tabletop. “So, I can be taken to trial?”
“Yes. You can be charged, and I intend to do that.”
“So, good as it gets,” he said.
“Pardon me?”
“ I got to be in jail. Somewhere. I know this. I am in jail here or I am in jail in Russia. I will take here. Much better places in U.S.A.”
I thought that might depend on which definition of “better” was being used, but didn’t say anything.
The more I thought about it, the more something wasn’t quite right about Skripkin’s information regarding the boss, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I made a quick note, just a question mark and the word “boss.” I’d go back there later.
“Okay, now,” I said. “Just why was all this stuff being done? The substance on the meat, I mean. What was it intended to do?”
