Mikhail had a way of surviving whatever Alaska threw at him. Blizzards, grizzlies, river crossings, stubborn bureaucrats. It didn’t matter. In all the years he’d been leading expeditions, Alexei could count on one hand the number of times he’d truly worried about his brother.
But he was worried now, especially with winter closing in. “Perhaps I’ll take a quick trip down to Wrangell before I return to Sitka. Maybe one of the Tlingit hunting parties has seen him or the scientists—or both.”
Evelina nodded, her long brown hair tumbling about her shoulders. “I like that idea.”
Kate tore off another piece of bread. “And if they haven’t seen him? If there’s no indication anyone knows where he is?”
Alexei’s jaw flexed. “Then we’ll have to pray him home.”
“Can we pray he comes home by Thanksgiving?” Inessa asked. “I like it when everyone can be together for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
Alexei glanced at his half- sister, her long black hair gleaming beneath the lamplight. She looked more and more like her Aleut mother each time he saw her.
“Of course we can pray he’ll be home by Thanksgiving.” Evelina sent Inessa a smile. “That’s an excellent idea.”
Was it just him, or did Evelina’s voice sound a little too cheerful?
But forced cheerfulness or not, he didn’t want to think about having Thanksgiving with Mikhail lost in the wilderness. Unfortunately, the holiday was less than a week away.
“Tell us more about your trip to Ketchikan, Alexei.” Kate pressed her lips into a flat line, then reached for another roll, almost as though she was determined to eat the entire basket of bread herself. “Are you sure it yielded nothing? There has to be some way to stop the governor from having every last one of our ships searched and holding it for days on end.”
Alexei released a sigh, then dipped the tip of his spoon into the thick soup. “Yuri thinks we should take an action I didn’t want to pursue at first, but now I’m wondering if it’s the only option.”
“What did Yuri think you should do?” Evelina’s husband, Jonas, spoke around his mouthful of soup.
Jonas sat at the head of the table, his cheeks and jaw covered in a short red beard that made him look severe, and that was on top of his broad shoulders and large chest. But since Jonas was a Deputy Marshal, Alexei had no complaints about how intimidating his brother-in-law looked. In a mining town like Juneau, he had more than his share of ruffians and outlaws to handle.
Alexei swirled the tip of his spoon in the borscht. “He wants us to file a lawsuit against the governor and the RCS for targeting our ships with contraband searches. But I’m also wondering if we can sue over the governor’s refusal to pay the penalty for canceling our shipping contracts early.”
“A lawsuit?” Evelina straightened. “If you have evidence of our ships repeatedly being singled out and treated differently than other ships, then we might have grounds to file a harassment lawsuit, but I would do it only as a last resort. I’d also be cautious about taking the new governor to court over failure to pay the penalty for early termination of the contracts. It’s only going to anger the Caldwells, and we’re better off at least attempting to get along with them.”
“I think we’re past that point.” Alexei reached for a roll of his own before Kate decided to put the rest of them on her plate.
“If that’s the case, I can draw up papers and bring them when we go to Sitka for Thanksgiving,” Evelina said. “But has the new judge arrived yet?”
He shook his head. The judge who’d been presiding over Sitka for the past decade died of a heart attack in October, which meant that all legal matters were on hold. “I’ve heard a new judge is supposed to arrive by the beginning of December, but he wasn’t in Sitka when I left for Ketchikan.”
“Filing a lawsuit seems aggressive, but I can’t see any other way to stop these searches. The governor shouldn’t be able to single out your ships like that without repercussions.” Jonas shoved another mouthful of soup into his mouth, inhaling his food at twice the rate of anyone else at the table. “It makes me wonder what other things he’s getting away with over in Sitka.”
“If he’s doing something else he shouldn’t, Marshal Hibbs doesn’t seem interested in investigating.” Alexei dunked his roll into his soup with too much force, causing borscht to splatter onto the table. “I’ve been to his office three times since Simon Caldwell became governor, and all three times he’s told me it’s not his job to look after the governor.”
“But if you can prove the new governor is doing something illegal, then he’ll lose his job.” Inessa’s voice floated over the table, quiet but articulate. “There’ll be no need for a lawsuit. The searches will stop as soon as he gets removed from his position.”
“The hardest part is proving he’s doing something illegal,” Kate muttered, plunging her spoon into her soup before looking up at him. “And as frustrating as searching our ships has been, it’s not illegal, right?”
Alexei clenched his jaw. “Right. The RCS has the authority to search any ship that comes into port. I’ve just never seen that right applied in such an unfair manner before.”
“It’s harassment,” Evelina interjected. “There’s no question about it. If we file a lawsuit, we should be able to get the searches stopped, but I doubt anyone in Washington, DC, will care enough about losing a lawsuit to have Simon Caldwell removed as governor, and then we’ll have to deal with whatever he comes up with next.”
“Do you need me to go back to Sitka with you, Alexei?” Ilya asked, his face bright, though his excitement probably had more to do with getting out of school for a few weeks than spending time with him or Sacha or Yuri. “I can spend some time down at the docks and see what I learn.”
Alexei jabbed the tip of his spoon in Ilya’s direction. “The last place I need you is at the docks.”
The boy already had a penchant for getting himself into trouble. He didn’t need Ilya intentionally spending time in a place where trouble occurred on a regular basis.
“Finding a way to have the new governor removed seems like the most efficient way to solve the problem.” This from Nathan, Kate’s husband, who was usually quiet, especially when surrounded by a large group of family members.
But seeing how Nathan was the medical director in charge of providing care to the entirety of Alaska, he didn’t need to be loud and boisterous. He needed to be organized, efficient, and good at practicing medicine.
