by P. Creeden
Colby eyed her and smiled. “I like your hair down, but you look good that way, too.”
Emma’s cheeks burned, and it wasn’t entirely from the wind. Did Colby know he was making her feel this way? She wondered sometimes if he meant to flirt with her, but then he rubbed the top of her head, like he would a little kid and pointed toward an area for photos that had just opened up, and she remembered again what she meant to him. Trying to hide the disappointment that pricked her heart like a thorn, she handed the photographer her phone and stepped over toward the display of white roses.
“Everlasting love,” she whispered to herself as she touched one of the delicate flowers and sat at the bench.
Colby sat next to her on the bench, his thigh touching hers as the crowded close together for the photographer. The two of them got Molly and Gabby to sit close together as well, and then smiled for the cameras. The photographer took three photos with each of their phones and then handed the phones back to Emma and Colby. They each swiped through their phones to view the pictures. Colby looked so handsome in each of them, and Emma couldn’t help but take note of how they both looked so much like a couple. She peered over at Colby, and saw that the smile on his face had remained unchanged. When he lifted his gaze, his green eyes met hers with joy in them. “Let’s go over there to take another—”
But he didn’t get a chance to finish his words before there was a loud bang. They looked over in time to see confetti fly through the air. Someone shouted, “Watch out!”
The hairs on Emma’s arms stood on end as confetti dispersed in the breeze. The news crew stood on the other side of the top deck, and the reporter in the red dress slipped over the side and out of sight. Her scream was cut short by a splash.
Chapter Three
For a moment, Emma sat frozen, trying to make sense of what she’d just seen, but Colby didn’t suffer from the same sense of shock. He shoved his phone and Gabby’s leash into Emma’s hands and rushed to the other side of the ship.
“She can’t swim!” the cameraman yelled.
And the man in the brown suit turned toward one of the ship’s crew members. “You need to stop the ship.”
Finally, Emma reached her feet, but her knees felt weak again as she watched Colby dive over the railing. A scream lodged itself into her throat. The water was too cold. It was barely spring. He’d freeze. And they were practically three stories up. The dive itself could kill him. Dread settled over Emma like a wet blanket. The woman might have died from the fall, but Colby might also die from trying to save the reporter.
“Man overboard!” someone shouted.
She blinked as she heard the low hum of the engine of the ship die off and the vessel drew to a slow stop. She rushed to the back of the boat, but to do so, she had to wait behind several others who were rushing down the set of metal stairs that lead to the main deck. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she already felt the prayer murmuring on her lips. “Please be okay. Please be okay.”
She flush of guilt overcame her as she realized she was only thinking of Colby. After chiding herself, she pictured the red-dressed reporter in her mind also as she continued to send out her prayers for their safety. One of the crew members threw a life preserver over the side of the boat while the man wearing a captain’s hat stood nearby talking to the Coast Guard on the radio.
“He’s got it!” someone yelled.
He? That had to be Colby, right? Emma squeezed both leashes in her hands and pulled the two dogs closer to her. Both Gabby and Molly looked up at her in response. She nodded to them, saying in a shaky voice, “Everything is going to be okay.”
It was more for herself than for their benefit, but Emma really needed to believe he’d be alright.
“He let go again!” a person yelled.
“No,” Emma whispered, rushing to the side of the ship, both dogs jogging beside her. The scene played out before her. Waves rushed in what seemed like all directions. The Potomac River was just shy of a mile wide at this point, and the fast moving waters made it difficult to navigate for the best of swimmers. The bright orange flotation device bounced in the waves, pulled by Colby’s arm as he swam toward the heap of red dress several yards away from him. The reporter stayed still on top of the water, face down, submerged. “She’s not moving,” Emma whispered.
The captain of the vessel came up beside Emma and stood next to her at the railing. Emma’s eyes remained fixed on the woman for several moments, willing her to move, but she didn’t. Colby reached the motionless woman and pulled her face from the water. He pushed her onto the flotation device as a siren horn blared on the other side of him. A coast guard vessel had just arrived, the crewmen already throwing more life preservers and lowering a small boat into the choppy waves. A small measure of relief relaxed Emma’s shoulders as they pulled both the woman and Colby aboard the small boat and wrapped them each in a blanket. Emma swallowed and reached down to bury her hands in both dogs’ fur coats again. “He’s alive. He’s fine. Colby’s okay.”
But her heart remained in her throat. The breeze picked up and licked the sweat from her forehead. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. How could she be sweating when she felt so cold? The woman in red remained unmoving, but the rescuers performed CPR on the deck of their vessel. Eventually they stopped, and one of them called to the ship’s captain on the radio.
“Rescuers got to both people in time, but one of them is in critical condition. We will need to rush her to shore and get her to the hospital as fast as possible, but the sheriff’s deputy wants to return to your ship to investigate this, so we’re sending him back over in our John boat. Will you be able to receive him and two officers?”
The captain clicked the button on the side of the radio. “10-4, we’re ready to receive them.”
Emma’s heart pounded as she watched the smaller boat rush over the choppy waves with Colby aboard. The main Coast Guard vessel’s flashing lights continued as it rushed past their ship and the small one, from a safe enough distance not to disturb the smaller boat in its wake. The captain of the cruise ship nodded to a crew member and the two of them started off to the stairs to the lower deck. Even though some measure of relief had come over Emma, she still felt too anxious to just sit on the deck to wait. She needed to come. Clutching both leashes in her hands, she rushed after the captain as fast as Gabby and Molly would allow.
Just when she reached the stairwell, a crew member stopped her. “Ma’am, I’m afraid we can’t let you below deck at this time. Official police business. No passengers allowed past this point.”
“But the sheriff’s deputy who jumped into the water... he and I are... together. We boarded the ship together.” The tension rose in Emma’s chest as she sputtered out the words.
The crewman lifted an eyebrow at Emma. “Are you a family member?”
Her lips pursed. A lie sat on the tip of her tongue, and all she had to do was push it out, but her hesitation was enough of an answer for the crewman.
He shook his head. “Please step back and stay with the rest of the passengers.”
Shaking her head, Emma pressed a hand to her chest. Molly pulled on the leash and yanked the hand away, bringing Emma back from the panic attack that had been building in her chest. The Saint Bernard looked up at her with a wagging tail. Gabby sat, a stoic, well-behaved statue, waiting for Colby’s return. But the two of them helped Emma get a hold of herself. If she didn’t have to care for them both, maybe she’d have time to panic and give in to her anxiety, but as it was, she needed to stay strong. She had to take care of the two of them until Colby returned.
The strong breeze continued to blow, making more people head inside the second floor deck to avoid the breeze. Even the vendors began to put their wares away, as anything that wasn’t heavy enough to bare the push of the wind went flying across the deck. Emma’s eyes trained back toward the third deck, up top. Would the sets for pictures still be upright, or would they all be blown about by the wind? And if the repor
ter’s fall in the water had been more than an accident, would any clues to the culprit blow away as well?
Without a second thought, Emma started marching that direction with both of the dogs in tow. When she reached the top of the steps, she found the top deck empty of people. The wind had ripped off portions of the picture sets and tossed them into the river. Already they sat, tattered and forgotten by the crew in the melee that had followed the woman’s fall. To Emma’s right, she found that the deck gate that opened and let the reporter slip through continued to bang in the wind, metal clanging against metal.
Emma pushed her fists into her pockets, leather leash still wrapped around each hand. The last thing she needed to do was contaminate evidence. To keep herself from touching anything, she usually clasped her hands behind her back, but while holding the leashes, it would be nearly impossible to do so, but her pockets were the next best thing. Leaning forward, she peered at the gate and its catch. There didn’t seem to be anything defective about either side of the latch, but underneath, she noticed that the gate was triggered by a foot catch which needed to be stepped on in order to open the latch. Was it possible that the reporter had stepped on the latch accidentally?
Colby and Emma had not been too far away at the time. Although Emma hadn’t been looking specifically in the direction of the reporter, she tried to bring to mind all of the things that she could recall of the moments before the incident, knowing there could be a clue hidden in the periphery of her vision. She remembered what it looked like when they had finally peered in the direction of the reporter. What had made them even look that way, since she didn’t scream until she was falling? There was the bang of a confetti cannon and then a shout. Someone had shouted for the reporter to watch out. Emma stepped closer to the door. If the latch had been keeping the door in place as it should have been, it wouldn’t be visible that it was broken or set open. The metal bars aligned with each other, as did the wooden railing at the top. So, how did the person know that there was something to watch out for? Unless...
Unless they wanted to be sure to draw attention to the fact they were trying to stop the reporter from falling while they stood at a distance. They already knew that the door was going to swing out under the reporter’s weight. They were trying to take the attention off themselves. Emma’s blood ran cold. Chances were good this wasn’t merely an accident. And if it wasn’t an accident, it was murder.
Chapter Four
Emma’s heart beat wildly in her chest while the sea breeze blew her pony tail across her eyes. After putting both leashes in one hand again, she swiped the hair away from her eyes and crouched down to study the locking mechanism on the railing door. She shoved her hands back into her pockets, one leash in each, to keep herself from actually touching any of the evidence. A black mark smudged on the white paint around the catch. Somehow, the door latch was set in such a way that the door would swing open the moment someone leaned against it, but otherwise it had to stay aligned with the rest of the railing to entice someone to lean there.
But how did the culprit set it up so that the reporter would be the one to take the fall? Any number of passengers or crew members could have walked past this section of railing and even leaned against this spot. Was it possible that the person who set this up didn’t care who got hurt in the process? If they had a specific target in mind, like the reporter, how would they be able to set this up quickly, just before they knew the victim would be here, or keep other people away from this spot until the right moment in time? And then there was the confetti gun. Who had set it up to shoot at the reporter while she stood in this spot, making her fall off balance like that?
“There you are,” a deep voice said near Emma’s ear, causing her hairs to stand up on the back of her neck. She tensed, but slowly turned toward the sound of the voice, relieved to find Colby knelt beside her. She’d been so wrapped up in her imagination, that she hadn’t noticed him approach. Instead of the college sweatshirt and the K9 police officer cap he’d been wearing earlier, he wore a plain blue rugby shirt and a white cap. The ends of his brown hair curled, still wet from his sudden swim in the Potomac.
Gabby stood, wagging her tail and rubbing her head against his leg in greeting.
Emma’s heart leapt in her chest. Something about seeing him in a new way made her breath quicken. She swallowed and stood. “I’m not entirely sure this was an accident. Do you remember that someone shouted before she fell? They told her to look out. But if this gate was closed as it should have been, it wouldn’t have been a visible problem. No one should have been able to tell that it would open under her weight.”
Colby lifted a brow, nodded and looked at the gate himself while taking hold of Gabby’s leash from her hand. She handed him his phone as his brow furrowed. “You’re right about that. And if the gate had been ajar, certainly, one of the crew members milling about would have seen it.”
He narrowed his eyes at the gate as if it offended him and then knelt down to inspect the foot latch, just as Emma had done.
Emma took a deep breath. “What do you think that black mark might be?”
“It’s possible that it’s the scuff of a shoe. Possibly black shoe polish, or the rubber wearing off from a black sole,” he said, just as a commotion started behind them.
The two crew members who wore Coast Guard uniforms stood at the entrance to the top deck, keeping people back. One of the crew members of the cruise ship peered past him, wringing her hands. Fly-aways from the woman’s bun whipped around her face. “Can we not at least clean up the mess on the port side of the ship? We won’t be very close to the place where she fell.”
One of the Coast Guard crew members shot a glance toward Colby. Colby shook his head slightly, stood and came over, offering the female cruise ship member a slight smile. “I’m sorry, but right now this is a potential crime scene. We haven’t determined yet whether it was an accident or foul play.”
Her eyes formed wide circles, and her voice went up an octave. “Foul play? You mean someone might have done this on purpose?”
Colby shook his head. “No, ma’am. Please remain calm. We don’t yet have any evidence to that, but we need to rule out the possibility. Until then, this is an active crime scene, and we can’t allow potential evidence to be contaminated.”
The woman’s eyes remained wide as she nodded slowly and stepped down.
“Did your crew set up the confetti canon?”
She nodded. “It was supposed to go off only when the winners from the contests were announced. I’m the only one who has a remote to it, so I don’t know why it went off just before the accident happened.”
Colby nodded slowly. “Okay, we’ll be down in a few moments.”
After staring for another moment at both Colby and the scene behind him, she turned about and ushered the other cruise ship members back down with her. She had stared at Emma for a long moment before turning about, probably wondering if Emma was another police officer or not. Emma swallowed and looked up at Colby as he turned around. He could kick her out of the area along with the rest of the crew, but everything in his body language said that he wanted her to stay.
Colby knelt down next to the confetti canon to inspect it as well. “Did you see anything else out of the ordinary, Emma? Or remember anything?”
She racked her brain. Not only did she want to be useful to Colby, but she wanted the injured reporter to get justice if there was foul play involved. “There were two men with the reporter, right? A cameraman and a director or manager or something. I think we should talk to both of them. Maybe we can get more info.” For a moment she chewed on her bottom lip, remembering another small detail, but not sure if she should mention it or not. Finally, she said, “I think I heard one of them saying something like ‘I know what you did to my younger brother’ and saying he wanted to talk about it later.”
Colby blinked hard and snapped his fingers as the two of them stood. “The man in the brown suit. I heard him say the same thing as we w
ere passing by. The color had drained from the reporter’s face when he said that. It’s very possible that could point to motive in a situation like this. Smart thinking, Emma.”
Heat rushed to Emma’s cheeks. It was an awful situation to be proud in. Someone had been injured badly and could possibly even die. This was, most likely, attempted murder. Although she didn’t know which of the two men, the cameraman or the man in the suit had said to watch out, she also recalled that one of them had said she didn’t know how to swim. That would be another detail a murderer would know about the victim in this kind of situation, if he’d set up the accident.
She shivered at the thought. Premeditated murder attempts were shiver-worthy and gave her the creeps. One of her hands automatically sought to bury her fingers into the fur on the back of Molly’s neck to find comfort there. Even though she understood that not all of humanity had the same morals and values she’d been raised with as a sheriff’s daughter in a small town, she couldn’t understand the mindset of someone who set out and planned to kill someone. Overhead, dark clouds began to gather, and a chill added to the already cold breeze. Colby’s warm hands grasped her shoulders. “I think we should head to the deck below. There are no more clues here, but maybe we’ll find something when we interview the two suspects.”
Emma nodded and allowed Colby to guide her to the stairs. Both of the two Coast Guard crewmen eyed her. She could only guess what they thought of her and the way that Colby allowed her to be a part of the investigation. The elder of the two Coast Guard crewmen leaned in toward Colby and whispered in his ear. Colby’s frown deepened as he listened and then he nodded and said, “Let’s keep this between us for right now. I may need to use this info for leverage in questioning the suspects.”
