“I took these out of Stu’s cabin the other night,” Alex said. “I found them stuffed behind a loose log in his bedroom.”
“So that explains the footlocker …”
“I was surprised when you told me earlier that you had seen me.”
“I saw you from my raft. At first it seemed strange, but then I convinced myself that you were only moving some of your things early since I knew you and Emily were leaving Alaska.”
Mara smiled weakly at Alex, but he was all business. It was at that moment she knew that this was real, and that any connection she had had with Alex Winron the young fisherman, had simply been an elaborate ruse set up by law enforcement. She had been here before—too many times and with too many others.
“Fingerprints will reveal no evidence that Joe Michael ever touched these receipts,” Paul said. “Joe is innocent. As a matter of fact, I received information this morning that charges against him are being dropped.
“Joe will need to testify, but the fact that he was not even in Southeast Alaska on the dates of any of these deposits—information supported by witnesses and our investigation—have pretty much exonerated him from any wrongdoing. That and a confession from Lessis.”
“Lessis confessed?”
“It was part of a plea bargain, but thanks to the new information that you supplied, we got him on the larger charge of interstate fraud and terrorism,” Alex told her. “Guess he had a soft spot for you after all.”
“What do you mean by that?” she asked.
“He told me he knew how much Joe Michael and even Stu meant to you. He said he had heard the story about Della and the shooting at the motel. He also said he was touched by the memorial you got together for Stu after he died.”
“Really,” she said. “I always felt he didn’t like me.”
“Lessis really didn’t want either Joe or Stu to get hurt. He was just using them. He set everything up so it would be almost impossible to incriminate either of them—not that he was going to resist letting it happen if somehow that came down—but he tried to make it so that they would stay off the radar, if you will.
“As for you, he said he figured you had already been through enough. He called you a decent person. It goes to show that you never know, doesn’t it—you know, about how someone thinks? I never would have taken a guy like him for someone with either a heart or a conscience. It’s also why he probably didn’t kill you when he had the chance.”
Mara turned pale. For the first time, Alex’s description of Lessis’s actions had made her actually think about her violent encounter with the man she knew only as a sleazy bank manager and former cop.
“One more thing, Alex,” she said softly. “Why did the FBI let it go this far?”
“Our divisions in other states were investigating their own compromised accounts at Smith Bank. Until about a week ago, they hadn’t found any way to link Lessis to those accounts. That is, until Stu died. When Stu’s fake account in Joe’s name and his own actual account were closed out and then the same account numbers reappeared in at least two other branches of Smith Bank, everyone started looking for a common link, especially when Lessis was promoted to general manager of both of those branches. After all, Lessis was a hero to everyone at the bank for exposing the old manager—a man whose word could not be trusted once it was revealed he had engaged in interstate child pornography, which is what Lessis had on him.”
“Wow!” Mara said, “and nobody suspected anything before this? Nobody at Smith Bank?”
“The Arabs wanted to let it play out; they feared some kind of link to some terrorist organization that they assumed would be Al Qaeda, but to everyone’s surprise—thanks to you turning in that phone number you found—it turned out to be a homegrown terrorist group hoping to destroy America from within. That ring,” Alex said, “has now been exposed and compromised.”
Just then Thor wandered out, giving Mara the look that said he wanted to go for a walk.
“Go ahead, Mara,” Alex told her. “You need some time to absorb all of this. Just be sure not to talk about this to anyone, not even Doug, for now. I’ll get back with you tomorrow to fill you in on what happens next. It’s all going to come down pretty fast—the case is that strong.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Closure … Almost
… Mara Benson Edwards Williams Benson …
… the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me, God …
… yes, I recognize the defendant as former Juneau police officer and Smith Bank Manager, K. Lessis …
… yes, I do live at … and, yes, that is the cabin directly north of the one formerly occupied by Mr. Stuart Michael …
… yes, I do know Della … and Joe M …
… yes, this is the deposit slip I made out on …
… yes, I recognize this man as Alex Winron …
… yes, I did propose a business relationship with Mr. Winron involving the F/V Driftfeather …
~~~
The trial, although stressful, was mercifully short. As Alex had predicted, Lessis was convicted on multiple counts of embezzlement—identity theft, fraud, blackmail, interstate money laundering, and a host of other offenses, including domestic terrorism. Mara watched him the day the sentence was handed down. Even though handcuffed, he strutted around as though the guards were his personal staff.
“Looks like he just doesn’t get it,” Doug whispered in her ear as she linked her free arm through Joe Michael’s, who was standing on the other side of her.
“He’ll get that smirk wiped offa his face in the slammer,” Sal said from the other side of Joe. “Slimy danged …”
Mara stood quietly as Les S. Moore was led from the courtroom. She watched as he clunked along in his orange prison garb, his feet shackled in chains. Just as he passed in front of her, he made a sudden move to wrest himself from the grip that two officers had on his arms before they quickly subdued him and led him away, but not before he looked her squarely in the eye and flashed her a sinister grin, then pursed his lips as if kissing her from across the room.
She felt Doug tense beside her and placed a gentle hand on his arm. He had been shocked to learn of all that had transpired since Mara moved to Juneau and surprised how well she had handled herself around the slimy likes of Lessis.
Fortunately, neither Joe nor Sal seemed to have seen the look.
“Are we still gonna meet up to discuss the seiners?” Doug asked.
“How about if we meet for dinner over at the hotel?” Alex suggested.
“Works for us,” Sal said.
“And I just need to check on Thor,” Mara said.
“I’ll walk him while you get ready,” Doug added.
“I’ll find Annie and Paul and make reservations for, let’s say, seven—that okay?” Alex said.
“You feelin’ all right, sweet baby?” Sal said to Joe.
“Feelin’ fine enough, Sal,” Joe chuckled.
Mara couldn’t help but notice the toll the trial and all that went with it had taken on Joe Michael. Not sure just how she would do it; she silently vowed to find a way to bring a sparkle back to the old man’s face.
Chapter Forty-Six
Fine Dining
By the time everyone met up in the hotel dining room, a light drizzle had begun to fall. From her place at the large round table near the back of the dining area, Mara nestled into the warmth of the nearby stone fireplace as she watched Joe and Sal come in. Although Sal had often boasted of being “barely 5 feet tall,” today she seemed shorter than usual, and frailer, too. Strange how her boisterous ways had always made her seem much taller.
Joe Michael was not much taller than his wife. Mara watched the two shuffle across the room, Sal’s arm linked solidly through his. The couple were both on the far side of seventy now, not really old by Alaska standards, but old enough so that they had begun to assume the slightly bent-over stance of the elderly. Joe might even be closer to his mid to late seventies. Hadn�
�t he once told her about how he had joined the army when he was twenty-two and hadn’t been sent to Nam until he was twenty-five?
Joe’s full head of brown hair was supported by a good growth of gray roots, making Mara smile at his obvious attempt to retain some of the trappings of youth.
“Sal likes me to look good,” he had once told her.
Sal’s hair was brilliant red and sported an outgrowth of gray roots similar to her husband’s. Both wore the shiny blue bomber jackets often worn by members of one of Alaska’s oldest fraternal order of pioneers.
Mara smiled, her heart filled with love for the two seniors.
“Hell’s a blazin’, Jane, whadja do, rush right on over here from the courthouse?” Sal bellowed from halfway across the room.
Mara stood and pulled out two chairs, greeting the couple warmly as they reached her. Just then Doug strode in and joined them, followed only seconds later by Annie, Paul, and Alex.
The conversation was lively, as if they were ignoring the fact that Emily, Kent, and Alex were really FBI agent Alex and his fellow agents Annie and her husband, Paul. Despite the circumstances, there was genuine affection among them, and they enjoyed a hearty meal and a jovial evening together before Annie and Paul left to catch a flight to Seattle. It was then that Alex gathered them all in comfortable chairs around the fireplace to discuss the reason they were really there.
“Now that Les S. Moore has been brought to justice, we can all feel assured that we are safe from further harm,” he began, speaking authoritatively in a way that made him seem the stranger to them all that he really was.
“Of course, each of you will receive our agency’s assistance in securing your identities and retrieving your assets …”
Mara closed her eyes as Alex talked about all the details of the investigation, and about the ways and means that their property and lives would be restored.
While the others sat in rapt attention, her mind wandered to the day that he had shown up outside her cabin and offered to help carry in her table and a few other things.
She had taken him, as she had so often done with most everyone she knew, at face value, little suspecting that he was anyone besides the person he appeared to be.
Once again, she had naively fallen prey to deception. Well, maybe deception was too strong a word. The point was, how could she ever trust her instincts when each time she had, she had been wrong about so many people in her life? She reached into her purse for a breath mint and felt the feather given to her by Joe Michael.
… As your strength grows,
mine will begin to fade.
As before, keep this to protect your future,
but this time it will be from my past.
How was it that Joe had known her life would become entwined with Stu’s? Wasn’t Alex just a bit player in the ongoing saga that had become her life? If so, it wouldn’t be fair to blame him for violating her trust. After all, wasn’t he just playing his part in her destiny?
“Tell me, Alex,” she interrupted him. “Tell me why you went so far as to buy the Driftfeather?”
Alex seemed taken aback at the directness of Mara’s question. Looking at her, he took a sip of his drink before leaning back in his chair and then leaning forward again to speak.
“It’s complicated,” he began, “and I can’t say too much without revealing some ongoing investigations, but let me try.”
Suddenly everyone else stopped talking, all eyes fixed on Alex. Slowly he began to weave together the story of how he had come to purchase the Driftfeather, spurred on in part, he told them, by Mara’s own bold and timely offer to become his silent partner.
“The government was looking for a way to close in on some of the drug activity going on out in the Aleutians,” he told them. “As you know, every summer an influx of people from all over the world come into Alaska to work in the fisheries.
“It’s no secret that a fair amount of drug smuggling occurs then, particularly in locations far out and away from population centers. Every summer you read in the paper or hear on TV about another incident where drugs are involved on some fishing vessel or another. What the public hears, well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
Mara sat silently as Doug and Sal nodded in agreement. She had heard stories from Doug and others about such activities, but had never really paid them much attention.
“The government had been talking about buying a fishing boat to launch a sting operation out at sea,” Alex continued. “They wanted something in addition to the well-documented work done by the coast guard, and they wanted something that would allow an investigation to go totally undetected even by the usual government agencies.”
“And you were the one?” Doug asked.
“Fishing seiners have always held a great deal of fascination for me,” Alex said, “and it’s true what I told Mara about wanting to succeed without any financial help from my parents.”
Mara nodded. At least one thing Alex had told her had been true.
“When the funding came through right at the time that the Driftfeather and Mara’s offer to be a silent partner coincided, and right when we were closing in on Lessis and his activities, it all seemed like a destiny-driven sequence of events—almost too perfect, actually—but certainly lining everything up to help us achieve two major objectives at once, that of exposing Lessis, and launching the sting operation at sea.”
Mara looked at Joe Michael, who sat unflinching as Alex’s story unfolded. Even Sal, who usually had plenty to say, remained silent.
It was Doug who spoke first and expressed the thought that was on everyone else’s mind, “And what happens to the Driftfeather now?”
“Well, everyone here knows that Mara already owns half the seiner, which means that the government only owns half. The only reason I’m able to talk about this with you now,” Alex continued, “is that the government has decided to abandon its efforts with—and therefore its interest in—the Driftfeather in exchange for another type of investigation—one that, as you must certainly understand, I am not at liberty to discuss. In the coming weeks they will be actively looking for a way to dump their interest in the seiner.”
Mara felt her heart sink as Sal clutched her hand tightly.
“I’ll buy the government out, then,” Doug spoke up. “Whatever it takes, I’ll borrow more money and I’ll buy you out. Anything to hold on to the Driftfeather.”
Alex smiled. “What none of you know is that there is a $250,000 reward for the capture and prosecution of Les S. Moore and his ring of embezzlers. Because of Mara’s testimony about the activities of both Lessis and Stu, and Lessis’s subsequent conviction, and because of her willingness to risk her own safety in confronting Lessis before we stepped in and stopped her, a determination has already been made that the reward money will go to her.”
Mara turned pale, speechless.
“I know this comes as a huge surprise to you, Mara,” Alex said, getting up and walking over to give her a hug. “But if anyone deserves this reward, you do. The other thing is that the government has agreed to give you, as half owner of the Driftfeather, first option on buying her in full—that is, if that is an option you would like to pursue.”
“It is,” she said so faintly that she wasn’t even sure herself if she had spoken.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear, because to be honest, Mara, you’ve proven to be one of the best friends anyone could ever ask for, and if you’ll let me, I’d love to go out on the Driftfeather with you from time to time, just to get away from my work—of course, if Doug’s okay with that,” he said laughing.
“More’n okay, friend. Any time. Any place,” Doug said.
Suddenly, everyone was laughing as the gathering of the good friends continued well on into the night. Since Alex intended to leave early the next morning, they all said their goodbyes for now.
As for Annie, well, she had played her part as Emily to perfection and she, too, they each agreed, would always be welc
ome in Juneau or anywhere any of them happened to be—something each of them had emphasized to her before she left, and only after making her promise to let them know as soon as the baby was born—the baby who Annie and Paul agreed would be called Juneau, no matter what its sex was.
Chapter Forty-Seven
To Beach or Not to Beach …
Doug helped the pilot load Joe and Sal’s gear into the plane at the airport in Juneau, while Mara helped each of them climb up on the struts where they situated themselves inside.
“Doug says we’ll be coming in tomorrow,” she told them. “I need to go over a few things with my house sitter about KonaJane’s, and make sure my raft is tied up securely since we’re going to be gone for at least a couple of weeks.”
“I appreciate ya lettin’ me bring the Driftfeather in with ya, Jane,” Sal hollered out the door, “and I think Joe’s gonna be fine with helpin’ Doug with the Storm Roamer.”
Just in case extra help was needed, Doug had hired Derrk Stanley to help with the Roamer, and hired Derrk’s son, Josh, to help with the Driftfeather. He would captain the Storm Roamer, though, and Mara would captain the Driftfeather—each of them making sure that both Joe and Sal had all the time they needed at the wheel.
“Ain’t captained no seiner for the last twenty years, Jane,” Sal laughed nervously, “but guess it’s like they say ‘bout ridin’ a bike, huh?”
“I’ve got no doubts, Sal. Matter of fact, I’m hoping that watching you will teach me a few things since it seems that Doug and I are now the owners of two seiners.”
“Bert, that’s my dead first husband, Bert used to do things with that seiner that no one could believe. Many’s the time he beached her on some remote island for a few days’ R & R,” Sal laughed.
Mara smiled. Maybe she and Doug could do something like that. She was sure he had the expertise. In the past he had always concentrated on working and lobbying for fishing issues. Maybe it was time to slow down and actually start enjoying the sea.
Driftfeather on the Alaska Seas Page 14