The Hidden Man: A Phineas Starblower Adventure (Phineas Starblower Adventures) (32 page)

Confused, Carstares handed the book back to Jerard. “What?” He said.

The customs officer, who up until now had been silent, spoke up. “I believe Sir that your man there is pointing out that this is not the real ship’s log book.

Carstares raised a shaggy eyebrow. “Really? Now isn’t that interesting. I don’t suppose you have found the real logs?”

The officer shook his head and sighed. “No Sir. If you will follow me Sir, the ship’s captain is in his quarters. I have been instructed to wait outside during your interview and escort you back when you are finished.”

“Actually Sir, I was hoping to have a word with the first mate.” Jerard said.

“Not possible.” The man said abruptly, as his features drew down into a scowl.

“Well I was just thinking...”Jerard started.

“Follow me please.” The officer said, obviously the discussion was ended.

“Very good, thank you Sir.” Carstares interjected. “Lead on please; the faster we get this over with the faster we can leave this fish-stinking boat.”

The officer’s stern expression relaxed as he tried, unsuccessfully, to hide his smile as Colonel Carstares pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at his nose. Jerard, also trying to hide a grin, stepped smartly up to follow the officer down the steps to the crew cabins.

There were a pair of uniformed men in the narrow passage way. Both nodded gravely and then turned their heads, deliberately looking away. Their guide opened the first door and motioned Jerard and Carstares in, then closed the door firmly behind them.

The captain’s cabin was very small but nicely appointed. He sat at a small desk set to one side of the space. Carstares moved to sit on the bunk facing the captain, he had produced a small notebook and began flipping through the pages. Jerard was left standing at the door as there was literally no where else to go.

“You are Alistair James Caird, master of the vessel ‘Searaven’ is that correct Sir?” Carstares began, assuming a rather matter-of-fact tone.

The middle aged man leaned forward and spitted Carstares with his eye. “Ye already know that, why waste time on a pointless question! Now what’s this about master an’ why’ve ye held us here! Me ‘n’ me crew have done nothing awrong!” He declared firmly.

“Weather you realized it or not Mr. Caird you and your crew have been party to a most serious crime. It is my task to determine weather you should be remanded back to the United Kingdom on charges of treason or merely reproved for your inability to maintain honest ships’ logs.” Carstares replied, evenly returning the man’s stare.

“You could be on trial for your life here Captain Caird.” Phillips commented blandly. “Insolence to those trying to save it is not a good idea Sir...”

Caird sneered back at Phillips. “An what ‘treason’ ha’ I or mine committed Englishman! Unless it be treason to hate ye and your people in the privacy o’ me own soul!” He growled.

Carstares turned several pages in his notebook before replying, “Well, let’s see Mr. Caird. You have aided agents of a foreign power to remove a citizen of Her Majesty’s United Kingdom from his native land. Said citizen had been working upon a commissioned project by the Armed forces of the United Crowns. I see two counts of treason here myself.” Carstares finally looked up from the notebook and into Captain Caird’s face. “In case you are not clear on your situation here, aiding a foreign power is the first count of treason. Assisting in espionage against the Crown’s commission is the second. And while kidnapping a British citizen is a civil offense it will still earn you six feet of hemp rope about your neck.”  
Caird looked a trifle less sure of himself but was not yet cowed. 

“Ah did naught of that Sir.  
Wheer’s ye proof of any o’ it!” He challenged back.

“Did you or did you not accept a commission to ferry three or more individuals from Aberdeen to here in Stavanger three nights ago?” Carstares retorted in his normal steady tone, still locking eyes with the man opposite.

“Nay I didna.” The captain replied. “I took three friends to meet up with their own vessel some twenty miles west o’ here” He leaned back and smiled thinly. “They wuz a Danish captain and his first officers who’d been laid low w’ the belly flux an’ had missed their ship’s departure. Nothin’ more.”

“Really?” Carstares replied, his voice filled with frank disbelief.

“Thas as all I know, and ye canna prove me a liar can ye?”

“Tell us about this captain and his officers Mr. Caird.” Phillips said, casually examining his fingernails.

“
Captain
Caird to ye if ye will mister.” the man growled out.

“Oh I doubt that will be very true for long
Mr.
Caird” Phillips replied. “A captain is someone who has a ship after all. It appears that yours is now impounded, and it is currently highly unlikely that you’ll set foot on her again for a long while.”

“Indeed,” Carstares added. “Even if you prove innocent I fear an investigation of this magnitude will last months, possibly years, and unless you want your family to go hungry you’ll have to sign the ship over to your next of kin while your case is processed Sir.”

Phillips felt a twinge of guilt in bringing that up. But he knew himself how keenly the loss of one’s ship felt in the heart of a captain or his crew. But this Caird fellow clearly knew he had been doing something not legal even if he was truly ignorant of the depths of his malfeasance. Making him sweat a little on a personal front was fair reward for his villainy.

Evidently the threat of being caught up in bureaucracy scared the Scotsman more than the threat of treason against the Crown. Caird’s face lost a little of its ruddy coloring and his manner became a trifle more respectful.

“‘Nah gentlemen, is no right to deny a man his livelihood when he’s done nuthin’ wrong. All I did was take a couple o’ passengers fer a trip across the North Sea, nuthin’ more. I had na way to know their business or nature. Its bad form to query a captain that way, there’s a certain amount o’ respect between us that sail these waters regardless o’ our home port.”

“Believe it or not Captain Caird we had considered the possibility that these villains had simply exploited you in their acts of treason. But thus far you have given us nothing to corroborate that theory so we must assume you are their accomplice.” Carstares stated flatly.

“Whatever you may think of Englishmen, Sir, I can assure you that we see
you
as a British citizen. We would by far prefer to turn our attention to foreign criminals than be interfering with you and yours.” Phillips added hoping the man would take the offered olive branch.

Caird looked back and forth between them, calculating his best course. “Weel Sir’s it did strike me a bit odd that they’d no simply wait for their vessel’s return trip to pick ‘em up. But good Sirs, you must understand, they offered me a fair wage ta take ‘em onl’ half way t’ their home port. A poor fisherman like me can hardly turn somethin’ like tha’ down now can he?”

“And where was their home port did you say Captain Caird?” Carstares probed more gently.

“They didna say directly, but me mate saw the stern o’ their fancy ship an’ it read
Dagmar, Ale-borg
, he said ta me.”

“Aalborg, I think you’ll find Captain.” Carstares corrected while writing furiously in his notebook. “Captain, you said ‘fancy’ ship. What kind of ship was it Sir?”

“One o’ them big white passenger yachts, all lit up like a Christmas tree it was.”

Jerard frowned. “Wait a minute, I am confused. Did these men hire you take them out to this ship or did they hire you to take them to Stavanger?”

Caird scratched his beard and looked around the room. “Weel…it’s like this ya see. When the captain first came ta me, he said he wanted ta go ta Stavanger. Gave me half the fare up front and set the departin’ date. I waited around all day fer them fellas to come aboard. I was aboot ta give up on ‘em when they turned up past midnight. Wanted ta leave right then. Said they had a change o' plan.”

“And?” Carstares prompted.

“So we left ri’ then. Took ‘em to about twen’y miles out of Stavanger, till we saw that fancy boat. We stopped and they sent a rower for the three men. And that’s it.”

Colonel Carstares snorted. “I don’t think so. Why don’t you tell us the rest Captain? Why didn’t you just turn around and go home? You had your money, correct?”

“Oh for sure…but…you gonna arrest me? He said there wasn’t nothin’ you could do to me!”

Jerard straitened up from his slouch by the door. “Who said?”

“I ain’t sayin’ no more.”

Carstares sighed and got to his feet. “You Sir are under the arrest of the British Crown. You will remain here until I can get your release from the Norwegian customs office.”

“Wait! What aboot me boat? And me crew?”

“They will be arrested as well and your boat impounded under the authority of the Crown.” Carstares said wearily and shot a side wise glance at Jerard.

Taking the hint Jerard appeared to interrupt Carstares, “Now Colonel, this man has been cooperating fully, surely this is not necessary?”

Carstares sighed and put a hand on Jerard’s shoulder. “You said it your self son at the start of this interview. This man can either completely cooperate so that I can feel confident enough in his innocence to let him go, or I arrest him and send him back home to sort this out in the courts. I would rather get on with finding the real villains but I don’t see how if I don’t have the full story or their descriptions.”

“Look man…” Caird started. “That captain…he said…weel he…he doubled me money to come here to Stavanger and answer the Englishman’s questions. I dinna know what he was sayin’ till you come aboard. I was puttin’ it all together like and it sounds a bit like I was in on this thing. But I tell ya! I was na! Ya can’t take me boat an the lads never did know what was goin on. I’ll tell ya anythin’ ya wanna know!”

“Alright” Carstares said. “Describe these ‘Danes’ if you would be so kind.”

Caird sat back and half closed his eyes. “The captain was a tall lad over six feet by a hair I’da said. He had a black beard and mustache, coarse hair, as ye’d expect of a seafaring man. Not over muscular but o' the wiry type if ye know what I means Sirs. He didn’t have particularly good sea legs I recall but he had said he’d only been recently up and aboot from the flux so I paid it no mind at the time. He and his lads stayed below mosta the time. The ‘mate’ also had dark black hair but no beard, just a wee thin mustache. He was aboot twenty five I judge”

“And how old would you say the captain was Mr. Caird?”

“Oh he wus in his forties I’da said early forties but I couldna say wheer.”

“I see and the last member of these ‘Danes’ what did he look like?”

“Ah he wuz an older gent mebbie pushin’ sixty as he had plenty o’ gray in his hair and beard.”

“Describe him please.”

“Weel like ai said he wuz mebbie sixty somthin’ aboot five eight tall pretty heavy set with a salt ‘n’ pepper beard and hair. Large nose I recall. He seemed to be a bit dopey to me but they said he was still sufferin’ from the belly flux and they wus given’ him somethin’ fer the gut ach that made him slow.” Caird paused. “Uh, sirr…why do you keep callin’ ‘em Danes?”

Carstares stopped writing and looked up at Caird. “Well weren’t they? You did say ‘a Danish Captain’.

Caird shrugged, “That’s what
they
said. I woulda pegged ‘em as Germans mesel’ I meet up with a lot o’ foreign fisherfolk, most o’ them are ‘weigens or danes and right honest folk too. But this lot was all snooty and thinkin’ better o’ themselves, and they weren’t speaking any Danish I ever heard. That’s a soft rolling language it is, these fellas were speaking somethin’ that sounded like they was clearing their throats, I thought it might be German. And he paid me in Marks.

“I see,” said Carstares. “So where did the Kroners come from?”

“I think the fellow in the rower musta brought ‘em. It looked ta me that he handed that captain something right before the devil turned to me and paid me off.”

“Well Sir, you have been most helpful. You, your crew and your boat are released. The Crown thanks you for your cooperation.“

Captain Caird nodded and stood, obviously in a hurry to be rid of his visitors. “G’day to you.”

Carstares nodded to the man in reply and quickly went through the cabin door that Jerard was holding open. Jerard and Carstares both nodded to the customs officer in the hallway and made their way up to the pilot’s station once more. Jerard opened his mouth to speak but Carstares held up a finger and shook his head. Leading the way he got off of the fishing vessel as fast as he could, handkerchief pressed to his nose.

Jerard stifled a laugh and wondered, as he followed behind Carstares, if the thin handkerchief really did any good against the stench. He was content for the moment with the silence while he replayed the conversation with Caird in his mind. The only conclusion he could come to was that the port of Aalborg was now added to their itinerary.

A few minutes later Jerard and the Colonel found Tash and Lars standing in front of a beautiful sailing sloop talking animatedly.

Tash caught sight of them and exclaimed, “Isn’t she beautiful! I shall have to tell Mr. Starblower about her, she’s for sale you know.”

“Is she now?” Jerard remarked dryly.

“Oh yes!” Tash said, ignoring Jerard’s tone. “And she will need a captain and full crew.” Tash looked up into Lars’ face. “And I know just where I can get one.”

Jerard had to turn away to keep from laughing out loud when he saw Lars’ blush. Unfortunately Carstares had no such compunction and burst out laughing. The Colonel was rewarded with a stern look that evaporated when he clapped the blond man on the back.

“Are you finished Carstares?”

“Yes I am. Please allow our criminals to go free now.”

“And did you get anything from them?”

“Not really.” Carstares replied. “It looks like you were right all along old man.”

Lars snorted. “I know you better than that ‘old man’. You look like the cat that ate the cream. But it is no concern of mine. The vessel was stopped under suspicion of transporting stolen goods. None were found so they are to be released. This is the official version, yes?”