Perfect Partners

my place after work are coming from the yard.”
    Ben Jackson nodded his head. “I run the bank on Main Street. Maybe you saw it while you were in town? I can tell you for certain that if Copeland gets shut down, the financial lifeblood of Echo Cove is going to dry up. It’s true some people work for the commercial fishing outfit that operates out of the marina, but that business just isn’t big enough to support the place. Copeland’s checks pay the bills for nearly everyone in town.”
    “What we’re trying to tell you, Miss Thornquist, is that we don’t want Copeland closed.” Ed Hartley looked at her beseechingly. “We all know Victor Copeland ain’t the nicest guy to come down the pike in recent memory, and we also know that he was a little rough on Blackstone a few years back. But heck, that’s the way it goes, you know? Like it or not, Echo Cove needs Copeland and it needs Copeland’s firm.”
    Letty folded her hands in front of her on the desk. “You’re asking me to find a way to save Copeland Marine?”
    “More like we’re pleadin’ with you, Miss Thornquist,” Stan said. “I know there’s some bad blood between Blackstone and Copeland, but we’re talkin’ about a whole town goin’ under here.”
    Letty looked at him. “You do realize that what is happening to Copeland Marine would not have happened if the company had not been badly managed for the past few years, don’t you?”
    Stan shrugged helplessly. “I’ll admit I don’t know what Copeland’s been doing with the firm. That’s his business.”
    “He’s run it into the ground,” Letty murmured.
    Hartley pinned her with an anxious glance. “But couldn’t you get things sorted out? Or at least give Copeland a little more rope so’s he can sort ‘em out?”
    “I don’t know,” Letty said honestly. “The only thing I can tell you at the moment is that I’m looking into the situation. And that’s all I’m free to say.”
    Stan immediately looked more hopeful. “That’s what we came here to ask, Miss Thornquist. Just take a second look and see if you can’t find a way to give Copeland another chance.”

    Joel took the stairs two at a time and pushed open the door that led to the fourth-floor hall. As he walked toward his office, he frowned down at a report he had picked up in Accounting. The new cost-cutting measures he had approved last quarter were starting to take effect. He was pleased. He decided to show the report to Letty. It would be educational for her to see how costs were controlled in a company the size of Thornquist Gear.
    Hell, maybe he’d show them to her in bed tonight. He grinned to himself.
    Joel was whistling tunelessly as he turned the corner in the hall and saw the three familiar faces clustered around the elevator. He halted abruptly as realization and anger erupted simultaneously. It did not take any great mental calculations to figure out what Stan McBride, Ed Hartley, and Ben Jackson were doing in the hall outside Letty’s office.
    “What the hell do you three think you’re up to?” Joel asked coldly as he went toward them.
    Stan shifted uneasily. “Hello, Blackstone. We just saw Miss Thornquist.”
    “If you’re hoping she’ll save Copeland Marine for you, forget it.”
    Ed Hartley, who looked just as woebegone as he had fifteen years ago, straightened his slumped shoulders. “We got a right to take our case to the owner of Thornquist Gear. We’re fighting for our lives, Blackstone.”
    “No shit?” Joel smiled thinly. “And you want me to do you a favor and keep Copeland afloat for you, is that it? I seem to recall the day my old man went down to your grocery store, Hartley, and asked for a little credit. We were in a real bind trying to pay off Mom’s hospital bills. We needed some time. Remember what you said that day, Hartley?”
    Ed Hartley turned a mottled shade of red. “Christ Almighty, that was a long time ago, Joel. Your pa was two months behind as it was. I couldn’t let him string it out any further. I had my own bills to pay. It would have been bad business to extend any more credit.”
    Joel nodded. “Sure, Hartley. I know just exactly what sort of position you were in. It would have been bad business to give my family a little help at a bad time. I’m sure you can understand that it would be real bad business for Thornquist Gear to give Copeland Marine any help now. Can’t go around throwing good money after bad.”
    Ben Jackson scowled nervously.