This Other Eden Read Free Page B

coastguard before following the crew off the ship. Judy
wandered outside into the gale and spoke to her, shouting, to be heard above
the wind and the rain.
    ‘Did
you order the abandon ship, Ms…?‘ he asked.
    ‘Jackson.
Barbara Jackson. No, I did not, sir. The captain ordered abandon ship and most
of the crew got away in the boats before the situation deteriorated to
necessitate coastguard helicopters.’
    ‘So the
captain discharged his duties and then killed himself?’
    ‘That
is the case.’
    ‘Was
that like him?’ Judy asked.
    ‘Was
what? Discharging his duties or killing himself?’
    ‘Killing
himself.’
    ‘Well,
he didn’t make a habit of it,’ Jackson responded angrily. ‘But then he didn’t
make a habit of losing ships. Certainly not like this. We went down like a
stone, holed both sides. The captain would have known what the consequences of
that would be. This coast’s finished for three hundred miles, the fishing, the
wildlife, everything. Would you want that on your conscience? He was a decent
man. I reckon he’d have been dead inside before he pulled the trigger.’
    ‘Holed
both sides, you say?’ Judy inquired. ‘Seems rather unusual, doesn’t it? The
rocky coast is only on the one side.’
    ‘There’s
plenty of channels, we must have got caught in one.’
    ‘And
yet the captain was a good seaman?’
    ‘As
good as I’ve sailed with … They say he’d been drinking.’
    ‘Did he
often drink on duty?’
    Jackson
hesitated. She was a loyal crew member, but did not wish to lie to the FBI.
    ‘He may
have touched it. But, as I say, he was a good seaman. I never saw him even
remotely drunk on watch.’
    Judy
was lost in thought for a moment. The captain was a drinker, that much was
clear, which could certainly make him the culprit … but it could also make
him a very convenient scapegoat.
    ‘Do you
think he got drunk and ran the ship aground?’ he asked Jackson.
    ‘I
suppose he must have done,’ she replied.
    Inside,
the coastguard and police chief, having completed their perfunctory
investigation, were preparing to leave.
    ‘Can I
see where the ship’s ruptured?’ Judy asked hurriedly.
    ‘Sure,
if you’re a fish, they’re both below the waterline,’ Jackson replied.
    ‘But
the ship’s listing, eventually the port-side rupture will emerge.’
    ‘It
might,’ Jackson conceded, ‘if the ship hasn’t broken up by then, which it
probably will have, the way this storm’s blowing.’
    But
Judy was insistent, he wanted to see the hole in the side of the ship. The
coastguard people were astonished, and informed him that if he wished to risk
his neck on damn fool errands he could do it alone. Then they left in their
helicopter without him. Jackson, despite Judy’s protestations, elected to
stay, arguing that Judy would have no hope whatsoever of finding his way into
the ship’s hold without guidance.
    Judy thanked
her and radioed the helicopter, which had by now winched the crew aboard,
requesting it to stand by overhead. The pilot was not overjoyed.
    ‘Lieutenant
Schwartz!’ the pilot called back. ‘We’re getting blown all over the damn sky!
What the hell are you doing down there?’
    Judy
replied that he was conducting the fullest investigation possible into the
source of a major environmental catastrophe before the principal piece of
evidence was lost to the elements.
    ‘Something,’
Judy added angrily, ‘which the coastguard has signally failed to do. Now shut
your face and do your job or I’ll give your address to the Mormons.’
     
     
    Hidden
depths.
     
    With one side of the ship
shuddering slowly upward and every inch of the vehicle screaming and groaning
and loudly announcing its imminent break-up, Judy and Jackson edged their way
below. It is not easy trying to descend a ship’s stairway at the best of times,
but when those stairs are leaning over at an angle of forty-five degrees it is
very nearly impossible. Particularly if you are extremely conscious of