Alice didn’t seem to be anywhere around. I peered into her car to be certain. It was empty. “Ms. Benjamin?”
“Down here,” a disembodied voice came from the direction of the water.
Unless Jesus had returned and had asked her to walk on water the way he had Peter, I had no idea how she was down there. Had she fallen in? A sign next to the railing specifically warned about a steep drop-off and deep water.
I jogged toward the edge and leaned on the wooden guard rail, trying to get a look at where she’d called from without tumbling over. I wasn’t coordinated enough to trust myself without some sort of support. I’d likely go headfirst into the water.
The rail swayed underneath me, and I stumbled back. That thing wasn’t secure enough to keep anyone from falling in. The county should replace it, or they could face a lawsuit.
I wrapped a hand around the signpost and craned my neck again. Alice squatted on top of a large rock, her magenta rubber boots a splash of bright color against the surroundings like they’d been manipulated by a skilled photographer.
She capped a plastic tube, tucked it into a nylon case, and stripped off her latex gloves. She looped the case around her back, leaving her hands free. “I’ll be right up.”
She was a braver woman than I was to go down there in the first place. I tightened my hold on the sign post. It’d be too hard to explain to my mom and Mark if I ended up in the water. “Aren’t there easier spots to take samples from?”
Alice scaled the ledge like she was a professional rock climber. “The easy-to-access spots are shallow water. I took samples from a couple of those locations, but I also needed deep-water samples as well.”
Clearly there was more to checking for harmful algae than I’d realized. Alice hopped over the rickety railing, and I gratefully moved back from the edge.
“What happens if you find toxins?”
“We’ll have to close the beaches down until our team can resolve the issue.”
The timing couldn’t have been worse with tourist season just around the corner. Every business in Fair Haven would take a serious financial hit if the beaches were closed. I sent up a quick prayer that Alice’s tests would come back clean.
“I’m sure you didn’t come here to ask me about algae, though.” Alice clicked open her car and motioned for me to climb into the passenger seat. “So what’s this all about?”
Even though my questions shouldn’t take long, I slid into the car with her. The noise from the road could interfere with her ability to listen to Bruce Vilsack’s voice on the recording, and her car helped dull the outside noises.
She placed her sample case on the backseat and swiveled to face me.
I pulled out my phone and queued up the recording. “We just need to confirm that the man in this recording is the same one you talked to on the phone when you called to change your booking.”
Alice nodded, closed her eyes, and gave me a thumbs up.
I tapped the play icon.
“You’ve reached Bruce. Leave a message after the beep.”
“That’s definitely the man I—”
Something rammed into the car from behind.
I flew forward. My shoulder smashed into the dash, and my head hit the windshield. Pain exploded everywhere, like I’d walked into a bonfire, and floating gray dots flooded my vision.
The car tilted, nose-down.
My last thought before everything went black was the knowledge that we were going into the water.
16
Frigid water rushed over my feet like a million needles stabbing me back into consciousness. Alice lay slumped across her steering wheel, motionless except for her breathing.
I couldn’t have been out more than a few seconds because we were still above water.
Partly. The floorboards of the car were filling up, and the water was almost to the window.
Warmth trickled down from my forehead, beside my eye. Don’t think about it, I ordered myself. You pass out again, you die. Both of you die. You can do this.
I grabbed the door handle and shoved. The door wouldn’t budge. We were already too deep, the water exerting more pressure on the door than I could overcome.
Idiot. I knew better. I’d seen the episode of MythBusters where Adam tried to escape the sinking car. If I’d been able to try the door as soon as we hit the water, I could have done it. Now it was too late. I definitely wasn’t as strong as Adam. If memory served, he’d waited and been able to force the door open once the water reached his waist inside the car. But barely. And there was no way I could do it while also trying to drag Alice out with me.
My only options were to open the window and haul us both out that way or wait until the car was fully submerged and flooded so the pressure equalized.
Alone, I might be able to stay calm enough to wait and conserve oxygen and make my escape when the car filled with water. Assuming it hadn’t sunk too deep for me to make it to the surface. But an unconscious Alice couldn’t hold her breath at all.
I had to get us out the window before the water reached it.
The windows were automatic, and her keys weren’t in the ignition. They’d been in her hand when she unlocked the car doors and we climbed in. She must have still been holding them when we were hit. They’d be in the water at her feet now. They were as good as at the bottom of the lake as far as finding them in time was concerned. The engine might already be flooded.
The water had risen up my legs. Outside, it now lapped at the bottom of the window. My heart kicked up a notch, struggling in my chest, beating so hard it hurt.
Dear Lord, please let her have one of those hammers specially designed to break window glass. My dad had given me one the day I bought my first car. Surely everyone had one.
I threw open her dash console. The owner’s manual. Napkins. A plastic cutlery set. No hammer. I wrenched open the center console between her seat and mine.
Jackpot!
