Beside Still Waters (30 page)

             
She was treading water in the ocean.  She twisted her head around, looking for the land.  She finally saw it, but it was so far away it might as well have not been there at all.

             
Jeremiah’s dead and I will be, too.

             
Several yards away from her there was a disturbance in the water and then a fin broke the surface.  She stared in consternation.  Just when things couldn’t possibly get worse they always seemed to.

             
What was she supposed to do to survive a shark attack?  All she could think about were admonitions she had heard on the news not to ‘look like a seal’.  Well, she had no idea if she looked like a seal, but she did know that she was wearing the black dress still, and that it was mushrooming around her in the water.

             
This can’t be happening.

             
Punch them in the nose.  She had heard that someone did that and lived.  But that meant the shark had to be really close, and you had to be swinging towards all those teeth.  And she could barely keep herself at the surface of the water.

             
She should flip onto her back, float for a while and save her energy, but then she couldn’t watch the fin that was slowly circling.  Was it getting closer or was she imagining it?

             
No, it definitely was getting closer, and now it was turning toward her.  She screamed again, and prepared to hit at whatever came at her.  But how could she know how big it was, how far the nose was from the fin?  She tried to see if she could see a shadow moving in the water, but with the way the sun was angled, she couldn’t.

             
“Please, God, save me!” she screamed her prayer to the heavens.

             
And then the fin shot upward and the entire creature leaped out of the water and then slammed back down into it a moment later.

             
A dolphin.  It was a dolphin and not a shark.

             
She was sobbing and shaking and she was aware that her legs were slowing down.  She needed to flip onto her back, had to.

             
A roaring sound filled her ears and slowly she became aware of it.  It seemed to be coming from behind her.  Then she heard a shout.  She turned her head and saw a boat headed her way with someone waving frantically.  She didn’t have the strength to lift her arm to wave.  She wasn’t even sure if she had the strength to keep treading water until they reached her.

             
The boat slowed as it moved closer and frustration filled her.  They needed to go faster, not slower.  She couldn’t hold on any longer.  Then she saw Kapono, standing on the edge of the boat.

             
He dove into the water, and swam to her, and grabbed her around the chest, holding her up as the boat maneuvered closer.  Then he swam the couple remaining feet, dragging her with him and there were many hands that lifted her out of the water and laid her down on the deck.

             
“Where’s Jeremiah?” Kapono asked.

             
The only answer she could give was another scream.

             
Someone was beside her checking her over.  “It’s okay,” he was murmuring over and over again.  She registered that he seemed to be some sort of medic.  How could she tell him that nothing would ever be okay again?

             
She didn’t know how they had found her, and she was grateful that they had, but it felt like her soul was lying with Jeremiah in a watery grave far below.

             
“She’s in shock,” she heard the medic tell someone.

             
“Of course she is,” she heard Kapono answer.

             
The boat rocked up and down.  She felt like she was going to be sick.  “I want to sit up,” she finally said.

             
“You’d be better off laying down,” the medic said.

             
She shook her head and he slowly helped her to a sitting position.  Her head was spinning and she wanted to curl into a ball and sleep.  She didn’t want to throw up, though.  Of course, what could there possibly be in her system to expel?

             
“Water,” she said.

             
Someone handed her a bottle of water but her hand was shaking too hard to hold it.  Then Kapono knelt down next to her and held it for her, tipping it slowly into her mouth.  The first attempt left her sputtering and choking, but the second attempt she got some of it down.  She nodded when she was done.

             
“How did you find me?” she asked.

             
“Jeremiah...he had a tracker on him.  Then, we heard you screaming while we were searching for you.  Can you tell me what happened?” Kapono asked after he had put the water away.

             
She shuddered and closed her eyes.  She was going to have to talk about it and she knew that the sooner she did, the more likely they could catch the people who were responsible.

             
“The owner of the yacht,
Pearl of the Deep
, is behind everything.  He called himself Mr. Black, but I don’t think that’s his real name.”

             
“That’s okay, we caught him,” Kapono assured her.  “He’s in jail downtown as we speak and he won’t be getting out for a long, long time.”

             
She shuddered, grateful, at least, for that much.

             
“Man overboard!”

             
She jerked as she heard someone shouting.  Everyone scrambled to the side of the boat, looking out at the ocean. 
Had someone fallen in?
she wondered.  That seemed strange.  Whatever was going on, though, everyone seemed to be getting more and more agitated.

             
She twisted her head to see what was going on.

             
They were lifting someone into the boat.  Then they set him down and she craned her neck to see who it was.

             
Someone moved out of the way and her heart stopped and then restarted.

             
It was Jeremiah.

~

             
Jeremiah sat gasping on the bottom of the boat, relieved to see that Cindy was already there.  He had been so worried that she wouldn’t make it.  He gave her a smile and she just stared at him like she’d seen a ghost.  Then she seemed to come alive and she crawled over to him and threw her arms around him.

             
He held her close and thanked G-d that they were both alive.  It was a miracle, nothing less.

             
“You escaped?” she asked wonderingly.

             
“I found the next passageway about thirty feet from the porthole.  There were still a few pockets of air in there and then I found the one that led me out.”  It had been a little more complicated than that, but there was no reason to share the details.  It was enough that they were both alive.

             
Finally she pulled away and Kapono handed him a bottle of water.  He took it gratefully, but glared at the big detective.

             
“What kept you?” Jeremiah asked Kapono.

             
The detective grimaced.  “The navy.  By the time we figured out where you were they were about to blow the ship and they wouldn’t let us get any closer.  In the minute it took me to explain the situation to them the explosives had already gone off.  We assumed the worst.”

             
Jeremiah nodded.  “I was beginning to think I had misjudged you.”

             
“Nah.  I got your back, bruddah.”

             
“Good to know,” Jeremiah said as he drank down the bottle of water.

             
He turned to say something to Cindy but she was curled up on the floor next to him asleep.  He touched her cheek briefly then turned back to Kapono.

             
“She should see a doctor.”

             
He nodded.  “Our medic was checking her out.”  He turned and indicated another man.

             
“Apart from the obvious dehydration and exhaustion she’s got some nasty cuts, but she should be okay.”

             
Jeremiah nodded, grateful to hear that.

             
“The guy behind all this?”

             
“Caught him at his yacht along with several of his gang.  We also found Manny in that alley and arrested him.”

             
“Figured you would,” Jeremiah said.

             
“You gave me quite a scare.”

             
Jeremiah nodded.  “I’ll take another water.”

             
Once they made it back to shore they transported Cindy and Jeremiah to the hospital.  After being checked out he was released right away, but they admitted Cindy and immediately set her up on IV drips to help her body regain the fluids it had lost.  Her cuts were cleaned and she was also given a boatload of antibiotics just to be on the safe side.

             
Later that afternoon he was sitting in her room when she woke up.

             
“Hey, how are you doing?” he asked.

             
“Hungry,” she admitted.

             
“That’s a good sign.”

             
“I thought you were dead,” she said, staring at him with large, moist eyes.

             
“I was a bit worried about that myself,” he admitted.  He wanted to downplay it, but realized he couldn’t and that he probably shouldn’t.  She’d had every right to be that afraid.

             
“Thanks for rescuing me,” she said.

             
“You’re welcome.”

             
She fell silent and he could see that she was still struggling with everything that had happened to her.  He stood after a moment and she looked at him with panic in her eyes.

             
“There are some other people who wanted to say hello.  I’m going to go tell them you’re awake and I’ll be right back.  Okay?”

             
She nodded.

~

             
It felt like Jeremiah was gone for an eternity although she knew it could only really be a couple of minutes.  When he returned Kapono, and Charles and Jean, the couple from the luau, were with him.  They all took turns hugging her.

             
“We owe you both a debt of gratitude,” Kapono said.  “You’ve solved more cases in the last few days than some people solve in a lifetime.”

             
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” she said, “but I can’t really say I was glad to help.”

             
He smiled.  “Not taken the wrong way at all.  I’m sure the two of you just want to go home, but the city would be happy to put you up for a few days, give you a proper vacation.”

             
She shook her head.  “Maybe some other time.”

             
“Of course.  Well, the good news is I just talked to the doctor and he’ll clear you to go home tomorrow as long as everything goes well tonight.”

             
She nodded, grateful for that bit of news.  She wanted to be home in her own bed, and put the entire nightmare behind her.  “So, no worry about anything, okay?”

             
“Okay,” she said.

             
“We were very sorry to hear what happened to you,” Jean said, when Kapono sat down in a chair.  “If there’s anything we can do, just let us know.”

             
“Thanks.”

             
“No, thank you for uncovering what was happening on the north shore,” Charles said.  “The archaeology firm I work for is headquartered on this island and they’ve been tasked with straightening the whole mess out.  Just from the work that’s been done this morning they can already determine that the bodies are from multiple time periods and they’re working to figure out which parts of the island they all came from.  I’d say the entire island owes you a debt of gratitude.”

             
“Not to mention that resort which will most likely be able to continue building,” Jean noted.

             
“So, they were digging up the bodies from other areas?” Cindy said.  “I was wondering about that.”

             
“You were right,” Jeremiah jumped in.  “I questioned Al as one of the suspects in your disappearance and he was able to confirm it.”