Chapter 9. You Want to Dock at My Pier?

Then her phone rang. Olivia had sent a message asking her to check the dates connected to the research funds mentioned in the foundation's article.

Evelyn replied that she would call right away. The questions had come from the hospital, and her friend had to get back to her own work soon.

Dane pulled Evelyn's unfinished bowl toward his side of the table. As she stood, he opened a room farther down the corridor for her.

“Finish eating when you're done.”

“I need to make this call first. They need an answer today.”

From inside came Evelyn's voice calling to Olivia. Dane told the captain waiting for a returning boat to keep the boat for medical trips separate from the cargo boat. As he listened to the additional cost, the woman in the room laughed.

He picked up her bread, then put it down. When she came out, she sat and took 2 more bites. She said she had to go send her own documents soon. Dane settled back into the chair he had been about to rise from.

***

On day 7 after arriving on the island, following Leo's specialist appointment, Evelyn took separate accommodation on the mainland. In the morning, she spread out the material she needed to answer questions about her own case.

Among the research expenditure dates Olivia had sent was a day when Evelyn had been assisting in another operation. Her friend remembered who else had been in that operating room.

“I need to see the original that supposedly authorized it in my name.”

“I can't just take that.”

“I know. I'm not asking you to sneak it out.”

Olivia moved her phone. In the background, someone asked about the shifts Evelyn had covered. Her friend answered about her own schedule first, then returned to the call.

“You need to take some of these calls about you. They keep asking me for explanations I can't give on your behalf...”

“Give them my number. I'll answer.”

Evelyn couldn't finish her friend's sentence for her. After sending the number the calls should go to, she took her case documents out of her bag. The empty pocket of her white coat reminded her of the days when people had called her name in the operating room.

“I'm going back. And I'm going to operate again.”

“Tell that man too. You don't live there just to do whatever needs doing for them.”

Evelyn wrote those words in her notebook first.

***

She returned to the island that afternoon. Marco opened a small office for her. As she put her documents away, someone knocked.

Dane stood outside the door and handed her a charger.

“You left it in the car yesterday.”

She took it, but when he didn't turn away, she opened the door wider. His gaze stayed on her. Leo's room was in the opposite direction.

“What is it?”

“I wondered if you needed anything else for his room.”

“The nurse is with him now. I'll go back before he goes to sleep.”

Evelyn gestured toward a chair. Still seated herself, she finished sending the documents on her screen.

“I'm going back to the operating room. Somewhere I can treat patients under my own name.”

Dane stopped in the act of pulling out the empty chair.

“So you might leave Leo.”

“Yes.”

“And you're preparing for it in front of me.”

“I haven't done anything I need to hide.”

When the confirmation appeared, Evelyn closed the screen. Dane had been watching her face the entire time.

He leaned against the back of the chair. Before he could answer, his radio sounded. Someone aboard an arriving boat wasn't on the passenger list.

“I told you to hold them there by phone. I'm coming.”

He stood. Evelyn put her documents in her bag and went into the corridor with him. She was on her way to collect her belongings from the port.

***

A freight broker stood at the end of the pier. Aboard the boat were 2 crewmen and an unfamiliar man hiding his face behind a folder. The broker smiled and said he'd been told he could bring visitors if he used the boss's name.

“By whom?”

Dane's question thinned the smile. The man gestured toward the boat with his folder.

“We only need to get the goods in. We've used this boat before—”

“You want to dock at my pier after sneaking someone aboard?”

The man hiding his face behind the folder tried to come down behind the cargo. Dane stepped into the middle of the gangway. The man looked at the pier, then withdrew his foot into the boat.

“Captain. Did you take this man aboard too?”

When the broker tried to answer, Dane put the question to the captain again. The captain said the man wasn't on the list. Only then did Dane tell Marco to call a boat to receive the goods.