Rhianyn reached over to hold Lorewyn and saw that she had closed her eyes, trembling with emotion and tears.
Neither said a word as they continued to sit on the couch, Rhianyn’s arms around her wife, the program soon coming to an end, then the national anthem being heard as the station concluded its broadcast day, signing off, then the soft white-noise static.
CHAPTER 18
Summer 1963. Lorewyn was closest to the phone in the office when she got the call that would lead to one of the most unusual and perhaps most entertaining cases in her career as a private investigator.
“Madison-McKinley,” she said, answering the call. “Theresa McKinley speaking.”
It was one of the lifeguards at Santa Monica Beach. He asked to come in and speak with Alan and Lorewyn later that day.
“Fred Baines,” he stated, introducing himself. “I’ve spoken to the police, but they referred me to the Coast Guard. So, I called the Coast Guard, but they said it’s a local issue and referred me to Animal Control. I’m getting the runaround, and no one seems to be helping. But the problem continues, and I’m the one people keep coming to. So, I heard about your agency and decided to call.”
“We’re glad you did, Fred,” Alan exclaimed. “Can you tell us about what’s going on? What’s the problem?”
“Sharks and surfboards,” he replied, sounding quite serious.
Lorewyn just looked over at Alan, puzzled, then spoke to Fred. “Come again?” she inquired. “Sharks and… surfboards?”
Fred explained further. It had started earlier that summer. Surfing had become rather popular along the strip of beach from Venice all the way north and west toward Malibu. Then, there had been a shark sighting. Fred hadn’t actually seen it personally, but he received several reports from people on the beach that there was a shark. He cleared the water and notified the authorities. But there was no evidence that there had been a shark. Furthermore, in their haste to exit the water, a couple of surfers had lost their boards in the waves. The boards should’ve either washed up intact, or bitten by the presumed shark. But no boards were found.
This happened three more times in the following couple weeks, Fred actually spotting the shark’s fin in the most recent occasion. It was the same each time… a couple boards got lost in the haste to exit the water, but those boards were never recovered. What’s more, there weren’t even fragments to suggest that a shark had actually destroyed the boards.
“I think something’s going on,” Fred added, “but I can’t prove anything. The beach has a miscellaneous fund for expenses that don’t fall under any other category. I’m guessing this counts as ‘none of the above?’ We just need to figure this out. The surfers have stopped coming… people are afraid to get in the water now. I don’t blame them. If this doesn’t get solved, I’ll be out of a job… so will the other lifeguards, concession workers, and everyone else at the beach who works there.”
“We’ll get on it,” Alan assured him. “Don’t worry about our fee at the moment. I’m waiving the retainer… this is a pretty bizarre situation! But we’ll get some answers and work out the payment later, okay?”
Fred thanked the two of them and left. Lorewyn looked rather amazed.
“The Case of the Surfing Shark?” she mused.
“If we get a photo of the shark actually surfing, perhaps!” Alan laughed. “For now, I think we need to get down to the beach and take a look.”
“Agreed,” Lorewyn said, “but I have a sense that we’re not dealing with an actual selachimorph. It might look like one, or at least from a distance… but I’m not convinced. Other than the fin, it doesn’t seem like anyone’s seen the actual animal.”
“Selachimorph?” Alan asked. “I take it that has something to do with sharks?”
“It’s the scientific classification,” Lorewyn explained. “Like you said, we need to get to the beach. I’m going to need a surfboard, some wax, and to make sure my swimsuit from last season still fits well.”
“This should be interesting,” Alan commented. “But if I understand where you’re going with this, we’ll need to make sure other surfers aren’t in the water with you. And even though people are afraid at the moment, if they see you try to hang ten out there, others might follow. We’ll need a distraction on the beach.”
Lorewyn thought for a moment, then smiled. “I know of just the thing.”
When she saw Rhianyn that evening, her first question was work-related.
“Blackbird… you want to go on a surfari with me?”
They set it up for the following weekend. It was warm and sunny, an ideal summer day for the beach. As Fred had indicated, however, word of a shark being spotted had decreased beach turn-out considerably.
“There was that shark attack out here back in ’52, you know,” the lifeguard had reminded them. “People still remember that.”
But when Lorewyn and Rhianyn made their way down past the lifeguard tower and closer to the water, it was clear that no one was surfing within visual range.
“So far so good,” Lorewyn commented, beginning to prep the board she had borrowed for this operation. “Now your job is to just keep the boys here on the beach for a while.” She grinned, waxing the board up and starting to walk toward the waves.
Rhianyn just sighed, shaking her head and taking off her outer clothing, revealing the floral-printed bikini that she had on underneath.
“You know, Yellowfeather, I think it’s a bit unfair that you give me the hard job while you get to splash around and have fun.” But she offered her wife a seductive smile and started to do her job, laying out her towel and applying some Bristol Myers Tanya Suntan Lotion sensually to her skin.
Lorewyn paused to look at her. She could think of nothing more beautiful in the world compared to her wife no matter what Rhianyn was wearing, but the bikini she had on right now, accentuating her perfect curves and flawless physique…
“You might be doing your job a bit too well, Blackbird,” she offered. “You run the risk of keeping me here on the beach as well!”
She blew her a subtle kiss, then started jogging toward the water, board under her arm. She hit the first rush of waves, taking her position, and beginning to paddle out. Rhianyn watched her as she went, donning a pair of sunglasses, then stretching out her 5’10” figure on the towel.
Lorewyn glanced to the south along the shoreline as she continued paddling, readying her stance for the first break. She could see the Santa Monica Pier down the beach. Alan will be ready, she thought. All they needed was for the “shark” to take the bait! A good wave moved in. Lorewyn got up on the board and started riding.
She had never surfed before, but it wasn’t much different from some other acrobatic maneuvers she had done many times in the past. Unlike Rhianyn, she was not wearing a bikini, instead having chosen a suitable one-piece that could handle the action if things got a bit choppy.
Come on, shark! She found herself thinking. Surf’s up! Come take a bite.
“Hey look! There’s someone out on the waves! Maybe they caught the shark and it’s safe to go back in?”
The observation had come from a young man who had just parked his Woodie station wagon at the edge of the sand and was checking out the scene. He had noticed Lorewyn up on her board in the distance. The other teenager with him squinted his eyes and saw her as well.
“Boss!” he exclaimed, grabbing his own board from the top of the wagon. “Let’s cruise, Ace!” Both boys hit the sand and made for the water.
The second young man was approaching the tower when he stopped in his tracks, however. He did a double-take, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets as he saw Rhianyn lying there in her bikini on the towel, glistening with suntan oil. His friend stopped as well, both of them dropping their boards to the sand.
Rhianyn casually turned her head slightly, noticing the two boys staring. She just offered a smile, waved her fingers at them in a friendly gesture, then turned back.
Looks like it’s t
wo boys for every girl today, she mused.
But neither surfer entered the water immediately, rather staying back near the tower, making an excuse to talk to the lifeguard while admiring Rhianyn.
Lorewyn had caught her third wave and was beginning to think the plan wasn’t going to work when she caught a glimpse of something that looked like a shark’s fin emerging from below the water several yards away.
There you are!
Noticing another wave coming, she deliberately held back, waiting until the crest was coming over, then dove off the board, allowing it to get caught in the curl while she went under, swimming below the wave, moving in the direction of where she saw the fin. The diversion worked! Sure enough, the fin began streaming toward where the wave was taking the board.
Lorewyn came up briefly, waited for her moment, then pounced. The fin had just submerged again, but she managed to catch it! It didn’t feel very organic at all. But then, Lorewyn had suspected this might be the case. Whatever it was, it was substantial in size, like an actual shark, but obviously not alive… at least not in the marine animal sense!
The main part of the “body,” if you could call it that, was indeed underwater. It quickly realized that something had grabbed hold of the fin and started moving off, abandoning its pursuit of the board and beginning to swim out to sea. It swam some distance, then began heading south, parallel to the shoreline.
Oh, no you don’t! Lorewyn thought, still holding on.
The thing began to pick up speed, and soon Lorewyn was gripping the fin tenaciously, her legs dragging behind in the wake.
Up ahead, Lorewyn could see a small boat approaching. It was a motorboat, not a big one at all. But there was something attached to its stern, some kind of…
She suddenly heard a pop and a whizzing sound. A harpoon-styled grapple had just shot from the boat and secured itself onto the front of the “shark”-like thing below the fin that she was holding onto. The line tightened, and a moment later the boat took off toward the pier, the shark now caught by the grapple and being pulled at an accelerated rate. Lorewyn kept holding on!
Rhianyn had been keeping her eye on how Lorewyn was doing out there. She had noticed her sudden maneuver, losing the board, then grabbing onto the fin. She also saw the grapple from the boat and the way she took off suddenly, holding on.
She jumped up from her towel, casting off her sunglasses and running toward the lifeguard tower. Fred was on duty, still talking with the two other young men who had been ogling Rhianyn for the past couple minutes. Rhianyn had noticed a Jeep next to the tower earlier, one of the beach vehicles. The keys were in it. She hopped in the driver’s seat and started it up.
Fred noticed at once. “Hey!” he called out. “What are you…?!”
“Sorry!” Rhianyn called back, speeding away south toward the pier. “It’s an emergency! I’ll get it back to you, I promise!”
Fred just sighed, shaking his head. The two others with him watched as Rhianyn drove off at top speed.
“Wow!” one of them said. “What a totally righteous babe!”
“Yeah, man,” the other agreed in a bit of a daze. “She’s gotta be the most outta sight chick this beach has ever seen.”
Two teen girls walked up to them at that moment. “There you two are!” one of them said. “What happened? You said you were gonna wait by the wagon.”
“Oh, sorry, Luce,” the first boy replied, seeming to come out of his stupor for a moment. “We just, uh…”
“We were just having a word with Fred, that’s all,” the other boy jumped in, trying to cover his buddy.
Both girls had noticed Rhianyn drive away. Both boys were still watching the Jeep as well. The girls just scoffed. Lucy took the other girl’s arm.
“Typical!” she exclaimed. “Come on, Connie, let’s hit the promenade. There are too many dogs already here in Dogtown!”
Lucy and Connie started walking away. The boys just looked at each other, sighing after a moment. “Wipe out,” one of them said.
Lorewyn had taken hold of the line that was tethering the grapple to the boat. She could also see that there was indeed someone piloting the boat. She had an idea, but she would have to work fast!
Lorewyn began crawling quickly along the line, hand over hand, moving toward the boat. She could see that the pilot had noticed her maneuver and was trying to disconnect the line from the stern… but not having much luck.
They were approaching the pier. The boat looked as if it was going to go through the wooden poles that held the pier up… there was sufficient room. She also knew that the pier was part of their plan. But she had not accounted for a speeding motorboat!
Only one thing to do, she considered. Lorewyn began frantically moving along the line even faster. She had to reach the boat before the pilot reached the pier! She was getting closer. Then, she saw the pilot’s act of desperation. He had a knife. He was going to cut the line! Lorewyn pulled herself up on the line while the tether still had tension in it, standing on it like a tightrope-walker. The pilot swiped with his knife.
Lorewyn sprang!
The line was cut, the boat veering off away from the pier just as the large net that Alan had set in place appeared. The “shark,” however, was on a trajectory, unable to avoid collision. It continued in its path, plowing into the net. The net drew shut… the thing was trapped! Lorewyn and the boat on the other hand…
Her jump had been executed right before the line had been cut. She flew through the air, right onto the stern of the boat as it was speeding away from the pier. She landed on top of the bewildered pilot, causing him to drop the knife in the water. The man tried to recover, but Lorewyn was one step ahead of him. She landed a solid punch, knocking him out. The pilot slumped to the deck. Lorewyn took the rudder and steered the motorboat back toward the pier.
Alan and Rhianyn were waiting on the pier with the “catch of the day.” The whole thing was a partnership, a scam. One of the partners wore the shark-suit, essentially a capsule that looked a bit like a shark with a fin and a place for a snorkel, to breathe. He would simulate the shark appearance, then gather any boards that were left behind in the water. He would wait for his buddy in the boat to get close enough without drawing suspicion, grapple the capsule from a distance, then tow him and the boards to safety. The stolen surfboards were then sold for profit.
Alan recognized the partner in the boat once Lorewyn brought him to the pier. “Billy Moreno!” he exclaimed. “I thought you were in county lock-up for taking bets. I gotta say, this racket you two pulled… clever. Original too.”
“And we would’ve gotten away with it too,” Billy insisted. “Had it not been for the blondie on the surfboard.”
“They do say blondes have more fun, right?” Lorewyn grinned as the police arrived and took the two into custody. Rhianyn just gave her an amused look, shaking her head. She returned the Jeep, of course.
“I can see why you keep one of these on the beach,” she mentioned to Fred. “You can really get around in this!”
Fred was grateful, of course, and settled the tab with Madison-McKinley. Alan was glad to meet Rhianyn.
“Always happy to get acquainted with one of Theresa’s friends,” he said. “And glad to have you help us out on this case! Who knows? Maybe in time I can hire you as well… then I’ll have a blonde and a brunette in the firm, and you could work alongside your friend. Fun, fun, fun… eh?”
“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Rhianyn responded, smiling at her wife.
CHAPTER 19
November 22nd was a Friday. Lorewyn had spent the previous day and early that morning in the office finishing up reports on their cases from the past few weeks, which had been considerable. The “Surfing Shark” incident from a few months before had done wonders in terms of boosting Madison-McKinley’s notoriety as a private investigation team. Lorewyn was a bit nervous.
“I don’t mind that our firm’s name is getting well-known locally,” she had explained to Rhianyn, “but I�
�m trying to keep my face out of pictures in the papers. Alan feels the same way, but for the more practical reason that an essential part of investigation is being able to investigate without people recognizing you easily. My reasons are, of course, a bit more complex.”
“We’re not far from Hollywood,” Rhianyn understood. “I get it… there are folks in the business who might still recognize the now-deceased Alivia Chambers and start asking questions. I agree, Yellowfeather, best to keep a low profile… at least in terms of having your photo out there.”
And so, Alan and Lorewyn had refused publicity shots, but made sure the name Madison-McKinley was circulated. They started getting a lot of calls from potential clients not only in Santa Monica, but other parts of West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Inglewood, and even further.
Alan had left on Thursday for an extended weekend with his daughter Nancy, who was now 16 and lived with her mother in Redlands. Lorewyn had met her before. Alan once made the joking comment that he had wanted to name her Nancy when she was born because he had a crush on the actress Nancy Kovack. Lorewyn, who was no fool when it came to Hollywood, just laughed.
“Nancy Kovack was just a kid when your daughter was born, Alan!” she chided him. “Nice try… you can’t use your current crush retroactively, I’m afraid.”
But it became an ongoing joke, and in the years that followed, the Nancy Kovack reference was changed to Nancy Sinatra.
So, Lorewyn was alone in the office on a Friday morning finishing up the reports. Her goal was to close up by noon and get home in time to meet Rhianyn for their getaway. They had both arranged vacation time and were driving down to Cabo San Lucas in Baja California, Mexico, for a week. They were both packed and ready. Rhianyn had to pull a final shift up at the park, then they would be off.
It was about 10:45am and Lorewyn was almost done. She had been listening to the radio for the past few minutes, just background noise. Alan had left it tuned to KNX, so Lorewyn was hearing the Arthur Godfrey Show, but not really paying attention. She finished typing her last page, grabbed her coat, and was about to turn off the radio, kill the lights, and lock up, when Godfrey’s steady but sleep-inducing voice was suddenly interrupted by the staccato tones of a news bulletin breaking in. Lorewyn’s hand was already on the radio dial, about to switch it off, but paused for just a moment with the abrupt change in sound.
Two Birds, One Feather: The Lives and Times of Lorewyn & Rhianyn in America Page 20
