The Lifeguard

by Richie Tankersley Cusick

  “It was hers,” Kelsey snapped, but her tone had grown less confident. “It was. The scarf. The one she had on in that picture…”

  Justin was just staring, as if words had completely deserted him.

  Neale studied the ground. The dunes. The brief glow of moon through passing clouds. “Yes…well…I imagine Beth was the only one in the world who had a red scarf.”

  Kelsey heard Donna make a sound in her throat. Her own face began to burn. “I can’t believe you’re all being so cold about this. I thought you’d—”

  Neale’s hand came out of the darkness so fast, closed around her arm so tightly that she gasped.

  “You don’t know anything about this. Not anything. Maybe the scarf wasn’t even hers; nobody knows what she had on that night. Or maybe it was hers. Or maybe Isaac found it after she was already lying out on the rocks somewhere. Did you ever think of that?”

  “Well…no…but—”

  “And maybe you can tell the sheriff you went breaking and entering and trying to cause trouble for people—hell, I’m surprised you didn’t just take the scarf! Then they could have got you for burglary, too!”

  Kelsey was shaking, partly from anger, partly from fear at his outburst. Donna hadn’t uttered a word. Kelsey wondered if she had fainted.

  “I…thought…you’d at least…care,” she managed to stammer, and felt a jolt through her body as Neale shook her.

  “You don’t know what I care about,” he seethed. “You don’t know what I feel or what—”A strange look crossed his face then, made him pause…stop…as if he had momentarily lost his train of thought. It was a look she couldn’t quite identify: Fear? Surprise? Regret at having said too much? He released her almost roughly and stalked away, but it was several more minutes before anyone spoke.

  Skip began to chuckle, softly at first, then louder until he finally reached up to wipe his eyes. “You crazy girls—Kelsey Holmes and Doctor Donna—” He shook his head, still laughing as he walked away, and Justin looked down, his voice strangely tight.

  “Look…Kelsey…”

  “Oh, just go away and leave me alone.” She went over to Donna, refusing to look at him, and at last he turned and went back to the beach.

  “Yeah, well, thanks for nothing, you jerks!” Donna kicked furiously at the sand, groaning as she stubbed her toe. Kelsey just stood there and watched her. “We should have known better—at least I thought Justin would believe us—but—oh, forget it, who needs them anyway?” She retrieved her empty can with one angry swipe. “Try to help, and this is what you get. What’s the matter with them, anyway—you’d think they didn’t want to know the truth! Like they’re all so protective of Isaac all of a sudden!” she sputtered. “Like they’re all so convinced that Isaac couldn’t have done it! And how would they know anyway?”

  Kelsey didn’t answer.

  She gazed out into the flickering darkness, at the glare of the fire, the patina of the sea…but what she saw instead was that strange, dark look on Neale’s face that chilled her soul.

  Chapter 17

  THE LIFEGUARD STOOD IN the shadows, oblivious to the noise and the laughter on the beach.

  They shouldn’t be here—they had no right—this was his beach and there was so much to do…

  He stared down at his fists and saw that they were shaking.

  Isaac! Isaac knew who did it!

  He would be sad to have to kill him, of course—he really liked Isaac—but he didn’t really have a choice now.

  And Kelsey…well…it would only be a matter of time and she’d figure it out…

  Kelsey was too smart for her own good.

  People like that just ended up getting hurt…

  He covered his face with his hands and felt the cold sweat pouring off him. He always felt like this—sick and sad and empty—when it was time for the game to be over. When it was time to do what he had to do.

  Like last summer with Rebecca…after all the planning, the waiting…and it had been so easy, luring her into the water like that…

  It had been one of his best tricks.

  He smiled and started toward the light, a noiseless shadow, invisible in the crowd.

  Tonight. He’d get them both tonight.

  Poor Kelsey…

  No lifeguard could save her now.

  Chapter 18

  “I DON’T LIKE THE looks of that sky,” Justin squinted against the wind, forcing his hair back from his eyes.

  “I don’t, either,” Neale agreed. “Did anyone hear a weather report?”

  “Chance of a storm, but not till tomorrow—” Skip stiffened in his chair, gave a sharp blast on his whistle. “Hey! You two clowns over there, cut it out right now! You want to get yourselves killed?”

  Kelsey and Donna exchanged looks as Neale and Justin ran off to break up a fight in the water. After a brief struggle in which the perpetrators were separated, Skip seemed satisfied and settled down again. Donna eyed him acidly.

  “No beer? Or is your whistle spiked?”

  “My dear, I’m on duty,” Skip reminded her self-righteously.

  “Well, I’m off duty. Permanently.” She marched away, and Skip held up his megaphone, shouting after her.

  “Yeah, well, why don’t you fix up your attitude while you’re at it, huh?”

  “Shut up, Skip!”

  “Don’t test me, Donna—don’t even think about making me jealous, you hear? It won’t work! You’re dead if you do!”

  Kelsey gasped, staring up into his face. It looked eerie and unnatural, half in and out of shadow. “Do you think it will storm?” She hurried to change the subject, folding her arms around one of the wooden posts, staring up at the mass of thick darkness. She would have preferred never talking to any of them again, but a feeling of uneasiness had settled over her, one she couldn’t seem to shake, and the boiling clouds overhead weren’t helping any,

  “Hey—” Skip’s hand came down, patting her head. “Don’t worry about it. We got three lifeguards here—one of us’ll save you, I promise.”

  She ignored the remark. “Any bathrooms around here?”

  “If you mean those wonderful little portable outhouses, they’re back there.” Skip pointed toward a cluster of dunes and added, “Need an escort?”

  “Thanks, but I thought you came with someone else.”

  She turned away, but his voice stopped her.

  “Kelsey?”

  She was surprised at the look on his face—gentle, almost embarrassed, and definitely un-Skiplike. “Look…about what happened back there. I shouldn’t have laughed, and I’m sorry. I know you’re only trying to help. You’ve been…well…good for Justin. For all of us. I’m real glad you’re here.”

  She didn’t know what to say. She saw his shoulders squaring, as if adjusting himself back into his old personality, and he stood up and made a bow.

  “The great one has spoken,” he said.

  “I believe he has.” She smiled at him and turned back to the path.

  She was glad there wasn’t a line at the bathroom, but it was scary back there so far from the light with no people around. When she started down the footpath again she tried to avoid the shadows, unsettled by the swaying palms and their deceptive patterns underfoot. She wished she knew where Donna had gone. She could hardly tell where the rocks ended and the darkness began…the rocks…so bulky and bowed…like nighttime creatures hulking there, waiting to step out and grab her.

  And then one did.

  Kelsey felt the sudden hold on her wrist, saw the black shape lunge between her and the sky, felt the scream rise in her throat and strangle her as relentless hands pressed hard over her mouth. She reeled backward, gagging as the sour stench of whiskey and vomit overwhelmed her.

  “Won’t do you no good screaming, girl.” She felt his rancid breath in her ear, down her neck. “I’ll be gone so quick, they’ll think you’re crazy for sure.”

  Kelsey’s whole body thudded, one giant, racing heartbeat.

 
; “I seed you go in there, to my place. I knowed you looked around.” His voice exploded in a gleeful laugh, shrill and singsonglike. “’cause Isaac has eyes in the back of his head…’cause Isaac has eyes in the back of his head!” She groaned and struggled, but he slammed her hard against him. “You think I done her in, don’t you? I know what you think, and I know what I saw. And you better not waste your time barking after old Isaac, little girl—you’d best be worrying about yourself!”

  Kelsey thought her neck would snap; he was bending her head back, slowly, slowly, till all at once she could see the greasy eye patch and the puckered ridges across his face. His breath hit her again, making her swoon.

  “You know too much,” he hissed. “So have a care, girl. Why, I’m just likely to find you some fine mornin’, washed right up on that beach like all the others—”

  Kelsey bit him. With one quick jerk she twisted her mouth free and brought her teeth down on his hand, tasting blood. With a cry of pain, Isaac staggered back, and Kelsey hurtled toward the beach, screaming at the top of her lungs.

  “Justin! Justin! Somebody help me!”

  And at first she thought it was her screams resounding in the far corners of her frenzied brain…her voice bouncing off the rocks, coming back at her in stereophonic panic—

  “Help—Somebody help!”

  She stopped, totally confused. Behind her, the path was empty. Ahead of her the party was going on, oblivious to her cries. But someone besides herself had been screaming…was still screaming…even now…

  “Help—drowning—help—”

  It was far away yet terrifyingly close, that awful sound, water being gulped down…choked back up…arms thrashing…helpless…mad with terror…

  Kelsey’s eyes went wide. Sobbing, she ran for shore—My God, where is she?

  “Help—help me—”

  Where was everybody—couldn’t they hear? “Help!” Kelsey shrieked, hating the sudden silence, worse than the screams. “Where are you?”

  Something broke surface…flailing…struggling… In a daze of horror Kelsey saw the arms come out of the water—ghostly in a sliver of moonlight … and they reached for her…and went under…

  “Justin!” She raced toward the lights, and she was still screaming, screaming, she didn’t think she had ever stopped screaming…“Justin!”

  But someone had seen her now. Someone, at last, had seen her, people running, gathering around her—Skip from one direction—Justin from another—Neale from still another… It was Neale who reached her first, who caught her, trying to decipher the gibberish that spilled from her lips.

  “Hurry—someone’s drowning—”

  “What?” Her teeth rattled as he shook her. “Kelsey, where? Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure—I heard her—I heard her—” She felt Neale’s slap across her cheek, heard Justin telling him to stop and Neale snapping something back, and Skip and all of them running, and she was running, too, leading them to the spot where she had seen the body go down…

  They left her on shore, and she watched them in a hazy blur, diving in, swimming out. Someone—Skip, she thought—ran to call for a rescue crew, but was back again so quickly she thought she must have only imagined he’d gone. And everyone was running out now—the party stopping—word spread by invisible waves of fear. They stood around watching, waiting, as the waves buffeted the lifeguards around like so many broken shells.

  “I can’t find her!” Justin cried.

  “Leave it!” Skip’s voice swelled above the surf, joined by the deeper shouts of Neale.

  “The rescue’s here, Justin! Leave it! Swim back!”

  “NO!”

  Someone grabbed Kelsey’s arm—she swung around and stared into Donna’s frightened eyes. They held onto each other without speaking. Silence stretched on and on, until Neale shouted again, pleading, “Justin! Come on—you can’t do any more—”

  For as long as she lived she would never forget Justin’s voice then, the uncontrollable desperation echoing back to them through the wind and the water.

  “I can’t find her, Neale—I can’t find anyone—”

  “Justin! Come back!”

  “Neale—somebody—for God’s sake, I can’t find her!”

  Chapter 19

  “I DON’T BELIEVE IT. I just don’t believe it.” Skip hung up the phone and turned to face them, his expression baffled.

  “Are you sure?” Neale asked again. “Are they sure?”

  Justin stared at the floor, as if it had hypnotized him.

  “They’ve checked and double-checked.” Skip fell with a thump into his chair and took an absentminded sip of coffee. “They say it’s a mess over there; everybody still has a different story about what happened. Most of them still think it was a joke, and they’re mad ’cause it ruined their party.”

  Donna squeezed Kelsey’s arm, but they kept quiet.

  “Nobody’s missing,” Skip said incredulously. “Nobody’s missing and nobody’s reported anyone missing.”

  “It’s a mistake then,” Donna said flatly. “They’ve made a mistake—”

  “Oh, Donna, don’t be stupid,” Skip shot back.

  “If Kelsey saw someone, then there was someone!”

  The silence was electric. Kelsey lifted her face from her hands and looked accusingly at each of the boys in turn.

  “I know what you’re thinking.” Now their eyes were on her; only Justin had the grace to look halfway guilty. “I didn’t imagine it. It was as real as any of you. I heard someone scream, and I heard someone fighting for her life.”

  Neale’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “How do you know it was a her?”

  “Because it sounded like a her!” Kelsey nearly shouted. “I heard her, and I saw her go down! I don’t care what you say!”

  “This happened before,” Donna said softly.

  Everyone stared at her, reluctantly.

  “Come on,” Skip said too quickly, too lightly. “You can’t—”

  “It did happen before.” Justin shook his head slowly, staring at some inner memory. “That other lifeguard—Rebecca—the night she drowned, she heard someone drowning, too…only…”

  The silence stretched on forever, until Neale suddenly filled it. “Only there wasn’t anybody there. Except Rebecca. Yeah, I’ve heard all that garbage—what are you bringing all that up again for?” But he looked uneasy and shifted his eyes away.

  “I saw someone,” Kelsey whispered.

  Skip seemed fascinated by an invisible spot on the ceiling. He watched it for quite a long while before he spoke again. “But that was the sheriff that just called back, Kelsey, and he said—”

  “She knows what he said, Skip, she’s not deaf!” Donna snapped.

  Kelsey jumped up from the couch, flinging away Justin’s arm. He looked slightly stunned, but her pride forced her on out the front door and across the yard to the beach, where the wind and the ocean drowned out her anger. “I hate you!” she screamed, and she raised her fists into the air and shook them at the endless black water. “I hate you! I’ll always hate you!”

  Her knees gave out, spilling her onto the sand. “I hate you…I do…” And still the screams came and all the memories, all hurting, all hurting at once, until there was no strength left in her whole body.

  Kelsey lay there, limp and exhausted. She didn’t even move when she realized that someone had sat down beside her…that maybe he had been sitting there for a very long time.

  He handed her a handkerchief, and at last she looked up.

  It was Neale.

  “Go away,” Kelsey said miserably. “I don’t want to talk to you.” She blew her nose and squeezed her eyes tightly. Already her head was beginning to throb.

  “Tell me again what you saw,” Neale said quietly, but Kelsey turned her face away.

  “No. I’ve told you a million times already. Look, do you think this is my idea of a joke? That I’d put Justin—or any of you—through all this—” She broke off,
and slowly got herself under control. “You…saw him out there tonight,” she went on unevenly. “He was like a crazy person. It broke my heart.”

  A long silence drew out between them, beneath the low howl of the wind, and the waves crashing onto the shoreline. Kelsey shivered violently and pressed herself into the sand.

  “And what else is breaking it?” Neale asked.

  Kelsey stiffened, ready to defend herself with denials. But she just couldn’t fight it anymore.

  “My father died. Two years ago.” She waited for some word of condolence, but when it didn’t come she went on. “We were at the beach, and we’d gone out in the boat.” She held her breath till her head felt like exploding. She exhaled slowly. “Somehow…the boat turned over. Dad…” She swallowed painfully, her voice catching—“Dad didn’t make it. He saved my life…but he…drowned.”

  Beside her the shadows shifted as if Neale had lowered his head. She felt his thigh against the curve of her arm.

  “I still see him, you know…I have these dreams and they keep coming and they’re so real…I see him reaching out to me, and telling me not to struggle, because it’ll be easier if I don’t fight him…”

  She couldn’t stop the crying then, no matter how hard she tried to hold it back, but when at last she grew silent, Neale was still there.

  “Well,” she said at last, drawing a shaky breath, “now you know. I guess you’re sorry you asked.”

  “And I guess I’m supposed to blame you or feel bad for you because your father’s dead and you’re not. Is that it?”

  Kelsey was so shocked that she raised up on her elbows. “He died trying to save me! Don’t you understand? He was the kindest, the most loving—”

  “A saint, yes, I see.” Neale waved his hand. “Please. Spare me the details.”

  She gaped at him. “How can you talk like that? You don’t understand at—”

  “I understand,” Neale said slowly, each word distinct, “that some things happen to us that we can’t control. There’s no explanation for them, and they never make sense, no matter how much we want them to. That whether we’re good or bad they don’t really have anything to do with us at all.” His black eyes fixed on hers, drawing her into their depths. “I understand,” he said, “that you’ve been given a second chance. My advice to you is don’t blow it.”