The Girl From Diana Park

by Alec Peche

  Once he got beyond the island he studied other boats out on the water and thought no one was chasing him. He made it home by just after ten, texting Ariana that he was home safe. He'd tell her about the chase the next day as they watched Hermione's soccer game.

  As soon as he had the dock pulled in and the island locked up tight, he went to work in his lab trying to figure out who the boat belonged to. It was rented by a corporation and after walking through many documents online he arrived at another pharmaceutical house based in Malaysia. He thought he was done with corrupt overlords from that country but it seemed he was wrong. Hermione's parents must have angered more than one pharmaceutical manufacturer. He'd have to question her tomorrow to see if she knew anything more. The trouble was she was young and her parents had excluded her from many conversations about their dirty dealings with Asian drug manufacturers, yet the manufacturers were still after her to get to her parents. That meant they still thought her parents were alive but in hiding. Hermione had come up with some good ideas tonight about what to look for, maybe after they celebrated her first game, she would ask him some more interesting questions.

  Chapter 20

  Damian was listening to the news the next morning while eating breakfast when an item caught his attention, he heard the newscaster say, “A body had been found near Pier 39 floating, and nibbled on by the sea lions. He had no identification and police were seeking his identity, as his fingertips were part of what was nibbled on.”

  Oh my, thought Damian, he should call the police. But what was his reason to be in that harbor at that time last night? Maybe he should do it anonymously? But he really wanted that yacht harassed. Maybe he would make up a story that he and Ariana had been to a see the Giants and they dined after at Pier 39 because his boat was parked there? No, it wasn't baseball season or football unless you were in the playoffs. If they watched a Warriors game, it would be over in time, but there wasn't a game last night. If they were on a date, it was no one's first choice of dining locations. Any meetings in the city would be long over by that time of night, but maybe there was a convention at the Moscone Center he was attending, but he checked the meeting schedule, and he had nothing to do with the medical field so he wouldn't have a reason to be there. He just couldn't think of an excuse to be in that area of San Francisco, so he'd have to call the anonymous line. Darn, he also wanted to send them some pictures he took that were time stamped, but he'd after to do that on his encrypted system which would hide his identity.

  He took some time to compose an email message of what he'd heard and who he thought the body was that they had retrieved.

  I've included a picture of James Spinnaker, an employee of Homeland Security with a video- game gambling problem, I believe that's the identity of the body you found near Pier 39 this morning. The photos I shot of the yacht with the timestamps, and when I think I heard a large splash comes from the side of the boat which at the time I assumed was a sea lion entering the water, not a man. If it turned out that the body was James Spinnaker than the people on the yacht tossed him over. The picture of him at a video-game machine in a building in the Mission District which I believe has been under your surveillance over the past few years.

  After he composed the email, he studied it a minute and tried to think of anything to add but nothing came up. So he hit send, and the email was on its way to the detective division of SFPD. He wished he could show himself in person, but he'd been unable to think of a legitimate excuse for him being there at that time of night. He was tempted to stop by Pier 39 on his way to work that morning to see if the yacht was still there, but even if it had moved the police and Coast Guard could trace a vessel of that size, and it couldn't be that far away.

  Damian let his curiosity get the better of him and so on the way to work he swung by the harbor to see if the yacht was still there. He tried to see from the break-wall but it was too far away for him to be sure, so he slowly entered and navigated by the barking, smelly, sea lions on their platform. As he approached the section of the moorings where the yacht had been parked, he was delighted to see that it was still there and that police were on board. Even if they were routinely questioning every boat owner in the vicinity of the yacht, that was good enough for him. He turned around and headed away, hopefully before anyone noticed him. He'd moved his bumpers and fenders as he approached the break-wall to hide the call numbers of his boat in case anyone was looking. Damian wore sunglasses and a hat, sitting low in his speedster boat, there was nothing for any facial recognition to match if someone did get his photo. Soon he was back out in the bay with a big grin of his face as headed to the dock at Richmond.

  He monitored the news throughout the day from his office to see if police were able to identify the body. Finally at about three, just before he was heading home to change clothes to go watch Hermione's game, there was news that the body was identified as belonging to one James Spinnaker. It said he left a wife and two children behind. Damian felt sorry for his family, but then again surely the wife knew of the gambling problem. The news was quick to point out that he was not on Homeland Security duty at the time he was murdered, and there were no indications that it was related to his work. Then they moved on to other news.

  When Damian wrote the email to the detective division, he'd set up a fake email address to hide him and his location. Those attributes would stay in place until he permanently destroyed the account. He debated when he set it up if he should answer the police if they sent him any questions. He decided he would wait and see what if any questions were emailed to him before he closed the account.

  After the brief stop at his island, he continued across to Belvedere. He was sidetracked thinking about a solar-powered boat as last night plus today's trips had drained the gas in his boat. Could he make a solar-powered boat? Given the number of rainy and foggy days that might not be a great idea. Maybe he could harness wind power and use it for a motor rather than for sails. As he was steering he did a quick internet search and discovered there were already solar-powered boats. Ariana's pontoon style boat really lent itself to covering the roof of the boat with solar panels. He would have to order a few kits and outfit all of their boats with the technology.

  Once he resolved his boat's power needs, he returned to thinking about Spinnaker and how to reach Hermione's parents. How could he find them? Should he reach out to Spinnaker's supervisor at Homeland Security and tell them what he'd done in regards to Hermione?

  Soon he and Ariana were driving to a distant high school. Hermione's first game would be as a visitor, but a net was a net and really she didn't need to worry about getting used to a different field. Damian described his night, then the email to the detectives, and his thoughts about where Hermione's parents were.

  “I'm out of ideas to find her parents. They're either hiding on their own, hiding with the help of a U.S. Government agency, or dead. I think someone must have verification that they're alive for the attacks to keep coming for Hermione,” Damian lamented.

  “Have you looked at any court proceedings? Is any government suing these drug companies that Hermione's parents might be witnesses to? Is that why they're still trying to kidnap her?” Ariana suggested.

  They'd arrive at the field where the match would be played. They could see Hermione guarding her net.

  “Should we sit with other parents from her school or go sit by the goal net and yell support at her?” Damian asked carrying folding chairs and a small cooler for the two of them. When they were fans of Hermione's swim and water polo meets there wasn't as much choice as there seemed to be on the soccer field.

  “Sit with the other parents. We don't want to look like we're there to guard our girl and besides they'll switch directions at the half. We don't want to ruin her concentration by being too close.”

  They set up chairs close to the mid-line of the field, and they each grabbed a cold iced tea. The weather was perfect, but they were very nervous about her debut as a goalkeeper. Ariana couldn't help hers
elf about ten minutes into the match when Hermione successfully blocked a kick into the net. Over the next half hour of the game it became a clear struggle for Hermione's team. They had far fewer attempts than the home team, but Hermione's goalkeeping was keeping them in the game.

  They took a break at the half, and the coach had a conversation with the girls. Damian was interested in seeing if they changed their strategy in the second half, he hoped they got something going on the offense to give Hermione a rest. All of the action was at her net for the first half.

  The whistle was blown and the second half began. Damian leaned over to Ariana and said, “Ah, the half-time speech worked. Look. Instead of all the players bunching up on defense to help Hermione, they're back to where they should be on the field.”

  Indeed as they watched, they saw the defense forwarding the ball to the offense to take it to the opponents net. It was there that they discovered that Hermione was the superior goalkeeper and they scored on their opponent.

  They were folding up their chairs preparing to leave, a victory for Hermione's team on the scoreboard when Damian said, “Hermione has a good coach. His halftime speech changed the game to the girls' favor.”

  “Yeah, I didn't seem him yell at any of the players throughout the game. Instead he ran alongside complementing them on each kick, and calling the ball mistakes simply bad luck. It was a second-half rout! Hermione might have found her sport. I wonder how she feels about this versus water polo or the more individual sport of swimming?”

  They stopped for some tea in town at their favorite tea house, knowing that the Hermione would likely have at least thirty minutes before she was ready to go.”

  “Would you mind if I outfitted all of our boats with solar panels?” Damian asked.

  “Do we have to get different motors that run on electricity then?”

  “I envision a dual system that reverts to gas when solar power runs out. In fog filled San Francisco Bay, you might only be able to use your boat about half the year if we relied only on solar.”

  “Will it be ugly?”

  “Not for your boat as we'll just cover the canopy with the panels. My boats are another story, and I suppose they'll be ugly. My boats are worst because they spend time inside the watercraft garage when they could be soaking up the sun.”

  “Why don't you put panels on that side of the island and have them charge up your boats? You have more sunshine where you are than Belvedere has.”

  “That will work. You're full of brilliant ideas today!” Damian said smiling into Ariana's eyes.

  Then he got serious and asked before he lost his nerve. “Have you thought of us dating?”

  Then he could have kicked himself for such a stupid question.

  “Yes, I have. I like you as a human being and you're a great father to Hermione.”

  “But it isn't Hermione that's gluing us together, is it? If her parents came back tomorrow, would that be the end of us seeing each other?” he asked knowing the answer on his side but not knowing what she was thinking.

  “Don't forget I'm your company's COO, but despite Hermione and work, I think our lives would be growing together, perhaps at an even faster rate than they have. Perhaps the complications of Hermione and work have slowed down by interfering with us getting to know each other as personal partners rather than business or parent partners.”

  Damian glanced at his watch and knew they were running out of time as they needed to go pick up Hermione. They began the motions of clearing up their tea, when he asked, “Let's go on a date, then. Where and when?”

  Right Damian, that was a romantic question.

  But Ariana knew her man, this was a real desire of his, and that was all she needed to know.

  “Let me look at my schedule, and I'll give you a date. As to the where, how about we go to dinner and a concert, I'll find the musicians and where they're playing, then you can pick a restaurant. I'll see if Hermione wants to stay at my house or yours, or spend the night with a friend. She's too old to need a babysitter.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Damian said as they pulled up to the school to find Hermione sitting on the entrance wall.

  Hermione got into the car, and they both said, “Awesome job, Hermione!”

  She looked at them and said the coach had said the same thing.

  “Seriously, the first half was awful, your entire team spent the time crowed by you in defense. Then your coach said something at the half, and they started spreading out so they could play offense and then they found out that the other goalkeeper needed some work,” Damian said.

  “That's almost exactly what the coach said at the half break. He told the team that I had proved I knew what I was doing as a goalkeeper with all of my blocks and ball pick-ups, and now they needed to do their job, and so they did. I almost felt like sitting down at one point, but that would have been the ultimate insult to another team and I probably would have caught an unsportsmanlike penalty for that, so it was a great day for me. It was also good for Meghan and Ashley as they both scored goals once they figured out the opposing team goalkeeper wasn't very good.”

  “This is only the first game, but I'm thinking you might be a better soccer player than swimmer or water polo player,” Ariana said.

  “That's only because I'm a goalkeeper. If I actually had to move the ball up and down the field, I wouldn't have even made the JV team.”

  “You got some ball control, you kicked it out to your teammates a few times,” Damian said.

  “Yeah, but it's mostly luck that the ball goes where I want it to go. I need to practice doing half field kicks to get the ball farther from my net. At least now that we've had a real game, I know what skills to practice. I'm really good at figuring where someone is going to kick, and I've got good reflexes, I just need to practice the big kicks, little kicks to my teammates, and jumping high. I didn't think I wanted the goalkeeper job at first, but now that I've played it, I love it.”

  “It also helps that you're above average in height. You're soon to be sixteen and you're five feet eight. You might end up at five feet ten by the time you're done growing. Are your parents tall?”

  Hermione had to think about that for a moment and said, “Mom is five-feet-eight and dad is six-feet-one.”

  “Five-feet-ten just might be your final height. It's better to be on the taller side of things, so we'll hope for that height for you.”

  “The average female Olympic swimmer is five-feet-nine, so I'd be good for that sport also.”

  “Just don't do gymnastics, that's for shrimps like me,” Ariana said. She was at Hermione's current height permanently but had been shorter as a teenager.

  While they were talking they settled into their favorite Mexican restaurant. Hermione mentioned that morning she wanted a burrito for dinner if her team won. If they lost, they could just eat at home. Ariana had laughed that her breakfast nook was the designated spot for losers.

  “So what happened last night? Ariana said you went to visit the boat at the pier.”

  “I did. Your urging made me get off my duff and boat across the bay at nine o'clock last night. There was a light mist when I left my island, but it stopped just beyond Alcatraz Island.”

  “So what happened then?”

  “It was a big yacht, and there were men on the top level watching, but James Spinnaker's phone was still showing as being there. I took some photos of the boat and its call numbers when I heard a big splash off the side of the boat. Then I noticed the men were in the process of lowering a boat into the water and seemed interested in me. So I took off by the K-docks at high speed which created a wake that dumped some of the sea lions into the waterway. That was sufficient to block their boat and I went home with no further incident.”

  “So then what happened?” Hermione asked somehow knowing the story wasn't at an end.

  “This morning I heard on the news that a body had washed up at Pier 39 and authorities were trying to identify it, but the sea lions had nibbled on pa
rts of it. So I thought that might have been the splash I'd heard the previous night. I sent them an encrypted message with timestamped pictures of the boat and the time I heard the splash and James Spinnaker's name, picture and work address. Then I watched the news all day, and the body was identified by this afternoon as him.”

  “Did the sea lions kill him?”

  “I don't think so, they generally don't attack humans, and if he was alive when he hit the water, he should have been able to swim and get out, but if you're dead why not try a taste of the fingers.”

  Hermione twitched her nose in disgust at that visual, but then smiled and said, “He was a bad man so I'm allowed to laugh at the visual on how he was nibbled at after he was dead!”

  “The police haven't sent me a follow-up email perhaps because I said no one would answer it and it was untraceable. I went over there on my way to work and saw police officers on the yacht, but I couldn't tell if they were collecting evidence or merely interviewing boat owners close to where the body was found.”

  “So what's your next step? Who owns the boat?”

  “Hermione, you are quite the detective thinking through these questions,” Ariana said.

  “It's what my namesake Hermione Granger would have done in a Harry Potter story. She would of course also do magic, but every spell I've ever tried hasn't worked.”

  Damian was smiling as he said, “Well I've never had a magic solution work either. The boat belongs to another pharmaceutical company which begs the question, how many companies did your parents anger?”

  Hermione tried to think back to the moves her parents had made over the years and what companies her father worked for. Had her mother worked at one point? She remembered a nanny as both parents were working and they weren't living in the United States.