by Radclyffe
“Stop struggling and let me help you,” she shouted, treading water a few feet
away to avoid being struck by the man’s windmilling arms.
“I can’t swim,” he cried hoarsely, his eyes wild with panic. “My wife. My wife. I
can’t Þ nd my wife.”
“I’ll tow you to shore,” Leslie called, cautiously approaching.
“Let me grab your shirt. Don’t hit me.”
Her words seemed to penetrate his panic, because he relaxed enough for her to
get her arm over his shoulder from behind and under his armpit. “Just relax and
kick your feet. I’ll do the rest of the work.”
“My wife,” he gasped. “Please Þ nd my wife.”
When Leslie got him close enough to shore that he could stand on the bottom,
she let him go. Natalie and her mother and some of the guests were helping
people from the water. Leslie didn’t stop, but turned and immediately swam
back to the overturned boat. The white-painted bottom glinted unnaturally in the
sunlight. She dove, powering down until she could peer around the side into
what had been the open passenger compartment. She’d hoped that air, and
possibly survivors, had been trapped beneath. There was nothing under the boat
but a body ß oating lazily to and fro. Swallowing back her horriÞ ed gasp, she
kicked
away and pumped toward the surface, gulping air when she broke free.
Then she grabbed the closest victim and started back toward shore.
“The boat’s here,” Natalie shouted, in water up to her waist, as Leslie wearily
guided an elderly woman into Natalie’s outstretched arms.
“How many…how many more can you see,” Leslie gasped, her arms and legs
leaden. She’d lost track of the passage of time or how many trips she’d made
back out to the slowly sinking boat.
“Six or seven,” Natalie said. “You’re too tired, Leslie. Stay ashore.”
But Leslie could still hear screaming. Ignoring Natalie, she turned and plunged
back into the water. She thought she saw Dev dragging an unconscious man
toward shore, but she wasn’t sure. On her next trip back, she collapsed to her
knees in the shallow water, struggling for breath.
“Leslie,” her mother said urgently, “don’t go back out. You’re ready to
collapse.”
“Where’s…Dev,” Leslie rasped. “Is she…in?”
Eileen glanced anxiously around. The grass abutting the shoreline was covered
with victims, some unconscious, others moaning or crying.
The wail of sirens added to the chaos as paramedics raced down from the
parking lot. “I don’t see her. She must be here somewhere.”
A surge of adrenaline spurred Leslie upright, and, heart pounding, she scanned
the shore. Natalie was directing the paramedics toward the most seriously
injured. A few guests from the lodge were handing out blankets, and her father
was transporting the less injured up the hill in his cart. But she didn’t see Dev.
She spun toward the lake. Twenty yards offshore she saw Dev laboring slowly
with another struggling victim in tow. As she watched, the woman ß ailed wildly
and both she and Dev went under the surface. Leslie dove back into the icy
water.
Leslie pulled underwater, stroke after stroke. She was faster underwater, and
she didn’t need to see. She knew these waters, this shoreline, this lake like she
knew her own reß ection in the mirror. She knew exactly where Dev was.
Lungs screaming, she stayed under until she reached Dev’s location. When she
burst through the surface, she circled frantically. “Dev! Dev!”
The rescue boat was only yards away and Leslie thought she recognized the
woman they pulled aboard. The one Dev had been towing. Dev wasn’t there.
Dev wasn’t anywhere. No. No no no. She
circled one more time, and suddenly Dev surfaced just beyond arm’s reach. Her
face was contorted with pain and even as Leslie’s heart thrilled with elation, Dev
slid beneath the water and did not come up.
JackkniÞ ng, Leslie plunged headÞ rst and reached her within seconds.
She grabbed Dev’s hand and dragged her up into the air.
Dev coughed and gagged as Leslie grabbed her shirt.
“You’re okay, sweetheart. You’re okay. I’ve got you,” Leslie gasped.
“That…woman…lost her,” Dev wheezed. “Need to…look.”
“She’s okay. She’s in the boat. Can you swim? Dev! Can you swim?”
Dev shook her head. “Cramp in my…hip. Can’t…”
“You hold on to me.” Leslie gripped Dev’s shirt so hard her Þ ngers went
numb. “You hear me? You hold on to me, and I’ll get you to shore.”
Dev didn’t answer, but she did her best to help Leslie as Leslie swam them both
toward safety. Natalie waded out into chest-high water to meet them and
grabbed Dev around the waist.
“I’ve got her,” Natalie said.
Leslie kept swimming, her hold on Dev never loosening. She didn’t feel the cold
or the pain in her arms and legs or the burning in her lungs. All she knew was
that she would not lose Dev. Not ever again.
“Leslie,” Natalie shouted. “Let go. I’ve got her.”
Eileen joined Natalie and wrapped her arm around Leslie. “It’s all right, sweetie.
It’s all right. Let Natalie help you. Let go now.”
Natalie and Eileen dragged Dev and Leslie onto the bank.
Slumping down, shivering violently, Leslie pulled Dev into her lap.
She pressed Dev’s face to her breasts and wrapped her as tightly as she could
in her arms. Dev’s lips were blue, her face terrifyingly white.
“Dev, love, are you all right?” Leslie cried. She brushed Dev’s hair from her
face, stroked her cheek, kissed her forehead. “Dev?”
“I’m okay,” Dev gasped. “Les, I’m okay.”
Natalie draped a rescue blanket around Leslie’s shoulders and another over
Dev.
“It’ll be a while before we can get her to an ambulance,” Natalie said. “They’re
overloaded and transporting victims as fast as they can.”
“Don’t need an ambulance,” Dev said, her teeth chattering. “Just need to get
warm.”
“Go help the others, Natalie,” Leslie said, rubbing Dev’s back and arms. “I’ll
take care of her.”
Natalie smiled and brieß y touched Leslie’s cheek. “I know you will. I’ll be
back. You stay warm too.”
Leslie closed her eyes and cradled Dev, absolutely certain that there was
nothing else in the world she wanted except Dev. She closed her eyes, Þ ghting
to stay awake. The sound of an engine approaching Þ nally roused her. Her
father guided his motorized cart up next to them.
“Can you get her up in here, honey? I’ll take you both up to the lodge.”
Dev opened her eyes and met Leslie’s. “I can make it if you give me a hand.”
“You bet,” Leslie said, kissing Dev softly on the mouth.
“Anytime.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
As soon as her father dropped Leslie and Dev off in front of the lodge and
hurried back down the hill to help transport other injured, Leslie took Dev
upstairs, raided her parents’ closet for dry clothes, and led her into one of the
empty guestrooms.
“Let me help you get your clothes off,” Leslie said,
tugging Dev’s shirt from her
jeans.
“I got it,” Dev rasped. “You get undressed too. You’re shaking.”
“At least I’m not blue,” Leslie snapped, still remembering the terror of watching
Dev slide beneath the surface of the lake. “Oh, God, I’m sorry.” She brushed a
trembling hand over her face. “I was just so scared.” She pulled Dev, wet
clothes and all, into her arms and hugged her close. “I was afraid I was going to
lose you. I couldn’t bear it, Dev.
I just couldn’t.”
“It’s okay.” Dev wrapped her arms around Leslie’s waist and rocked her.
“We’re both okay.”
Still shaky, but immeasurably comforted by Dev’s rapidly returning strength,
Leslie leaned behind her to turn on the shower, keeping one hand on Dev’s
shoulder. “Let’s get warm, and then I’ll Þ nd something for us to wear.”
Wordlessly, Dev stripped off the rest of her clothes and stumbled into the
steaming water, leaving the door ajar for Leslie to follow. For long moments she
leaned against the wall, not speaking, eyes closed, her hand linked with Leslie’s.
As the heat penetrated her body, her mind cleared. With clarity came disbelief.
The events at the lake seemed like a surreal dream, a nightmare that had slid into
her consciousness, leaving indelible images of horror behind.
“I still can’t believe it,” Leslie whispered, seeming to read Dev’s mind.
“Neither can I.” Dev ß ung her hair back out of her face and met Leslie’s eyes.
“You’re amazing. I can’t even guess how many people you just saved.”
Tears brimmed in Leslie’s eyes. “No more than you.”
Dev shook her head. “I never could swim like you. I think you made two trips
to my one. Jesus, Les. Are you okay?”
“I have no idea.” Leslie’s smile was brittle. “All I know is that you’re here and
that’s all that matters.”
“I love you,” Dev said, gently drawing Leslie back into her arms.
She rested her cheek against Leslie’s hair. “And it feels so good.”
“Better than anything in the world.” Leslie kissed the base of Dev’s throat, then
her mouth.
A few minutes later, dressed in borrowed pants and sweatshirts, barefoot
except for thick socks, Dev and Leslie went back downstairs.
Leslie carried another sweatshirt under one arm.
“The sun is going down,” Dev observed as she walked to the front window.
“It’s going to get cold pretty fast. Looks like they’ve got almost everyone into
the ambulances now.”
“Can you start a Þ re in the great room?” Leslie asked Dev. “I’m going to take
this down to Natalie and see if I can get my mother and father to come inside.
They’ve got to be freezing.”
“Tell Natalie she needs to take a break. Get her to come inside and get warm
too.”
“I will,” Leslie said, tugging on her mother’s rubber mud boots.
“I’ll be right back.”
By the time Leslie returned with Natalie, her parents, and a deputy sheriff, Dev
had a roaring blaze going, the heat and ß ames chasing away the ghosts in her
mind as well as the chill from her bones. While Natalie, Eileen, and Paul went to
change into dry clothing, the sheriff—
a short-haired blonde with the body of a rugby player who introduced herself as
Jules Kipling—asked Leslie and Dev for their account of events. They were just
starting the interview when Natalie, wearing khaki pants that were six inches too
long and a faded blue cable-knit sweater, joined them.
“I’m Sergeant Natalie Evans, Park Service,” Natalie said to the sheriff.
“Sergeant.” The sheriff nodded a greeting as Natalie sat down on the couch next
to Dev. “I suspect when things are all sorted out this will fall under Park
jurisdiction because it happened on the lake. Just the same, I think we better
consider it a joint investigation for now.”
“Fine,” Natalie said, studying the blonde. “I didn’t get your name.”
“It’s Kipling.” The sheriff smiled as her eyes held Natalie’s just a beat longer
than absolutely necessary. “But you can call me Kip.”
Natalie ß ashed a weary grin. “Thanks. So shall we nail down the facts before
we’re too tired to remember the details?”
Jules Kipling took careful notes, as did Natalie, who wrote on a borrowed
tablet of paper that Leslie provided her from Eileen Harris’s ofÞ ce. All three
witnesses’ accounts were substantially similar. Forty minutes later everyone
agreed that further statements could be taken the next day.
“How many didn’t survive?” Leslie asked quietly. When Dev reached for her
hand, she cradled it between hers, happy to feel the warmth in her Þ ngers.
“Just one, thanks to all of you,” Jules said, “and the medics think that might have
been a heart attack.”
Eileen brought a second carafe of coffee into the living room and set it down on
the low table in front of the sofa and chairs where everyone sat. “I should have
food ready in just a few minutes.” She glanced from Natalie to Jules. “You’re
both welcome to stay. Something warm would be good for you right about
now.”
Natalie stood. “I appreciate it, but I need to get back to the ofÞ ce and follow
up with the paramedics and the hospital. Try to get the identiÞ cation started
and…notiÞ cation of families.”
“Mind if I tag along?” Jules Kipling said. “If I give you a hand it will save us from
duplicating efforts.”
“No, that would be great.” Natalie turned to Eileen. “Thanks for the clothes. I’ll
get them back as soon as I can.”
“There’s no rush. And don’t be a stranger here just because the summer’s
over.”
Natalie smiled. “Thanks. I’ll remember.”
As Natalie and Jules left, Leslie curled up next to Dev on the large sofa, pulling a
nearby throw over their legs, even though the room was warm. “I’m still so cold.
How are you?”
“Beat,” Dev admitted. “What I really want is to get in bed and just hold you.”
“Are you hungry?”
Dev shook her head. “We can come back later. Right now, I just need you.”
Leslie pushed the blanket aside and stood, extending her hand to Dev. “Then
that’s what you shall have.”
“Did I fall asleep in the middle of a sentence?” Dev asked when she awoke in
Leslie’s arms a few hours later. The bedroom in her cabin was aglow with
orange shadows cast from the Þ re burning in the Þ replace in the living room.
She remembered reaching the cabin, Leslie starting a Þ re, the two of them
crawling into bed after removing their borrowed clothes. She remembered
Leslie holding her as if she were a precious treasure about to disappear and
stroking Leslie’s cheek in reassurance, telling her that nothing would come
between them again. Or maybe she just thought she’d said that as she’d fallen
into exhausted sleep.
“No, you Þ nished the sentence,” Leslie said, softly caressing Dev’s shoulder.
“You mumbled you loved me.”
Dev smiled. “That would be the truth.” She propped herself up until she could
see Leslie’s face. “An
d in case I didn’t mention it, that would also be my longterm
plan. I’m going to take the job at the Freshwater Institute.”
“I’ve been thinking about things too,” Leslie said. After Dev had dropped off, as
tired as she was, Leslie hadn’t been able to sleep. Maybe that was because she
hadn’t actually wanted to do anything except hold Dev. To be certain Dev was
safe, and hers. “I want to be with you.
Really with you. I could relocate to the ofÞ ce in Albany or just Þ nd another
job up here.”
“I kind of got the feeling that you’re a high-power type of attorney,” Dev said,
her brows drawing together as she studied Leslie intently. “The big-city kind of
attorney. Seems like things would be a little too tame for you up here.”
Leslie laughed softly. “Well, there are people who refer to where I am now as a
jungle, but—”
“I don’t think you should do it.”
“Dev,” Leslie said, sitting up, “I love you, and I want us to be together. That
matters more to me than where I work or what I do.”
“And that’s all I need to know.” Dev took Leslie’s hand in both of hers, running
her thumbs over Leslie’s Þ ngers slowly as she spoke. “I don’t want you to
change your life because you love me.”
“You’re willing to,” Leslie pointed out.
“I’m just changing my base of operations—I’m still doing the same work.”
“You’re splitting hairs.”
Smiling, Dev shook her head. “No, I’m not. I probably won’t be spending quite
as much time in the Þ eld, but I’ll still be away a fair amount. When I’m not, I’ll
be closer to you.”
“We’ve already missed so much. I don’t want to lose any more time with you.”
“I’ll buy a house here on the lake. You can come up when you’re free, or I’ll go
down to Manhattan.” Dev stroked Leslie’s cheek as she frowned. “Lots of
couples have jobs that require them to live separately part of the time. We’ll
manage.”
“Say that’s so. What about what I do, not where I do it?” Leslie leaned close
and kissed the corner of Dev’s mouth. “How are you going to feel about
consorting with the enemy?”
“I’ve decided that you’re a necessary evil. Figuratively speaking, of course.”
