S
omeone clearing their throat near the doorway made Rafe look up from his computer.When he saw the familiar figure standing there, he mentally groaned.“Earl.You’re early.”
“Morning, Sheriff.I’m always early.”Earl glanced down at the files on Rafe’s desk, then back up at him.A veteran in his sixties, he was dressed in his standard polo shirt, belted jeans, and the ubiquitous black ballcap with the wordsUS Marinesin bright yellow that he never took off.“You want me to head back out front and wait the seven minutes?”
Yes.“Just let me finish this, and I’ll be right with you.”He went back to composing his email, aware of Earl hovering in the doorway.
Like Mae, Earl was a fixture in Whalebone Cove, and one of the many characters among its citizens.A proud former Marine, he had taken it upon himself to form and captain the neighborhood watch program when he’d moved here more than twenty years ago.
Then, being Earl, he’d taken it several dozen steps further by volunteering to keep watch over the town and harbor— as well as any incoming and outgoing vessels—with his high-powered binocs from the comfort of his RV on the cliffs overlooking the southwest part of the island.He was also known to wear NODs to help him keep watch at night.
As far as Rafe or anyone else around here knew, Earl had never taken a day off.And for more than twenty years, he had met with the sheriff every Monday morning for a weekly “debriefing” about any suspicious or concerning activity he had noted.
And as the outgoing sheriff had warned Rafe, there was always something.
Rafe finished up the urgent email about the missing person case, sent it, and folded his hands on top of his desk to give Earl his full attention.Bracing himself for whatever he was about to be told.“So.Monday briefing?”
Earl nodded and sat in the chair in front of the desk.“Here’s my latest report.”He handed over a folded sheet of lined paper scrawled with hand-written notes.Earl didn’t believe in computers or smart phones.Too much risk of being hacked, intercepted, or traced, you know.
Rafe unfolded it and scanned the list, keeping his expression neutral.Part of this job was about forging connections and relationships with the locals.Earl’s heart was in the right place.His mind...The jury hadn’t returned a definitive verdict on that yet.
Earl had noted the comings and goings of several pleasure craft over the weekend.“You’ve underlinedBackstreet Buoysin red.”Terrible pun, worse name for a boat.“Does that mean you’ve flagged this one?”
Earl grunted, ran a hand over his short gray beard.“Yeah.Bunch of rich college pricks on their daddy’s boat came in Friday night and left this morning at oh-seven hundred.If you’ve got any complaints about rowdy behavior or petty crimes over the weekend, I’d start with them.Boat’s out of Port Angeles, by the way.I can get you the registered owner’s name if you want, but I figured you’d probably have a contact to get it quicker than I could.”
Rafe put on a polite smile.“I do, yeah.Anything else urgent?”He went back to scanning the list.It was a lot longer than he’d expected, but compared to everything on his desk, nothing here seemed worthy of his attention at all.
“More moving trucks than usual arrived this past week.Up by eight percent from last month.”
One of them might be Willow’s stuff arriving.“It’s August.Plenty of people moving back after summer holiday.”
Earl dipped his head in acknowledgment, but his expression said he wasn’t convinced.“Eight percent’s a lot.”
Sure.“Okay.Anything else?”
“Those were the two most important things.”He rose, hiked up his belt.He was still in good shape for his age, plenty of muscle on his solid frame.“I’ll leave the list with you so you can look at everything when you have time.”
Can’t wait.“Great.Thanks.”Unless those “college pricks” had committed a serious offense, he wouldn’t be looking at any of this again.
Earl nodded.“Any questions, you can call me on my sat phone.”
They were traceable too, but couldn’t send texts and didn’t use a cell network, so Earl must be cool with it.“Sure.”
“If anything else comes up during the week, I’ll let you know.Otherwise, see you next Monday.”
“Looking forward to it.”The same way he would anticipate a dentist appointment.
He waited until Earl was safely out of view before dropping the paper in the recycling bin under his desk.
The station receptionist Darlene appeared in his doorway before it had even hit bottom.“Betty Edgerton called again.I tried to placate her, but she’s on the warpath.She’s demanding a meeting with you within the next twenty-four hours, or she’s threatening to go to the press to—and I quote—‘expose the corruption within the Whalebone Cove Sheriff’s Department.’”
“Wow.One week on the job, and I’m already getting accused of corruption.”
“She’s being a mama bear.Her only child has been missing since April.”
He was aware.It was just one of the missing persons cases on the island that had never been solved.“I know.”
“What do you want me to do?”Darlene was a pro at her job and ran this place like a well-oiled machine.She also knew the town, locals, and island as well as anyone here, and way better than he did.Without her getting him up to speed over the past week, he’d have been lost.
