Diver Down (Mercy Watts Mysteries)

by A W Hartoin

“If I say there’s nothing, there ain’t nothing. Tell me the situation.”

  I did as he continued to curse. I left out the part about Chuck and his connection, Spidermonkey. If he knew that I went to someone else, even Chuck, I’d get nothing out of him for any amount of money. I did give him a complete list of everyone on both scuba trips and everyone Aaron, Dixie, and I had seen on the beach.

  “So nobody was at each incident, except for that Colin, Joe, and Andrew,” he said. “It could be someone you don’t suspect. I’ll get the resort registry and check every damn one of them.”

  “Call Dixie’s phone, if you get anything,” I said.

  He grunted and hung up. Crabby bastard. Dixie’s hand inched toward the brownies. I plucked one off the platter and dropped it in her lap.

  “Mercy!”

  “Now you have to eat it. No wasting,” I said.

  “I’ve eaten too much on this trip already.”

  “Please. You’re practically anorexic. Eat the brownie. Gavin always did. You can put that in the book.”

  She laughed. “He never met a dessert he didn’t like.”

  “Or a burger,” said Aaron.

  “Or a beer,” I said.

  Dixie got all misty. “What should I call him, my main character? I can’t call him Gavin, I suppose.”

  “Ulysses,” I said. “After his favorite general and the kid, Ulysses Jones.”

  “What kid?”

  “The one he got exonerated in that horrible rape case. He did it pro bono. He really liked that kid.”

  “I never heard about that one,” she said, quietly.

  “Now you’ll get to know Gavin all over again.” I took another brownie and the toddler ran over, clapping her hands.

  “Brownies! Brownies!” she crowed.

  Her mom turned red and rose out of the water, carrying her chortling baby. “No, no, Bea. That’s not polite.”

  “It’s alright,” I said. “Can she have one?”

  Mom came over, still blushing. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Really, it’s nothing. We have lots. I’m Mercy. This is Dixie and Aaron. Aaron’s a gastronomic genius.”

  “I’m Laurie and this is Elissa and Beatrice.” Laurie looked at Aaron’s terminal bedhead and oversized tee as if she doubted my endorsement.

  “Seriously, they’re delicious,” I said, offering up the platter.

  Laurie nodded to Bea. She took a brownie with a squeal of delight and said something that might’ve been thank you. Baby Elissa smacked her lips and her big sister gave her a bit of the brownie.

  Dixie smiled at Beatrice’s chubby cheeks and tummy. “Where’s your daddy today?”

  “Zooska!” Bea announced.

  We looked at Laurie, who had given in and taken a brownie. She was a little glazed over, the way I always got when Aaron made me chocolate. “Scuba,” she said at last. “He’s going on the Hole in the Wall dive and then we’ll switch. I’m doing Turtle Crossing later.”

  “That’s a great idea,” said Dixie. “You switch back and forth, so you both get to dive.”

  “It’s worked out well so far. We haven’t missed anything.”

  Dixie and Laurie chatted about the dives she’d done so far. I stopped listening at some point. A word kept bouncing around in my brain. Switching. Switching. Everything went quiet for me, everything but that word. Switching.

  Oh my god!

  “They’re switching!” I yelled.

  Everyone jumped.

  “What in the world?” asked Dixie.

  I grabbed her arm. “Dixie, they’re switching. It’s two murderers, not one.”

  “Murder?” said Laurie, clutching little Elissa tighter.

  “Who is it?” asked Dixie.

  “Todd and Tracy. The Land’s End couple.”

  “The ones with the horrible kids? No way.”

  “Yes. It has to be. One of them was at every single incident.”

  “Nobody would go on vacation to kill someone and take their kids,” said Dixie.

  “Can you think of a better cover? Have you seen them today?” I asked.

  “I did,” said Laurie. “Tracy was walking into town a little while ago.”

  “That leaves him free and Lucia’s going to dive again.” I bit back every curse word Uncle Morty had ever taught me, shoved the platter into Dixie’s lap, and jumped up. Dixie’s phone started ringing. “It’s Morty!” she yelled, but I was already running. When was that dive leaving? Mom told me, but I didn’t remember. I ran full out, past staring men and angry wives. The bikini was holding out, but let’s face it, it wasn’t designed for such explosive bounce. I braced my chest with my arm and put on my last ounce of speed.

  I skirted the dive shop. It was empty, except for Marcella, the assistant manager. I ran to the desk, gasping.

  “You should never run,” she said. “Especially in a bikini. It’s not safe.”

  “When…does…Hole…in…Wall—”

  “The Hole in the Wall dive? They just left.” Marcella checked her watch. “You missed it by twenty minutes, but we’re—”

  “Oh shit!” I looked at the dive board. Under Hole in the Wall was the list of divers. Mom, Lucia, Graeme, and a few others. There squeezed in at the bottom was Todd’s name. He was on the boat.

  “Call them,” I said. “Todd did it. He’s trying to kill Lucia.”

  She stared at me.

  “It’s him. He stabbed her. Call them!”

  “Aaron?” she said, looking past me.

  Aaron was there, so red-faced he looked about to pass out, but nodding furiously.

  “Call them now! They have to abort the dive,” I said.

  Marcella picked up her portable VHF and radioed La Isla Bonita One. After a minute, Alex answered. Marcella told him to abort, but they were already down. “What now?” Marcella asked.

  “Are there any other boats in the vicinity with divers ready to go down?” I asked.

  She asked Alex and he said no. They were alone for the moment and he didn’t bring dive equipment for himself.

  “Where’s Mauro or any of the dive instructors? I’ll take anyone.”

  “I’m here.” Mauro came out of the storage room, rubbing oil on himself.

  “Do we have a boat available?” I asked.

  “I’m prepping Two. Why?”

  I told him about Todd and before I could finish, he was grabbing a BCD, tank, and weights. He trust the set into my arms and then got his set that was always prepped. We ran for the beach, bypassing the golf carts. I’ve never run carrying that much stuff in my life. It must’ve weighed fifty pounds, but somehow I did it. I ran into the water behind Mauro and handed him up my equipment. Aaron was behind me, but I stopped him.

  “Call Tabora and tell Alex that if any other boats come, he should tell them to go down immediately and get Spitball’s group to surface.”

  “I got to go with you,” said Aaron.

  “Not this time.” I climbed on the boat and Mauro fired up the engine. “Call Tabora!”

  We raced out of the resort’s small harbor. The wind tore at my hair and we hit the waves so hard my teeth slammed together, shooting pain through my jaw. Hole in the Wall couldn’t be that far, if they’d left and been down in twenty minutes, but they had a decent head start, at least twenty-eight minutes now. A lot could happen in twenty-eight minutes.

  Lucia stay with Spitball. Stay with Spitball.

  We passed several boats coming back from dives. Everyone smiled and waved. We kept racing and came around an outcropping of coral. The La Isla Bonita boat rocked in the water next to a series of buoys. Alex jumped up and waved. Another boat came in from the other direction, twice the size of our boats and fully loaded. Mauro cut the engine and guided us to the side of One.

  I popped open my bundle and began hooking up the equipment. Mauro was behind me and completely suited before I had all my equipment together.

  “Lloyd’s here!” yelled Alex.

  Mauro lowered his mask
and sat on the side. “Tell him!” He dropped over.

  I clipped on my BCD, did my checks, and waddled into position. Alex was yelling at the other boat, presumably Lloyd’s. The boat came around and I saw a guy about Spitball’s age hooking up a set of regs as I dropped into the water. I sunk. I’d forgotten to inflate my BCD. I pushed the inflation button and popped up. Then I deflated as fast as I could without exploding my eardrums. Mauro was on the bottom, rotating slowly. He’d started off to the right before I reached the bottom. My fins touched the sand and I caught sight of Mauro’s fins disappearing between two coral walls. Hole in the Wall was nothing like my other dives. It was all canyon as far as I could see and I did not want to go in there. The walls went up ten or fifteen feet and bulged out in dark, rounded shapes that reminded me of thick brownie batter. Not welcoming in the least.

  I slowed my breathing and went in, swimming through a corridor with plenty of cubbyholes and twists and turns. I couldn’t catch up with Mauro. He knew where he was going and his long legs propelled him much faster than my short ones. So far I hadn’t seen another diver other than Mauro. Where were they? What if they went in a different direction? I was breathing way too heavily. I checked my gauge. I’d already used up 500 psi of air. Not good.

  Calm. Calm. Breathe in. Breathe out.

  A shadow went over me and I jerked to the right, running into some jagged coral. It gouged my shoulder. I really missed my penguin suit. A diver dropped down in front of me. Lloyd from the other boat. He gave me the okay sign and I gave it back. He turned and sped off into a tunnel. I didn’t know where Mauro had gone. Lloyd’s fins were already out of sight. There was no way I was going in that hole without Lloyd right in front of me. I went straight with fingers crossed. The maze of coral went on and on. Sometimes it opened up to a sandbar with schools of lovely fish and stingrays loafing, hidden in the sand. Then it was back into the maze. I came around a tight turn and nearly ran into Lloyd. He indicated that he hadn’t found them yet. We went in different directions. The maze walls got higher. I had to swim under bridges and came to a short tunnel. It was either go through or go back. I could see out the other side, so I stuffed the fear down.

  There are no sharks in there. There are no eels in there. You’re okay.

  I swam in. Mauro had taught us in class what to do if we vomited into our reg and for the first time I thought it was a real possibility. My stomach was clenched and if it was possible to sweat underwater, I was doing it. The tunnel was longer than I realized and for a minute I was in darkness—anything could’ve been in that hole. I focused on the light at the end of tunnel. I was getting there. Getting there. Getting there.

  And then the light went out.

  Chapter 17

  I BIT MY reg so hard, my jaw made a cracking pop. I couldn’t go back. The tunnel was too tight. Forward. I had to go forward. A sliver of light. My breathing was so loud in my ears. Using too much air. Trapped. No the sliver got bigger and then only covered half the light. Another dark shape came from the side and I saw a tank and a firm belly. Hands frantically saying, “Okay?” Mauro! The first shape moved farther away and I saw something white in the black.

  I reached the end and swam out in a burst between two divers, Mauro and Spitball. Spitball was clutching his side. The white hilt of a knife stuck out from between his fingers. Mauro gave Spitball the sign for which direction. Spitball pointed into a canyon and Mauro shot into the gloomy opening. Spitball told me he was going to ascend. I gave him the okay sign and he gave it back although his face was distorted in pain. How could I leave him?

  Another diver entered the sandbar. Mom. I pointed at Spitball and the knife and darted after Mauro. I caught sight of him after a hundred feet and banged on my tank with my fingernails. He turned and indicated I should go left and he would go right.

  Fantastic. Alone again and now with well under 1000 psi.

  I swam into the crevasse that looked like a place that eels would love. Love to bite me, that is. Who was I even looking for? Lucia or Todd? I ran into a dead end, reversed, and took another. The coral walls were lowering and I saw a huge amount of bubbles rising in the water above a wall. I swam up, a good ten feet in depth change. My ears screamed in protest. I swallowed, trying to clear them as I went over the top. There was another canyon below me, but no divers in sight, only a huge amount of bubbles coming from under a ledge of black coral. I dipped down. The pain in my ears intensified. I held my nose and swallowed. My ears popped with such pain that I yelled and lost my reg. I arced my arm and snagged the loose tube as I reached the ledge where the bubbles were. I thrust the reg back in my mouth, but before I cleared it, I saw them. Two divers backed into a crevasse, one behind the other grasping them around the waist. Arms were flailing. A hand from behind came at the front diver’s face. Lucia’s face. The back diver’s hand got past her flailing arms and yanked the reg out of her mouth. It spewed, free flowing oxygen. The other diver clamped his hand over her mouth and nose and I got a look at his face. Todd, his face distorted in anger and determination. I clawed at his arm and they came barreling out of the crevasse, knocking me back against the coral opposite. Todd kicked up to ascend. He was trying to blow her lungs out.

  I grabbed Lucia’s dry suit and pulled her back down. Todd fought hard and dragged us both up a foot. My vision changed. Wavy lines at the edges. I wasn’t breathing. My reg was still flooded. I couldn’t let go. Lucia thrashed and kicked me hard in the gut. What little air I had blew out. The dry suit material slipped in my hands. I couldn’t hold her. I grabbed Todd’s weight belt instead. He was still trying to swim up, so I yanked him down as hard as I could. They both came down and we were head-to-head. My vision was going black. I grabbed his reg, but his teeth were clamped tight. One last chance. I seized his mask, ripping it away from his face and flooding it. Todd jerked back and released Lucia, frantically trying to get his mask back in place.

  I punched my reg and it cleared explosively. I sucked in a breath and nabbed Lucia’s reg floating in the water beside her head. Her eyes rolled back. I forced it into her mouth and cleared it. The jolt of the clear brought her back. She put both hands over the reg and breathed deeply. Todd came at us. He snagged her hose and yanked it hard. Her head whipped to the right and for a second I thought he had broken her neck, but she kept ahold of her reg. A blade flashed in the water and then her hose was free, spewing bubbles. He cut the hose. I’ve never seen a look of such panic in anyone’s eyes and I’ve been in plenty of ERs and witnessed unbelievable pain. Lucia experienced pure terror in those moments and it would stay with me forever.

  I yanked her spare reg out of its spot and thrust it into her face. She wouldn’t spit out the other reg. She was beyond her training. The terror had taken over. I tried to pull it out. No. She wouldn’t release it. Todd crashed into the coral ledge. Mauro had him by the BCD and was punching him in the face. I didn’t think you could punch somebody underwater, but you can. Blood exploded from under Todd’s mask. I let go of Lucia and grabbed Mauro’s punching arm. He had so much trust, he actually dragged me forward with his last punch to the side of Todd’s head.

  I screamed into my reg, “Help!”

  Mauro let go and turned to Lucia. He grabbed her mask and flooded it. She instantly released the reg and he popped her spare in. I held her shaking body and we turned back to the ledge. Todd was gone in one of five directions. Mauro gave me the ascend signal and I nodded. He went in search of Todd and we went up slowly. I put a little air into my BCD and then into Lucia’s. By the time we got to twenty feet, she’d managed to slow her breathing. We were face-to-face. Her eyes locked with mine. We were both weeping as we floated upward and I had a curious feeling of not really being there. That this all hadn’t happened and when we broke the surface it would all disappear.

  I looked up to gauge our depth and saw a body hit the water next to the hull of a boat about fifty feet from us. The man swam back up and treaded water. We were still fifteen feet down and I had to watch as a boat
sped away from the other two. The man in the water, maybe Alex, swam to another boat and was gone. We broke the surface and I inflated both our BCDs fully and spit out my reg. Lucia didn’t. I hugged her and then began towing her to the closest boat.

  “Mercy!” yelled an unfamiliar voice.

  I looked back and saw Lloyd on La Isla Bonita One with Spitball. He eased the boat to us and practically dragged Lucia on board by her BCD. I climbed up under my own power, but just barely. My legs went wobbly when my feet touched the deck and I ran into a canopy post.

  “Grab that girl, Lloyd,” said Spitball. He was sitting on the deck with a bloody towel pressed to his side.

  “I’m okay.” I lurched over to a bench and collapsed onto it.

  “The hell you are.”

  “You’re the one who was stabbed.” I dropped my tank and unclipped my BCD. “Was that Alex in the water?”

  “Yeah,” said Lloyd, gently wiggling the reg out of Lucia’s mouth. “He’s on my boat.”

  “Did Todd throw him off Two?” I asked. “Where did he go? We’ve got to get him.”

  Lloyd laughed, left Lucia, and turned the boat. “That’s the spirit. I like you.”

  Lloyd kicked it into high gear and we followed Todd’s wake. From the look of it, he was going back to the resort. Not a great escape plan, but his family was there. We saw the boat when we came around a curve in the island. He was almost to the resort, but he was going too fast.

  Please let him crash. Come on. No trial. Just a bloody spot on the sand.

  He cut the engine.

  Damnit!

  But he was too slow after all and the boat went straight at the beach. Sunbathers ran screaming as he hit the sand. The boat stopped just short of the restaurant deck where a family stared with hamburgers halfway to their mouths. Todd tumbled over the side of the boat and ran.

  Lloyd cut our engine at the right time and we glided in, barely nudging the beach. I staggered to the side and climbed up.

  “Where the hell are you going?” yelled Spitball.

  “After that piece of shit,” I yelled and stood on the side.