The Geographer's Library

The Geographer’ s Library
“And so these things stuck in my head, you know, so to sort of loosen
things up, the first thing I said to this Albanian Eddie was, ‘This is a beautiful
country,’ in Albanian. He didn’t know what the fuck I was talking about.”
“Maybe it was your pronunciation,” I said.
“Yeah, everything’s always my fault, right?” asked Joe, belching heartily.
“I guess maybe I wasn’t saying it right, but I tried it four or five times, until he
finally told me to order a drink or get out. So we ordered shots and beers, and
then I asked him if his name was Eddie. He looked surprised and asked how
we knew. I said we were friends of Jaan Pühapäev, and he got really agitated,
saying how Jaan always had too big a mouth, and he’s dead and he’s sorry, but
why did everybody want to talk about Jaan now, and it didn’t matter anyway,
and all this bullshit.”
“So then what?”
“So then Gomes and I flash our shields, but quicklike, so he doesn’t see
they’re from Wickenden, and he goes apeshit. Says he pays the cops every
month. You believe that? Calls me a greedy American pig and tells me to get
out of his place. Says he’s going to call the chief. I tell him go right ahead,
that’s his right. Then he’s pounding on the bar, telling us over and over to just
get the fuck out. So we drain our beers, and he snatches the glasses away and
puts them in the sink. While his back’s to us, I drop one of the shot glasses in
my pocket. It’s there now—thank fuck I didn’t fall on it,” he said, flicking his
front blazer pocket with his middle finger and producing a clinking sound.
“So we’re heading back to the station now, and Sally’ll run the prints through
as many people as he can, see if anything comes up. Probably a long shot, but
you never know.”
“Where do you think he’s from?” I asked. “And why would he tell people
he’s Albanian? And who are you sending the prints to?”
“Inquisitive little fucker, ain’t he?” said Joe to Gomes. “Don’t know
where he’s from. I couldn’t place the accent, and I’m usually pretty good with
accents. Why’s he tell people he’s Albanian? I don’t know, but it seems like a
good story if he didn’t want people to know where he’s really from. I mean,
how many Albanian immigrants is he going to run into up here? Who the
fuck knows what an Albanian sounds like? How many people can even find it
on a map? Could you?”
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