by Sue Pethick
“Hey,” she said. “What brings you here?”
He lifted his head, his eyes welling.
“Marilyn’s in the hospital.”
* * *
Neither of them said a word on the drive there. Back at the house, Sam had told her what the situation was—the increasing contractions, the blood, the panicked rush to the doctor—but once they were in the car, any thoughts they might have had about the situation remained private. Emily had volunteered to stay at Sam’s and watch Bear while he returned to the hospital, but he said Kallik had asked specially for her to come along. Marilyn, he said, had been asking for her.
At the emergency room, they found out that Marilyn had not been taken to the maternity ward, and Emily started to cry. Carter had told her once that women in danger of losing their babies were sometimes kept away from the new mothers in hopes of minimizing the pain of their impending loss; the situation must be worse than she’d thought. Then Kallik came out with a cautious smile on his face, and her heart lifted. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all, she told herself. Maybe Marilyn and the baby would be all right.
The two men embraced, then Kallik gave Emily a hug.
“Thanks for coming.”
“Of course,” she said. “I’m flattered you’d ask.”
“How is she?” Sam said.
“Better,” Kallik told them. “They gave her a transfusion and the bleeding has stopped.”
“Do they know what caused it?” Emily said.
“Placenta previa—we lost the last one that way. This time, though, they say it’s in a different place. After they gave her a transfusion, the doctor suggested starting her on steroids in case the baby comes early. Once she’s stable, they’ll move her into a room so they can monitor her overnight. The doc says she should be able to go home tomorrow.”
“Oh, thank goodness.”
Kallik looked at Sam. “Jane can watch her once she’s home, but I’m going to have to stay here at least until tomorrow afternoon.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll make some calls. We’ll have you covered.”
“What about Jack?”
“I’ll take care of Jack. You just take care of your wife.”
“Thanks, man.” Kallik smiled. “You guys ready to say hi?”
Emily looked at Sam. “You go ahead.”
“No, you go,” he said. “I drove them here. Besides, she asked for you, remember?”
“I know she’d like to have another lady to talk to,” Kallik said. “Jane couldn’t make it.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“You have to check in at the desk first. She’s in the second room on the right.”
At the desk, Emily was given a visitor’s badge and a gown. She put them on, grabbed some hand sanitizer, and headed down the hall. Marilyn was propped up in bed, staring at the silent television screen. Emily knocked on the partition, and she waved her over.
“Come in; have a seat.”
She walked over to the bed and pulled up the visitor’s chair.
“How’re you feeling?”
“Eh, could be better. You?”
“The same.” Emily shrugged. “At least I’m not in the hospital.”
“Good point.” Marilyn glanced at the needle taped to the back of her hand. “This sucks, but at least the little tyke’s hanging in there this time.”
Emily felt a sudden rush of emotion, tears filling her eyes.
“I’m sorry I made you walk around the totem park. You were already having contractions. Maybe if you’d stayed off your feet—”
“Hey, hey. Stop it. That had nothing to do with this. The problem didn’t even show up on the ultrasound. It happens; it’s nobody’s fault.”
Emily nodded but couldn’t stop the flow of tears. All the way to the hospital, she’d been thinking about death—not just that Marilyn or her baby might die, but that her relationship with Sam was also going to die and it would be all her fault. How was she going to live with that?
Marilyn leaned over, trying to catch her eye.
“You okay? You look like you lost your best friend.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Emily said. “Just got myself worked up, worried about you and . . . other things. Sorry.”
“Anything you want to talk about?”
“No, that’s okay.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” Emily laughed, embarrassed. “Here I am, blubbering away when I’m supposed to be helping you feel better.”
Marilyn waved away her concern.
“Eh, that’s all right. Gives me something else to think about for a while.”
A nurse walked in and looked at Emily, tapping her watch.
“Looks like I’d better let you get some rest.”
“Thanks for coming,” Marilyn said. “Tell that man of yours I appreciate his bringing you.”
“Sure thing.”
Emily turned and walked away quickly before another cascade of tears started to fall.
* * *
Emily seemed unusually quiet on the way back to the house. Sam cast several sidelong glances in her direction as he drove, hoping for a chance to talk, but it was clear she wasn’t in the mood. On the way to the hospital, he’d chalked it up to concern for Marilyn and the baby, but now he wasn’t so sure. Whatever was bothering her, he hoped she’d tell him soon. He had something he wanted to tell her.
Even before Kallik had called him, Sam had been anxious to talk to Emily. He’d gotten a call that afternoon from a man with a tender for sale, and the ship sounded like exactly what he was looking for. They’d haggled a bit over the price and the guy said he’d think about it, but even if he didn’t agree to bring it down, Sam would still be able to cover the amount. It was great news, something he was eager to share with Emily, but if the time wasn’t right, he didn’t want to push it. Unless and until the seller accepted his offer, he thought, the deal wasn’t really done anyway. Maybe it would be better just to wait until they’d agreed on a price before he told her. Nevertheless, the closer they got to the house, the more her silence worried him. If something was wrong, why wouldn’t she tell him?
“You want to stop and get a coffee or something?”
She shook her head. “Too late. It’ll keep me up.”
“There’s always decaf.”
He grinned, hoping she’d realize that there was something on his mind, but Emily just shrugged and stared out the window.
“If you want something, that’s fine,” she said, “but drop me off first. I really need to get home.”
Her dismissive tone put an end to any hope Sam might have had for discussing the ship that night.
“Yeah, I’d probably better get home, too. I still need to find someone to take over for Kallik tomorrow.”
As he pulled up in front of her house, he leaned over to give her a hug, but Emily had already thrown open the door.
“Thanks for the ride.”
“No problem,” Sam said as he watched her walk away. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 18
Sam would never have told Kallik, but his engineer couldn’t have picked a worse day to miss work. From the second he woke up and saw the blood-red sky, Sam had known it was going to be a bad day on the water, and the news from the weather service only confirmed his fears. Back-to-back storms were coming at them from the Sea of Japan, and the Radiofax from Kodiak warned of heavy swells arriving midday and lasting at least until Friday, with the worst getting there sometime midweek. Bob Crenshaw, a retired engineer Sam knew from years past, had agreed to take Kallik’s place that day, but if the storms intensified or—God forbid—Marilyn took a turn for the worse, Sam would be scrambling to find someone else to take his place. If that happened, he’d have no choice but to tell Travis and Jack, and there was no telling what they’d do.
Bob was already onboard with the rest of the crew when Sam got to the ship with coffee and donuts. While Oscar and Ben had theirs below decks, captain and engineer went into t
he wheelhouse to go over the map and make plans for the day ahead, including how to handle any storm-related issues. Bob might not be a young man anymore, but what he lacked in stamina and strength, he more than made up for in experience and good sense. If Sam couldn’t have Kallik aboard under the current conditions, he figured Bob was the next best thing.
“I double-checked the levels and made sure the equipment is secure,” the older man said. “As I expected, your engine room was in good condition.”
Sam flashed him a quick grin. “Well, he learned from the best.”
Back when Kallik was newly licensed, his first job had been on a factory ship working under Bob Crenshaw’s careful supervision. To hear him tell it, the old man had been something of a taskmaster, but his lessons had proved invaluable. When Kallik returned to work, Sam would have to tell him that Bob Crenshaw had given his domain a thumbs-up.
“Your crew tells me you had a fouled propeller a few weeks ago. I take it everything’s been cleared since then.”
“It has,” Sam told him. “Went down there myself to make sure.”
“Don’t you guys have cameras for that?”
“I’ve asked, but so far the owners haven’t seen the need. It’s fine, though. There’s really no substitute for checking things up close.”
Bob reached up and stroked his upper lip. Since retiring the year before, he’d grown a beard and an impressively long mustache, trimmed and well-waxed, that he twirled whenever he was thinking.
“When was the last time you’d inspected it?”
“Couple of months.” Sam shrugged. “I know what you’re going to say, and I agree: somebody didn’t do his job properly. I’ve already spoken to Oscar about it, though, and I’m sure he got the message.”
The older man, however, was not to be put off so easily.
“You know, in my day, something like that would have been a firing offense. You can’t have people onboard who’re too lazy to do their work. It puts everyone onboard in danger.”
Sam took a second before answering. Bob was a good man—one he couldn’t afford to offend, under the circumstances—and he felt an obligation to give him the respect due a senior mariner, but there could be only one captain onboard the ship, and it wasn’t Bob.
“I agree,” he said. “But in this case, I think it was an honest mistake. He simply didn’t notice the problem.”
“Well, I hope you’re right,” Bob said. “I’m not going to put my life into the hands of someone who can’t be bothered to maintain his ship. Look at what happened on the Skippy Lou.”
Sam gritted his teeth. The captain of the Skippy Lou, Ray Hollander, was exactly the sort of guy he had in mind when he’d told Emily that some captains cared more for money and speed than the lives of their crew. The fact that Bob would mention an unforeseen fouling of his tender’s propeller in the same breath as the kind of sloppy maintenance that went unchecked on the Skippy Lou felt dangerously close to an indictment of Sam’s character.
“There’s no comparison between a fouled prop and what happened on the Skippy Lou. A man would have to be desperate to sign on with Hollander.”
“You bet he would. Ray called me up right after it happened and asked if I’d come aboard. I told him I’d rather play Russian roulette. All the money in the world isn’t worth risking my life on an unsafe ship.”
“I agree,” Sam said. “Believe me, I’d never ask you to.”
Bob nodded, seemingly mollified, and took a bite out of his donut. He’d said his piece. For the time being, anyway, that seemed to have been enough.
The day, however, had not improved much after that. Whether in anticipation of heavy weather or a chastening caused by the death on the Skippy Lou, Bob felt the need to recheck every system he’d already given the green light to before they left port. Once again, Sam and his crew lagged behind the rest of the tenders with the predictable result that the fish took longer to acquire and commanded lower prices when they brought them in. When Bob insisted on taking a half-hour break before setting off again, Oscar and Ben looked mutinous.
“Sorry,” the engineer said as he returned. “Had a couple of calls to make. We can go now.”
Their second run was quicker and the fish more plentiful. Even better, the black clouds that had been gathering on the horizon seemed to have stalled for the time being. In spite of Bob’s continued grumbling, both Sam and his crew were beginning to feel as if the day’s haul might actually be pretty decent. Their optimism, however, was short-lived.
As the tender pulled up to the dock, Travis and Jack were waiting for them. When Sam saw the co-owners, their arms crossed, their faces grim, it felt as if a knife had been stuck in his gut. It was rare for even one of them to show up during work hours, much less both at once. What on earth was going on?
Then he remembered that Kallik was not onboard, and the knife in his gut twisted. It was hard to believe that either of them would begrudge the man a day off with his hospitalized wife, but Jack had already been looking for an excuse to fire him. Nevertheless, Sam told himself, it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. The ship was ready for the incoming weather, and they had an experienced and licensed engineer aboard. The tender might have gotten a late start that day, but this second haul had nearly made up for the shortfall. There was nothing for either one of them to complain about.
Travis’s smile was friendly enough, if a bit constrained. As the ship docked, he stepped forward.
“Could we have a word, Captain?”
Sam jumped down, and they shook hands.
“Would you mind if I get my catch sold first? Want to get the best price.”
The co-owners exchanged a look.
“Sure. We can talk when you’re done.”
As Sam haggled over the price of fish, he wondered what had brought the tender’s owners down to the dock. If it had been an emergency, he was sure they’d have said something right away, which made the fact that they were willing to wait seem even more ominous. It was as if whatever was on their minds was already as bad as it could get and waiting a bit longer to talk about it wouldn’t really matter.
When he’d finally settled on a price and his crew was offloading the fish, Sam headed back to where Travis and Jack were waiting. He was surprised to find Bob standing there, conversing with the other two. Sam frowned, thinking about the calls the engineer had made after their first run. Had Bob asked the two of them to come down to the docks? And if so, why?
This time, there were no smiles as he approached, in spite of a concerted effort on Sam’s part to seem open and friendly.
“So, what brings you two down here?” he said. “Whatever it is, I hope it won’t take long. I’d like to make another couple of runs before those clouds move in.”
“Where’s Kallik?” Jack snarled.
“At the hospital, with his wife. As you know, she’s pregnant again, and there was a problem that needed medical attention. The doctors wanted to keep her overnight.”
The look on the man’s face made it clear that he had no interest in hearing any more details about women and their problems.
“This is the third time he’s missed work.”
“That’s right. Three times in three seasons, counting this one.”
“He’s had other problems, too.”
“One or two, but they were minor and easily remedied. Kallik and I discussed them, and they’ve been taken care of.” He glanced at Travis. “I reported all of this at the time.”
But Jack refused to back down.
“You discussed them.”
“I did.”
“And you thought that was enough?”
Sam stood a little straighter, emphasizing the height difference between them.
“As the captain, it’s my prerogative to determine corrective action aboard my ship. Are you saying there have been other problems that I’m not aware of?”
“I don’t know,” Jack said. “But it sounds as if there are problems that I haven’t been made a
ware of.”
Sam glanced at Bob, who quickly looked away.
So, he did call them.
Travis, who until then had been reluctant to join the conversation, cleared his throat.
“Bob tells us you’ve allowed the ship’s maintenance to slip.”
“He did? Well, that’s interesting. When he came aboard this morning, he told me the engine room was in good condition.”
“He mentioned a fouled propeller.”
“That was weeks ago,” Sam said. “We snagged a net that had fallen off another ship. I went in the water personally to make sure there was no damage, but it did take quite a bit of time. You can check the log; it’s all in there.”
Travis turned and gave his co-owner a stern look. “I told you we should get those cameras.”
Jack looked at Bob. “You’re the senior mariner here. What do you think?”
The man shrugged dramatically.
“Gadgets are all well and good,” he said. “But an experienced captain knows it’s better to trust his own eyes. All things considered, it wasn’t a bad call.”
Wasn’t a bad call?
Sam stared. A few hours ago, it was Bob who’d been saying the ship should have had cameras. Now, here he was arguing just the opposite. What the hell was going on?
“I’m glad Mr. Crenshaw approves of my actions,” he said, trying to keep the bitterness from his voice. “The fact is, props get fouled all the time. Cameras might have reduced the amount of time we lost, but the ship and her crew were never in any danger. We took care of things—as we always do.”
Travis nodded thoughtfully. “So, you’re satisfied that the ship’s maintenance has been completely satisfactory?”
“I am.”
Sam glared at Bob, daring him to contradict a senior officer. The fact was, the man had no evidence other than Sam’s word that there had been any lapse in maintenance on the tender.
“Nevertheless, it doesn’t excuse Kallik’s absence,” Travis continued. “I told you before that if there was another problem, he’d have to go.”
“But his wife—”
