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Boris and Snake left the lab and walked down Porter Street towards their vehicles. The early May sunshine was beautiful even in this dark, poor and dingy part of Richmond.
"Let's take a ride over to where our event is this weekend. It'll help us get a lay of the land," Boris suggested, a jovial smile on his face.
Snake stared at him. He’d never seen Boris smile about anything, much less look happy. At first, he was overtaken by a feeling of suspicion but then looked up and said, "Sure, man. Anything you want to do. My time is your time for the next few days.
They reached Boris’s van and he said, "Hop in. We'll take my ride."
"Nah, I'll take my own car," Snake said. He never wanted to go anywhere without his own wheels. He never knew when he'd need to get the hell out of Dodge.
Boris shook his head. "No. Get in. I don't want our cars seen together so why take the chance?”
Snake gave him a taciturn look. “No. I don’t leave my car, ever. I like my own wheels,” he insisted, his voice louder.
“I said get in, now,” Boris insisted, a look of impatience on his face.
Snake sneered at him. "I don't think that makes any difference, at least not in this gig. I'll meet you there."
Boris grabbed Snake’s upper arm and held it in a vice-like grip. "Did you hear me, man? I said get in. Remember, I'm your boss."
Anger flashed through Snake as he grabbed Boris’s hand and yanked it off his arm. "Okay, dude. But just this one time. I like having my own ride. Get it?" he added sarcastically.
Boris pointed to the passenger side of his vehicle and Snake walked around the van and hopped in. The vehicle was a filthy, nasty mess. It was full of fast food wrappers, old newspapers, drink cups, half-smoked cigarettes, dirt, mud and other things he couldn't identify. It also smelled like dead fish.
He shook his head and looked at Boris, "Phew, this van stinks like somebody’s dead in it.” As soon as he said it, he instinctively looked in the back of the van and saw a large tarp covering what suspiciously looked like a body. He shook his head and said, "Aw man, you gotta be kiddin’ me. You don't have a stiff back there do you?"
Boris looked over his shoulder as if uncertain if he had a body in the back or not. He scratched his head and smiled. "It's no big deal. We’ll drop 'em off on the way."
Snake swallowed hard to keep his lunch down. He didn't have an aversion to dead people, or to dead bodies in general. But he didn't want to ride around in a closed up van with one either. Besides, the car had been sitting in the sun all afternoon. "You know what, man, you're crazy. Nobody drives around in the middle of the day with a body in the back of their car." Snake reached for the door, but Boris grabbed his shoulder.
He stared at him and said, "If you don't settle down, you'll be the fresh body in the trunk. It's no big deal. I've done it before."
Snake shook his head and reached for his seatbelt to settle in for the ride. How in the hell did I ever get hooked up with this whack job? This guy is totally nuts and I wouldn't put anything past him. He wondered if his fat paycheck was worth the effort. Snake had worked with a lot of people in his day, but Boris was the most dangerous. The Russian was unbalanced and deranged. Snake had watched him inject the mice and cats in the lab with poison and watched them die horrible deaths. It was clear he loved killing. And, the way he’d mutilated fish was insane.
Neither man spoke during the short drive to the pump station on the James River. Snake stayed in the car and watched as Boris dragged the body from the van and kicked it off the riverbank into the water. I'm never getting mixed up with this freak again.
Boris stood on the bank of the river, wiped his hands on his pants and watched until the body disappeared underwater. Snake hoped no one crossing the Boulevard Bridge saw the body sinking slowly into the water.
Boris returned to the car and smiled at Snake, showing his rotting teeth. "See, that wasn't so bad. Easy as pie," he said as he backed his vehicle out of the wooded area.
Snake held his tongue although there was lots he could've said. He wondered who the dead man was but figured it was better if he didn't know.
Boris read his mind and said, "That man wasn't nobody important. I gave him twenty-five dollars and tried out poisons on him until I got the dose right, well, almost right. I didn't think he was gonna die, but he did. At least he had a couple bottles of cheap whiskey before he croaked," he said with a chuckle.
Snake nodded but didn't say anything. A few minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot at Richmond's Carillon, an open air theatre on Byrd Park Lake. There was obviously a play that evening and people were dressed in costumes. The Carillon was home to many outdoor festivals where artists came from all over the United States to market their talents. Thousands of Richmonders turned out for the festivals to spend the day in the park drinking beer and wine and perusing one-of-a-kind art creations from all over the country.
"So, this is where we’re gonna do it?" Snake asked as he looked around.
Boris nodded as a large smile spread over his skeletal face. "This is one place. We should be able to hit hundreds of people here, no question."
Snake looked around again and asked, "What are you gonna do? Hit the food trucks?"
Boris gave him an enterprising look and a sardonic smile. "Among other things. Come on, let's walk over and check out where the food and beer will be. That's part of our staging area."
Snake said nothing but followed him under a grove of trees. Nobody paid attention to them. For all anyone knew, they were a couple of artists, perhaps a potter and a sculptor checking out their art space.
Boris pointed to a huge area near the lake. “That’s where the beer tent will be and the beer trucks will be parked around it. That’s our main kill area. We’ll go over to the largest breweries after dark and scope out their tanks or kegs.
“Their tanks?”
“Yeah. The stainless steel tanks that hold the beer. Then we’ll go back tomorrow evening and ‘fix’ them.”
“Huh, I don’t follow.” Snake had lost interest and bent down to scratch his ankle.
“Yeah, you know, fix them, doctor them up so the beer will be memorable.” Boris said with an evil wink, a happy smile stretched across his thin face.
Snake shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever. Do we need to stay here any longer? I swear somethin’ is biting me.”
Boris grinned again and said, “Nah, let’s go.” He turned around, took one last look at the beer area and smiled. “Yeah, I’m done. Let’s get outta here.”