Witness Protection: Moving Target

by Jet MacLeod

“No, this won’t go that fast. You can stand there, if you would like. I’m going to get us out of the harbor and then we can decide where you want to go on the lake,” Del told her.

  She slow piloted the pontoon out of the slip and out onto the main part of the lake. Angie was actually amazed at how she deftly got them out into the deeper waters. She admired the way that Del moved with the small ripples and waves caused by the other boats on the water. She melded with the pontoon boat the same way that melded with the car.

  “Over there?” Del asked breaking Angie’s revere as she pointed out to a cove without a lot of other boaters or traffic.

  Angie understood her reasoning and nodded. Del moved the boat over towards the mouth of the cove and cut the engine. She grabbed the radio. She clipped it on her side. She walked to the back of the boat and dropped the anchor.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “I don’t mind drifting, but I don’t want to drift into anyone else or into any traffic.”

  “You gonna go swimming with me?” Angie asked.

  “No, I am not.”

  “You got on a boat and brought me out here, but you aren’t going to get in the water?”

  “Nope, I am not. You can, but please stay near the boat. I want you to be able to get back if you need something without me needing to start the boat to get you.”

  “I understand. Thank you for letting me come out here. I know that this must be hard for you.”

  “It isn’t hard for me. This isn’t a really good place to defend from, but I can do it if I need to. Just please don’t do anything that would cause me to have to do anything, okay?”

  “Gotcha,” Angie stated as she dropped her shorts.

  She watched Del’s eyes as she took off her tank top. She wished that Del would get in the water, but she knew that she wouldn’t. She knew that Del would pace around on the boat while she was in the water. She just wished that Del would actually just let loose and relax. She wasn’t going to require her to have fun, but she could let her proverbial hair down.

  Angie walked to the front gate of the pontoon. She unlatched it. She turned around to look at Del once more, hoping the sight of her in her red bikini would entice her to follow suit, and when it didn’t, she jumped off the front of the pontoon into the water. Del followed her to the gate and closed it, but didn’t latch it. She dropped the ladder over the side and unlocked the side gate.

  She watched Angie as she swam around and around the boat, never stopping for long. Del had to admit that she was a good swimmer and the water did look inviting, but she needed to be able to get to Angie quickly if something happened. She couldn’t do that in the water. Well, she could, but the water would slow her down.

  At one point, Angie just lay back in the water and floated. She called up to Del, who stood by the boat’s fence and smiled down at her. They had only been on the water for about an hour or so. It wasn’t yet noon, but they were both getting hungry.

  “Wanna eat soon?” Angie asked as she started towards the boat.

  “That sounds fine,” Del stated, before she straightened and looked out over the water.

  “What is it?”

  “Get on the boat,” Del said quietly.

  “What?”

  “Just get on the boat.”

  Angie swam quickly to the side where the ladder was and began to come up. When her head broke over the floor of the pontoon boat, she noticed that Del had ditched her jeans and t-shirt into the captain’s chair. Angie watched as she climbed up the side gate while Del was stalking up to the front gate. She passed off the radio.

  “Call in for an ambulance. Tell them we are at Leaf’s Point Cove. Tell them to hurry. Then, stay by the wheel and don’t move until I get back,” Del commanded her.

  Angie didn’t have time to respond before Del was overboard with a beautiful dive. She raced across the water to the seemingly drowning swimmer. She had the swimmer in a make shift carry as she eased back through the water and towards their pontoon boat. Angie was still at the captain’s chair standing there, staring at the side when Del more or less tossed the kid up on the pontoon before she climbed up the ladder.

  That was when the siren was heard. Del began performing CPR on the small boy who couldn’t have been more than twelve. She was into her second set of reps when the boy suddenly shot up and coughed up a lungful of water. The DNR ambulance boat pulled up next to them.

  “Man overboard?” the EMT asked.

  “Right here. This boy was drowning. I don’t know how he got out so far on his own, but I saw him and got him. I think that he should be taken in and checked out,” Del told him.

  “Well, thanks,” he told her.

  The other EMT came aboard and helped the first talk the boy over to their boat. He was alive and conscious, so it would be easy to get information out of him on their way back to their headquarters and possibly to a hospital. As they got him settled in, a DNR LEO came on aboard the pontoon and looked Del up and down.

  She knew that she must be a sight in her wet, white wife beater and black boy shorts, but she really didn’t care at the moment. She had just saved that boy’s life. A small smile crept across her face as she looked over to the shocked but impressed Angie.

  “Ma’am, we are going to need your statement,” the DNR officer told her.

  “What about?”

  “The incident.”

  “There was no incident.”

  “Ma’am, you just pulled that boy from the water and saved his life. I believe that would constitute an incident. It won’t take long. It is just a few questions.”

  “I pulled him from the water, gave him CPR, and he coughed out some water. There isn’t much else that I can tell you, officer. I don’t know what else to tell you about it,” Del told him.

  “You didn’t see anything odd before you saw the boy?”

  “No.”

  “What were you doing before you saw him?”

  “I was on the boat. We were getting ready to have lunch. We packed sandwiches. She was coming back up from a swim when I saw him. I dove in, swam to him and brought him back here. The rest seems to be evident, right?” Del replied.

  “Yes, ma’am, it does,” the officer replied. “But, I am still going to need you to come down to our station and fill out some paperwork. It doesn’t have to be today, but soon.”

  “We are on vacation,” Del stated.

  “I understand that, ma’am, but this is standard procedure.”

  “Sure, of course.”

  “Where y’all staying?”

  “Paris Landing, cabin number 12,” Del told him.

  She saw Angie watching her. Angie could tell that she was lying and she had a good guess as to why, but she held her tongue. Del saw the understanding in her eyes.

  “A contact number for you, if we have any more questions for you?”

  “Sure, two nine seven, five five five, four three, one two.”

  “Thanks, ma’am, one last thing, though.”

  “Yeah?”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Grayson Black,” Del lied. “We’re from Chicago. She’s Emily Korkena.”

  “Thanks, again, ma’am. That was a good save. Hope the rest of your day is uneventful.”

  He clambered off the pontoon and back into the DNR boat. They drove a way creating a small wake. Del didn’t wait until they were that far away before she started pulling up the anchor. Angie just locked all the gates to the fences and pulled up the ladder. She seemed to realize that their day on the lake was over.

  “Now what?”

  “Now we leave.”

  “Leave?”

  “Yup, we’re leaving,” Del stated as she got back to the wheel to pilot the pontoon back to the harbor across the lake.

  “Where we going?”

  “That, my dear, is up to you,” Del told her.

  “Me?”

  “This is your ‘vacation,’ remember,” Del stated.

  Angie just stared at
her as she navigated back across the water. Finally, Del couldn’t take it anymore. She didn’t know what Angie was staring at. She pulled back on the throttle and eased the pontoon back into its slip.

  “What Angie? What is it? You have been staring at me the entire time back.”

  “There are so many,” Angie replied quietly.

  “So many what?” Del asked her confused.

  “Scars…”

  Angie didn’t believe that Del could be self-conscious, but she was wrong. As soon as they were back to the dock and tied off, Del stalked up to the sedan and tore through a bag in the trunk until she found another shirt. She ripped the soaking wet wife-beater off and replaced with the new shirt. Then, she pulled on her jeans. She stowed the cooler and their bags. Angie just watched her. She didn’t know what to say and didn’t have time to do anything, either.

  The harbor master met Del at the boat and checked it out. She signed for their time and gave him back the orange safety bag and walkie-talkie. He said something to Del, who just smiled and nodded before she headed back to the car. Angie followed her then.

  “Ready?” Del asked as they neared the car.

  “Are we going to talk about what happened?” Angie questioned as she got in the passenger side.

  “What do you need to discuss?”

  “Del…”

  “I don’t know what you want me to say. I don’t know what to say right now. Is there some social protocol that I don’t know? What is it, Angie?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “This is all my fault,” Angie stated. “I should’ve kept my mouth shut. I am sorry.”

  “You didn’t do anything, Angie. That boy was way too far out on his own and if he was with a boating party, he should have had a vest on. There was nothing that you could have done that would have predicted that would happen. Don’t worry about it.”

  “That isn’t what I was talking about,” Angie replied.

  “Then, what?”

  “Your scars…”

  “What about them?”

  “Are you ashamed of them?” Angie asked, noticing the speed in which Del was driving back to the cabin and giving her a worried look.

  She knew that Del caught her look in her periphery. Del for her part eased off the gas some, but not a lot. They had some time before anyone came looking for them for more of a story, especially the local news media.

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Then, why are you in such a hurry to leave?”

  “We need to be out of town in a few hours.”

  “Why? Tell me why? I am going to do as you ask, but just tell me why?”

  “I just saved a boy’s life in a small town. The local media will be all over it. They will get the DNR officer to spill enough about us for them to look for us for an interview. You can’t be on camera. And, you definitely don’t need to be seen with me. We need to be out of town before the gossip of the rescue spreads. We can be angels today for him and nothing more,” Del said.

  “That makes sense. Thank you,” Angie replied, noticing Del’s arching eyebrow at her thanks. “You know for taking me and actually telling me your reasoning.”

  “I am still going to expect you to be ready to go within the hour.”

  “I understand.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “Ending our time here so quickly,” Del told her.

  “Like you said, there was no way for us to know.”

  They continued to the cabin in silence. Angie was trying to not think about the scars that marred Del’s otherwise flawless tanned skin. She had to admit that it just made her look like more of a badass. She was upset that she had been given enough time to appreciate the glory that is Del.

  “They look worse than they are,” Del stated breaking the silence as she pulled up to the cabin.

  “What?”

  “My scars.”

  “Cole told me that you were shot thirty times.”

  “That time, yes,” Del answered like it was common knowledge.

  “That time?”

  “It wasn’t the first time that I had been shot, but it was most definitely the last.”

  “Thirty times?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did it…”

  “Hurt? Yes, like a sonuvabitch, and rehab was Hell. But, that isn’t what you wanted to ask.”

  “I…you keep them covered, why?”

  “Because I don’t like to answer questions about them.”

  “I am sorry I asked,” Angie immediately replied.

  “Don’t be. You were bound to see them eventually. Most of them I can cover with a decent short-sleeve shirt. If I know that I am going to go out and need to more scantily dressed, I usually use make up to hide them,” Del explained.

  “They tried to kill you.”

  “She did.”

  “She?”

  “Yulia Plushenko.”

  “For the international family of arms dealers, Plushenkos?”

  “The same,” Del answered.

  “You’re the one that killed her father.”

  “I am.”

  “But they said it was the Russian mafia.”

  “We are good at what we do.”

  “But, Cole saved you, didn’t he? She tried to kill you and he saved you. There is more though, isn’t there?” Angie asked her.

  “Isn’t there always?”

  “Can you tell me?”

  “Cole killed her. I killed her father. We covered up our involvement. Cole pulled me out.”

  “Just the basics, huh?” Angie asked trying to lighten the mood.

  “Something like that, yeah.”

  “Are you mad at him?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You really cared for her, didn’t you?”

  “She was the first person I cared for besides my family. I didn’t see what he did and it almost cost me my life. Now, I have to re-evaluate everything that I thought I knew about that night.”

  “And, you scars are just reminders of her?”

  “Yes,” Del answered.

  “I am sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “Bringing up bad memories,” Angie stated.

  “That’s the problem with most of the day, Angie. I don’t know what is memory and what is something that my brain has concocted to fill in the blanks,” Del answered and sighed. “There is so much that is starting to make sense in my head. I know that I need to let it go, but part of me can’t. It is like a scab that I keep picking, so it will never heal.”

  “There is a difference between forgiving and forgetting, Del. You need to figure out how to do that. When you do, you will feel better,” Angie told her getting out of the car and heading to the cabin, not waiting for Del to reply.

  Del sat in the car for a minute. She couldn’t believe that Angie just walked away. She didn’t push Del hard, either. She asked questions and knew enough when to stop. Del was grateful for that, but she didn’t know how to respond to it. She had been alone for so long that she didn’t know how to accept the help of others. She had been trained to not be reliant on others.

  There was just something about Angie though. Maybe, Cole had been right. Maybe she did need a friend and Angie was offering. She didn’t need to think about anything else or any other reasons why Angie would want to be nice to her, except to be friendly. It was what normal people did.

  She sighed. They needed to leave soon before the local media caught wind of the story and came down to the cabins looking for them. It wouldn’t be hard for them to find them and Del knew it. She got out of the car, taking her day pack and the cooler.

  She first went into the kitchen and started unpacking the cooler. She sat their sandwiches and drinks out on the counter. She rummaged through the fridge and realized that it would all fit in the cooler. She was glad that she had been the one doing the shopping. Portion control was a big thing for her and she liked to keep t
hings at a minimum. It made it easier to leave if they did.

  She grabbed the icy gel packs and threw them in the freezer. She figured it would be better for them to be as cold as possible before they left. It would give them longer before they would have to stop for ice. She would get ice at the first gas station out of town, but the ice packs could help them drive longer before they would need more.

  Once she was settle on the cold stuffs in the kitchen, she found a small box in the cupboard and started packing up the canned goods and boxed stuff. They would have enough snacks to help them out on their drive. She only hoped that they would make it out of Tennessee before they decided to really stop for any length of time.

  Angie came into the kitchen. She saw the box and the cooler on the table. She looked over at Del.

  “You weren’t kidding about the cooler being packed up if we had to leave.”

  “Nope, I wasn’t. I don’t like to waste things. We need to be efficient and cost effective.”

  “I see.”

  “It makes it harder to follow us.”

  “But you always pay with a card?”

  “That they will trace to a fake address and a fake name. My money isn’t going to be found. I’ve made sure of that, especially with as much as I have squirrelled away. Don’t get me wrong, Angie. I pay my taxes and I have enough in accounts in the States to make the government happy. They are going to come looking for me or my money unless you don’t make it back to New York. By the way, have you thought of anywhere that you’d like to go?”

  “Ever seen the Pacific?”

  “I was in Hawaii, but I don’t think that is what you mean,” Del answered.

  “I want to see the Pacific,” Angie replied.

  “Any place in particular?”

  “Napa?”

  “Wine country?”

  “What can I say? I like a good wine. Besides, who would think to look for me there?”

  “True, but I don’t know. I’ll look into it. I’ll need to call Cole again and get some IDs for us. He could overnight them once I have a destination. You really want to go to Napa?”

  “Or, how about Seattle?”

  “That is an extreme from Napa.”

  “Big City, ocean, what could be better?”

  Del arched her eyebrow at her. Angie just smiled. Del shook her head and got her laptop. She would need to plot a route to either destination. She would choose based on drive time and find a location to stay on the way.