Nicole probably loved that song, she thought. And maybe she wasn’t wrong to, at least as far as the sentiment went. She felt more like a friend to Caddie after two meetings than Sam and Bree did after years together. Like with so many things, this was something she was going to have to work out her feelings about.

“But it’s still a stupid song,” she said as she got up to leave.

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 31

“This is where it happened?”

Hudson looked at the bust of Ed Ricketts. Ben, standing beside him, nodded. “He drove down Cannery Row and turned right here,” he said, pointing up Drake Avenue. “The Del Monte Express was coming through and neither of them saw the other. The train hit Ricketts’s Buick and pinned him inside. He died three days later.” He looked back toward the water. “The irony is, they didn’t see each other because a huge cannery had been erected right there. It turned this into a blind corner. When Ricketts died, he was working on proving that overfishing was going to wipe out the sardine population.”

“It’s like the cannery didn’t want him in the way,” mused Hudson.

Ben nodded. “He was right, of course. The whole industry was dead a couple of years later.”

It was early evening. The sun, sinking into the ocean, had coated everything with a dull gold sheen. The sky, violet and blue, was caught in the slow change from day to night. The air had cooled, and Hudson was glad he had worn a sweatshirt. Looking at the bust of Ricketts, its face half in shadow, he shivered.

“Cold?” asked Ben.

Hudson shook his head. “It’s just sad,” he said.

“He and Steinbeck were about to leave on an expedition to British Columbia and Alaska,” Ben told him. “It was the next part of their plan to write about the marine ecology of the West Coast.”

“Did Steinbeck go without him?” asked Hudson.

“No,” Ben answered. “He said he couldn’t go without Ed.”

Again Hudson found himself thinking about the relationship between the two men. He looked at Ben. “Do you think they were lovers?” he asked bluntly.

Ben laughed. “Steinbeck and Ricketts?” he said, as if he couldn’t imagine a more unlikely thing.

“I’m serious,” said Hudson. “Do you think it’s possible?”

Ben scratched his ear. “Anything is possible until you prove it isn’t,” he said. “Even then, you never know.”

“Stop talking like a scientist,” Hudson said. “Think like a normal person.”

Ben put his hands in his pockets. “God, Hudson, I don’t know. What makes you think they might have been?”

I just do, Hudson thought. He knew that answer would never wash with Ben. His scientific mind needed facts, and, unfortunately, they were in short supply. But he gave it his best shot. “I found this manuscript,” he said.