Slipway Grey: A Deep Sea Thriller (11 page)

“No…no!” Hot tears ran down his face. He felt he might vomit. He’d just watched his friend killed before him, and he was the one responsible.

“We don’t need anyone, baby. You got me.”

Mandy’s soft lips kissed his cheek, and her full breast pushed against the back of his head as she embraced him. He allowed himself to be swallowed up by her and felt like a different type of predatory animal had just descended upon him.

Chapter 16

Luke couldn’t believe his eyes. Glenn’s arms flailed in the air as he pleaded for help. The shark, torpedoing down the coast and heading around the bend, would soon be out of sight. Glenn would be nothing more than a snack for the monstrous aquatic beast.

“Glenn? Glenn?” he heard himself repeat his friends name. He didn’t know how many times he had said it, mesmerized at the horrific event. The shouts faded, replaced by waves gently splashing on the pier. The sun beat from above, but a bead of cold sweat trickled down his cheek.

“It’s for the best.” Mandy hugged Luke’s chest and kissed the back of his neck.

“I…I killed him.”

“No, you didn’t. You were protecting me. Grey, too. He protects me from those who would hurt me. Glenn got what he deserved. That’s how fate works, you know? Karma or destiny or any other name you want to use. It’s a way the universe has a way of getting even.” She squeezed him tighter.

“But he’s dead. Just like that. Snatched away, and I couldn’t save him. I didn’t mean for him to die. I just wanted to get him off you.” Luke turned around and took a half-step back when he saw Mandy’s face. “My God, Mandy. You’re hurt!”

Gray-black circles surrounded her eyes and blood smeared her cheek where she had wiped it from her nose. Half the upper lip on the right side of her mouth was swollen three times its size. “I’ll be okay.”

“No, you look bad. We have to get you to the doctor, right now.”

“Really, Luke, calm down. I’ll heal. It doesn’t hurt like you think. I have a high tolerance for pain. I like it.”

“What?”

“You have so much to learn about me. Think for a minute. What if things in normal life didn’t bring you pleasure? Video games, movies, rollercoaster rides—wouldn’t you get bored? Wouldn’t you search for new ways to keep life worth living?”

“Sure. I guess.”

“I have a hard time feeling things—emotionally and physically. Pain is something that bridges the two. Pain is warm and exciting.” She poked at her swollen lip. “See, this feels amazing.” Mandy grabbed the back of Luke’s head and covered his mouth with hers. She pushed her tongue in deep and pressed her groin into his. Three short whimpers later she pulled away and exhaled in orgasm. Mandy leaned over slightly and caught her breath. “That…that was great.”

Luke looked at Mandy and saw a hungry lioness instead of what he’d believed was a sweet kitten. The carefree high school coed wasn’t as simple minded as she pretended. Mandy was a complex array of dark lusts leading into a deep labyrinth of mystery.

Mandy lifted her head and smiled. “That was
so
good. You and I are going to have so much fun being together. I can’t wait for you to move in. I’ve been planning a lot of trips—some even out of the country. We are going to fuck on the Eiffel Tower and in front of the Sphinx in Egypt.”

“But, I’m supposed to go to college. I’ve been accepted, and I have an apartment waiting for me and everything.”

“College? What for? I can give you everything you need, everything you want. Cars, motorcycles, dinners at the finest restaurants, and any other toys that grown men like.” The evil grin returned. “Plus, you get to have all of me, whenever you want.”

“My parents? What will I tell them? I’ll lose my scholarship. What about my future? What if we break up?”

“Stop worrying. I’ve waited too long to have my dreams spoiled. I can put a million dollars into a bank account that will be all yours. That way if anything comes between us, you’ll be able to go wherever you want. And your parents? Hell, I’ll give them a million, too.”

“I don’t know.” Luke gazed at the pier and shook his head. “Stop worrying. I’ve got it all figured out.”

“I’m sorry, Mandy. This is so quick. I have so many questions. There’s so much I don’t know about you, about that shark. What about our friends? Are they dead like Glenn said?” Did Grey get them? How are we going to explain that?”

“Well, we are going to have to clean up some before we call the police. We’ll make up some story how they took a midnight walk down the beach and never came back.”

“But they’ll hold us both for questioning. What will I say?”

“Easy. If you don’t know anything you can’t say anything. The story is, I broke up with Chet to be with you. Chet got upset and said he was going to take a walk. Sarah chased after him, and so did Desmond. Serena followed, and Glenn didn’t want to be the odd man out and left, too. You and I went to bed, and we didn’t find them missing until the next day.”

“I don’t know.”

“Luke, they can’t pin anything at all on us. They have to have a body. I assure you.” A smile widened across her swollen lips. “Grey leaves no evidence behind.”

“What will the police think?”

“A big wave caught them up and pulled them to sea. Pirates picked them up and sold them into slave labor. UFOs took them to another planet. I don’t know, and I don’t care. We have a simple story, and we stick to it. We don’t know what happened, and we aren’t even going to offer any suggestions.”

Luke was at a crossroad. Either path would change his life forever. He could go to the police and tell them everything he knew, even the fight he had with Glenn that sent him into the water. His death was an accident. But what if they didn’t believe him? What if they held him in jail as a suspect? His parents would be financially devastated trying to save him, and he was sure to lose his scholarship. Mandy would definitely go to jail. But what if she told them that he had been an accomplice? The truth wouldn’t matter then.

The other road had him gallivanting over the world with a beautiful, but unstable, hot young woman, burning life’s candle at both ends. How bad could that be?

Pleading ignorance did sound like his best chance in escaping the legal tsunami of five missing teens from a beach house. If the police found enough evidence to convict Mandy there was no way they wouldn’t find a way to make some charges stick on him.

“It might work.” Luke’s mind reeled with crime stories he had watched on TV and tried to remember where criminals made mistakes. “They’ll put us in separate rooms. Ask us questions and try to trick us into changing our story. They might even lie and say things like I told them you did it, just so you’ll break. Or, they might even tell me you said that I did it. We’re going to have to be real careful or we’ll get caught.”

“If they start asking questions, we’ll just ask for a lawyer and go from there. It will make them suspicious, but in the long run they won’t have a leg to stand on. We’ll get off without a strike on our record.”

“We corroborate our own stories. Make it as simple as possible. And we need to get rid of any incriminating evidence. You said we had some cleaning to do?”

“Yeah. I need to clean some blood off a knife, and I should go over the fish cleaning station to make sure there’s no blood there. You probably should go by the pier at the public beach and buy some fish from the fisherman. We’ll clean them and smear the guts around to contaminate any evidence I might have missed.”

“Blood on a knife? You actually stabbed someone with a knife?”

“It’s Serena’s blood.”

“You killed Serena? I thought the shark got her.”

“She was pretty much dead before Grey took her out.”

“Why’d you have to kill her? How did she hurt you?”

“She interfered with my plan and had to pay. Doesn’t matter. Grey was going to get her in the end anyway.”

“Why Chet? And Desmond? And Sarah? Why did they have to die? I don’t understand.”

“Are you serious? Chet was a cheater and an asshole. Desmond was a drug dealer. Sarah was a slutty bitch who screwed me over. Your buddy Glenn was going to get it also for putting that roofie in Sarah’s drink. Pretty sad when the only way he could get laid was by drugging someone. I had a plan for him, though it didn’t involve you helping Grey.”

“I don’t see how that’s reasons enough to kill them. How is it that you made friends with a shark?”

“I know it must seem strange to you, but he’s been around most of my life, and it feels natural. I first met him when I was a little girl.”

“You’ve seen this shark every day for what—ten, thirteen years?”

“Yep. It wasn’t long before I started telling him my problems at home. He would listen and…and then one day he started answering.”

“A talking shark?”

“He didn’t speak, but he did transfer his thoughts…or feelings. He communicated in a way in my mind where I knew what he was thinking. Luke, he was so kind. As my mother pulled her emotions away from me, his love filled the void.”

Luke scratched his head, doubt crept in. “That’s a strange story.”

“Doesn’t make it any less real. Anyway, after puberty, I sunk deeper into depression. Grey gave me a remedy to turn it around. He showed me a way to feel again. To relish life. I escape by killing. I get a charge out of it. If I can involve sex with killing it only excites me more.”

“Wow, Mandy. That’s a lot for me to deal with.” Luke stepped back and wrapped his arms around his chest.

“It’s not like you think. These people I kill serve a higher purpose. It’s all part of the law of the universe, and I’m keeping the score even. Grey is part of that plan, too. The universe needs sacrifice. It needs to feel the pain and horror of death. It needs to feel the ecstasy it brings others like me. I’m not a bad person, Luke. I am a child of the universe. My purpose in life is to do what I’m doing. The universe needs me. It needs us.”

Luke rubbed his hand over his face and gazed toward the house. His eyes widened, and his jaw slowly dropped. “Mandy, look behind you.”

Glenn sprinted through a patch of sea oats and ran down the pier. He stopped a few feet away from the shocked couple. He lifted a finger in the air, and heaved trying to catch his breath. “You fucking bitch. I’m taking you down.”

“Glenn. I can’t believe it! You’re alive! Thank God! I swear I didn’t mean to throw you in the water to get eaten by a shark. I—”

“Save it, Luke. You were just trying to protect Mandy. Doesn’t matter.”

Mandy lowered her gaze and slowly moved a couple of steps away from Luke.

“But the shark had you. How’d you get away?”

“A miracle. That damn thing had me by the backpack, and I was struggling to breathe. At some point we got caught in a riptide. The backpack tore off. I managed to swim with the riptide like they tell you to do. I was carried to a sandbar only a few inches below water. I ran to shore before that damn shark could catch me. I ended up a half mile from here and hitched a ride back.”

“Why didn’t you go to the police?”

“I was worried about you, man. This girl. She’s fucking crazy.”

“What are you going to do now?”

Glenn stepped up to Luke, pushing Mandy aside. “
We
are going to call the police and help them find out what the hell’s going on around here. We can’t let this bitch destroy any evidence.”

Mandy walked softly backward until she reached the long metal box, stooped, and opened it. She grabbed the contents with both hands.

“But the evidence was in the backpack, and you don’t have it. It’ll be your word against hers.”

“There’s more stuff in that room. I didn’t take it all. It’ll be enough to connect her with God knows how many people. Let’s go—ouch!”

Mandy held a speargun, and the tip of the spear had left a bleeding cut in Glenn’s back. “Luke, move away.” Mandy stuck Glenn again. He stumbled forward and turned around.

“Luke! Stop her. She’s going to kill me.”

“Get to the end of the pier. You’re getting back in the water.” Glenn took a few steps back and raised his hands. “Luke. Buddy. She’s crazy. Take the speargun from her.”

“Yes, Luke. Here, take the gun.” Mandy shoved the speargun by Luke’s chest. “Do it, Luke. Prove your love to me.”

Luke went to reach for the speargun and hesitated. Mandy’s gaze beckoned him to take it. Then he turned his gaze at Glenn.

Glenn’s face went white.

Luke took the speargun. A dorsal fin cut above the surface in the water beyond. The man-eater had returned. Luke aimed the speargun at Glenn.

Glenn’s face became even whiter. “Aw man, no. No. Please, no.”

“Get in the water, Glenn.”

“Luke! You can’t do this. She’s crazy!”

“Get in the fucking water!”

“You heard him. In the water. Now!” Mandy screamed in wicked delight.

Grey’s head broke the Gulf’s surface as he sped toward the pier.

Luke rushed forward and thrust the spear’s tip at Glenn.

Glenn raised his hands to catch the blow and lost his balance.

He crashed into the Gulf, making a big splash.

Mandy ran to the pier’s end.  “He loves me, you stupid motherfucker.”

Glenn cried for help and tried desperately to pull himself up on the slimy support boards of the pier.

Grey was just a few short yards away. His mouth opened and the white membrane rose and covered the lifeless black eyes.

Luke pressed the speargun in Mandy’s back and pulled the trigger.

The spear tip poked out between her tits, and blood rushed from her mouth as she propelled into the water.