by Dave Balcom
“What are you wearing?” she suddenly wondered.
I told her I’d dressed myself at Wal-Mart and I could almost hear her shudder. “Listen,” I said. “You may be some kind of clothes horse, but I’m a jeans guy and nobody makes jeans I like better than Wranglers. Everything else is just if it fits.”
“I know, dear; you still don’t get the stripe-plaid conflict. What else are you wearing?”
“University of Washington sweat shirt, a pair of sneaks.”
“Well,” she said with a note of resignation in her voice, “there’s nothing I can do from here. Call me when you know your plans.”
23
My plans were explained first thing the next morning by Lt. Stevens as Veragas and I arrived at the police station.
“Mr. Stanton, we’ve waived all consideration of charges against you. There’ll be a formal hearing sometime later, but everyone at this end feels your behavior at Cove Beach was appropriate and understandable. You’re being turned over to the FBI, and they’re taking you to Prince Rupert,” he looked at his watch, “leaving in about ten minutes.
“Thank you for your cooperation, and good luck.”
Veragas grabbed me by the elbow and turned me right back to the door. “We gotta hustle to catch that flight.”
“We’re not flying commercial, are we?”
“I doubt it.”
“Then I don’t see any reason to hurry. I don’t think they’re leaving without me.”
He smiled at that, but we still walked pretty quickly to his car. “I thought you’d be in a hurry to see your lady.”
“Step on it,” I deadpanned.
He drove to the city’s marina, where a float plane, much larger than Ryder’s puddle jumper, was waiting with engines warming.
Veragas slapped me on the shoulder. “I would appreciate hearing the rest of the story. I know the Fibbies won’t be talking to me.”
I promised I’d stay in contact, and climbed aboard the plane.
Jan and Betty hadn’t left Prince Rupert when we landed at the seaplane facility, and I asked Agent Ray, who turned out to have the last name Jensen, if I could have a few minutes with them before he took me to see the RCMP and Coast Guard officers.
Jensen didn’t respond, he just turned left out of the facility towards the cottage rather than right towards the officials.
He stayed in the car as I walked into the cottage on the bay. Jan was sitting at the kitchen table with Teresa Ferguson as I walked up on the porch.
“Jim!” Jan bounced out of her chair and launched herself at me as I entered the room, nearly knocking me back out onto the porch.
I held her in a long hug and stroked her back as she sobbed into my chest. Teresa quietly left the room toward the bedrooms in the back of the cottage.
After a long few minutes, Jan pried herself away from me, her eyes red and streaming. “Sorry. I just lost it. I didn’t know you were coming.”
“Where’s Betty?”
“She’s in her room back there,” she said with a gesture. “Second door on the left.”
I took her hand, and started in that direction. As we started down the hall, Betty came out of her room.
“Jim,” she said with a sigh. “I’m so glad to see you.”
I took her in my arms, and felt a sob wrack her body, and then she silently wept in my arms. “Betty, I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I never saw that coming. He never had a chance.”
“I know. The Mounties told me how it happened. He had radioed the Coast Guard, told them he was in pursuit of a boat that may well have something to do with the kidnapping.
“Then nothing more. They were hailing him for more information when they lost their GPS fix on his radar. They figure it was the explosion. They had no trouble finding what was left of the boat.”
We stood there in silence for at least ten minutes, just standing there, holding each other. Then she shook herself, wiped her eyes and smiled at me. “He really loved you. He told me that over and over. He said you’d earned his respect and trust. I know he’d assume that you’ll find the sonovabitch and make him pay. I just don’t want you to get hurt trying to do that.”
“I’m going to help in any way I can.”
Jensen came to the screen door at that point, and knocked.
“I’ve got to go, Betty.”
“So do we. Our flight home leaves at four.”
I looked over the top of her head at Jan. “You take good care of each other; hear?”
Betty gave my arm a squeeze, and then sidled past us down the hall. I took Jan in my arms for a second, and whispered in her ear, “I love you. Watch her closely, okay?”
She nodded, and I could tell she was fighting back tears. I kissed her gently and walked down the hall to the porch where Jensen was waiting.
“Be safe,” she called after me, and I gave her a two finger wave over my head without turning to look back at her.
“That had to be tough,” Jensen said as we climbed into the car.
I had nothing to say.
24
The interview at the RCMP post involved Capt. Rafferty, Lt. Gerald Magnusson, a Crown Council lawyer and two Inspectors from Vancouver. They wanted to hear of my experiences related to the Whitman kidnapping, and I recited it all in detail.
“Is that all you can remember?” the lawyer asked with an arched eyebrow two hours after I had started talking.
Everyone, as if on some command, stood out of their chairs and stretched. “Tea anyone?” Rafferty asked, and all of us nodded.
One of the inspectors, his name was Rill, started the questioning even as he continued to stretch, “Mr. Stanton, how did you make such an enemy?”
“The mysterious ‘she’?” I asked.
“Certainly. Do you have any idea of who this mystery ‘she’ might be?”
“None. I haven’t made it a practice to offend women. And I must admit I don’t have much experience with them. I was married young, worked at it for more than thirty years until she died, then went without a date for six years before meeting Jan, my current wife.
“I had a particularly ugly run-in with a woman in Michigan, actually when I met Jan, but that woman is serving life in the hospital for the criminally insane in Michigan.”
“Are you positive she hasn’t found her way back on the street?”
“You could check, but one of my best friends is a Michigan State Police officer, and I’m sure if that particular woman had found freedom, he’d have let me know.”
“What is the woman’s name?” Rill asked as he flipped open a notebook.
I gave him the names I knew, “Charlotte, but I’m not sure if she’s using Davis or Buchanan. I heard both, but to be frank after she was arrested and jailed, I lost interest in her.”
“We’ll check that out just to be sure.” He looked around at the tired faces at the table. “Anything else?”
No one said anything. “Well done; then. I’d like Lt. Magnusson to take Mr. Stanton on a boat ride to Haida Quaii and environs tomorrow morning.” Then he turned to me, “And then I should think you’ll want to be home, and we’ll put you on a jet tomorrow evening.”
I nodded and turned to Jensen. “You leaving tonight?” He nodded. “I’ll need a ride to the cottage; I should have clothes there.”
Rafferty spoke up, “Fergie’s waiting for you outside. Just make sure you’re at Fairview...” he looked at Magnusson who added, “five a.m. I should think would do it.”
We all agreed, and as I left, Rill had one more thought. “Mr. Stanton, I think we all share your sorrow at the loss of your friend, and I know for a fact that the Whitmans are looking forward to the day they can thank you for your efforts on their behalf.”
I had no words to that, and so I turned and headed for the door.
25
Fergie was sitting in his suburban with the motor running. The usual Pacific Northwest mist was coating everything, and he had the defrosters roaring when I opened the door an
d slid in beside him.
“Teresa said you looked a bit shot up, and you really do.”
“Hi to you, too.”
He reached out with his right hand, patted my shoulder. “Let’s get you home, fed, and in bed.”
I barely kept awake for the ride to the cottage on the bay, and I nearly fell asleep in my bowl of Teresa’s extraordinary crab bisque. “Sorry, folks, I’m just about spent.”
“I’ll call for you at four,” Fergie said, handing me a cell phone. “I’ll be here to pick you up about four-forty-five.”
“You’re in the same room you were in before,” Teresa said.
“Thanks, both of you. I hope to see you both before I leave tomorrow night.”
“Oh, I’ll be seein’ you tomorrow. I’ve got insurance papers and your statement to the police for you to sign.”
I nodded, pushed myself to my feet and literally staggered to my bed. I barely got undressed and under the covers before I was asleep.
The phone at the side of my bed went off at four as promised. I flipped it open, and Fergie’s voice seemed too chipper for the time of day. “Rise and shine. Daylight in the swamp and all that. Teresa set out clothes from your bag, your shaving kit is in the loo as are clean towels and the like. I’ll be by at forty-five and I’ll have coffee and a sweet. Right?”
“I’ll be ready.”
The shower helped, but then I realized I’d been asleep for most of ten hours. I shaved and brushed my teeth. I was dressed and waiting when Fergie’s headlights danced on the wall.
I had packed my bag and carried it out to the vehicle. “Figured we’d go straight to the airport when I get back.”
“Good plan.”
Magnusson had the motor lifeboat idling in its berth when I got out of the Suburban. The ever-present mist was making halos around the lights on the boat. “Good,” he said as he walked up behind me, “you’re dressed appropriately. I have a set of oil skins in the cabin for you if you’d lost your rain gear in the last few days.”
“I did lose them, but I had a back-up set packed at the cottage. There’s nothing like Gortex and Thinsulate to let a guy appreciate the beauty of this place.”
“Right-o.”
We buckled on our life vests, and a crewman pulled the lines as the pilot maneuvered the big, nimble boat away from the dock.
We ran to Graham Island in an hour and twenty minutes. “This is the northeast end of the island,” Magnusson pointed to the southwest. “Queen Charlotte village is down that way.” The boat was moving steadily at some 10-15 knots and the pilot turned southwest. “We’re running down the break at twenty fathoms of water,” Magnusson explained as the pilot put the boat back up on its step and raced to a location known to only him and his GPS unit.
When he slowed down, I could see the salvage buoys ringing what was left of the Cappa Larry.
“This is where your kidnapper waited for Lieutenant Liske.” To the pilot, he said, “Let’s go.”
We reversed course and raced back to the north east. “This is a peninsula known as Naikoon Provincial Park,” Magnusson explained.
The boat turned around the headland of the peninsula and raced west into open ocean. We had been running for just a few minutes when the pilot turned the craft south and slowed down before turning into a small, obscure bay.
“Here’s about where you were anchored,” Magnusson said.
“Really?”
“Let’s go ashore.”
The lifeboat didn’t need a tender. The crew just ran it up on the beach and quickly got it secured where it sat.
“How do you know this is where they were?” I asked.
“This is where we were told to come to find them.”
“How were they?”
“Relieved to be safe. They were tired, but there was no sign of ill treatment. Mrs. Whitman was suffering from the stress and fear, but Mr. Whitman was just worried about her more than anything.”
“Did you find anything else?”
“Not at first.” He waved his arm at the encampment ringing the little harbor. “These tents were all in place, as was the big fire ring here in the middle. Looks like they had a tent for cooking and dining and then a tent for the Whitmans and on either side a tent for single occupants.
“They made a latrine over here, and it was pretty much used by any and all.”
I scanned the little encampment and remembered Seth Richmond. “Did you find remains?”
Magnusson silently led the way into the scrub brush behind the Whitman tent at the center of the arc of tents.
“We didn’t find this until after we received a copy of your statement in Bellingham. We hadn’t been looking for this kind of thing.” He stopped at what was apparently a shallow grave that had been dug up.
“Here?”
“Bloody awful, Jim. It was barbaric. The medic thinks he was alive through most of it. It just doesn’t figure; why this?”
“As it was explained to me, they used him as an object lesson for the Whitmans.”
“Object lesson for what?”
“The guy they called Lindsay told me they told Luke that if his family or officials went looking for them after it was all over, then what happened to Seth would happen to Mary Lou.”
“Jesus.”
“Exactly.”
We got back on the boat, and I showed them where we were headed when my cup of drugged coffee took over.
“I remember seeing that rock formation,” I pointed to shore, and the next thing I knew I was waking up in the cruiser, and we were anchored some place.”
“And that’s where the float plane picked you up?”
“Right.”
I could see his disappointment. “I had hoped you’d see something that would jog a memory.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve remembered everything I saw, heard and felt. There’s just a blank in time. I do know that we left the anchorage here in the early hours of the tenth, just after daylight, and I was in the police station in Bellingham after midnight just barely into the eleventh.
“If we knew where Ryder picked me up, that would fill in some blanks.”
Magnusson frowned. “So far, Ryder hasn’t had anything to say to anyone. Let’s get you homeward bound.” To the pilot, he just waggled his finger in a circular move that ended up pointing east.
“Aye, Aye,” the pilot responded, and spun the boat around and pushed the throttle wide open.
The big boat responded, and as I stood there looking at Graham Island over the stern, I wondered if I’d ever want to see that place again.
26
The ride home was uneventful. The folks at Prince Rupert had no more questions for me, and Fergie got me to the airport with plenty of time for my flight home. I bought him a beer, and we sat silently.
“Thanks for the signatures, and such,” he said. “Looks like we’ll be back in the charter business by next spring.”
“How will you get by this winter?”
“We’ll do all right. We rent that cottage out pretty regularly during the season, and we have a winter tenant that starts paying us in September.
“I’ll miss the crabbing money, but Teresa is hoping we’ll get to spend more time with her family, and she’ll pick up some money guiding hunters this fall. Then we’ll probably go south to see my family during the worst of winter.”
“How bad does it get here?”
“Not cold or snowy, really. Just drab and wet, you know?”
“Sounds just like July and early August to me.”
He laughed, “We have some spectacular sunny days, and because they’re not the normal weather, they’re really precious to us.”
I heard the call for my flight.
“Larry, if you get down to Oregon this winter, let me know. Maybe Jan and I could meet you for a meal, or maybe you’d be interested in visiting us. We’d love to have you.”
He smiled for the first time since Stan’s death. “I bet we’ll do that. Teresa wants to stay cl
ose to Betty, too. They’ve been like sisters ever since I introduced them.”
I nodded, and started to walk away, then remembered the cell phone. I turned and handed it to him. “I’ll get mine replaced when I get home.”
“Keep this one. It’s got all my numbers in it, and it’s the spare Stan and I traded back and forth when he was up here. You’ll have to sync it with your carrier down there. Then, when you come back next summer, you can bring it back for me.”
I reached an arm around his shoulders and gave him a hug. Then I turned and walked away before he could see the tears in my eyes.
27
When I walked off the plane at Portland, Randall Albright was standing just outside the security barricade with a big smile on his face.
“What are you doing here?”
“I got recruited to get you home. I’m thinking I might start a charter business,” he said as he started walking to the taxi stand so we could get a ride to the general aviation portion of the airport.
“Then again, I don’t know who could charter me if they couldn’t make chocolate chip cookies.”
“Jan strikes again?”
“She’s as merciless as a drug dealer.”
I slept all the way to Pendleton, and Jan was waiting at the hangar when Randall taxied in.
“He’s sleeping like a guy who has had an ordeal,” he told Jan. “I suggest you get him home and let him decompress at his own speed.”
“Thank you, Randall,” she said. She watched me pull my bag from the plane, she put her arm around me, and we walked arm in arm to the parking lot. I turned to wave at Randall, but he was gone.
“I’ll drive, if you want,” I said.
She didn’t answer, just opened the driver side door and climbed in behind the wheel. I pitched the bag into the back, and got in the passenger seat. I slept all the way home.
The next morning, Jan was sound asleep as I quietly left our bed. I took Judy outside, and we headed for the mountain path at the end of the road. She was bouncing around me in excitement, and I had to admit I was pretty juiced to be home again.
