Beside Still Waters (Psalm 23 Mysteries)

by Debbie Viguié

  “Where are we going?”

  And then suddenly there was light as Jeremiah threw open another door that had been behind her the whole time. “I saw it earlier,” he explained as he helped her out. “It will only take them a few seconds to figure out that this is where we’re going.”

  They began to race up the stairs when suddenly the light seemed to be blotted out again. Cindy looked up and saw the biggest man she’d ever seen in her entire life standing at the top of the stairs wearing nothing but a pair of shorts.

  ~

  Jeremiah stared intently at the man blocking their way. He was willing to bet just about anything from the man’s sheer size that he was Samoan. There would be no going around him, only through him.

  Jeremiah reached for the penlight in his pocket, planning the moves he was going to use to take the giant down. He was going to have to kill him. He heard a crash behind him but he kept his focus on the Samoan. His hand tightened around the penlight. He saw the fight playing out in his head.

  He saw himself winning.

  He took a step upward and then hesitated. He didn’t want Cindy to see him kill someone. Behind him he heard Cindy scream and he spun around. Mr. Black had her, a knife to her throat.

  “Tell me where the numbers are!” he screamed.

  “The police-”

  and that was all Jeremiah got out because something hit him hard in the head and the world went black.

  Jeremiah woke, but forced himself to lay very still while he tried to discern where they were. They were still alive which was nothing short of a miracle. They were also on the ocean, close to the water as he could feel the waves crash over him as the craft bounced along. He finally determined it had to be a rubber raft with a powerful outboard motor.

  His wrists were bound with rope behind him, but he could tell it was a shoddy job. They didn’t expect the rope to actually be able to hold him which meant that whenever they got where they were going he was as good as dead. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he wasn’t sure where Cindy was he would have flipped himself over the side right then.

  He cursed himself for not having gone after the Samoan when he had the chance. He and Cindy could have probably escaped, but he had blown it. He had hesitated because he didn’t want her to see him kill. Now, thanks to him, she might very well have to see him die.

  He very slowly cracked open his eyes, careful not to move them back and forth but only to stare straight ahead through the lashes to best avoid detection. It was still dark out but he had a feeling it wasn’t that far before dawn. He could see one man sitting, his back to him, at the front of the boat. He was a huge guy, possibly the Samoan he’d heard about. If he was at the bow of the ship there had to be at least one more operating the motor at the stern.

  He could feel pressure up against the back of his calves. He shifted one slightly, pushing back. There was some give. He was willing to bet it was Cindy on the floor of the raft behind him. All the more reason he couldn’t jump now.

  He lay still, but began slowly manipulating the ropes around his wrists. He managed to get them loose enough that he could free himself in a moment, but they would still pass a cursory inspection.

  Then all that was left to do was wait. There was no way of knowing if the man behind them had a gun trained on him or if he was close enough to hurt Cindy if Jeremiah made a move.

  At last the boat slowed and the way it was maneuvering it felt like they were pulling up beside something, perhaps a dock or another boat? Jeremiah risked opening his eyes just a tiny bit more and he saw a dark shadow hovering above them in the dark.

  A giant ship.

  “Why don’t we just dump them here?” someone spoke from behind him.

  The Samoan turned around. “Boss no want bodies discovered. This best way.”

  He heard the other man heave something off the bottom of the boat. Then the Samoan was bending over him, picking him up as though he were a ragdoll and throwing him over his shoulder.

  As the big man turned Jeremiah caught a glimpse of a ladder on the side of the big ship. The first man was already climbing it with an unconscious Cindy slung over his shoulder.

  The Samoan headed up next and Jeremiah forced himself to remain limp, even though it was a painful process as his legs banged against the side of the ship and the big man’s shoulder dug into his ribcage.

  Finally they were onboard the ship and then descending down several sets of stairs until he finally felt himself dropped unceremoniously on the ground. He forced himself not to flinch or give any sign. He heard Cindy hit the ground beside him and rage filled him. She didn’t deserve to be treated like this. She didn’t deserve any of it.

  He cracked his eyes just a slit and he could see the legs of both men.

  “So what now?” he heard the one man say.

  “We kill ‘em,” the Samoan answered, sounding like he was cocking a gun.

  “Isn’t that a little moot at this point?”

  “You can never be too careful, I’ve found.”

  “Okay, but let’s make it quick and get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”

  “You worry-”

  Jeremiah kicked out, catching the Samoan in the knee. He crumpled to the ground even as Jeremiah rocketed to his feet, pulled free of his bonds, and grabbed the gun the second man was pulling from his waistband. He smashed him in the nose with it and the man staggered backward, tripping over the Samoan’s body.

  Jeremiah kicked the gun out of the Samoan’s hand and then followed it up with another kick to the side of his knee. The man screamed in pain and the second one bounded up, running for all he was worth.

  Jeremiah shot, hitting him in the shoulder on purpose. He needed him alive later to help bring the others to justice. The man staggered and then ran through an open doorway.

  They were in what appeared to be the interior of a navy ship although incredibly stripped down. Alarm bells were going off in the back of his mind, but he didn’t have time to stop and think about it.

  “Tell me who you’re working for?” he demanded of the Samoan.

  The big man chuckled. “It don’t matter bruddah, because we all dead.”

  Somewhere a warning klaxon went off. The Samoan made his move, lunging out to grab at Jeremiah’s legs.

  Jeremiah put a bullet in his head. As the Samoan’s body fell back Jeremiah cursed to himself. The henchman was no good to him dead. He’d just have to hope he could catch up to the other one.

  A groan made him spin around. Cindy was coming to.

  ~

  Cindy woke slowly, blinking her overly dry eyes as fast as she could as she struggled to focus. She began to panic when all she could see was gray. Then a few seconds later she relaxed slightly as she realized that was all there was to see.

  “Where are we?” she asked, testing her voice. Her throat was dry, raspy, but the words came out.

  “Inside a navy ship,” Jeremiah answered.

  She managed to turn her head to look at him. He was standing a few feet away, tucking something into the back of his waistband and looking flustered.

  “How long have we been out?” she asked.

  The ropes around her wrists were chafing her but at least they hadn’t cut off her blood supply.

  Her eyes dropped down and she saw a body on the ground a few feet away. She jerked hard and Jeremiah raised a hand. “It’s okay. He was one of the bad guys.”

  “Was?”

  “He’s dead.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked as he came to her side and began working on the ropes tying her wrists.

  “Pretty sure,” he said, his voice grim sounding.

  “What is that sound?” she asked.

  “Ship’s alarm bells,” he said as the knots began to loosen.

  “What are they going to do with us?” Cindy asked as she stared around wildly.

  “I think we’re about to find out,” Jeremiah said grimly.

  Before she could ask him what he mean
t all around her the world exploded.

  17

  Cindy screamed but couldn’t hear herself over the roaring of the explosions. The boat shuddered hard and lurched suddenly onto its side.

  Cindy fell, skidding down what once had been the floor until she slammed up against the wall that was now the bottom part of the ship. Her entire sense of equilibrium was thrown as they were tilting. It was like being on some insane carnival ride, but there was no stopping it to get off.

  “What’s happening?” she screamed as Jeremiah slammed into her.

  Then the roar of the explosions stopped to be replaced a moment later by the sound of rushing water.

  “They’re sinking the ship,” Jeremiah said. “We have to get out of here now.”

  Around here she could hear the groaning of metal and things rattling around as though falling. She expected to be pelted by flying debris, but miraculously nothing seemed to be coming their way.

  He grabbed her hands and in moments had the ropes off. Then he pulled her up to her feet. She had the unnerving sensation of going downward, like an elevator that was going a bit too fast.

  “We need to get to the top of the ship,” he shouted at her as he pulled her down a hallway and then angled off to the right where they encountered a ladder. Because the ship was flipped on its side, though, they didn’t have to climb up it, they just kept moving, walking on the wall.

  They had just made it to the next deck when water began rushing in, pooling around their feet. She screamed. Jeremiah looked at her over her shoulder.

  She grabbed onto his shoulders and stood on tiptoe, trying to get as far from the water as possible even though her conscious mind knew she was crazy.

  “We’re going to drown!” she panted, her mind flailing wildly at the thought. This wasn’t happening, couldn’t be happening. She wouldn’t die in the water, couldn’t. It felt like the entire world was slipping away from her as panic set in. But through all the terror she could hear Jeremiah’s voice loud and clear.

  “Not if I can help it,” he said. “Stay right behind me.”

  ~

  Jeremiah could feel Cindy’s panic and he fought not to let it infect him as well. He pulled his penlight out of his pocket, grateful it was still there and shone it around, searching for some kind of sign or opening that would lead them to the top of the ship faster.

  All the while he was searching he was thinking. It didn’t seem like they had come this far getting into the belly of the ship. Maybe they’d taken the wrong passageway. It was too late for second-guessing now. They couldn’t go back, all they could do was go forward and hope that G-d would lead them to where they needed to go.

  He was sliding right hand along the wall that was supposed to be the ceiling of the corridor when he encountered something wet and sticky. He shone his light on it and realized it was blood.

  Everything in him went cold. The other man that had brought them here, the one he had shot. He had assumed the man had made it topside before the charges went off, but clearly he had passed this way after the ship had tilted on to its side which meant there was a very real chance he was still trapped in here with them.

  The possibility of death by something other than drowning reared its head and he ground his teeth. They didn’t have time to be cautious and go slow. Worse, with his flashlight there was a very real possibility that the other man would see them coming and have the advantage. Jeremiah just hoped he was as worried about escaping the ship as they were and he wouldn’t take the time to stop and ambush them.

  He briefly debated sharing his information with Cindy, but decided against it. She had enough to worry about and no good would come out of giving her more stress at the moment. If they were lucky, she’d never have to know that they were trapped in the sinking ship with a killer.

  He pressed forward, looking for more signs of blood. A wounded man could be twice as dangerous as a normal one. He wanted to know if they were still following his path or not. Hopefully he would know the way out and it meant they were going in the right direction.

  He thought about the tracker he still had in his sock. He doubted it was water proof and it had probably failed already. But it should have been working up until the water hit them. So, why hadn’t Kapono arrived with the cavalry yet? Why hadn’t they rescued them while they were in the raft before they even made it to the boat.

  He hoped the police had already captured the men on board the yacht. They shouldn’t have been that far behind him and they should have realized when he was no longer on the yacht so they would have known it was safe to close in on the boat without risking a hostage standoff.

  But why hadn’t they come yet? Kapono had given him the tracker specifically so they could hone in on his location, under the assumption that he would find Cindy faster than the police. Hopefully the device itself had been functioning properly and not faulty.

  Deep, groaning sounds reverberated through the ship. Behind him he could feel Cindy jump and her hand landed on his arm.

  “What’s that?” she cried.

  “Metal giving way. The ship wasn’t designed to be under water. Plus, the areas around the explosions have been weakened. It’s twisting, tearing itself apart,” he said.

  There was silence behind him but her hand gripped his arm tighter.

  “It’s nothing we need to worry about at the moment,” he said quickly. It was a lie. Those were bad sounds and could mean a host of things that could make their situation worse very quickly. She didn’t need to know that, though.

  He pushed forward and they found another passageway with a ladder. On the wall he saw more blood. At the rate the man was bleeding, he was likely to bleed to death before making it out of the ship. The wound shouldn’t have been fatal, but it would require pressure placed on it quickly to stop the bleeding which this guy obviously had not taken the time to do. They walked carefully by the ladder and then he stepped cautiously into another corridor.

  Jeremiah twisted his head to the right, shining his penlight down the new corridor to see if he could see any more openings. There were none. He turned his head toward the left just in time to see a fist swinging at him.

  He dropped and twisted and the fist grazed his temple. The man he had wounded stood over him, features twisted in rage.

  ~

  Cindy saw Jeremiah drop and a hand flash by his head. She jumped back a step and forced down a scream. They weren’t alone on the ship. It must be one of their other captors, she realized. And apparently the man still wanted them dead.

  She looked around frantically, searching for something she could use to hit him with, but there was nothing. Jeremiah must have hit the man’s legs because he toppled over backward and Jeremiah jumped on top of him. The two began flailing in the water, sometimes beneath it, sometimes on top of it.

  She saw the penlight drift down to the ground, knocked free of Jeremiah’s hand. With it a few feet below water everything was so much darker. Fear crept around her heart as she could no longer tell the combatants apart. Jeremiah was fighting for his life, for their lives, with a killer. There had to be something she could do to help.

  But in order to help she had to be able to see better. Without giving herself more time to think about it she took a deep breath and then plunged under the water. She forced herself to open her eyes even though it stung and frightened her more. Just three feet away was the penlight and she reached down for it.

  A flailing foot nearly kicked her in the head, but she twisted out of the way. She reached for the penlight, stretching her arm and her fingers as far as she could. Someone slammed into her and she grunted, expelling half her air. She was going to have to go up, but they were running out of time. If ever she was going to do this it had to be now.

  She grabbed hold of the opening they had been stepping through, and pulled herself farther down. She was fighting the buoyancy of the seawater and her own crushing fear.

  Her fingertips grazed the penlight and then she grasped it. She s
wung it up and shone it on the two fighters and pushed herself to the surface. She sucked in air with a gasp and tried to track what was happening in front of her. The other man had his back to Cindy but she could see that his hands were wrapped around Jeremiah’s throat. He was wearing a black tank top and she could see an oozing hole in the back of his left shoulder. It looked almost like a bullet hole. Regardless of what it was, it was clearly a bad injury.

  Cindy stepped closer so that she would be in range of the man. Then, she grasped the penlight as tightly as she could, lifted it over her head and then swung it down, straight into the wound on the back of the man’s shoulder.

  He let out a scream unlike anything she’d ever heard before and dropped Jeremiah instantly as he began to thrash around, reaching for his back. He knocked Cindy backward, but she managed to keep hold of her feet and the light.

  Meanwhile Jeremiah had gone on the attack. “Do it again!” he shouted as the man turned his attention back to him.

  Cindy hit the man again. Blood gushed from the wound, painting the water around her red. She hit him a third time. Her fear of the water was gone, everything else replaced by her need to stop the man from hurting Jeremiah.

  The man’s struggling became weaker. They were winning, she realized. She took a step back, waiting to see what Jeremiah wanted her to do.

  Jeremiah shoved the man’s head under water, drowning him, and she watched, heart racing. Then he hauled him up out of the water. The fight had gone out of the man, though, and she realized that he was dying.

  “Which way?” Jeremiah demanded, leaning over him.

  The man said something, but Cindy couldn’t make it out. Then he was gone.

  Jeremiah dropped his body back under the water.

  “What did he say?” she asked.

  Jeremiah pointed to the left. “He said it was this way.”

  But she noticed that he wouldn’t meet her eyes and she had a sneaking suspicion that he was just guessing. She didn’t say anything, though. She could be wrong.