Excerpts from the unpublished original manuscript, “Sailor Take Warning,” by Leland E. Hale. That manuscript, started in 1992 and based on court records from the Alaska State Archive, served as the basis for “What Happened in Craig.” In this installment, troopers talk to witnesses who saw someone — possibly a suspect — coming from the Investor fire scene.
With the flre put down, nothing more could be accomplished at the scene until the arson investigator arrived. In town, however, another task awaited the Troopers. They had to find witnesses to this crime. At the top of the short list was the Casino crew, parked at the city float.
Lieutenant McCoy and Trooper Anderson interviewed the couple in the cramped galley of the Casino. They sat at a compact table that served as workbench, dining area and sometime-bunk. Lieutenant McCoy asked most of the questions. The Casino skipper, Bruce Anderson, supplied most of the answers.
Overview of Craig and Fish Egg Island, with landmark details (U.S. Corps of Engineers)
The couple’s description of the skiffman they’d seen on their way to the Investor fire was remarkably similar to that provided by a cold storage worker the previous evening. A young man in his early twenties, they said, probably wearing “those old kind of black glasses” and a baseball hat. They supplied new information as well.
According to Bruce Anderson’s account, Mark Coulthurst had told him the Investor carried, “five people plus his wife and his family.” The Casino skipper also insisted that the Investor was an “immaculate vessel” that was “unbelievably equipped” and little prone to a fire of the sort they had witnessed. And, he added, the fire had taken off quickly, suggesting that an accelerant had been used.
The troopers also learned that the skiffman handled the skiff expertly, like he knew what he was doing. He also seemed to know the local area, because he made a point of going around the Craig Island Reef marker buoy, off Crab Bay, and avoiding the rocks. Both Bruce and his wife Jan emphasized that the skiffman didn’t strike them as being a crewmember.
That was news. Now if they could only find the guy.
Copyright Leland E. Hale (2018). All rights reserved.
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