Always Ready

by Susan Page Davis

  A mother brown bear scooped fish from the stream below them and tossed them to her cub on the bank, not seeming to notice the humans watching her. The youngster batted at the twitching fish. When the mother had supplied enough to satisfy her, the huge animals began to feed, ignoring the distant audience.

  The stream gushed down a steep, green hillside toward the bay below. Caddie had never been to this part of Kodiak Island before. They had driven through rugged mountains but were only fifteen miles from the base. They’d passed Lake Buskin and navigated forest-covered slopes to come out on the northeast end of the island. The brilliant colors of spruce trees, grass, sky, and water thrilled her. In the distance, she glimpsed Whale Island and mountains all around the bay.

  Aven had brought binoculars and continually swept the vista before them while Caddie concentrated on the bears. She’d be glad when the nuisance cast came off her arm. Two more days, maybe. Monday couldn’t come soon enough for her. But she wouldn’t let that affect her outing today. Even with the unwieldy plaster accessory, she was able to handle the camera and zoom in on the bears. Mira and Jordan would love them. After the animals enjoyed their feast, they lumbered into the brush.

  She sighed and turned back toward the pickup. “What are you looking for?” she asked Aven.

  He lowered his binoculars. “Remember the man I told you about—Spruce Waller?”

  “The one who hit you.”

  Aven winced.

  “Sorry.” Caddie put her camera carefully into its case. “What about him?”

  “That’s Anton Larsen Bay down there. We’re not far from his place.”

  “Here? There’s no town.”

  “No, there’s not.” Aven swept the air with his arm, indicating the hillsides and the inlet below. “There are some cabins. You can’t see most of them from up here. But I thought I might be able to spot a boat in the harbor.”

  “And?”

  “Nothing.”

  No, not nothing. He had hoped to find evidence relating to the cases his ship’s crew had recently worked on. She went to stand beside him. “Can you drive all the way down to the shore on this side?”

  “I think so.”

  They stood in silence for a long time. Caddie knew the meager roads on the island led to only a few of the nearest villages. Those farther away—like Larsen Bay, Old Harbor, and Akhiok—could only be reached by boat or by air.

  “You brought me here in hopes of seeing Spruce Waller, didn’t you?” she asked softly.

  He cocked his head to one side. “Okay, I admit I went by his apartment in Kodiak. He wasn’t around. I figured he might be out here.”

  “Or off on his brother’s boat,” Caddie hazarded.

  “Well. . .the state police tried to contact his brother, but he wasn’t home and his wife said she hadn’t seen him in three days. Not that I believe that, but he could be over here with Spruce, lying low until the cops ease up on him.”

  “You hope you can link Spruce to the smuggling his brother is involved in, don’t you?”

  Aven shrugged. “So far, that’s just a rumor. But I have to admit, that might ease the pain of seeing our ship get staved up.”

  “And getting jumped by half a dozen fishermen?”

  He bit his bottom lip. After a long moment of silence, he turned toward her. “I guess I should have told you what was on my mind before I drove out here.”

  “I don’t mind being here. In fact, I’d love it if we could find the guy who owns the boat.”

  “Clay Waller.”

  “Whoever. But I don’t want to mix things up with a couple of tough guys. My arm’s still in the cast. I wouldn’t be any help in a fight.”

  “I’m sorry, Caddie. You’re absolutely right. Coming out here was foolish of me, and not asking you was selfish.”

  She reached up and touched his cheek. “I’m not trying to lay guilt on you. I’m just saying we should be careful.” She looked down toward the bay. “Want to see how close we can drive to the shore?”

  He hesitated. “It would probably be smarter to just forget it.”

  She watched his face until he raised the binoculars again. “We could hike on down there,” she said.

  “No. Too many bears around. All I brought for insurance is my pistol. We don’t want to get too far from the truck.”

  “Then let’s drive on a ways.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes. But if we find Waller, we don’t approach him.”

  After half a minute of staring through the binoculars, he lowered them and faced her. “Deal. I’ll be careful.”

  They got into the truck, and he drove another half mile. Aven’s broody silence dragged Caddie’s spirits down. Were the Waller brothers affecting him this badly? Or was there something else he hadn’t told her?

  When they came to a wide spot almost to the bay, he pulled over. “I don’t want to get where they can see us. I’ll turn around so we’re headed out, and then we’ll take a look-see.” Aven maneuvered the truck into a better position, grabbed his binoculars from the seat, and climbed out of the cab.

  Caddie opened her door and followed him, once more carrying her camera.

  He stood off the edge of the road, scanning the terrain and water below them. “There’s a boat docked down there.”

  “Where?” Caddie strained to see where he was looking. “Is that a roofline?”

  “Yes. The cabin’s above the water fifty yards or so, and the boat’s moored down below. Come on.” He plunged into the brush beside the road.

  What about bears? Caddie glanced uneasily around and hurried to catch up with him.

  Aven stopped inside the tree line beside a log cabin. He parted the branches of a clump of alders and again peered through his field glasses.

  The sun glittered on the placid water of a cove below. Movement drew Caddie’s attention, and she sucked in a breath. “Is that the boat you chased?”

  Aven let out a sigh. “Hard to be sure. They had a canopy on when we saw it, and it had a dark stripe just below the gunwales, but. . .”

  “But they’re painting it.” Caddie squinted and focused on the two men below them. “Do you think they would change the registration number?”

  Aven rubbed the back of his neck and adjusted the strap on his binoculars. “People do it all the time with cars. Put on false license plates. Why not with a boat if they don’t want it identified easily? They’ve painted over the name for sure.”

  “So they rename the boat, maybe change a couple of the numbers, and alter the appearance the best they can—maybe add something on deck to change the silhouette or put a different color canopy on top.”

  “Right, so that we can’t be sure it’s the same boat at a glance.” Aven frowned. “I’d like to get closer.”

  “Do you think that’s wise?” Caddie’s pulse accelerated. Facing lawbreakers while in uniform may be part of her job, but out here, with only the waves for witnesses?

  “Probably not,” Aven said. “Wish I could see their faces.” Again he studied the scene below.

  “Would you recognize Spruce Waller?”

  “Absolutely, if I could get within five yards of him. But I’ve never seen his brother that I know of.” He pulled the binoculars from his face with a frustrated sigh. “The guy on the left has the same build as Spruce, but I can’t be sure from here that it’s him. It could be his brother or someone else entirely.” He eyed the nearby cabin and looked again toward the small dock and the moored boat.

  “Think what could happen if they saw us. I mean. . .that guy tried to kill you.” Caddie clamped her lips shut, determined to say no more. Her heart thudded.

  Aven said nothing but peered toward the boat again.

  Caddie lifted her camera and focused on the man wielding the paintbrush. At that moment he straightened, and even from her distant vantage point, she could see that he was a large, muscular man.

  “He’s growing his beard out,” Aven said.

  As the man turned to sp
eak to his companion, Caddie clicked a photo.

  “I think I got a decent shot,” she whispered. “We can enlarge it on the computer.”

  “Great.” Suddenly Aven let his binoculars drop on their strap and grabbed her wrist, tugging her downward. “He’s looking up here.”

  She turned her face away and whipped her silver-toned camera behind her then crouched still behind the shrubs. After a long moment, she hissed, “Think he saw us?”

  “No. But it’s a good thing we stayed behind the bushes.”

  She exhaled. “Maybe we’d better leave before he looks again.”

  Aven moved stealthily through the trees, and Caddie followed. They halted out of sight of the boat but farther from the pickup.

  “There’s a vehicle parked on the other side of the cabin,” Aven said softly. “I’d like to get the plate number so we can be sure we’ve got the right man.”

  Caddie shivered. “Take my camera and get a picture.”

  “Good idea.”

  She handed it to him.

  “Wait here,” he said.

  “Okay, but don’t take any chances.”

  He darted in a crouch to the back corner of the building. For a minute and a half, he was out of sight. Caddie held her breath, listening and watching the spot where he’d disappeared.

  At last he returned, racing almost silently toward her. “Got it.” He seized Caddie’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Seven

  Playing Scrabble with the Phifers Monday evening kept Caddie calm, so long as she didn’t think about Aven and their Saturday expedition to Anton Larsen Bay.

  They’d spent a quiet Sunday on the base, but Aven had fidgeted all day, biding his time until he could contact his commanding officer.

  “You’ll hear from Aven soon,” Jo-Lynn said, and Caddie realized she’d checked her watch again.

  “Sorry. I didn’t expect him to be gone all day.”

  Mark reached across the kitchen table for game tiles to replace his stock of letters. “They probably went to talk to the state police. Sometimes things like that take way longer than they should.”

  Caddie nodded. She hoped Aven hadn’t involved himself in another confrontation with the bullheaded Spruce Waller.

  Her cell phone trilled at five minutes after seven o’clock, and adrenaline sent her pulse rocketing.

  “Hi. I wondered if I could bring your camera back to you,” Aven said.

  Caddie relaxed and smiled across the kitchen table at Jo-Lynn. “Sure, but I’m not home. I’m over at Mark and Jo-Lynn’s.”

  “Okay, I’ll come there.”

  “Is that Aven?” Jo-Lynn jumped up. “Ask him if he ate supper.”

  “Have you eaten?” Caddie asked. “Jo-Lynn has leftover lasagna.”

  “Sounds good. Tell her I’ll be there in five.”

  Caddie clicked her phone off. “Thanks, Jo-Lynn. He’s on his way.”

  “Aw, come on,” Mark whined. “I’ve got a really good word. You’re not going to quit the game, are you?”

  With a laugh, Caddie looked to Jo-Lynn. “How about it?”

  “Let me put a plate in the microwave for Aven and I’ll come back.”

  A short time later, Aven ravenously attacked the food while the others finished their game.

  “There,” Mark crowed. “I used all my letters.” He set out tiles to spell brown and prodded them into place with a fingertip. “I win.”

  “No, you don’t.” Jo-Lynn half rose, grabbing letter tiles from her own rack. “Caddie and I get one more turn, and I get double word score on maw, using your W.”

  “That’s not a word.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  Mark scowled at her. “You’re making that up. Do we have a dictionary?”

  “It’s a word,” Aven said.

  “I thought it was Ma, M-A.”

  Caddie laughed. “Maw is a different word. It means stomach, I think.”

  “Yeah.” Jo-Lynn’s eyes gleamed. “Like Aven is filling his maw with lasagna.”

  “Okay, I give up.” Mark shook his head, glowering at the board.

  Caddie said, “Cheer up, Mark. I still can’t make any words, and I think you won after all.” They’d given her the scorekeeper’s job, and she quickly totted up the points. “Yup. Sorry, Jo-Lynn. He’s got you by two points.”

  Jo-Lynn let out a sharp breath and stamped her foot. A moment later, however, she joined them all in laughter. “Okay, but I was close.”

  “You were, babe. Good match.” Mark leaned over to kiss her.

  Caddie shot a glance at Aven, and he winked at her. “Got any coffee, Jo-Lynn?”

  Their hostess stood. “Sure. You want some, Caddie?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Mark?”

  “Natch.”

  Jo-Lynn headed for the counter to measure the coffee.

  “So, what did you find out?” Mark asked Aven. “Caddie told us you took her camera to the state police with pictures of some SUV you found out in the woods.”

  “That’s not what I said.” Caddie had learned by now that Mark was expert at teasing.

  “Seriously, what happened?” Mark asked.

  Aven laid down his fork and wiped his mouth on his napkin. “The skipper went with me, and we talked to the same state trooper I called after our cruise the other day. They sent two men out to Waller’s cabin. Spruce Waller was there, but his brother wasn’t. And the boat had disappeared.”

  “They moved it,” Mark said.

  “Yeah. I wish we could have gotten them to go out there Saturday night. Clay probably took the boat back to his place at the other end of the island. But the trooper wasn’t in a hurry to rush out there again. He said he’s got bigger fish to fry.”

  Caddie sighed. “I can understand that, since you didn’t have any proof to begin with that they’d committed a crime. Other than not responding when your skipper hailed the boat, I mean.”

  “And you weren’t even sure the second man working on the boat Saturday was the brother, were you?” Mark asked.

  “Caddie’s pictures say it was. The trooper ID’d Clay Waller from the photos.”

  “Even from so far away?” Caddie asked.

  Aven nodded. “He said you did a great job with your telephoto.”

  Jo-Lynn brought them all mugs of coffee. “Well, quit looking so glum, all of you. The boys came home for an extra three days, and I’m not complaining.”

  “I’m not either,” Mark told her, “but we have to report back to the ship tomorrow morning. What about you, Caddie?”

  She pulled out a smile that she didn’t feel. “I’ve been assigned to light duty on shore starting tomorrow.”

  Aven gazed at her over his coffee mug. “For how long?”

  “I’m not sure. I saw the doctor again this afternoon. He thinks a couple of weeks. Then, if the cast is off the next time the Wintergreen goes out, I’ll be aboard.”

  “Don’t worry, Aven. I’ll keep an eye on her.” Jo-Lynn resumed her seat and smiled over at him. “Caddie and I can hang out while you guys are at sea.”

  “All right,” Aven said, watching Caddie keenly. “I guess that’s better than sitting around doing nothing.”

  “Watch it!” Jo-Lynn grabbed her spoon and drew her arm back as though about to attack him. “I may not be in uniform, but I do not ‘do nothing’ all day.”

  Aven laughed and turned to Caddie. “Let me drive you home?”

  Caddie felt her face warm. “Thanks.”

  Mark’s face clouded up in mock disgust. “She only lives two hundred feet away, for crying out loud.”

  “Yeah, and the sun will stay out until midnight,” Jo-Lynn added.

  “A lot can happen on a two-hundred-foot walk,” Aven said sternly. “You just never know. I think she needs an escort.” Under the table, his hand found Caddie’s and he squeezed her fingers.

  “Now that you mention it,” she said, smiling at Jo-Lynn, “we should probably head out. The Milroy’
s crew has to report early.”

  “Eh, we’re used to it,” Mark said.

  “I think Caddie’s right. We’d better skedaddle.” Aven shoved back his chair. “Thanks for the lasagna.”

  The evening shone as bright as midday, and Caddie felt conspicuous as Aven walked her from his truck to her door a few minutes later. “Thanks for bringing my camera back.”

  He held the case out, and she took it with her good hand. “You’re welcome. Thanks for getting those pictures. We saw your bear pictures, too. Couldn’t help it, going through to retrieve the ones of the Wallers.”

  “That’s okay.”

  Aven nodded. “Your shots of the bears are really good.”

  “Thanks.”

  “What are you going to do with them?”

  “I don’t know. Send copies to my brother and sister. Maybe make a Christmas card. I just like photographing wildlife.” She held the camera against her side with her cast while fumbling in her pocket with her other hand for her door key.

  “Well, I think you should sell them.”

  “What?” She jerked her chin up and stared into his eyes. “They can’t be that good.”

  “Sure they can. They’re every bit as good as the pictures they have in the tourist brochures.”

  “You think so?”

  “Yeah. A lot of people would think so. It’s a gift. My sister Robyn took about a thousand pictures of her dogs before she got any good enough to put on a brochure advertising the kennel and the sled race my family sponsors every year.”

  Caddie studied his face. The dark shadows under his eyes reinforced his serious tone. “Thanks. A lot.”

  Aven reached for the key ring she held. “Let me open this for you.”

  She surrendered the ring, and he slid her door key into the lock. “There.” He stooped toward her and brushed her lips with his.

  A sense of joy and loss swept over Caddie. Aven would be out two weeks this time. What if she’d been deployed again when he returned? They could go on missing each other in port for months.

  She wanted to put her arms around him and cling to him, but even if she dared, the stupid cast would prevent that. She looked up at him and tried to think of the appropriate words for this uncertain parting.