It was a perfect day — even more beautiful than the day before had been. The sea was calm. The sky was bright. The fishing was good.
It was difficult to think about trouble on a day like this.
“You were right,” Benny said to Charlie. “This is a very good day.”
Even the birds knew it. They hovered over the boat, squawking. Benny and Violet tore bits of bread from the large loaf Kate had brought and tossed them to the gulls. The birds dipped and dived, snatching up the tidbits.
They were having such a good time that when Charlie said “Let’s haul in the nets,” they were disappointed.
“Are we going in already?” Benny asked.
Kate smiled. “No, Benny,” she said. “But the nets are full. We’ll empty them into the well and cast them out again.”
Kate and the Aldens helped reel in the nets. Charlie whistled as they worked. Fish jumped and splashed. Many of them escaped to slip back into the cold waters.
“They’re getting away!” Violet said.
“Don’t worry,” Charlie told her. “We have plenty to spare.”
And then the nets were up out of the water.
Empty!
Charlie’s mouth dropped open. Kate gasped. The Aldens stared in disbelief. But it was true. Except for the few fish that had gotten tangled, the nets were empty. Charlie ran his hands along the netting. He punched his fist through one large rip after another.
“This can’t be,” Kate said. “I checked those nets myself.”
Charlie was too angry to speak. He turned the boat around and headed for shore. Kate and the Aldens kept silent, too.
Ashore, the word spread quickly. Before long, Vito Marino stormed onto the dock. “Is it true?” he demanded. “Did you come in empty, Charlie?”
Charlie looked at him long and hard. Then he turned away without answering.
“It’s true,” Kate said.
“This is the last straw,” Vito said. “I’m sorry, Charlie, but I can’t depend on you.”
Joe Martin’s boat eased up to the dock. “What’s going on?” he asked as he threw a line over a post. Kate told him.
Joe hopped onto the deck beside Charlie. “Oh, Charlie, what bad luck.” He turned to Vito. “I had a very good day. Maybe I could help out until Charlie gets back on his feet.”
He ushered Vito onto his boat for a look at the catch.
Vito shook Joe’s hand. “It’s a deal, Joe,” he said. “I’ll buy your fish.”
Charlie watched them silently with narrowed eyes.
“Don’t let this get you down, Charlie,” Kate said. “Come on. Let’s repair the nets.”
Charlie waved her away. “It’s no use,” he said. “I’m finished.” With hunched shoulders and slow steps, he headed off the pier.
“Let’s go after him,” Benny murmured. “We can tell him what we know.”
Henry held him back. “We have to think about this first.”
Kate came up beside them. “I’m going after Charlie,” she told him. “Will you be all right?”
Jessie nodded. “We’ll be fine. You go ahead.” Kate trotted away.
“Joe and Kate,” Benny said. “They’re the ones.”
Violet looked sad. “I can’t believe Kate has anything to do with this.”
“She could have cut the nets this morning, “ Henry said.
“Or last night,” Jessie said. “She might have been the person we heard.”
Henry nodded. “She had plenty of chances. She could have siphoned the gas and cut the radio wire, too.”
Jessie agreed. “No one would suspect anything if they saw her on Charlie’s boat.”
“If she is working with Joe, it would all make sense,” Henry said. “Joe wanted Vito’s business; she helped him get it.”
“But what about Tony?” Violet asked. “He said he’d give anything to get Vito’s business. And don’t forget Vito and that strange man. Maybe they were planning all this last night in the restaurant kitchen.”
Benny nodded. “All of them — they’re all in on it.”
“We have to tell Charlie,” Jessie said.
Henry shook his head. “He’ll never believe us — not without proof.”
“Well, then, let’s get some,” Benny suggested.
“We’ll start right here,” Henry said. He began walking along Charlie’s and Joe’s dock. “Look for anything strange,” he directed the others. “Anything that looks out of place.”
Jessie and Violet stepped onto Charlie’s Chum. They poked in boxes and peered under seats. On the pier, Henry moved alongside the boat, his eyes downcast. He found nothing but the glass fragment he had seen that morning.
Across from him, Benny examined Joe’s side of the dock. “There’s nothing here,” Benny said at last. Then he noticed something inside a coil of rope. “Oh, wait.” He pulled the rope aside. “Forget it,” he said. “It’s just an old lantern like the one we use when we go camping.”
“Let’s walk along the wharf,” Jessie suggested. “We might find some clue there.” But they found nothing.
Finally Henry said, “Proof or no proof, I think we have to tell Charlie what we think.”
“But you said he won’t believe us,” Violet reminded him.
“Well have to convince him,” Henry said.
“Maybe he can put the puzzle together,” Jessie added.
Thinking Charlie might have returned to the boat, they doubled back. He wasn’t there.
“Let’s go get some lunch. We can talk more about what we know,” Henry said. They decided to go to Pier 39.
When they were nearly there, they stopped short. Ahead of them, at the pier entrance, two men stood talking.
One of the men was Charlie. The other was the mysterious man! The Aldens ducked around a corner so Charlie wouldn’t see them.
“What could Charlie be talking to that man about?” Benny wondered aloud.
“Maybe he found out the man has something to do with all the trouble,” Violet suggested, “and he’s telling him to stop.”
“That’s possible,” Henry said.
“It’s also possible that Charlie is part of the problem,” Jessie said.
“Charlie?” Violet sounded surprised. “But most of the bad things have been happening to him.”
No one could deny that.
“Well, one thing is sure,” Henry said. “We can’t tell Charlie what we suspect. Not now. Not until we know more.”
“We’ll keep looking for proof after we eat,” Jessie said.
They ordered pizza in one of the many pier restaurants. Waiting for their order, each Alden was silent, thinking.
“I wonder where Tony was,” Jessie said at last.
“When?” Henry asked.
“Just now when we came back to shore.”
“He’s probably still out fishing,” Violet suggested.
“But every other time there was trouble, he was there,” Jessie reminded them. “Joe, Vito, Tony — they were all there.”
Benny’s eyes widened. “Maybe he cut the nets, and he didn’t want to be around when Charlie found out.”
“But if he did it to get Vito’s business, he’d want to be there when Vito came along,” Jessie said.
“That’s right,” Violet said. “Joe was there, so he got the business.”
The pizza arrived. For a while, they were too busy eating to talk. When they had nearly finished, Henry said, “We should stop thinking and talking about the trouble on the wharf.”
“Why?” Benny wanted to know.
“You can think about something too hard,” Henry explained. “Sometimes, if you put a problem in the back of your mind, the answer just . . . pops up.”
“Oh, I get it,” Benny said. “It’s there all the time, but you can’t see it.”
They all thought Henry might be right.
“But if we don’t talk about the mystery,” Benny said, “what should we talk about?”
“About the things we still want to see,” Henry answered. He pulled the rolled guidebook from his back pocket. “There are so many interesting places in San Francisco. We’ve only been to a few.”
“Golden Gate Park is something we should see,” Jessie said.
Henry agreed. “That’s one I’ve marked. Especially the Academy of Sciences. There’s a planetarium there and an aquarium.”
“More fish?” Benny said. “Haven’t we seen enough of those?”
“They have a Touch Tide Pool, Benny, where you can actually hold starfish and sea urchins.” He opened the book and read aloud from it.
“The Japanese Tea Gardens sound interesting,” Violet said.
“We could spend the whole day in the park,” Jessie said. “There’s so much to see. We’ll make a list and give it to Uncle Andy,” she decided. |