The Keeper

by George C. Chesbro

  ii

  Jack Trex, who was drunk but not incoherent, came to the house later. Jade poured cups of coffee for both of them, and they went out to sit on lawn chairs in the back yard.

  “I got trouble, Jade,” the fisherman said, his words only slightly slurred as he ran a hand back through his long, dark hair. “My wife doesn’t like it when I drink, so I was hoping it would be all right if I came over and talked to you for a bit until I sober up. She doesn’t know all the details of what’s happening, and I don’t know how to explain.”

  “You know you’re welcome here any time, Jack. By trouble, I assume you mean the loss of your boat. Won’t your insurance company pay for it?”

  Trex hiccupped. “Nope. They say they’re not going to pay because it’s not their responsibility.”

  Jade set her cup down on the grass, then reached out and put her hand on the heavily muscled forearm of the man sitting next to her. “I don’t understand. Covering the risk of having something happen to your boat is why you pay for insurance in the first place.”

  Trex slowly shook his head like a wounded bull. “That’s not the way they see it. They say that by notifying the Coast Guard I was acknowledging awareness that I might be stowing an explosive device on board, and that voids the policy. They claim that the Coast Guard and Navy have to be liable for damages, because it was the Coast Guard I talked to and the Navy that ordered the quarantine of the boat. The Coast Guard says it’s not their responsibility because they referred the matter to the Navy, and the Navy denies ever talking to the Cairn police. The Navy says I should have called the police if I thought I’d taken a bomb on board.”

  “You have to sue, Jack. Sue the insurance company, the Coast Guard and the Navy.”

  “Sue? Oh, sure. Who can afford lawyers? I’ve got big money problems, Jade. I was close to running on empty even before this happened. Business at the boatyards where I work in the off season has fallen off real bad. I was three months behind on my mortgage and car payments before the shad started running. I was hoping to do well enough during the season to catch up on some of my bills, and then hunt for another job during the summer. I was figuring that if worse came to worse and the bank threatened to take away my house and car, I could always sell the boat for fifty or sixty thousand dollars. I couldn’t fish any more, but at least I could stay off welfare. Now I’ve got nothing, and no way to earn a living. We are going to have to go on welfare, and I don’t know how to tell Shelly. I’m too ashamed.”

  “Jack, you don’t have to be ashamed because somebody … because your boat was destroyed.”

  Suddenly the fisherman’s dark eyes glistened with tears. “You try to do the right thing, and you get screwed every time. I’m not blaming you, Jade, because I was the one who asked and you gave me good advice. You know the law. I probably would have called the Coast Guard even if you hadn’t told me to. But I’m telling you that if I had it to do all over again, I’d take the advice of my gut and throw the damn thing back in the river.”

  iii

  It was an exceptionally warm evening for early spring, and after dinner Jade and her children decided to go down to the beach, as they often did during the summer, and sit for a while before going to bed. Jade sat in her low-slung beach chair with her right hand resting on the broad shoulder of her son, who was listening to a tape on his Walkman while he played a handheld computer game by the light of the full moon. Fatima, wearing a long, black dress buttoned to the neck and black shoes, sat on a blanket ten yards off to Jade’s left, using a small flashlight to study her Torah. Jade stared out across the smooth surface of the river at the sparkling lights on the Westchester shore as she tried to slow the thoughts that were tumbling around in her mind like clothes in a dryer.

  She had been more than a little surprised and gratified when Fatima had indicated that she wanted to join them on the beach, for her daughter was becoming ever more distant at home, spending most of her time studying in her room, coming out only to eat, and saying little. Jade hoped she had made the right decision in allowing her daughter to attend school in Hebron Nablus. Her strategy was not to press the girl, but to be supportive and patient, and wait. She hoped that Fatima would eventually understand that she needed the love of her family at least as much as she needed to love God.

  Waiting, however, was a luxury she knew Jack Trex could not afford. In a way she considered herself responsible for the loss of Jack’s boat and his livelihood as well as the deaths, and this tore at her. It was not that her advice to call the Coast Guard had been inappropriate, simply that it had not been the right advice given her special knowledge. She’d known what the thing in the net was, and had been well aware that there could be some risk for Jack Trex as a result of his finding and reporting a Jolly Roger. True, she’d had no idea of the lengths to which the men responsible for training and rigging the Jolly Roger would go to erase evidence, but she’d certainly known there could be complications. She’d put a man to whom she owed a great deal in harm’s way. She should have examined the mine herself, disarmed it if it was live, and then told Jack to dump the carcass and metal casing back in the river.

  She’d failed to do the right thing because she’d been afraid of the questions her demonstrated expertise with explosives might raise, afraid that Jack might subsequently pursue the matter and ask questions of the wrong people, afraid that news of her direct involvement in the matter would reach the ears of men who would still be more than happy to destroy her if she gave any indication that she was not living up to the letter of the agreement between them. Because of her failure to act in the best interests of the man who had given her a new life, he had lost his boat and was in danger of losing everything else he owned, along with his self-respect. A mother and father and their two children had lost their lives.

  It was not a situation Jade could passively accept, and she knew she was going to have to do something about it if she wanted to retain her own self-respect. Exactly what she was going to do was a decision she would make at another time, for now her thoughts had turned once again to other business to which she had to attend.

  “Mom to Earth,” Jade said, turning to her son and removing his earphones. “Anybody home down there, my little gallon of grilled gorilla guts?”

  Max Jr. looked up at his mother and grinned. “Earth to Mom. What do you want, my … big box of burned burgers?”

  Jade gently touched the fresh bruise on the boy’s left cheekbone. “Maxie, I’m going to school tomorrow to talk to your teachers and the principal. This business of the other boys beating up on you has to stop.”

  The smile on Max Jr.’s face instantly vanished, and the laughter in his eyes was replaced by anxiety. “Mom, you can’t do that! You’ll only make matters worse! Everybody will laugh at me! I can’t have my mother going to school to fight my battles!”

  “Then why don’t you fight your own battles, Maxie?” Jade asked quietly. “The other boys have no right to treat you that way, and I can show you how to make them stop.”

  “Mom, you don’t understand.”

  “I don’t understand why you let those boys call you names and attack you physically. You’re a very gentle and loving young man, Maxie, and I love you all the more for your gentleness and sensitivity. I don’t want you to become a violent person; there’s already enough of them in the world. But you do have a right to attend school in a safe environment, and it’s your principal’s and teachers’ responsibility to provide you with it. I’m just going to remind them of that fact.”

  Max Jr. determinedly shook his head, and Jade could see the heavy muscles in his back and shoulders bunch with tension. “Mom, you can’t go to school. You’ll embarrass me, and I’ll never hear the end of it. I’ll either be the dirty Arab or pansy Jewboy who hides behind his mother’s skirts.”

  “Then defend yourself, Maxie. Stick up for your rights. I’ve told you I can teach you a few quick, easy tricks to enable you to do just that.”

  The boy lowered his head
, nervously ran both hands back through his blond hair. “I don’t want you teaching me how to fight, Mom. I get embarrassed when you start talking about grabbing some kid’s crotch.”

  “That’s only one possibility I’ve mentioned. You’re big and strong, Maxie, and I know you don’t want to seriously injure anybody. You don’t want to break bones or knock out teeth. So all you have to do with the next boy who comes after you is give him a quick shot to the stomach, just below the rib cage. When he gets up off the ground and starts breathing again, he’ll walk away, and I seriously doubt he’ll bother you again. But do something. I don’t want you seriously hurt either, and I’m afraid one day it’s going to come to that. If the soft, quick stuff doesn’t work on the next boy who gives you trouble, just haul off and hit him in the jaw. Punch his lights out. One well-placed punch is usually as long as most fights last, but don’t flail if it goes on. Be patient. Take a couple of punches if you have to, then step in and unload. One good shot under the jaw with your fist or the palm of your hand will put your opponent on the ground and out cold for a couple of minutes. The other kids will get the message.”

  “But, Mom. I am bigger than most of the other kids. What if I really do hurt somebody?”

  “Then so be it. You’re not the one who starts these things. Some people just have to be hurt before they learn to stop hurting other people.”

  “What if I get suspended for fighting?”

  “Then I’ll take you to the movies. I’ll stick by you, Maxie. I’ll-”

  Jade stopped speaking when she saw her son’s gaze shift from her face to somebody or something behind her. She turned and saw Roy Mannes standing a few feet away, at the edge of the six-inch lip of earth separating the lawn from the beach.

  “I knocked at the door,” Roy said, “but nobody answered. Then I heard voices back here and I figured it might be you. Got a couple of minutes?”

  Jade rose from her beach chair and nodded curtly. She gestured to her son, and then to her daughter, who had looked up from her Torah. “Detective Roy Mannes, I’d like you to meet Max Jr. and Fatima.”

  “Shalom,” Fatima said.

  “Shalom,” Roy replied, and Jade noted with approval that if he was surprised by the Hebrew greeting or her daughter’s long, Hasidic-style dress, it didn’t show on his face.

  “What happened to your head?” Max Jr. asked.

  “I bumped it.”

  “You a cop?”

  “Yep.”

  “My Mom’s like a cop.”

  “I know. And I hear she’s a darn good one.”

  “You carry a gun?”

  Roy lifted the corner of his heavy denim shirt to show the boy the Beretta he carried in a holster on his belt.

  “Can I see it?”

  Roy looked at Jade, who nodded her approval. He took the gun out of its holster, removed the clip and checked to make sure the chamber was empty, then handed the weapon to the boy.

  “Wow,” Max Jr. continued, turning the Beretta in his hand. “I never held a gun before. You ever shot anybody?”

  “Cops are supposed to do everything they can to avoid shooting people, but they have to carry a gun just in case something bad happens. You have to know a lot of safety rules if you’re going to carry a gun. If your mother doesn’t object, I’ll take you over to the police firing range one day and show you how to shoot.”

  “Yeah?! Wow, that would be so cool!”

  “His mother will think about it,” Jade said tersely. “Maxie, give Detective Mannes back his gun and take a little walk, will you? Mom’s got things to do.”

  “Jeez, Mom,” Max Jr. said, grimacing slightly, but he handed the gun back to Roy, and then went to join his sister, who had risen from her blanket and walked down to the water’s edge when she had heard Jade ask her brother to leave.

  Jade turned to face the man with the craggy features, whose gray eyes and the hair that showed from around the edges of the bandage he wore shone silver in the bright moonlight.

  “Your son’s retarded, isn’t he?”

  Jade hated that word. Normally she would have bristled at its use, but there was no malice in Roy Mannes’ voice, and his tone had not been pitying or condescending. He had simply been stating what was quickly apparent to anyone of normal intelligence who compared the context of Max Jr.’s speech to his size and age. “Mildly,” she replied in the same terse tone. “What can I do for you, Detective?”

  “Jade, I came to apologize,” Roy said evenly. “I was way out of line this afternoon. It’s not an excuse, but I guess I was a little out of my head. I may hold myself responsible for what happened to that family, but that didn’t give me the right to talk to you like I did.”

  “I understand.”

  “When I said I thought you knew more than you were telling me, I didn’t mean to imply that you might be involved because you’re an Arab—a Palestinian. I’m not a racist, and I try not to make generalizations.”

  “Your apology is accepted, Detective.”

  “I’d be more convinced of that if you’d call me Roy.”

  “All right, Roy.”

  “I’ve been talking to some people who know you a lot better than I do. Jeff Bond has enormous respect for you.”

  “I’m happy to hear that.”

  “You may not have many enforcement powers, but Jeff says you’re hell on wheels when it comes to ferreting out polluters and gathering evidence to use against them in court. Being riverkeeper isn’t an easy job, and it can be dangerous. Your predecessor was killed in the line of duty by a psycho, you know.”

  “I’m aware of that.”

  “Is it true you cleaned some guy’s clock after you caught him dumping his yacht’s holding tank off Croton Point?”

  Jade smiled thinly and shrugged. “He was drunk. He took a swing at me when I tried to give him a ticket.”

  “He ended up in a hospital.”

  “I got in a lucky punch.”

  “Maybe. You’re a big girl, if you don’t mind my saying so. Six feet?”

  “Just a shade under.”

  They stared at each other in silence for a few moments, until finally Roy touched the bandage on his head and cleared his throat. “Well, I said what I came to say, so I guess I’ll shove off and let you get back to your family. If you do decide to let me give Max a couple of lessons on the firing range, just pick up the phone and give me a call. I think he liked the idea.”

  “Thanks, Roy. It’s very nice of you to offer. I will give it some thought.”

  Roy nodded, then turned and started walking back across the lawn. He had gone fifteen yards when he abruptly stopped and turned back. Now he stood in deep moon-shadow beneath a tree, and Jade could no longer see his face. He said, “Jade, you have any idea who came to Cairn to blow up that boat? You know who killed those people?”

  “I’m not aware that anybody came to blow up the boat,” Jade answered carefully. “Right now the incident is being treated as the accidental discharge of an explosive device Jack brought on board.”

  “You still claim you weren’t looking for a boat out on the river?”

  “I wasn’t looking for anything out on the river. Goodnight, Roy.”

  “Goodnight, Jade,” Roy replied, and then disappeared into the darkness.

  Chapter Five

  i

  She couldn’t sleep knowing that Jack Trex couldn’t sleep, unless it was in a drunken, hopeless stupor, and by dawn she had decided what she was going to do; if she was going to remain in Cairn, face Jack and continue to take a salary from the Cairn Fishermen’s Association, it was what she must do. Now it was professional pride that drove her, as well as guilt over what had happened to her employer’s boat and killed four people. This was her territory, her section of the river to safeguard, and it had been invaded by sappers and killers.

  She rose, had coffee, and then prepared breakfast for Max Jr. and Fatima. After she had sent her children off to their respective schools, she went into her small study. S
he knew there was a good possibility that the number of the private line she wanted to reach had been changed by now, perhaps more than once, but she wanted to try that number first before taking on the task of trying to fast-talk her way past a bevy of operators on the Pentagon switchboard.

  As it happened, the man she wanted to talk to answered in the middle of the second ring.

  “Roberts.”

  “This is Gemstone.”

  There was a prolonged silence, and then Vice Admiral Hubert Roberts said in a low voice, “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Gemstone? You have no business calling me, and no authorization to use this line. Be warned that this conversation is being taped.”

  “Good,” Jade said evenly. “I wouldn’t want anything I’m about to say to be misunderstood. If your recording doesn’t come out clear enough, I’ll send you a copy of the tape I’m making.”

  “Are you on a secure line?”

  “No. I’m calling from my home.”

  “Damn it-!”

  “Please hear me out, Admiral. This won’t take long. I’m calling to make what might be called a citizen’s complaint. It’s a matter of public record that the Coast Guard notified the Navy that a device that looked like a mine had been dredged out of the Hudson River by a Cairn fisherman. If the Coast Guard hadn’t strongly suspected that it was a piece of Naval ordinance, they wouldn’t have called the Navy in the first place. I assume you’ve been briefed about that matter, as well as the subsequent explosion that destroyed the boat?”

  There was another long pause, and then a quiet, “Affirmative.”

  “Did you see me on television?”

  “I’ve seen a tape of the broadcast.”

  “I figured somebody would bring that to your attention. As you could see, I’m involved in this matter whether I want to be or not.”

  “Just what is it you think you’re involved in, Gemstone?”