Inside Passage. Burt Weissbourd

      INSIDE PASSAGE

      A Corey Logan Novel

      by Burt Weissbourd

      THIS IS A GENUINE VIREO BOOK

      A Vireo Book | Rare Bird Books

      453 South Spring Street, Suite 531

      Los Angeles, CA 90013

      rarebirdbooks.com

      Copyright ©2013 by Burt Weissbourd.

      All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For more information, address: A Vireo Book | Rare Bird Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 453 South Spring Street, Suite 531, Los Angeles, CA 90013.

      All of the characters and events in this story are imagined, as are many of the Seattle locations. Seattle is, of course, real, though the author has created an imaginary landscape in and around Capitol Hill.

       ISBN 9780988931213

      For Ben, Emily, and Jenny

      Prologue

      In 1987, the former USSR supplied roughly a quarter of the world’s uncut diamonds. Not surprisingly, corrupt Russian government officials began to smuggle rough diamonds to California and sell them on the black market to cutters in Antwerp and Israel. Before long, the Russian mob was selling the uncut gems to cutters all over the world.

      September 1989

      Lester Burrell was a method-of-payment specialist. He was an expert in gems, drugs, various contraband currencies, and laundering. Whenever he could, Lester worked with diamonds. He would use them to pay for weapons smuggled through the Eastern Bloc arms markets for terrorists. Or to buy classified military technology to sell to North Korea. He was always the middleman.

      So it was unexpected for Lester to be partnered with a Russian seller of stolen state-owned rough diamonds. Nevertheless, in 1989 Lester found himself in a bungalow at the Miramar Hotel in Santa Barbara with his Russian partner, a gangster named Yuri. The declining hotel was between the beach and the railroad tracks. Kids liked to put coins on the tracks. Lester liked to knock them off with his cane.

      The Russian gangster had worked with Lester on lucrative three point arms deals. Most recently, it was Afghan drugs for stolen Soviet weapons. Diamonds had been the method of payment. Yuri trusted Lester, especially when it came to diamonds. He even liked the outdated suits Lester wore on his king-sized frame. Yuri said they reminded him of home. So he listened carefully when Lester proposed he steal fifteen million dollars of state-owned diamonds. Lester further proposed that they take the rough diamonds to Canada where he knew a diamond cutter who could launder the stones.

      Yuri had the stones in a Nike gym bag. He had spread a sample on the formica kitchen table where they were being inspected by Lester and his diamond guy, Nick Season. Lester deferred to the guy, which surprised Yuri. The guy wanted to weigh and inspect each of the stones. So Yuri was cooling his heels—he had already counted the cars of two trains that went by out loud—while Lester and Nick inspected diamond after diamond. Yuri liked that Lester was so thorough.

      When Nick Season was satisfied, he stood and stretched. He walked around the table, pensive.

      “Good,” Nick finally said, and came around behind Yuri.

      Yuri was thinking Nick was too good looking for a diamond guy, and he didn’t look Jewish. Still, Lester knew what was what. Yuri would already be dead if Lester hadn’t bailed him out of a broken-down arms deal. The man he answered to would have squashed him like a bug. Boris would be going crazy right about now, throwing his vodka bottles at the wall. Good. Fuck you, Boris.

      Nick put a hand on Yuri’s shoulder, interrupting his musing. “Very nice.”

      Lester poured shots of tequila, one for each of them. Nick was adjusting his belt while Lester raised his glass to Yuri. Then Nick had the buckle in his right hand. Attached to the buckle, somehow concealed under the belt, was a thin icepick-like instrument. In one easy motion, Nick thrust the pick through Yuri’s right eardrum. In one ear and out the other. Just as quickly, the pick was withdrawn. And Yuri lay dead on the tabletop.

      Lester made a churlish sound. “Nice,” was all he said.

      “Al’s waiting in Seattle. He’ll take you to Vancouver.” Nick left.

      Lester lifted Yuri’s head by the hair, looked at his lifeless face. “Nice,” he said again.

      One

      May 2010

      Corey lay in bed, liking the briny sea breeze, even the kelp smells. Each morning she took this time to quiet herself. The tightness was still there, though, at the back of her neck. Gingerly, she cracked a trace of a smile. Today the sky was dishwater white; the sea, gray. Blake Island was washed out, dark, dreary, and shrouded in fog. She missed the lush fir-green that came with sunshine, the splendid, somehow reassuring sight of Mount Rainier, topped with glistening snow, looming large beyond the island. It didn’t matter. She had a window, an open window.

      Six days earlier Corey Logan had earned her release from FCI Dublin, the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, CA. She had done twenty-two months. A condition of her release was three years of probation or “supervised release.” Her probation officer, Dick Jensen, had all kinds of discretionary power, so she intended to be a model supervisee. She could do that.

      What she couldn’t imagine was her psychiatric evaluation, today’s business. Before she went to prison, there had been a dependency adjudication for her son Billy in the State Court system. She was his sole guardian, and when she was arrested, Child Protective Services had taken him from her. She had been unable to regain his custody before being sentenced and sent to prison. In order for her to get him back now, she had to go to dependency court to petition for his return. The dependency court required a psychiatric evaluation, parenting classes, and drug testing. She had taken her parenting classes at the pre-release center. The drug testing was a formality; she didn’t do drugs. Now she had to find a psychologist or a psychiatrist on the court approved list who would do the evaluation and let the court know that she was a “fit parent.” Next week she would see Billy, who had turned fifteen while she was in prison. Thinking of Billy made her neck tense up again, even her throat got tight. When she lost custody, they put him in foster homes, moving him often, never telling her why.

      That made the shrink even more important.

      Corey stared out the window, trying to put Billy out of her mind. Her buoy was wobbling in the wake from the Bremerton ferry. Her eyes settled on her handsome wooden boat.

      The Jenny Ann swayed gently at the red and white buoy she had anchored yesterday morning. Her friend Jamie had bought the 1936 hardtop Chris-Craft back for her at auction. Luckily, her boat was old, used, and tainted by the drugs found on board. Still, Jamie had paid $13,400, almost all the money Corey had.

      As a child, she and her mom had lived aboard more often than not. In those days the thirty-six-foot wooden cruiser with the green and white trim was called Poseidon.

      When her mother died from skin cancer that had spread to her lungs, Corey was seventeen. She was on her own, the last of the Logans. She had painted her mom’s name on the boat herself.

      Corey got out of bed and slipped on sweatpants and a Murder City Devils t-shirt. She flashed on Billy telling her it was weird for a grown up to like that band.

      She went from her small bedroom with its tiny bath to the larger room that was her kitchen, living, and dining room. A floor-to-ceiling brick fireplace separated her bedroom from the great room. She made coffee, then took her diary from behind a chimney brick. It was bound in worn, nut-brown leather, and she liked the way it felt in her hands. Corey sat at the old plank table in front of her hearth. She rubbed a dark spot in one of the maple planks, then made her morning entry:

      Six