Adrift by Charlie Sheldon

Author:Charlie Sheldon [Sheldon, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Haida Gwaii, Coming of Age, Ocean, ships, Strong Heart Series, Fiction, British Columbia, drama, Gulf of Alaska, Literature, Vessels, Genre Fiction, action and adventure, Sea, Islands, Seattle
ISBN: 9780997060096
Publisher: Iron Twine Press
Published: 2018-09-21T04:00:00+00:00

Steve

Greg Watson, my union rep, met me at the Seattle airport.

“How are you, Steve?”

All I had was a carry-on bag. We moved quickly from the terminal to the parking garage. My right foot ached. My nose was peeling from frostbite.

“Do I need a lawyer?” I asked him.

“I think so. I mean, I’m your union rep, but I also represent all our members, including your officers. The Coast Guard’s already hired an investigator and scheduled a hearing for next week. The investigator’s started interviewing people.”

“Even before the ship’s back?”

“He started scheduling the members of your crew as soon as they got back yesterday.”

Greg looked at me over the roof of his car. “Steve, you need to get real representation, quickly. Buckhorn wants to talk to you before you’ve got a lawyer. I know Bruce is an old friend, but he’s representing the company in this one.” Greg rested his arms on the roof of his car. “They’re going to do everything they can to pin this on you, Steve. They’re already working your officers and engineers, to place the blame on you.”

“Blame for what?” I asked. “I didn’t start any fire.”

Greg sighed. We got in the car.

“Not the fire, Steve, as you well know. You abandoned ship, yet the ship survived. A lifeboat was lost. And then someone else gets the tow. You didn’t hear this from me, but Buckhorn would have preferred the ship to burn fully and sink.”

“Well, she was on her last legs.”

“Now there’s going to be a big investigation and the ship will get tagged. She’ll be idle for months while they work out the settlement claims. I’m sure Buckhorn will blame you for abandoning her too soon. This could cost you your license.”

“I have my own suspicions about the fire, Greg.”

“I don’t want to hear them, Steve. This could turn into a big ‘he said, she said’ thing, and I need to represent everyone.”

At the waterfront shipping terminal, Greg dropped me off by my car. I found a note on the windshield, folded inside a plastic sandwich bag.

“Call me as soon as you get this. Critical.” The note was from Bruce.

I didn’t even stop at my place on Green Lake before heading north to Willow Run. I wanted to be on time and I was looking forward to seeing Jimmie.

Willow Run bills itself as a “Restorative Facility.” Much of its work concerns the orthopedic repair of legs, hips and arms. But Willow Run is also a mental health facility, a place where patients come for other types of long-term treatment, although not for alcoholism or drug abuse. Though not a prison, at times prisoners are shipped there for treatment and observation. They have a wing where patients can’t leave on their own.

Jimmie’s case officer was Laureen Bishop. I was never sure if she was an M.D. or a counselor. She’d been Jimmie’s case officer since he had come to Willow Run. I disliked her. I had always disliked her, from the time I first met her and she announced to me Jimmie would be fine if he just “sucked it up and applied himself.

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