A River Through Two Harbors Page 19

  Her insides were in knots as she drove to Ben’s, not so much because of tomorrow’s action but more so because she knew seeing Ben was going to be awkward. She hesitated getting out of her car. Then, she squared her shoulders and walked to the door to receive her usual welcome from the girls.

  They mobbed her. Ben stood in the background, grinning from ear to ear. “Good to have you here again, Deidre,” and he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Deidre looked at the girls. They were beaming.

  “Do you like Daddy,” Megan asked, her eyes searching Deidre’s face.

  “Yes, I like your daddy.” She looked at Ben, and he winked at her. Not too awkward after all, she thought.

  “Come look at the tree,” Maren asked as she pulled Deidre to the masterpiece they had created on Saturday. Hanging from strings were four paper dolls, gaudily colored the way an almost five-year-old would.

  “This is me.” She pointed to one of the small figures. “And this is Megan.” She pointed at the other paper doll. “And this is you, and this is Daddy.”

  Deidre fought back the tears. The paper dolls were arranged in order from the man doll, to the woman doll, to the two children. The girls had taped them together in order: Daddy, Mommy, Megan, and Maren they had written in crooked letters on each doll.

  It’s a family, she thought, but didn’t verbalize the words. She wouldn’t allow herself to imagine such a scenario.

  After the nightly ritual of baths and hair brushing, the girls were tucked in for the night.

  On the way down the stairs Ben asked, “Wine?”

  “Sure, but make mine a short one. I’ve got a big day ahead of me tomorrow.”

  She sat on the sofa while Ben opened a fresh bottle and poured the Clos DuBois. He handed her the glass and took a seat in the chair across from her.

  “Can you tell me what you expect to happen tomorrow?”

  “I know it’s going to be cold.” She laughed nervously, almost afraid to be alone with him. “Seriously, we’re beginning a stakeout tomorrow that may last as long as eighteen hours. Zak says there’ll be a place nearby where we can get warm, and we’re going to take shifts being in the cold. He thinks he has it arranged so we look like workers, and our rotation will look as if we’re a team trading off warming ourselves. I guess we are, but it’s going to take an acting job to convince anyone we should be there. If and when it looks as though someone is being smuggled aboard, whoever is on outside duty will be closer to the action and can lead the charge. From there we have to react to the circumstance.”

  “Are you worried,” Ben asked, his brow furrowing so his eyebrows almost met.

  “Worried? No, I’m scared shitless,” Deidre admitted and took a sip of wine.

  Ben got out of his chair and slid next to her on the sofa. He wrapped his arms around her, and she slumped so her head rested on his shoulder. They sat that way for a long time, and Deidre felt safe.

  “Don’t take any foolish chances,” Ben said softly. “The girls couldn’t live without you.” He hesitated, “And I’m beginning to think I can’t either.”

  Deidre finally moved. “I wish I could sit here all night, but I have to get some sleep.”

  She took her empty wine glass to the kitchen and stepped onto the first step of the stairs leading to the bedrooms. Then she turned. Standing that way she was almost his height, and she put her arms around his neck, kissed him on the forehead, and said, “Goodnight, Ben.”

  Together they made their way to the top of the stairs.

  In her room, alone, Deidre prepared for bed, brushing her teeth and washing her face. She seldom wore makeup, especially when she was working, so it didn’t take much time to clean up. She peeled back the comforter on the bed and crawled under it, clutched an extra pillow to her chest and curled around it. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the other pillow, a slight smile on her face.

  Chapter 23

  As the weatherman had promised, Tuesday, December 10 was clear and cold with the morning temperature bottoming out at two degrees above zero. Deidre made her way downstairs before anyone else was awake. Between what Ben had said to her last night and what lay ahead, she couldn’t sleep any later.

  She picked up the daily paper from the outdoor steps, made a cup of coffee, and placed a sliced bagel in the toaster. She had just settled into a kitchen chair, when she heard Ben coming down the stairs.

  “Good morning,” he said, bent down and kissed her cheek, and poured himself a cup of coffee. He separated the sports page from the rest of the paper and began reading.

  “Look at this. The editorial writers are after the Viking’s coach again. Why don’t they ever go after management for not giving him any players?” He shook his head.

  Deidre laughed. “If only that was the biggest problem in the world today.” She felt comfortable.

  They fixed breakfast for the girls, and the sitter arrived, which caused Deidre to feel a little uncomfortable even though nothing was happening between her and Ben. They both left in their own vehicles, heading to the same building.

  They parked side by side in the lot, and as they walked to their jobs, Ben said, “Be careful, please.” Deidre squeezed his hand.

  She was directed by the receptionist to report to the staging area in the lower level of the building where she met Zak and a few others of the team. Deidre was beginning to feel butterflies in her stomach, and the reality of what was going to happen began to sink in.

  As the rest of the team straggled in, a few cracked jokes, but most of them were dead serious. Deidre found a stack of clothes she was to wear: agency issued sweaters, boots, even long underwear. She and the two other women suited up in the next room. Then Zak asked them to take a seat.

  “We’ve got things set up on the dock where the Ishat will be moored. The Port Authority has been extremely helpful by giving us information about the site. The dock workers know nothing of our sting, but the location of the loading chutes of the grain elevator pretty much dictates where the ship must be berthed. It’ll be docked in the right spot, give or take a couple of feet.

  “You’ve seen those tents that electrical and phone line workers use on cold, windy days? We have one of those set up opposite where each gangway will meet the dock. We’ll be playing the part of workers doing repair work. The colder it is, the better to convince people of the need for the shelters. Inside each is a closed-circuit camera that will transmit real time images to our post inside the building behind the shelters. Those of us inside will monitor what’s happening on the dock.”

  Zak handed out a schedule. “Here are the times you’ll be in the shelter. They are blocked off in twenty minute shifts. That will be about how long you can stand the cold without becoming too uncomfortable. Wait inside the shelter until your replacement scratches on the canvas. When you come out, don’t be afraid to gab a little bit as though you are friends making a switch. Then come inside the warm building. We’ll have coffee and other hot drinks around the clock, plus food. It won’t be gourmet, but it’ll keep you going in the cold. Speaking of which, there are toilets inside.” Everyone gave a nervous laugh. “Any questions?”

  One man raised his hand. “Do we have any way of knowing how the exchange will be made? And when we’re sure it’s happening, how are we going to respond?”

  “Thanks, Jim. In my mind I thought I had covered that, but I guess I wasn’t clear at all.”

  Several members of the team shook their heads.

  “We have no idea what to expect. There is room for a car to be driven onto the pier. Or, we could see them escorting the women as they walk toward the ship. They might even be transported with a forklift and in a container.

  “We just have to not become fixated on what we think it’ll look like. As to your second question. I’ll give the signal to move. We’ll be in teams of four separated by a c
ouple hundred feet between the two gangways. That means one team or another will be in action before the other can respond. The safety of the girls who will be under duress is paramount. One member of each unit will be equipped with a high-powered rifle to cover the scene. I’d be extremely surprised if our perpetrators aren’t armed, so have your weapons drawn and ready to fire. We know the fate of the girls who are trafficked, and the traffickers have no scruples. They won’t hesitate to shoot to save their own skins.”

  “When we get to our post, we’ll run through possible scenarios. But by all means, we can’t develop a mindset as to how this is going to happen. Whatever we plan, we’ll probably be wrong.”

  The team drove to the site, singly or two to a vehicle, and they arrived at odd intervals until everyone was inside a small shack that was dwarfed by the towering grain silos behind it. Almost a block down the pier was a building similar to the one in which they gathered.

  Zak instructed four members of the team to make their way to that site. The woman in the group was the leader. Zak stayed with Deidre’s group. He sent one of the men out for the first shift in the shelter. It’d be over two hours before the ship docked, but he wanted it to look as though the utility company had been working on a problem for most of the afternoon.

  Twenty minutes later, another agent was sent out. The man who had spent time in the shelter joined them, poured himself a cup of steaming coffee, and said, “This is the easiest stakeout I’ve ever been on. The sun shining on the canvas is absorbed and the greenhouse effect inside is unbelievable. I almost fell asleep it got so warm. Took off my parka so I’d stay awake.” He slurped the hot coffee.

  Zak chuckled. “I hope you remember that when you’re on a shift just before dawn. The forecast is for zero by morning, and the sun won’t be shining. Enjoy it while you can.”

  Next, it was Deidre’s turn. As Zak had requested, she spent a couple of minutes chatting with the person she was relieving. Then she playfully punched his arm and crawled inside the shelter.

  There were no wires to fix, only a camera mounted on a tripod and placed against a barely visible hole in the canvas. From her vantage point, she could peer through a small opening. Best of all, she could hear what was happening outside, even the conversations of the workers.

  She had heard foul language before and was no prude, but during her shift, she heard words used in ways she’d never encountered. Deidre decided she wouldn’t want to be in this part of town alone at night.

  Her predecessor was right, the shelter was almost too warm, and when she heard someone scrape the back door, she didn’t feel the need to go inside to be warmed.

  The shortest daylight period occurs on December 21 in the northland, and the sun set at around four-thirty. By the time five-thirty came, the temperature had dropped so the team members were more than ready to be spelled after twenty minutes. Each had served five rotations in the shelter, and it was Deidre’s turn again.

  She had just made herself comfortable when in the distance she heard the deep baritone pitch of a ship’s horn. Seconds later, the lift bridge operator responded with several high pitched signals. The ship was preparing to enter the harbor.

  She couldn’t see the canal from where she sat, but she could picture the ship entering between the concrete abutments with only a few feet to spare on either side. Deidre knew that, because it was a foreign ship, a U.S. pilot was on board, guiding the vessel to its berth.

  It took until the end of her shift for the lights of the ship to come into her field of vision, and she watched it glide into position in front of where she was hidden. She was so intent on the process that she jumped in surprise when the person relieving her gave the signal.

  Deidre exited the shelter, and the two of them stood for a few seconds, watching the activity. Mooring lines were heaved onto the pier and secured to the pilings. The engines of the ship became almost silent as the captain ordered the boilers to be damped.

  Inside the warm warehouse, she realized how chilled she had become, and she shivered while gulping a cup of steaming coffee. She was going to have to catch some sleep between shifts as best she could, but right now she wasn’t concerned about the caffeine keeping her awake.

  By the time she warmed up, she could hear the whoosh of grain flowing through chutes into the holds of the ship. The sound was pleasant and lulled her to sleep.

  It seemed as though she had just closed her eyes when she was awakened by Zak shaking her shoulder. She looked at her watch, six-fifty. Deidre was thankful she had slept a little. It was going to be a long night.

  The surveillance continued around the clock. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. She drew the 7:00 to 7:20 a.m. shift, the coldest part of the night. Deidre remembered learning that just as the sun was rising, the temperature would take a nosedive. It didn’t make sense, she thought, but the explanation had been that the first rays of the sun caused a drop in the relative humidity and cooled the earth.

  She wasn’t sure if that was correct. What she did know was that there was a sudden drop in temperature inside the shelter. By full daylight, she was more than ready to end her shift.

  When her replacement came to the shelter, she stepped outside and, for the first time, saw the ship in daylight. Its railings and guy lines were encrusted with icicles hanging from every location possible. She heard the thud of hammers or axes and looked up to see crewmembers dislodging chunks of ice from the deck. It was a surreal scene, like a ghost ship had been brought to anchor.

  Zak decided to lengthen the shifts during the day. He had experienced the warming factor of the sun’s energy being trapped inside the shelter, and he thought it best to give his team members an opportunity to sleep for a longer interval than he planned.

  Deidre found a place inside the building where she could stretch out, took one last gulp of coffee, swallowed the last bite of sandwich she had been chewing, and lay down. In minutes she was asleep.

  The next thing she new, she was being awakened. It was noon, and she had slept four hours. She stretched, feeling stiff and cramped but was due in the shelter in fifteen minutes.

  After using the facility, Deidre grabbed a bagel and cream cheese, a cup of coffee, and an apple. She sat on one of the chairs against the wall and quickly downed her lunch.

  The air outside was warmer than it had been when she finished her last shift. Now, she would spend the next two hours in the shelter. It would be two-thirty before she could use the bathroom again, and she wondered if she should have had that second cup of coffee. Too late now, she thought.

  It was a struggle to stay awake. The day was clear, and the sun heated the shelter to the point that she had to remove two layers of clothing. Nothing much was happening on the dock, only a solitary worker passing by every so often. She realized that the sounds of ice removal had stopped and surmised the ship had been rid of its burden while she slept.

  According to her watch, her replacement should be making an appearance very soon, and right on time she heard the sound of someone tapping on the canvas. They stood in the mid-afternoon sun, chatting. Deidre commented on how soon it would be dark, and her counterpart noted that the weather prediction was for the wind to begin to pick up and the temperature to drop by evening.

  The routine was becoming boring, and Deidre wondered if this was going to end up being an exercise in futility. She was tired of coffee and bagels, tired of sleeping on a makeshift cot, tired of waiting.

  Zak got off his phone and came over to where she and the other agent were sitting. “Bad news. There’s a storm, a heavy nor’easter, scheduled to blow in later tonight, and the ship’s captain persuaded the Port Authority to speed up the loading process so he can clear the harbor before it hits. It’s scheduled to leave at seven tonight.”

  Deidre didn’t think that was bad news. It meant she wouldn’t have to spend another minute in the shelter. Its c
urrent occupant’s shift was to run until five o’clock, and then Zak and the other agent would take their turns. By then the ship’s gangway should be up and the mooring lines readied for castoff. She had another bagel, this time with jelly and peanut butter.

  At five, the shift changed and the agent who had been outside stepped through the door. “The weather’s really changing out there. I think the temperature dropped twenty degrees during my shift, and I can’t guess how strong the wind’s blowing. It’s going to be a brutal night on the lake. I don’t envy those sailors who will be on it.”

  Zak was in the shelter. Deidre said a word of thanks to herself that the schedule had worked the way it did. She glanced at the monitor sitting on a stand by the coffee pot. The docks were empty. She was debating whether she should indulge in another stale bagel when she saw a strange vehicle move into the picture, and then she recognized it as a mini-crane, a self propelled hoist frequently used on the dock to lift heavy objects such as repair parts for the ships.

  “I think this is it,” Zak’s voice sounded calm as it was projected through a small speaker set by the monitor. “Get ready.”