Always Ready

by Susan Page Davis

  Lindsey sighed. “Well, trust me, a dream kind of father is way better than the kind of father I had. At least you didn’t have to run away from him.”

  They sat in silence. A couple of sailors came from the galley and began restocking the supplies for the next meal.

  Caddie thought about Lindsey’s words. Dear Lord, I don’t think I’ve ever really appreciated the father You gave me. Please show me how to relate to Lindsey in a way that will help her.

  Her pulse picked up as she wondered what to say. Why was it so hard? Maybe because she’d always figured Lindsey would sneer if she tried to talk to her about spiritual things.

  “You know,” she said at last, “you’re absolutely right. Even though my dad had some faults, and even though he never spent as much time at home as we all would have liked, he wasn’t bad as fathers go. And I miss him a lot.” Tears welled in her eyes. “These past few years, I’ve had to rely on my heavenly Father for security.”

  Lindsey’s eyebrows shot up and that “Here it comes” expression crept over her face.

  Caddie plunged on. “I’ve never said much to you about my faith. . .”

  “I’ve seen your Bible on the desk in the cabin once or twice.”

  Caddie started to speak but caught herself. Her impulse was to apologize. But should she? She’d tried hard not to make an issue of her faith on the assumption that Lindsey would be offended. Had she instead erred in keeping quiet?

  “We never went to church or anything when I was a kid,” Lindsey said.

  “We always did.”

  “Is that why you read the Bible? Because you were brought up that way?”

  “I suppose it was at first. But now I read it because I want to. It tells me what God expects and how I should live. Best of all, it tells about Jesus Christ, and how He died for my sins.”

  Lindsey shook her head. “I never understood any of that—how people think that one person somehow took care of all the evil in the world. You only have to look around to see that it’s still there. How did Jesus’s dying help?”

  Caddie inhaled slowly. She tended to sort all that she knew into mental pigeonholes. Which one should she reach into? “Okay, first of all, Jesus didn’t die to clean up the world.”

  “He didn’t? I thought everybody’s sins were supposed to be wiped out somehow when He died.”

  “Well, in a way. . .” Caddie glanced at her watch. “You know, I have to report for duty in about twenty minutes. I’m not trying to get out of this conversation. I really want to discuss it with you. But I need to be where my Bible is when we talk about it. That way I can show you what God says in the Bible about sin and forgiveness.”

  “I don’t know.” Lindsey shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”

  “But you’ve never read the Bible, have you?”

  “No. I saw the Charlton Heston movie.”

  Caddie smiled. “There’s a lot more to it than that. Look, tomorrow morning we’re both free. Let’s talk then, okay?”

  “I guess so. What about the article?”

  “Oh, I’m going to finish it. I’ll work on it some tonight, and I’ll need to ask you some more questions, but this is really important. About God, I mean.”

  Lindsey nodded slowly. “All right.” She stood and reached for Caddie’s coffee mug. “Just, please, if I tell you to stop, you won’t keep on and on about it, will you?”

  “No. I’ll quit talking about it if you want me to.”

  “Great. See you.” Lindsey walked away toward the window where they left the dirty dishes.

  Caddie let out a breath. Lord, help me to do better tomorrow. Let me get it right the first time so she doesn’t tell me to shut up. Please?

  Eleven

  Aven stared at the computer screen and scowled. No matter how he worked it out, Caddie couldn’t get enough time off to go to Wasilla with him for at least two months. The Wintergreen would dock next week while he was at sea, but only for a few days, and then the ship would head out on a six-week cruise. Caddie would have to be back in Kodiak in time to join her ship for that cruise. No excuses.

  He had so much leave stacked up that he really should take some anyway. He ran a hand through his hair, unable to decide what to do.

  His cell phone rang, and he pulled it out. “Yeah, Holland.”

  “This is Lieutenant Greer. A gentleman is here from the U.S. Marshal’s office, wanting to speak to you.”

  “Me?” Aven cast about the recesses of his mind for a reason.

  “Affirmative.”

  A few minutes later, Aven boarded the Milroy and entered the wardroom.

  Greer stood and gestured toward a lean, middle-aged man wearing a suit. “Holland, this is Deputy U.S. Marshal Ralph Eliot.”

  Aven shook his hand.

  “You remember I told you about the Molly K being auctioned?” Greer asked as they all sat down.

  “Sure,” Aven said. “And the former owner bid on her.”

  “That’s right. Have a seat. Eliot, here, has more news about that.” Greer nodded to the deputy marshal.

  “Jason Andrews bought his boat back,” Eliot said. “Paid cash for it. Forty-seven grand.”

  Aven gave a low whistle. “I thought he filed for bankruptcy. How could he have that much socked away?”

  “That’s the question.” Eliot reached into his inside jacket pocket and took out a small notebook. “This summer, Andrews was practically going bust. You know how all the fishermen have complained that the catch is poor this year.”

  “Yeah,” Aven said. “They have to go farther to fill their quotas.”

  “Uh-huh. Well, Andrews was falling behind on his house payments. He told his bank in June he couldn’t make the regular payment. They cut him some slack and let him refinance. Then he loses the boat. Financial disaster, right? But then he comes up with all this money for the boat on a couple of months’ notice.”

  “He didn’t sell the house, did he?” Aven asked.

  “Nope. He and his wife are still living in it, along with three daughters and one grandkid.”

  “Okay, I give up. Where did the money come from?”

  “That’s what we’d like to know. The scuttlebutt is that the men of his crew scraped it up for him.”

  Aven pulled back and frowned. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense. His men were worse off than he was. How could the six of them come up with that much money?”

  “That’s a good question. And did they just do it out of the goodness of their hearts?”

  Aven thought about it, but it still didn’t add up. “Six men pass the hat because they feel bad for their boss and come up with forty-seven thousand dollars in cash? I don’t think so.”

  Greer tapped a pen on his desk. “Maybe some of them had some assets. Or some connections. I wonder if they all felt guilty. After all, from what Holland tells me, it was their fault he lost his boat.”

  “That’s right,” Aven said. “I gave Andrews a citation, but then the men started a brawl. That’s what clinched it. If they hadn’t assaulted us, we never would have impounded the boat.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Eliot studied his notebook for a moment then slid it back inside his jacket. “I wanted to check the details of the confrontation with you before I talked to Andrews’s crew.”

  “You’re going out and talk to them all?”

  “Going to try. Most of them live in the Seward area. That’s where Andrews lives. But two of them live out here on Kodiak.”

  “Spruce Waller being one,” Aven said.

  Eliot’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah. Do you know something about him?”

  “Not really. Just that his brother, Clay, has a boat and someone gave us a tip a few weeks ago that he was running drugs.” He looked toward Greer. “Our cutter chased him, but he outran us and ducked into a channel we couldn’t navigate.”

  The lieutenant nodded in acknowledgement. “That’s right. The tip came in as an anonymous call to our communications center. I learn
ed later that a woman made the call.”

  Aven continued, “A few days after we tried to run that boat down, I saw Spruce Waller and his brother repaintinga boat over at Anton Larsen Bay. I think it was Clay Waller’s boat, tied up in front of Spruce’s cabin. But I wasn’t a hundred percent sure.”

  “Did you do anything about it?”

  “I told the state police, but they didn’t seem to give it high priority. They did enlarge the pictures I gave them and confirmed the two men doing the painting were Spruce and Clay Waller.”

  Greer scratched his jaw. “We speculated that after we impounded the Molly K, Spruce Waller may have started working with his brother, but we don’t have any hard evidence.”

  Aven nodded. “So what if the Waller brothers are running drugs, and some of that drug money went to buy Captain Andrews’s boat back?”

  Eliot drew in a deep breath. “That would be hard to prove.”

  “But if you could prove it, you’d put the drug runners away,” Aven said.

  “Yes, and we’d get to auction the Molly K again.” Eliot smiled. “Any ideas on how we might do that?”

  Aven’s adrenaline surged. Finally, he could do something. “I’d be happy to go with you when you interview the two crewmen who live near here.”

  “Great.” Eliot brought out the notebook again. “Spruce Waller and Terry Herman. Both live in Kodiak.”

  “I’m free this afternoon. Let’s try Herman first,” Aven suggested. “He may be easier to catch up with than Waller.”

  Half an hour later, Aven stood back and let Eliot knock on the door of a weathered duplex.

  A baby was crying inside. The door swung open, and the wailing increased in pitch.

  A young woman gazed at them. “Yes?” Her plain features hovered between curiosity and fear. Aven took in the ragged flannel shirt she wore over a tank top and faded jeans. No makeup. Her only jewelry consisted of a wedding ring and a cheap digital watch.

  “I’m Deputy U.S. Marshal Ralph Eliot, and this is Petty Officer Aven Holland with the Coast Guard. We’d like to speak to Terry Herman.”

  The young woman looked them up and down, eyeing Eliot’s suit and Aven’s uniform. Aven wondered if he should be watching the back door. The baby’s wails became screams.

  “Come on in.” She swung the door wide open and turned to scoop the baby out of a mesh playpen. “Terry, you got company.” She and the baby disappeared through a doorway, and the crying stopped.

  A lanky young man in jeans and a faded black T-shirt unfolded himself off the sofa and stood eyeing them. Eliot again made the introductions.

  Herman nodded at Aven. “I recognize you. Am I in trouble again? Because I paid my fine.”

  “We just want to ask you some questions,” Aven said.

  Herman hesitated then shrugged. “As long as I’m not in trouble.” He plopped back down on the sofa and nodded toward a ragged armchair. “Have a seat.”

  Eliot crossed to the sofa and sat on the end farthest from Herman. Aven took the chair.

  “Mr. Herman,” Eliot said, “what are you doing for work now?”

  Herman huffed out a breath. “Nothing at the moment. I’ve got a lead on a job. Got to do something when you have a family.”

  “How have you been living for the last couple of months?”

  “Off our savings. It’s gone now, though. Crystal’s folks helped us some, but I’m probably going to start at the cannery soon.” He wouldn’t meet Eliot’s eyes.

  “You’re not going to work for Jason Andrews again?” Aven asked.

  “Not hardly. He lost the boat.”

  Eliot said, “You didn’t hear? He bought it back at auction a few days ago.”

  “Huh. No, I didn’t know.”

  “I heard a rumor that his crew had got up the money so Captain Andrews could bid on the boat.”

  “Maybe so.”

  “Did you help raise the money?” Eliot asked. “Is that where your savings went?”

  Herman rose and walked over to the window. He stood with his hands on his hips, his back to them. “No. I didn’t have anything to do with that. We didn’t have much put away, and we’ve spent it mostly on food and rent.”

  “Do you know who did get the money for Andrews?”

  Herman turned and shook his head, staring at Eliot. “Look, I paid my fine. They said if we hadn’t gotten into that fight, nobody would have been arrested and the skipper would have kept the boat. Well, it wasn’t my fault.” He looked over at Aven, his dark eyes anxious. “I’m sorry about what happened. It wasn’t my idea to jump you and your men. If it was up to me, we wouldn’t have done it. But Spruce was riled, and all the others said they’d back him up. I felt like I had to take part. I got a few licks in, I admit it, but I paid my fine, and I’ve got a record now. And no, I don’t want to go back to working with them again. I want to stay out of jail. Like I said, I’ve got a kid now. I need to be working a steady job, not mixing it up with the Coast Guard.”

  Aven caught his gaze and held it for a long moment. “Apology accepted.”

  Eliot took out his pocket notebook and jotted in it. “Are you saying you think you’d get into trouble again if you went back to work for Captain Andrews?”

  “I dunno.”

  “How long had you worked for him?”

  “Just since spring.”

  “And before that?”

  The young man walked back to the sofa and plunked down on it. “I used to go out with Ned Carson’s crew. But he died, and his widow sold his boat to someone off the island. So when I heard this Andrews fella needed men last spring, I jumped at it. Needed a berth on a boat, and I didn’t ask questions.”

  Aven leaned forward and asked, “Who told you about the job?”

  “One of the men working on the Molly K.”

  “Spruce Waller?” Eliot asked.

  Herman swiveled and stared at him. “Yeah. How. . .”

  Eliot shrugged. “He’s the only other one of Andrews’s crew who lives in Kodiak. How did he connect with Andrews, do you know?”

  “No. I think he’d been with him awhile, though. I was hard up for work, and I heard Spruce at a bar one night, talking about leaving to go salmon fishing, so I asked him if they needed help. He said his boss might be hiring and to go with him the next morning. That was that.”

  “Okay,” Eliot said, scribbling in the notebook. “And what’s Spruce doing now?”

  “I don’t know. Haven’t seen him since the hearing.” Herman’s eyelashes lowered and screened his dark eyes.

  “Are you sure?” Aven asked.

  The young man jerked his head around to look at him. “He went to jail. I was glad I didn’t, except for that one night. Since I heard Spruce was out, I’ve stayed away from places I thought he might be.”

  “Bad blood between you and Waller?” Eliot stopped writing and arched his eyebrows.

  “Not really. But I don’t want there to be. Waller’s trouble.”

  “In what way?”

  Herman clamped his lips together and shook his head.

  Aven bent toward him and clasped his hands together loosely. “Terry, if you know anything it would be in your best interests to tell us.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “Not at all. But we’re going to talk to every man who was on the Molly K the day of the fight. We know Captain Andrews didn’t have the money to buy the boat back. But he came up with it, and we will find out where he got the cash.”

  “And if we find out you knew,” Eliot growled, “you can kiss your wife and baby goodbye, because you’ll be doing time for obstructing justice.” He rose and stood over Herman, his notebook dangling from his hand. “If you know anything at all, now’s the time to speak.”

  “Terry, tell them about Spruce.” The young woman stood in the doorway behind Eliot. She held the baby up against her shoulder and patted his back as she spoke. “If you don’t tell, you could get in worse trouble from them than you will from the Wallers.”
/>   ❧

  “Hey, that’s great. Hold it!” Caddie snapped the shutter. “Fantastic.” She bounded the few steps to Lindsey and showed her the last few shots on the digital camera’s small screen.

  Lindsey nodded grudgingly. “Not bad. You’re a good photographer.”

  “Thanks. And that necklace is perfect for you.” Caddie smiled through gritted teeth and whispered, “Too bad it’s only four hundred dollars.”

  Lindsey chuckled and took the silver and carved wood necklace off. “Yeah, it’s really sweet.” She went to the counter and handed the necklace back to the shop owner. “Thank you very much.”

  “I’ll be sure to mention your shop in the article,” Caddie said, tucking the woman’s business card into her pocket.

  As they walked outside into the cool sunshine, Lindsey zipped her jacket. “It would be easy to spend a lot of money in a hurry here.”

  They ambled down the sidewalk in Homer. Most of the tourists had left a month ago, and many of the shops had closed for the season.

  “I’m glad we got a chance to have some time ashore together,” Caddie said. “If we get enough pictures today, I may be able to finish putting the article together while we’re docked in Kodiak next week. Maybe I can send it off before we put out for the long cruise.”

  “That’d be great.” Lindsey paused to study a window display of embroidered sweaters.

  “Just don’t get your hopes too high,” Caddie reminded her. “There’s no guarantee the magazine will buy it.”

  Lindsey shrugged. “It’s been fun doing it anyway. And I’m glad we got to know each other better.”

  “Me, too.” Caddie smiled at her.

  Getting to know Lindsey had turned out to be the best part of this deployment. For the past three days, they had studied the Bible together during their off-duty hours. Caddie had shown her friend several scripture passages about sin, forgiveness, and salvation through faith in Christ. Her curiosity whetted, Lindsey had asked if she could borrow Caddie’s compact Bible and started reading through the Gospels on her own.

  “Hey, look,” Caddie said, nudging her. “Cups Café. Isn’t that the one Dee and Vera were going to have lunch at?”