The Alaskan Catch. Beth Carpenter
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until they fill the hold or the season ends. It might be a few weeks.”
“Weeks?” Dana’s voice squeaked.
“I thought you knew.”
“Chris just said he was going fishing. I didn’t realize...” A commercial fisherman? Okay, he had a job, which explained how he paid for the sports car in the garage. That was a good thing, she supposed, but now what? She shook her head. “Do you have his cell number?”
Sam smirked. “There are no cell towers in the middle of the ocean.”
“No, I guess there wouldn’t be.” This whole plan was falling apart. She looked up at Sam. “There’s really no way to reach him?”
“There’s ship-to-shore radio for emergencies. Is this an emergency?”
Maybe. Well, no. She could call from Kansas if she had to, but she wanted to talk with him face-to-face. “I guess not.” Okay. New plan. “How long is he usually gone for?”
Sam shrugged. “Depends. I believe the season closes in mid-August, but I doubt they’ll be out for more than a month, sooner if they’re having a good catch. Once they fill the hold, they’ll come to shore to unload and refuel, and Chris will probably check in and maybe stop by for a day.”
One month. Plus however long it took to convince Chris to see it her way. She would probably get better results face-to-face than on the phone. Ginny could handle her mother in the meantime. She hoped. “I’ll wait for him.”
Sam raised his eyebrows. “You’re going to wait for Chris? Here?”
“Oh.” She hadn’t thought about where she would wait. “No, of course not. I’ll get a hotel.”
“That’s not what I meant. You can stay here as long as you want. I just thought you’d need to get back to Kansas. I can call you if Chris shows up.”
She shook her head. “This is more important. I don’t want to take a chance on missing him. Besides, I have another task about my dad’s estate to handle in the meantime.” The timer went off and she pulled the muffins from the oven, all the while preparing a mental checklist of items to accomplish. “But I will find a hotel or something. You never signed on to have me here for a few days, much less a month.”
“I don’t want you to move out.” His declaration sounded surprisingly firm.
She cocked her head and studied his face. “I can’t keep imposing on you. You don’t even know me.”
His shoulders twitched. “You’re Chris’s sister. I want you to stay.” He eyed the pan cooling on the counter and the corners of his mouth tugged upward. “Assuming, of course, that you’re going to offer me one of those muffins.”
Dana laughed. “You can have all the muffins you want.” She pulled out a plate, plopped a warm muffin on top and set it on the counter in front of him.
“Then I believe we have a deal.” Sam poured himself a cup of coffee and settled at the bar. He broke off a bit of steaming muffin and popped it in his mouth. “Delicious.” He took a sip of coffee and eyed her. “So, what’s this other task you need to handle?”
“It’s possible my dad owed money to someone, and I want to check it out before they settle the estate. I need to get into public records in Fairbanks. Are they online, do you think?”
“Probably. Although I don’t know how far back they would go.”
“I’ll find out.” Dana dried the batter bowl and utensils and put them into the kitchen cabinets. “I brought my laptop.”
Sam nodded. “The password for Wi-Fi is in the top drawer of the desk in your room. Good luck.”
* * *
SAM SPENT THE morning going through his mail and generally catching up. Dana had disappeared into her bedroom right after breakfast and he hadn’t seen her since. Was he crazy, inviting a Raynott to stay in his house? Apparently, he’d been living with one for years and never knew it.
Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe the Raynott his mother blamed for everything bad that had happened to them wasn’t related to Chris and Dana. Yeah, right. Sure, it was just a coincidence that his best friend happened to have been born with the same unusual name as this person his mother hated. The whole situation was fishy, and while Dana sure didn’t seem like the type to be running some sort of scam, the whole point of a con was to appear trustworthy. Still, he couldn’t see what she had to gain by hanging around him.
Just out of curiosity, Sam did an internet search on his phone for Raynott. Dana had a couple of mentions in fund-raising articles for a women’s shelter. A business article about a chain of equipment and tool rental stores mentioned a Wayne Raynott as owner. And a newspaper in Kansas showed an obituary for Wayne Raynott from three months ago. That was all he found.
Wayne Raynott. Sam couldn’t be positive, but he was fairly certain that had been the name on the check his mother tore up. And now Dana was here in Alaska, trying to talk Chris into taking an inheritance and looking for some mysterious person her father owed money to. He couldn’t see the whole picture yet, but he was starting to collect a big stack of puzzle pieces.
His phone rang. Ursula. He smiled. “How’s it going, Auntie?”
“It would be better if a certain someone would check in with me like he’s supposed to when he gets in from his rotation.”
He settled on the barstool. “Sorry about that. I only got home on Wednesday and I’ve been a little busy.”
“So Marge tells me. Gallivanting around town with your pretty new girlfriend instead of calling your auntie Ursula. Tsk-tsk.” Laughter bubbled through her words.
Ursula was worse than Chris. Chris just thought Sam needed some female company. Ursula was determined he needed a wife. Better shut her down before she started making wedding plans. “She’s not my girlfriend. She’s Chris’s sister.”
“Really?” She paused. “I didn’t know Chris had a sister.”
“I didn’t, either.”
“He didn’t mention her when he came by to drop off the dog.”
“Odd, huh?”
“You’ve been roommates for years. What does he have to say about this?”
“So far, nothing. He went out fishing and left her here. I haven’t talked with him since I got home.”
“Huh. Well, bring her along for the weekend. I had a cancellation.”
“This weekend?”
“That’s right. I need you to make me a new gate on the vegetable garden. A moose smashed it. You can come down this afternoon.”
“You want me to build a gate?”
“That’s right, Mr. Landlord.”
“Why didn’t you just call a carpenter?”
“There’s no need to waste money on something you can do yourself. Didn’t Tommy teach you anything? Surely someone with a fancy engineering degree can build a gate.” Tommy, Ursula’s husband, had been a gifted handyman and a patient teacher to twelve-year-old Sam after he moved in with them. And yes, he could probably build a gate. “Besides, this dog of yours is eating me out of house and home.”
Not likely. “Didn’t Chris bring his dog food?”
“Kimmik prefers real food.”
Sam was sure he did. “Dog food is better for him.”
“Well, then, get over here and pick him up, and you can feed him however you see fit. And bring Chris’s sister along. I want to meet her.”
Not a bad idea, actually. Ursula had good instincts about people. He’d like her read on Dana. “I’ll see.