By Jeff Gard
Saul almost missed the drop at the Del Mar Fish Market in Sarasota, no thanks to his enlarged prostate and the constant need to pee. When he finally arrived, a few fishmongers were already dumping pink ice down storm grates while others hosed down the concrete under their tents. All the king mackerel and blue crab were gone, and decaying flounder and catfish tainted the salt air.
Saul squinted at the scrawled note in his hand and mouthed the catchphrase several times. He paused in front of a stall of trash fish. A sheepshead stared back at him. Its crooked, human teeth reminded him of that devil Morty from the rec center, who gloated over every winning hand at the weekly poker game.
“What can I get ya?” asked a young man in hip waders.
Saul glanced around. The shadows seemed to have eyes. If he got caught… but no, he had been careful. It was just one more pickup. One more, and he was done.
All of it had been for his wife, Hannah, who was probably waking up right now to offer her withering veins to her home care nurse.
“Well, what’ll it be?”
A couple passed behind him, laughing as they slurped down cold brew lattes.
Behind them, a woman bent over a row of kitchen wares. She held up a can opener and spent too much time examining it. She wore stylish jeans, artfully shredded at the thighs, and a leather jacket too heavy for the humidity.
Saul took a deep breath. He was probably just paranoid. He pointed to a triggerfish laid out on its side, its pouty, sassy expression telling buyers to keep on walking.
“Looks just like my first wife,” Saul said. “Got one with a little less fight?”
“Less fight?” repeated the fishmonger. He retrieved a smaller triggerfish from a nearby crate and dropped it on the scale. “That good enough for you?”
Saul wondered how much they had paid this man to safeguard the package. Everybody had a vice to pay for: gambling, drugs, a shopping addiction.
Everyone except him. If it weren’t for the medical bills, he wouldn’t be in this mess. The nurse was too expensive for their fixed income, and the rent on their downtown condo kept rising.
The seller handed him the fish wrapped in butcher paper.
Saul barely made it to the end of the aisle before something hard pressed into his lower back. The muscles throbbed as if harassed by a new kidney stone.
“Careful,” hissed Can Opener woman. Gas station coffee contaminated her hot breath. “Do you know how many people will get hurt if I let you deliver that fish?”
Saul thought of the images on the news: star-spangled coffins exiting a cargo jet, the front half of a federal building collapsing in a dusty cloud of destruction, rolling blackouts in the Midwest. He could be responsible for any of them.
“This is just a misunderstanding.”
“Turn around. Keep your hands low. Don’t draw any attention.”
Saul faced her. Beneath the leather jacket, her wilted blouse was stained with flecks of blood. Her eyes seemed much older than the rest of her.
“Who do you work for?” Saul asked.
“Does it matter? We’re the good guys.”
“Got any bona fides?”
The woman snorted. “Do I look the type to carry an ID?”
Saul considered this. A diamond tennis bracelet hung limply on her wrist. Saul followed her thumb toward the gun in her hand, fingernails chewed to the quick, a circular indentation on her ring finger. “Yeah, you do.”
The woman groaned, reached inside the jacket, and produced a badge. “Fine. Happy?”
The sun rose slowly over the sprawling fish market while seagulls dove and snapped up scraps of flesh. Saul was running out of time to complete the drop. His handler wasn’t the forgiving type, and yet, the possibility of escaping or overpowering the younger woman seemed unlikely.
“Suppose we make a deal,” he suggested.
The agent glanced over her shoulder. “Start talking.”
“I hand over the package, and you let an old man walk.”
“You’ve committed treason,” she countered. “Plus, I could just take the package from you. Remember, I’m the one with the gun.”
“Are you really going to shoot an old man in broad daylight? By the time the cops arrive, my handler will be in the wind.”
She tucked the gun into a holster under her jacket. “All right, then.”
Saul gave her the triggerfish. “Nice bracelet.”
Saul dropped wearily onto the park bench. Slightly out of breath with heart galloping in his chest, he handed over the wrapped sheepshead to a deeply tanned, cinderblock-shaped man in a form-fitting golf shirt.
“You’re late.”
“It’s my prostate. I need a bathroom every couple of blocks.”
Plus, it took forever to double back and buy the sheepshead fish—the genuine package—but Saul wasn’t about to mention this, or his blown cover.
Without turning his head, the blocky man scanned the edges of the park before handing over an envelope. From its thickness, Saul guessed he had enough cash to pay the home care nurse for another year.
“What’s in the fish?” Saul asked.
The handler spilled his sunglasses. “Do you really want to know?”
Saul remembered those coffins on the news and shook his head. “No, I guess not.”
The bench groaned as the man stood. “Pleasure doing business with you. I’ll be in touch.”
“I thought this was the last one.”
“Well, you thought wrong. Do we have an understanding?”
“Yeah.” Saul slumped and buried his crooked fingers in his pockets, where they touched the sharp, cold edges of diamonds set in a gold bracelet.
Then, he nodded slightly toward an unmarked van in the parking lot where a woman waited with nails chewed to the quick. The brake lights flickered, and the van edged toward the handler.
Hannah would like the bracelet, Saul decided. It would make a fine gift.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Great story Jeff, I could really smell the market and loved the twists and turns in the story!
Thank you, Deborah!
I like stories with competent old people.
Good one. I like how the old man could still live at the end of the story and that the bad guy got caught. The “agent” seemed like she was from a special government paranormal agency. Would that assumption be correct?
She does have Scully overtones, doesn’t she? Not intentional, but probably something my subconscious dredged up.
Double crossed the bad guy and got a gift for his wife. Nice. Fun story!
Great setting.
I liked the double twist at the end. Great job!