Rob said a few words to one of his crew, and then they followed Dot into the cabin. Sam shut the door. The space was small and Penelope bumped into Sam as she moved to sit next to Dot. She jerked away from his hard shoulder and slid into the chair, refusing to meet his eyes.
Penelope got a notebook out of her backpack and opened a fresh page, writing the date on the top of it. When she was done she looked up and realised everyone was waiting for her. Rob sat on the other side of Dot and Sam lounged against the wall. Dot nodded to Penelope. “Do you want to start?”
Both men were calm, but Rob fidgeted and Penelope couldn’t read Sam’s expression. She cleared her throat. “Would you like to explain this photo?”
Sam straightened, his voice holding no hint of emotion as he outlined what had happened. “At ten thirty-eight the first batch of swimmers went in with the whale we had identified,” he said. “At eleven thirty-five as we were about to pick up the last group, we noticed an orca approaching the pod of whales.”
Penelope blinked. An orca. Interesting. There’d been no orca in the photo.
“I may have gone over the eight knot speed limit in order to get to our passengers,” Sam continued. “When the passengers were safely on board, I noticed the orca had isolated a mother and its calf and was chasing them towards us.
“I instinctively moved forward to help them, but Rob told me it wasn’t allowed, so I stopped just as the mother and calf were on us. Not wanting to give them any further stress, I switched off the engine as per the instructions and waited. The pod of whales chased off the orca, and the mother and baby stopped right next to the boat to rest. I couldn’t start the engines without potentially causing the animals further stress and injury. We waited until they swam away before we started the engine again and left the area.”
Penelope looked up from her notes. “How long was that?”
“Eighteen minutes,” Sam answered.
“So precise?” Penelope asked.
“I spent twelve years in the army,” he said. “If you’re not precise, you’re dead.”
Well then. What now? Most of what he’d done was correct, except for moving to intercept the whales. She could understand the instinct, but there was a lot of interest on social media and Declan had told her to fix it. How was she supposed to do that? She glanced back through her notes. “Why didn’t you move away as soon as your passengers were on board?”
Rob spoke. “Have you ever seen an orca hunt? It’s incredible. We were both mesmerised by it.”
“So mesmerised you didn’t think about the safety of your passengers or the whales?”
“The whole boat was concerned about the safety of the whales,” Rob said. “You should have heard the cheers when the orca was chased off.”
She hated this, but she had to follow the guidelines. “You had the opportunity to remove yourself from the area and you did not take it.” She tapped her pen on the notepad. “In fact you moved towards them instead.”
“It was instinct,” Sam argued.
She clenched her teeth. “Rob warned you.” She glanced at the older man. “Did Sam listen to you immediately?”
A brief hesitation before Rob replied, “Yeah. He stopped the boat.”
Liar. “I will need to investigate this further and until I can, I must suspend your licence.”
Sam stared at her stony faced, but his tone was calm. “Don’t you think that’s a little excessive?”
“I only have your side of the story. I need to speak with the person who posted the photo and the captain of the other boat.” Penelope gathered her notebook and placed it in her bag.
“It was Jimmy’s boat,” Rob said. “Call him now.”
“I’ll call him when I return to the office,” she said. “In the meantime, your licence is suspended until further notice.”
“Wait a minute,” Rob clenched his fist. “We’re fully booked for the rest of the season. We need an answer now so we can call our customers.”
She hesitated and then remembered what happened the last time she’d not followed the rules. Her gut clenched and she stiffened. “Fine. If you want an answer from the information you’ve given me, then I am suspending your licence for a minimum of a week for approaching the whales when you should not have. I suggest you start making phone calls.”
Not wanting to get involved in further argument, she fled the boat.
Chapter 3
Sam stared after Penelope as she scurried from the room and then glanced at Rob. “She’s actually serious, isn’t she?”
“It looks like it.”
