Shark Lover (25 page)

            “Don’t
think so much Cathy. It’s not doing any good. I know I said all of that stuff
before, but it’s not your fault if he did go surfing. You can’t blame yourself.
I can see you doing it in your head right now.”

            “No,
I’m not doing that. I’m trying to remember the last conversation I had with
him. If I could remember, it might be helpful to the case somehow. I just want
him to be found alive. Anyways we’re here. Let’s go get out and search the
beach. There’s not much here and I don’t know who we could even ask, but let’s
just give it a shot.”

            They
got out of the jeep and headed towards the beach. Cathy could feel her heart
pounding in her chest. She wasn’t ready to find out more information. She was
still having trouble grasping what had already happened. It was already too
much to handle, she didn’t know how much more she could take before she went
completely crazy. Her sister was looking at her with a concerned expression
again and Cathy tried to reassure her by patting her arm. She felt bad that she
was making Carly worry. She didn’t want to do that. It wasn’t her intention.
She needed to calm down.

            After
walking a few miles they had finally made it to the beach. Cathy could feel
herself getting restless. She wanted answers. She wanted to find Marc. Through
the wind, she could sense that Marc had been here. Feeling it in her bones and
throughout her body, she felt alive again. He had been here. The optimistic
part of her hoped that he was still here somewhere. Maybe he had just wanted a
vacation from San Francisco. The city could get tiring after a while and he
might have just needed a break. He could have rented out one of the weekend
vacation cabins. She thought about it some more. The idea sounded right to her.

            “Carly,
do you think he would have rented out one of these cabins? I mean it would make
sense. He’s a graduate student who’s also working part-time, so why wouldn’t he
have wanted a break? It makes perfect sense. Don’t you think?”

            “I
don’t know. I mean wouldn’t he have told someone that he was going? His mom has
been worried about him for days, I don’t think he would have left her hanging
like that. And also why isn’t he answering his phone? It’s been off for days. I
don’t think he would have done that intentionally. Something happened on this
beach, we just need to find out what it was.” Carly stated letting her inner
detective take over.

            “Well,
maybe he didn’t want to tell anyone. He could have just wanted a relaxing
weekend to himself and that may be why his phone is turned off. It’s kind of
hard to relax when technology is always near and people keep bugging you. It
doesn’t mean that something bad happened. Sure something might have happened,
but I still think he’s alive. I feel it.”

            “You’re
certainly are optimistic aren’t you?” Carly asked giving her a look. “I’m just
trying to prepare you for what might come. I don’t want to see you completely
crushed. I love you way too much to see you down like that.”

            “I
know you are doing it for the right reasons and I really appreciate that. It’s
just hard knowing that he’s missing and we don’t have a clue as to where he
went or why,” She said as she let her toes graze through the sand. “Look over
there, isn’t that Officer Sanchez’s car?” She pointed towards a house to the
side of where they were walking. “I think he’s inside of that vacation rental
questioning some people. Let’s go over there and check that out. I wonder if we
are allowed to.”

            “I
don’t think so. Let’s wait over here until he is done. We don’t want to get in
the way of an interrogation session. He needs to be able to get all of the
information that he can. They might know something that could lead to finding
Marc.” Carly twirled her hair with one finger as she began to think more
strategically. “They were probably here when he was. Their vacation might have
started by witnessing something horrific.”

            “Carly,
stop. Don’t be so negative. And what made you Sherlock Holmes?” She rolled her
eyes at her sister again.

            “Hey,
I’m just being realistic. I’m trying to play out all of the scenarios in my
head. So many different things could have happened. We need to think
purposefully and figure out exactly what might have happened. If he’s
questioning this particular beach cabin, it must have occurred in this area. So
we know that so far. Now let’s put together all of the facts that we have so
far Cathy. Help me get this story straight.” She stopped thinking out loud for
a moment and tried thinking of more possibilities. “Cathy?” She looked around
realizing her sister was gone. “Oh no not you too! Why is everyone going
missing?” She put her hands on her head and started looking around in all
directions. 

            “I’m
over here!” Cathy yelled out to her sister from behind some shrubs on the side
of the house.

            “Over
where?” Carly asked back still confused and unsure where Cathy went. “Why are
you over there Cathy?”

            “I’m
to your left. Come here! I think I found something of Marc’s!”

            “Oh,
what did you find?” Carly said as she started moving to her left to where her
sister was. She could see curly blond hair in the mix of large, grassy bushes
and she knew it was her sister. Cathy always had a way of getting lost in the
adventure. Carly knew she would need to calm her sister down so they could
really concentrate of finding Marc.

            “Look
at this,” Cathy said as she held up a watch in Carly’s face. It was silver and
the glass screen was cracked. “I can’t believe that this is here.”

            “I
don’t get it. What is it?” Carly asked, unsure of why the watch was significant
or why it had anything to do with Marc.

            “This
is his. He always wore this watch in the lab. He said it was easier to check
the time on his wrist rather than on his phone. He said he was old-school like
that.”

            “Yeah,
but I’m sure every guy in the world wears a silver Rolex watch. How do you know
if this one is his specifically?” Carly inquired, her inner detective getting
the best of her. She knew that this clue was too good to be true. When things
came so easily, they were always too good to be true. She knew that for a fact.

            “Because
the bottom of the face of the watch is engraved with his name. Look here.” She
held up the watch again to Carly’s face as she read the name. Sure enough it
was engraved with the name Marc Porter in cursive.

            “Wow,
I can’t believe it. That’s crazy that we would find it. Why would it be back
here by this house and behind these shrubs? How did you even see it?” She
questioned her sister with fire in her eyes. Every little clue was important to
the big picture and she needed to know the answers.

            “I
don’t know. Maybe he took it off before going into the water? He obviously
wouldn’t want to go surfing or swimming with it on. It was a gift from his
mother. I’ll save it so I can give it back to her. I saw the silver. It was
popping out to me. The sunlight was shining upon it, so I went to go
investigate and found it.”

            “It
just gives another piece of the puzzle. Now we know he was here for sure. We
have two clues that prove so. The car and now the watch. I’m not so sure why it
would be all the way back here by the house though. Maybe people at the house
that Officer Sanchez is questioning have something to do with his
disappearance. That’s why he’s there right now. Should we go to the front of
the house and wait for him to come out? It would be great to talk to him and we
could show him the watch.” Carly said reasonably.

            “I
believe he was here too. I have all along. Everything points to him being here.
Not so fast on the suspects though. Maybe he was renting this place a few days
ago and that’s why the watch was out here. I don’t think anyone would have
moved it. He doesn’t have any enemies, so I don’t know why random vacationers
would come after him. I still believe he placed it here so it wouldn’t get
broken and maybe he forgot about it. He could have left it by accident. We have
to think of every possibility.” Thinking she then said, “Let’s let Officer Sanchez
do his thing and we can go explore the beach around this area. There might be
something else that could be important to this case.”

            “But
wouldn’t he have taken all of his belongings down to the shore with him? Also I
don’t think he would have wanted to come to surf with all of his stuff. He
would have been more prepared. I mean if it were me, I would have left
everything in the car. It would have been much safer then bringing it down here
and leaving it behind a shrub,” Carly said as she started following Cathy down
to the beach. “I agree with searching the beach again. You know Marc better
than Officer Sanchez does, you would know his belongings better than anyone.
Maybe we will find more clues down here.”

            Cathy
stopped and gasped. She couldn’t believe she was seeing it again.

            “Cathy,
what’s wrong?” Carly exclaimed with exhilaration.

            “I…I…I…can’t
believe it’s here. This isn’t good.” She stumbled over her words.

            “What?
What’s here?” Carly shook her sister. “Cathy, tell me. It could be something of
great significance!”

            Cathy
closed her eyes, not wanting to believe what she was seeing. She had just seen
it last week. It had only been a week since she had held it in her arms and had
felt the smoothness of it. She didn’t want to believe it. But there it was
lying on the ground a few feet away. She had stared at it for hours. She knew
this was it. The blood red color of it made her shudder. Finding the words to
describe what she was seeing was too difficult. She wanted to be somewhere
else, anywhere but here.

            “Cathy?”
Carly shook her again to awake her from the shock. “Please tell me, you’re
scaring me.”

            She
shook her head and put her hands over her face in response. Talking now would
make the horror all too true.

            “I
wish you would tell me. Cathy, I don’t understand. What do you see? Is it
something around us? Do you see another clue?” Carly probed once again trying
to get the answers out of her shocked sister.

            Cathy
nodded her head and looked away from Carly’s intense glare. It was too much
pressure to handle.

            “Okay,
so you saw a clue. What was it? It was something of his wasn’t it?”

            “Yes!”
She blurted out. “I can’t believe we are seeing it.”

            “Correction,
you are seeing it. I would like to see it, but you won’t tell me where it is.”

            “It’s
a part of Marc’s board. His red board. The one he always surfed with. It’s just
a few feet away from us.”

            “What
red board? Cathy, what are you talking about?” Carly threw her hands up in
question and frustration. She knew her sister was troubled by something, she
just didn’t know what. She wanted her to tell her what was wrong. Cathy had
always been a free spirit and Carly wasn’t used to her holding back as she was
now.

Cathy
finally responded by running closer to the piece of the board. She knelt down
when she reached it and started running her hands over it. The board felt
exactly the same way that it had the past weekend. She knew it was the same
one. It was red and had the blue waves going down the center of it. The Rip
Curl logo was engraved on the bottom. Only the bottom half was left. Cathy
wondered what had happened to the top half. She knew this board had been
custom-made and that there wouldn’t be any others out there like it. It was
created to be unique and it was.

“So
you are saying that this is Marc’s surfboard?” Carly queried as she knelt down
with Cathy.

“Yes,
I know for sure that it is. Well, it’s part of it. His father had this
custom-made for him on his thirteenth birthday,” She said still looking over
the board. “He wouldn’t have left this here. I know that for a fact Carly. This
is really bad.”

“Don’t
lose hope yet, Cathy. We don’t know that anything bad happened to him. Like you
said he could have been staying on this beach. That’s probably it. He was
staying in one of the vacation cabins and left his board out so he could surf
whenever he wanted to. It would be such a hassle to keep carrying it in and out
right?” Carly tried her hardest to put on a brave face for her sister. Her
optimism wasn’t helping the situation, but she had to try anything that she
could to make Cathy feel better. The clues were coming together and they
weren’t looking good. She knew herself that half a board like this wouldn’t
just be left on the beach, but she had to try everything and anything to help
Cathy.

“No,
Carly. This is really bad. Look at these marks on the side of the board.
There’s so many scratches. It looks as if something sharp went across it. We
just don’t know what it was. This is terrible. Carly, what do we do?” She said
as more tears started to pour down her face. “Look at this, something bad
happened on this board. What do we do?”

“First
of all, let’s just calm down. I mean we could be freaking out over nothing.
Sometimes the water is rough and leaves marks on surfboards if they crash into
the sand pretty hard. Sometimes surfboards even break apart. Now let’s take
some deep breaths to calm down.” She closed her eyes and started breathing
hoping that Cathy would follow suit. She did and they breathed in and out
slowly for a few minutes. “Alright. Now let’s go talk to Officer Sanchez. He
probably has some more information and we can give him these clues.”