Havana Bay

'And how to be a neumdtico?'

'Yes.'

'And what is the most important rule a neumdtico has to follow? Never go out alone at night. I don't think Pribluda went out alone on that Friday two weeks ago. I think he went out on the water with his good friend Mongo.'

Mongo rested his chin on his chest. Sweat poured off the man as if he were a fountain, not the sweat of fear like Bugai's but sweat that came from the heavy work of guilt. It was late in the day. Arkady got more beers so Mongo could sweat some more.

'He said it was like ice fishing for sharks,' Mongo said.» He used to tell me all about ice fishing. He said I should come to Russia and he would take me ice fishing. I said 'No, thanks, comrade.''

'What time did you go into the water?'

'Maybe seven. After dark, because he knew how that would draw attention if people saw a Russian in a tube. Voices travel on water, so even when we were out there he would whisper.'

'What was the weather like?'

'Raining. He still kept his voice low.'

'Is that a good time to fish, when it's raining?'

'If the fish are biting.'

Arkady considered that fisherman's truth and asked, 'Where did you go in?'

'West of Miramar.'

'Near the Marina Hemingway?'

'Yes.'

'Whose idea was that?'

'I always said where we were going to go, except that time. Sergei said he was tired of Miramar and the Malecon. Sergei wanted to try somewhere new.'

'Once you were in the water you stayed there. Or did you go west? North? East?'

'Drifted like.'

'East because that's the way the current runs, by Miramar and the Malecon and towards .'

'Yes.'

'And, on the way, the marina? Whose idea was it to go in there?'

Mongo slumped against the wall.» So, you already know.'

'I think I do.'

'We really fucked up, huh?' Mongo beat nervously on the bench, stilled his hands and let the rhythm drop.» I said, Sergei, why would we want to fish in the marina with the guardia to chase us and maybe a boat moving through? That's an active channel, and it's night and the boats won't see us, I said, it's crazy. But I couldn't stop him. The guardia was in their office out of the rain. If you come in close they can't see you anyway, not at night in a tube. I followed Sergei up the channel, that's all I could do. He seemed to know where he was going. They have lights there, but they don't reach down to the water so well. No one was fueling. The disco was shut down because of the rain. We could hear people at the bar, that's all, and then we were in a canal where boats were docked one after the other and Sergei headed for this one I couldn't even see at first, it was so low and dark. Very sleek, an old boat but fast, you could tell. There were lights in the cabin and Americans on board, we could hear them but we couldn't see who. Right away, I knew that this was some kind of business of Sergei's he was getting me into. I told him I was going, but he wanted to climb up and see who was in the boat, which is difficult because there is an overhang on the dock. I was leaving when the lights on the boat went out. My whole body vibrated. Sergei was about five meters away between the boat and the dock and he was shaking, shaking, shaking. They let those rucking power leads lie in the water. I couldn't get any closer. Then I saw flashlights come up on deck and I hid.' Mongo nodded in doleful self-judgment.» I hid. They came up to see if it was just their boat or everyone and while they talked back and forth to the person in the cabin Sergei drifted out. He wasn't shaking anymore. They didn't see him and they didn't see me because I stayed in the dark.

'As soon as his tube's clear, I told myself, I'd pull Sergei over, but before I could get to Sergei another boat came up the canal. There's not a lot of room. The boat went by and then Sergei went by. Sometimes, you know, boats trail tackle in the water, they shouldn't but they do, and Sergei was hooked by the net of his tube. He went by faster than I could keep up. I knew he was dead by the way he sat. They went out the canal together, the boat and tube. I knew once they cleared the guardia dock and opened the throttle they would feel the line and find Sergei or the hook would cut the net.

'Or maybe they would find Sergei and just cut him loose, because who needs to get involved with a dead neumdtico, no? That would be a story they could tell in a bar in Key West about a crazy Cuban they caught one time. I don't know, I just saw my friend being towed in the dark until I couldn't see him anymore. By the time I got past the guardia I couldn't even see the boat.'

'Did you see its name?'

'No.' Mongo drank the last of his beer and stared at the pail offish.» I didn't even do that.'

'Who did you tell about this?'

'No one until you showed up. Then I told Erasmo and Facundo because they're my compays, my good friends.'

The water was flat and glassy enough for pelicans to skim their reflection. Despite the accumulated heat of the day Arkady felt oddly comfortable, balanced by beer and overcoat.

'The men who came on deck of the boat that lost its power, did you recognize them?'

'No, I was looking for Sergei or trying to hide.'

'Did they have guns?'

'You know,' Mongo said, 'it doesn't matter. Sergei was dead by then and it was an accident. He killed himself, I'm sorry.' Mongo looked at the fish.» I have to go keep these fresh. Thanks for the beer.'

An accident? After all this? But it made sense, Arkady thought. Not only the heart attack but the general confusion. Murders had much better cover-ups. Then he had arrived from Moscow the same time the body was found in the bay. Small wonder why Rufo had rushed to be his interpreter, and why Luna had been so badly surprised by the photograph of the Havana Yacht Club. No one had known what happened to Pribluda.

As Mongo resettled his cap and inner tube on his head, and picked up his flippers and fish, Arkady thought of Pribluda's tow in his rubbery sleigh out of the marina to deeper water-the Gulf Stream, O'Brien had said-where he either tore loose or was cut free by a no doubt exasperated fisherman.» Cubans are biting tonight!' Would that have been the joke? Then the long journey in the rain, drifting past Miramar, along the Malecon to the mouth of the bay, a 'bag bay,' as Captain Andres of the good ship Pinguino had said. Under the beam of the lighthouse on Moro Castle and then a swing toward the village of Casablanca to gently snag among the nest of plastics, mattresses and worm-riddled piers, all sheeted by petroleum scum, where a body could comfortably rest in the rain for weeks.

Arkady took Pribluda's photograph from under his coat and asked, 'Who took this picture?'

'Elmar.'

'Elmar who?'

'Mostovoi,' Mongo said as if there had been only one photographer in the group.

Confession was always short-lived and always conditional, and both men knew it wasn't as if Arkady had the authority to question anyone. Just for the sake of a reaction, though, Arkady read the reverse of the picture.» 'The Havana Yacht Club.' Does that mean anything to you?'

'No.'

'A joke?'

'No.'

'A social club?'

'No.'

'Do you know what's happening there tonight?'

That was pressing too hard. The elusive Mongo backed into the street and broke into a gliding sort of trot, a one-man caravan, his headgear undulating with every step. He slid by a blue wall, pink wall, peach and the shadow of an alley seemed to reach out and swallow him up.