Murder Hooks a Mermaid (28 page)

The salt water stung my eyes, and I couldn’t see anything in the dark beyond the glass. There was no one to rescue me.

Another pillar. Another cable. I felt my way along the wall to the end of the cable and tugged at the sensor. Rose up to get a breath and dived back down.

Three down. More to go.

By the fifth sensor, I could hardly move. Fatigue made me clumsy, and I had to keep returning to the surface more often, but the air didn’t revitalize me.

I need to rest. To recover, just for a few minutes.

I stroked my way across the tank, heading in the direction where I thought the hatch was. I ran into a wall. Disoriented, I took another breath of the stale air and crossed another part of the tank.

Another wall.

Exhaustion dragged me down, and I struggled to keep my head above water. If I could find the hatch, I could try to hang on to the metal rungs until my strength returned.

I hoped.

Think. Stop and think.
The warning came back to me. I tried to brace myself against the wall, to hold myself up, while I figured out what to do next.

Follow the wall. If I just moved along the wall, I would have to come to the hatch at some point. It was so simple.

Why hadn’t I thought of it before?

I started inching along the wall, struggling to control my arms and legs. I felt like each limb weighed a thousand pounds, and my muscles were made of spaghetti. Each movement took an incredible amount of concentration.

My eyes closed against the assault of the salt water, I inched along. At some point I started talking softly, telling myself to keep moving, to go just one more foot.

The airspace over my head opened up, the cover no longer inches from my face. I had found the hatch.

I dragged myself to the first rung above the water and draped my arm over it, hanging by the crook of my elbow. My feet bounced against a lower rung, but I didn’t have the strength to stand on it.

All I could do was hold on.

And hope.

Chapter 35

LIGHT BLASTED AGAINST MY EYELIDS. I WINCED
and ducked my head to get away from the assault. Water covered my face and I jerked up, prying my eyes open.

Above me, a tube stretched up several feet to a dark circle. Loops of metal jutted from the wall, my arm locked over one of them so tightly it had cut off most of the circulation to my hand. My fingers felt numb, and when I moved my arm, sharp needles of pain stabbed at the flaccid extremities.

As I watched through swollen eyes, the dark circle floated away from the top of my tube. It was replaced by a round face, pinched into a worried frown. The owner of the face seemed surprised to see me.

“What are
you
doing down there?” he said, jumping back in shock.

I didn’t quite know how to answer. I searched my brain, but everything was fuzzy. I didn’t know.

“Just hanging around, I guess.” I shook my head, trying to clear away the cobwebs. “Where am I?” I looked around, then back up at the round face. “And who are you?”

“I’m Bob, the aquarium guy. And you’re in one of my aquariums.” His frown deepened. “Are you okay down there?”

“I don’t know.” That much I did know. “My arm is asleep, I’m really, really cold, and I don’t know how I got here.”

I looked up at him again. “What are you doing up there?” It seemed like a fair question.

“Aquarium alarm went off. I came to check, and when I opened the hatch, there you were. Can you climb up the ladder?”

I considered the question for what seemed like a very long time. While I thought, I saw Bob pull out a cell phone and make a call. I didn’t listen to what he said. It was rude to listen to other people’s conversations.

“Can you climb up?” he asked again.

I shook my head. At least I think I shook my head. I moved my head, but I wasn’t sure it actually went the direction I intended.

“I don’t think so. I can’t feel my feet, and this one arm hurts like hell—pardon my French—from hanging over this wire thingie.” I shifted slightly, and pain shot through my arm. “I don’t think this arm is working right, either.”

“I called for help,” Bob said. He started stripping off his uniform, but it was okay because he had a bathing suit underneath. “In the meantime, I’m coming down to help you. Is that okay with you?”

“Come on in,” I said. “The water’s fine.” Somehow the
old joke was incredibly funny, and I started to laugh. It quickly turned into a cough that shook my whole body.

My arm slipped off the metal loop, and I drifted under the surface of the water.

Not that I cared a whole lot. It was too much effort to fight, and I felt myself sliding down the wall, deeper into the soft folds of the water.

Something grabbed the back of my shirt and yanked. My peaceful slide was interrupted, and I was dragged back to the surface.

Bob shook me. “Wake up!”

I flailed weakly, but he held on.

Shouts floated in from outside.

“Up here!” Bob answered.

I winced. He didn’t need to yell in my ear.

Feet pounded along a floor somewhere, and the shouting men came to the top of my tube.

I looked up. Three shocked faces topped with helmets looked back.

“I found her locked in the tank,” Bob said. “She’s pretty weak, couldn’t climb out on her own. Started to slip under, so I came down and pulled her back up, but I can’t climb the ladder and carry her at the same time.”

The shocked faces talked to Bob, but I was too tired to pay attention. I closed my eyes and tried to shut them all out. I could yell at them to shut up, but that would be rude.

“Glory!”

The sound of my name brought me back to attention. I looked up, trying to find whoever was talking to me. A new face was at the top of the tube.

Jake. I felt a smile pull at the corners of my mouth. “Hi,” I said. “Did you come to take me home?”

Chapter 36

HE DIDN’T TAKE ME HOME, OF COURSE. BUT HE DID
ride in the ambulance with me. Riley followed in Jake’s car.

The doctor insisted I stay overnight, even though I tried to tell him I needed to get home, that Bluebeard needed me.

“He’ll be fine,” Jake said, standing next to the bed in the emergency room while I argued with the doctor. “Give me your keys, and I’ll stop by and make sure he’s okay.”

After the doctor left to arrange for my admission, Jake leaned over and whispered in my ear, “And I’ll make sure he knows you’re okay.”

I’d tried to answer the firemen’s questions, but my brain refused to work at first.

Once I warmed up a bit, I started to remember how I’d landed in the fish tank. By the time the doctor allowed Boomer to talk to me, I was able to explain what happened.

He excused himself and went out into the hall to make a
call. It wasn’t polite to eavesdrop, but I figured I’d earned the right to know what was going on. I strained to hear, and he didn’t try very hard to keep the conversation private.

“Put out an APB for Megan Moretti, and check on those two lowlifes from Callahan. I got a hunch they’re gonna try to jump bail. I’d hate to see Jimmy lose a bond over those two.”

He sure would. Jimmy, the bail bondsman, was his wife’s brother-in-law, and the two sisters were close. If Boomer let those two slip away, there’d be trouble at home, for sure.

Boomer returned and resumed his questioning.

“She said they were going to have ‘a good score,’ but I have no idea what that meant. Sorry.”

“That’s okay. The federal guys said it was all part of a big scam, something about recovering some kind of priceless historical stuff off a wreck. Big international brouhaha, and we don’t need to worry our little local heads about it.”

I nodded my head and winced at the pain it caused. “Bet you loved that.”

“I don’t know why I’m tellin’ you this,” he said, “and I will deny I ever said it, but this thing was a mess from the beginning.

“The guy was too green, they let him go undercover, and they didn’t tell us they were running an operation in our backyard. He completely missed the connection to Moretti, and wasn’t reporting in like he was supposed to. He messed up, and one of those guys killed him.”

“Chuck,” I said softly. “Megan said it was Chuck.”

“Thanks. I’ll pass that along.” Boomer looked like there was a lot more to the story, but he wasn’t going to share it
with me. Instead, he asked a couple more questions, jotting my answers in his notebook.

“I’ll probably have some more questions,” he said, “but there are some people who are waiting for you to get settled in your room so’s they can talk to you.” He stuck his pen and notebook in his shirt pocket and tipped his Smokey Bear hat. “You take care, Miss Glory.”

It took another three-quarters of an hour before an orderly came and wheeled me down the hall to a room. It looked pretty much like every other hospital room I’d ever seen, although this was the first time I’d seen it from quite this angle.

As soon as I was tucked in, Guy and Linda rushed in, Linda gathering me into a bear hug that scrunched up the carefully arranged blankets.

I returned the hug, and repeated the process with Guy. Others pressed in behind them, and Linda said they weren’t going to stay, but was there anything they could do to help?

One thing came to mind. I rummaged in the plastic bag at my bedside that held my meager personal belongings, the tiny collection taken from the pockets of my soggy clothes.

I put the truck key in Guy’s hand. “Would you mind,” I said, “going over to Mermaid’s Grotto and driving my truck home?”

Guy’s answering grin was as wide as any I had ever seen. “There’s an empty stall in our garage,” he said. “I’ll park it there for you. And you’re welcome to use it anytime. A truck like that should have a real garage.”

I had a hunch I’d take him up on that. The garage was only a block over. I could deal with having my beauty living a block away.

Linda delivered several messages before she left.

Sly said he’d come by and see me when I got home, and he was glad I was safe.

Julie and Anita would open the shop in the morning, so I wouldn’t miss the first full day of spring break. Julie was already anxious to come back to work, especially since we had the nursery ready for Rose Ann.

Linda’s eyes twinkled at the thought of a new baby next door, even though she’d made Julie promise to take Rose Ann home as soon as Anita was settled in.

Felipe and Ernie had stopped by the shop already, and Linda had let them in. They’d loaded the freezer with several days’ worth of Ernie’s cooking, and would be by to see me as soon as they closed Carousel Antiques.

“I’m probably forgetting someone,” she said. “But you need to get better. I know you’ll have a ton of company, but don’t let them pester you so much you don’t rest.”

I promised, got another hug, and waved good-bye. As they walked out, I saw Guy fingering the truck key like it was a religious artifact. I could see that he and Sly were going to be great friends.

Jake had waited on the far side of the room while I talked to Guy and Linda. After they left, he came and stood by my bedside, looking down at me and patting my hand.

“How did you manage to show up at Mermaid’s Grotto?” I asked. It was only one of a million questions that filled my brain.

“Karen. She called from Jacksonville and said she had everything she needed to get Bobby off the hook. Told us to stay away from Megan, and she’d explain everything when she got home.” He glanced at the clock. “Which
should be most anytime. Anyway, when you didn’t come back when you said, I tried to call you. I figured you were out joyriding in the new truck, but I just wanted to be sure. When you didn’t answer, I called Riley, and we both started driving around town looking for you.”

“Lucky for me you did.”

“Naw.” He sounded kind of like Jimmy Stewart at his aw-shucks best. “You saved yourself. Bob says you broke enough of the sensors to set off the alarm, and you were hanging on to the ladder in the tank when he got there.”

“I had to do something,” I said. “But I don’t know how much longer I’d have lasted. Thank you for coming to look for me.” To my dismay, tears filled my eyes and rolled down my cheeks.

Jake leaned over and brushed them away and kissed my forehead. “Anytime.”

He sat in the chair by my bed and I slept, knowing he was there watching over me.

Until Karen arrived, with Felipe and Ernie close behind. The three of them had to have a blow-by-blow report of my adventure, and Karen refused to fill us in on her trip until I had finished.

But before she could launch into her tale, one more visitor came in the door.

Riley.

I tensed, squeezing Jake’s hand, waiting for the explosion that was the follow-up to last night’s fireworks. But tonight’s fireworks were of an entirely different kind.

Karen and Riley were in each other’s arms while I was still ducking. Some kind of reconciliation had taken place while I was busy playing mermaid. They finally disengaged, but Riley kept his arm around Karen’s waist.

“Bobby wanted to come over and thank you all personally,” he said. “But my mom won’t let him out of her sight.

“Take it from me, he’s beyond grateful. We all are. What you did, the chances you took,” he shook his head, struggling with his emotions. “You’re the best friends a guy could have.”

“I don’t know how,” he said, looking at me, “but I’ll figure out a way to make up for your car. I am so sorry about what—well, I won’t tell you what Bobby’s calling her, not in mixed company—that woman did to you, all because of us…” His voice trailed off, and I saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

“No need,” I said.

“But your car—”

“Really,” I interrupted. “It’s been taken care of.”

I told them about Sly and about Uncle Louis’s truck and the deal he’d offered me. “It really was an offer I couldn’t refuse, and it drives like a dream.”

Jake nodded from my bedside. “I haven’t driven it, but I can tell you, it’s got to be the best-looking truck in town. Maybe in the state.”

We finally got Karen to tell us about her trip to Jacksonville.