Arrow's Rest by Joel Scott (best way to read books txt) 📕

away a few paces and Albright thought, My god, he’s not one of the dwarves, he’s a giant, he’s even bigger than the Englishman. And look! He has the same limp as me! The gods are fair and just!

He lurched into a shambling run towards his glorious destiny, a broad smile on his face now, and as he got close the fur coat turned and faced him and Albright’s smile turned into a toothy grin as the grizzly ripped off the remainder of his face with a swipe of his claw. Then he bit off Albright’s head.

The German tourist who had been recording it all on her iPhone fainted.

Chapter 56

The day started miserably with the loading of a delirious Richard Sullivan onto a chartered floatplane with a medic on board that flew in at first light. The lawyer had a high fever and his leg was black and swollen and the unspoken consensus was that he would lose it. The medic gave him a massive dose of antibiotics and shook his head with a grave look.

The trip back down Toba Inlet to the site of Arrow’s sinking was equally miserable. The southeast wind had picked up and brought a soaking slanting rain along with it and they were bucking tide as well. Jared stood alone at the Blue Harp’s rail regardless of the weather. He’d barely spoken since Joseph showed him the cross he’d marked on the chart of Toba Inlet. When they reached the site of the sinking, Clarke ran the boat in and stopped directly above Arrow. The screen showed they were in two hundred and sixty feet of water. With the state-of-the-art sonar and the thirty-two-inch display, they could see Arrow’s outline clearly. She was sitting almost upright on the bottom, facing towards the side of the inlet.

Jared came into the wheelhouse and looked at Arrow’s profile on the screen for a few minutes as if memorizing it and then went back out on deck and leaned against the rail and stared down at the water once more. After he left the wheelhouse, Cat took some pictures of the screen.

“Could she be raised?” she asked Danny.

“Probably, all it would take is money. The Brits got that old warship up in the eighties, and she had been sitting underwater for over four hundred years. But what would be the point? You’d be salvaging a worthless hulk. And if you were rich enough and insane enough to raise and rebuild Arrow to her original standards, what you would end up with is the marine version of the hundred-year-old axe. You know, the one that’s had four new handles and two new heads replaced over the years. I don’t know what the actual cost would be, but it wouldn’t be cheap. Not at that depth. Insurance companies pay out rather than repair in cases like this, it ends up costing them less. Not that Arrow was insured anyway,” Danny said.

Cat nodded and went down and joined Jared at the rail. She put her arm around him and raised her umbrella so it sheltered them both. She wasn’t sure he even noticed. After waiting for a few minutes, Clarke realized that no one was going to come and suggest it was time to leave so he took matters into his own hands. He put the boat into gear and moved slowly out from the shore and down the inlet, just idling along as he thought things through. He was in no rush to get back to Vancouver where he knew things were going to quickly get complicated for him on both a personal and professional level.

He dreaded telling Merlynn about what had happened to Legalese and his part in it. Beyond that, Clarke knew that collecting on Legalese’s insurance was going to be a nightmare when they learned who was driving the boat when it ploughed into the Blue Harp and sank. The mere thought of sitting in the witness box under questioning about his nautical expertise had him in a cold sweat. Court martial scenes from old naval movies rolled in an endless loop through his mind. He realized he was driving everyone nuts with his constant questions when Danny handed him a pair of ball bearings from the engine room.

Clarke dialled Merlynn’s number, hoping that he wouldn’t get through. No such luck. She was happy to hear from him and said that her grandkids were on the mend and she’d be flying back in a day or two. She loved the twins dearly but they were a trial at times and she looked forward to returning home. Merlynn said she’d promised them a week on Legalese next summer now that the old girl was whipped back into decent shape. Maybe a trip back to Desolation Sound?

Clarke took a deep breath and plunged in. To his surprise Merlynn was amazingly nonchalant about the loss of her old boat. She told him that she or one of her daughters would have copies of most of the photos in the boat, and there was nothing on board her that couldn’t be replaced. Furthermore, Legalese had been a constant expense and worry for her since Ralph died and it was almost a relief to see her gone. As for the insurance claim, she was up for a good court battle and didn’t need the money in any case. (Clarke didn’t know whether or not to believe the latter, but it became moot that evening when Ivery asked him to obtain the name of Legalese’s insurer and assured him there would be no problems with the claim. Clarke, who suspected that all the people in the top one percent were somehow connected, and often in league against the rest of them, was relieved but not surprised.)

After swearing Merlynn to secrecy he briefed her on the fate of Albright and his crew.

“I wish I’d been there to see the fight,” Merlynn said wistfully.

“You’d probably have been disappointed. It was more like an exhibition,