Alaskan Catch

by Sue Pethick

  The man who’d been stacking boxes went out for a cigarette break, and Emily took the opportunity to have a closer look at the work he’d been doing. As she made a count of what was already there, the woman sidled over.

  “You’re one of the interns, huh?”

  “Yes,” Emily said. “I’m with NOAA.”

  The woman glanced furtively at the closed door.

  “How are things going? Still a lot of problems?”

  “Some, yes. Why?”

  “I thought so.” She gave Emily a pleading look. “Why doesn’t anyone do something?”

  “About what?”

  Another quick glance at the door.

  “Him. He’s the one causing the problems, not us.”

  Emily felt as if she’d been jerked awake. Was this woman saying there really was someone behind the problems at the cannery? Someone deliberately causing snafus to happen? She glanced at the door.

  “You mean the guy who just left?”

  “No, the other one.”

  The woman’s wariness was understandable, but maddening under the circumstances. If she knew who the troublemaker was, why didn’t she just come out and say it?

  “Who are you talking about?” she said. “Do you know his name?”

  The woman nodded.

  “Then tell me. Please. I promise I won’t let anyone know who told me.”

  She heard the latch on the metal door click, and the man walked back inside. The woman shook her head and shuffled quickly back to where she’d been working. Emily could have screamed. She’d finally found someone who’d talk to her about the problems at the cannery, and she was too scared to tell her who was behind them. Over the next couple of hours, she tried repeatedly to start up their conversation again, but the woman avoided even making eye contact with her. Unless the man left again, it looked like her chance to find out more was gone.

  Still, Emily thought, it was confirmation that something was going on. She’d have to talk to the others and see if they’d been approached as well.

  * * *

  “Okay, tell us again. What exactly did she say?”

  The six of them were all together at dinner that night—the first time the interns had dined as a group since the night Emily had arrived. The day’s catch limit had been met by midday, and Sam hadn’t needed her to take Bear out for a walk, so Emily had been free to spend some time sharing her concerns with her coworkers. Huddled around a table in the back of the restaurant, they were discussing the conversation she’d had that morning with the woman in the freezer.

  “First, she asked how things were going, were there still problems?”

  “Which means she knew there’d been problems in the past,” Dak said.

  “Right. Then she asked why no one was doing anything about it.”

  “Like what?”

  Everyone turned and looked at Noah. Pushed back from the table, his chair balancing on two legs, he’d been checking his fingernails in an exaggerated show of skepticism.

  Emily scowled. “What do you mean, ‘like what?’”

  “Just what I said.” He looked around. “Come on. We’re interns—we’re only here a couple of months. What the hell are we supposed to do about it?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “How about telling someone?”

  “Like who?”

  “Tim, of course.”

  “Really?” Noah sneered. “You’re sure about that?”

  The way he’d said it brought Emily up short.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” he said, letting his chair fall back onto all four legs, “did it ever occur to you that Mr. Tim Garrett might just be the problem?”

  “Oh, please. He’s the one who’s been getting into trouble over all this stuff. Why would he be causing it?”

  “Is he, really? In trouble, I mean.”

  “Sure. I mean, I think so.” Emily looked around. “I know he’s gotten calls where he has to go running off afterward, and you guys all said there’d been problems before I got here.”

  Embarrassed glances darted around the table.

  “We’ve seen him get phone calls,” Dak said. “And he’s always upset when he comes back.”

  “And I heard him tell one of the managers a couple times that there was a problem,” Uki added.

  “So did I.” Rachel nodded. “But other than that . . .”

  Emily couldn’t help feeling let down. She’d been so excited by the prospect of solving a mystery at the cannery that she hadn’t considered the possibility that there was no mystery there to solve. Thank goodness she’d listened to Sam or she might have done something drastic. It was looking as if this whole thing was nothing more than make-believe.

  “But why would the woman in the freezer tell me there was something going on if there isn’t?” she said. “I mean, okay. I guess we all might have made too much of a few phone calls and overheard conversations, but I didn’t tell anyone about it but you guys. Did any of you say something?”

  “Not me,” Dak said.

  “I didn’t,” Uki added as the others shook their heads.

  “So, we’re right back where we started,” Emily said. “If there’s someone trying to cause problems at the cannery—and I’m not saying there is—then the only thing we can do is keep our eyes open and hope that more evidence comes to light.”

  “Not me.” Noah looked around at the others. “Personally, I’ve got better things to do.”

  “Me, too,” said Kimberley. “I signed up to be an intern, not Sherlock Holmes.”

  Emily nodded toward the other three.

  “What about you guys?”

  “I’m fine with keeping a lookout,” Uki said. “As long as it doesn’t take a lot of time.”

  Dak and Rachel both nodded.

  “Same here.”

  “All right. In the meantime, I’ll hold off saying anything to Tim about it,” Emily said. “Noah’s right. If there’s a chance that he’s part of the problem, we don’t want him to know we suspect anything.”

  * * *

  When Emily had interviewed for the intern position, Tim Garrett had warned her that it rained a lot in Ketchikan, but she hadn’t really believed it until she got there. How could she? The place got as much rain in the month of August as San Diego did in an entire year. It sounded like a lot—and it was—but from day to day it wasn’t really that bad. The rain tended to be intermittent, and most days had at least some period of time when the sun was out and the people there could get outside and exercise or stretch their legs. She imagined it might not be as easy once the days got shorter, but so far, she’d actually been enjoying the change from constant heat and sunshine.

  However, as she and the others stepped outside after dinner that night, the rain was coming down hard, and as luck would have it, Emily had forgotten to bring her umbrella. By the time she made it from the restaurant to the car and then into the house, she was drenched. All she wanted was a nice, hot shower.

  Unfortunately, Kimberley and Rachel had made plans to go clubbing that night and begged to be allowed to use both bathrooms at once, which meant that Emily and Uki would have to wait until they were done to freshen up.

  “No biggie,” Uki said, before she went to her room and shut the door. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Emily, who was reluctant to spoil the detente they’d been enjoying the last couple of days, agreed.

  “Yeah, you guys go ahead,” she told them. “I’m staying in, too.”

  As the other two disappeared down the hallway, she walked out to the garage, took off her wet shoes and socks, and set them on the drying rack, then stripped off her wet jacket, hung it on a hook by the door, and went back into the house to think. In spite of the others’ doubts, she still believed that the woman who’d approached her in the freezer that day had honestly been trying to pass along some important information. The only question was, who was the man she’d been referring to?

  Before Noah brought i
t up, Emily hadn’t even considered that it might be Tim. She’d seen him after one of the calls he’d gotten, and the man seemed genuinely upset. Once his name was mentioned, though, she noticed that none of the others had come to his defense. She’d always thought of herself as a pretty good judge of character, but their silence was unnerving. Could she have so badly misread the man? If nothing else, she thought, it argued against telling him about the woman’s comments—at least until she had more information.

  Rachel and Kimberley took off again a little after eight, saying they’d be home late and promising not to wake her when they came in. Emily nodded and waved them off. Though she appreciated the sentiment, the chances were they’d forget by the time they got back. Her only hope was that she’d be so soundly asleep by then that she’d be able to drift back off once they went to bed.

  Emily walked into the bathroom and ran a hand through her hair. The rain had increased its natural wave, separating it into ringlets that hung down around her face like the strands of an old-fashioned string mop. Definitely not a good look. She was about to turn on the shower when she heard her phone ring. It was Carter—on FaceTime. Thinking of how she must look, her finger hovered over the DECLINE button.

  Then Emily felt a stab of guilt. She couldn’t just send the call to her voice mail; it was Carter’s birthday. She’d sent him a text that morning, thinking she’d call him later, but she’d gotten so caught up in the discussion at dinner that she’d forgotten. With a sigh, Emily realized she’d have to answer. If he was calling now, it probably meant he was at the hospital and might not be free to talk later.

  He doesn’t need to see me like this, though.

  She switched the output to AUDIO ONLY and picked up.

  “Hi there, birthday boy. How’s it going?”

  “Great,” he said. “I got your text this morning. It really made my day.”

  Emily pulled a wry face. Carter wasn’t usually so jolly when the two of them talked on the phone, and he certainly wasn’t in the habit of saying things like it really made my day. Nevertheless, she was touched that he’d enjoyed getting her text, even if she did suspect he’d had a few celebratory drinks.

  “Well, I’m glad,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about you all day.”

  “I’ve been thinking about you, too,” he said. “Uh, Em? I can’t see you. Something wrong with your phone?”

  “No,” she said. “I switched it to audio. I just got in out of the rain and I look awful. I was going to call you as soon as I took my shower.”

  “Yeah, but it’s been a whole week now, and I really miss seeing you. Couldn’t you just turn the video back on?”

  She reached up and fingered one of the dried ringlets of hair. It was like touching a curly piece of straw.

  “Maybe another time. Like I said, I was about to take a shower and I’m not at my best.”

  “Aw, come on. I don’t care about that. I’ll bet you look a lot better than you think.”

  She smiled. Whether or not it was true, it was a sweet thing to say.

  “Oh, okay,” she said. “But only because it’s your birthday. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  As she turned on the video feed, Carter’s face filled the screen.

  “Hey there,” he said, the edges of his grin expanding beyond the phone’s limits.

  Emily grinned back. His silly, too-close face confirmed her suspicion that Carter had been drinking.

  “Hey yourself.”

  “I got you a present,” he said.

  “Nooo. It’s your birthday. You’re the one who’s supposed to get the presents, not me.”

  “Well, maybe if I give you my present, you’ll give me one, too.”

  A premonition of disaster touched Emily’s neck, sending chills down her spine. She shook her head, hoping to stop him from saying anything else. Instead, he held the phone farther from his face, revealing that, far from it being a private conversation, their phone call was being witnessed by dozens of their friends and family. As the partiers waved and called to her, Emily was mortified. They were all in party attire while she stood there looking like a bedraggled street urchin. If it hadn’t been Carter’s birthday, she’d have hung up.

  No, she told herself, he means well. He just wanted to include me in the party. They’re our friends and family members; they’ll understand.

  Then Carter reached into his pocket, took out a small, velvet box, and went down on one knee. He held the open box up to the screen so that she could see the contents: an enormous emerald surrounded by ten tiny diamonds. She gasped. It was the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen.

  “Do you like it?” he said.

  “I love it, but Carter—”

  “The emerald made me think of your eyes.”

  “That’s so sweet.”

  “So will you do it, Em? Will you marry me?”

  Emily looked from the ring to the expectant faces in the room. What should she say? Did she love Carter enough to marry him? Before leaving for Ketchikan, she would have said yes, but now? She didn’t know. In some ways, what she felt for Sam seemed more like love than what she and Carter had, but maybe that was because it was new and hadn’t been tested. Was it possible to love two men at the same time?

  Seconds ticked by as she stood staring at her phone. If she didn’t answer soon, the embarrassed looks would start and Carter would be humiliated. She couldn’t do that to him, Emily thought. Even if she had to break the engagement later, she couldn’t embarrass him in front of all those people.

  “Of course,” Emily said. “Of course I’ll marry you, Carter.”

  “Thanks,” he said, getting back on his feet. “I knew you would.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Emily stared at her feet as water coursed down her back and swirled down the drain. She’d been standing in the shower so long that the water had turned cold, yet she found it impossible to get out. I must be in shock, she thought. It was the only excuse that made sense.

  Why had she answered the phone when Carter called? She knew it was a bad time, that she was still distracted about the woman in the freezer and the other interns’ reactions to what she’d said. It had been a long day, too. She’d been tired and wet, mentally and physically exhausted. Why couldn’t she have just let it go to voice mail and called him back when she was ready? At least then, people might have left the party and the two of them could have talked about it without a bunch of witnesses waiting for her answer.

  She slammed her hand down on the knob to stop the flow of water, her anger switching from herself to Carter.

  Who proposed like that, anyway? When Emily had pictured his proposal—which she had, she admitted, several times—it had always been in some quiet, romantic spot, just the two of them making a commitment together. Instead, Carter had not only turned it into a public spectacle, but he’d made a spectacle of her, too. Darn it, she’d told him she needed to take a shower. Did he really have to put her on display like that? It was almost as if he’d wanted everyone to see what a sacrifice he was making, reminding everyone that she should feel grateful to be marrying so well.

  I knew you would.

  And she had felt grateful. Emily was well aware that the Trescotts were much better off than she and her mother were. In spite of all the money her father had made during his lifetime, his estate had been quite a bit smaller than her mother had expected. They’d both known he was a risk-taker in his business dealings, but neither one had suspected just how much and how often he’d gambled, nor had they realized how risky some of his investments had been. It wasn’t as if they’d been left with nothing, but it did make her mother’s lavish spending habits worrisome. Thank goodness Emily’s own trust fund was in Uncle Danny’s capable hands or she might have had nothing to pay for college, much less something to give her a good start in life.

  If she and Carter did marry, of course, money would never be an issue. Surgery was a well-paid profession, and he and his sister Chelsea stood to inherit their pa
rents’ considerable fortune. There was no doubt in Emily’s mind that the life he was offering her was one of ease and comfort. So why wasn’t she happier?

  And accepting Carter’s proposal didn’t just mean they’d be getting married someday, it meant she’d have to tell Sam she was engaged—now. They could still be friends, she supposed, and she’d be happy to keep watching his dog, but there’d be no more private dinners and lingering looks, much less any stolen kisses. She felt a pang, realizing how happy she’d been lately, playing with Bear on her lunch hour and taking him for walks, then talking things over with Sam when he got home. The thought that she’d have to give up all of that was distressing. She’d need time to find the best way to break it to him.

  Emily had just gotten dressed and was drying her hair when the doorbell rang. She heard Uki answer it, then the murmur of voices. Probably Dak, she thought. He’d been mooning over Uki for weeks. Emily set down the dryer and shook out her hair. It wasn’t perfect, but it looked a heck of a lot better than it had when she and Carter were on the phone.

  There was a knock on the bathroom door.

  “Somebody here to see you.”

  At this hour?

  She opened the door a crack. “Who is it?”

  “That Sam guy. Says it’s important.”

  Emily felt a flash of annoyance. Hadn’t this day been tough enough without having him come over, unannounced? When she’d finally told him about the tensions with Kimberley and Rachel, Sam had agreed not to just drop by without checking with her first. Sure, it was a moot point at the moment, but she was still dealing with the repercussions of Carter’s proposal. She needed time to get her thoughts in order, to be sure that she was doing the right thing before she broke the news to him. Ready or not, however, it looked as if she was going to have to just suck it up and get out there.

  Sam was slumped on the couch when she walked out, looking so troubled that Emily’s first thought was that he already knew about the engagement. But how could he have found out so quickly? Had Uki overheard Carter’s call and contacted him? Or—the thought horrified her—had her mother somehow gotten hold of him?