Below the Surface

by Tim Shoemaker

  No turning back now.

  He picked it up on the second ring. “Hammer.”

  Cooper lay on his berth and stared at the ceiling long after Gordy and Lunk had grown quiet. He wished they were still awake. Then maybe he wouldn’t feel so alone. The thought of looking for that camera was eating at him. Checking the shoreline? Not a problem. But going underwater? Not a chance.

  It took everything he had to go under with Dad the other day. But without Dad? Forget it. He couldn’t do this alone. Part of him was still chained in that flooding basement — and he didn’t know how to get free.

  Gordy stirred. Cried out. Settled down again. Bad dream. The abduction was haunting Gordy. Cooper was sure of it. He could try to fill his days with fun to bury his fears, but when he slept, the nightmares crept in. Cooper would talk to him about it. Maybe this weekend when Dad was here. Cooper could barely make out Lunk in the darkness. He was still wearing his lifejacket. They all had fears.

  Sometimes fear was good. It was sort of like a bodyguard. It kept them from doing stupid things like walking down a dark alley at night. It kept them from taking dangerous risks that could hurt them.

  Other times, fear was a prison guard. It kept people from being free. Dad didn’t let fear paralyze him. And that’s part of what made him a man, wasn’t it? He did the right thing — even if it scared him half to death.

  How did Dad do it? How did he check the dark basement when he heard a noise in the middle of the night? How did he walk onto a jobsite without knowing how to do the job? How did he become a man? Did it come with age?

  It was more than that. A lot more. And Cooper knew the answer. At least part of it. Dad was never alone — even when no one else was there.

  Cooper propped himself up on one elbow and peered out the porthole. Random waves lifted The Getaway and rocked it. He never actually saw them coming, and he didn’t see where they went after they passed by. But they were there. And they were real.

  Deep down, Cooper knew he wasn’t alone either — even though it seemed that way sometimes. The same God who helped Dad become a man was with Cooper too — even if Cooper never actually saw him. He’d helped Cooper countless times, hadn’t he? And some of those times were just as scary as going underwater. Some were a lot scarier. Like being locked inside the walk-in freezer at Frank ’n Stein’s. Or trapped in the flooding basement. Cooper had never been alone. He could see that now.

  He needed to grasp the truth of that thought. Tattoo it on his brain. He was not alone. Not alone. He wished he could stop time and roadblock tomorrow from coming. Cooper had a feeling — a sense — that Friday would be a test of some sort. Of manhood, maybe. Diving for the camera. Yes. But he had a growing feeling that there was something more.

  What? Was he getting intuitions like Hiro now? Ridiculous. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to happen. Something bad.

  He sat up, shaking. This was insane. His imagination was taking him for a ride. But what if it wasn’t his imagination? What if it was some kind of internal warning system that he didn’t fully understand? He wanted to talk to Hiro. Needed to see if she felt it too. But it was way too late for that.

  He stretched out on his berth again and tried to calm down. Tried to think about totally unrelated things. But like a storm on shifting winds, his mind kept circling back.

  You are not alone. That was truth. And deep down, he knew that hanging onto that truth was critical. Maybe it was the only thing that would get him through whatever was to come tomorrow.

  Hiro had no idea how long she’d been spilling her guts. Detective Hammer had listened with hardly a comment.

  Hiro paused. “Do you think I’ve gone off the deep end here?”

  Detective Hammer chuckled. “No more than most women I know.”

  “Oh, thanks. I’m serious.”

  The detective sighed. “Actually, your theory makes sense.” He paused for a moment. “How about I take a little drive up to Lake Geneva tomorrow?”

  “And do what?”

  “Keep an eye on you.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “As serious as you are about your theory.”

  He was serious. “How can you do that — I mean, won’t you be outside of your jurisdiction?”

  “I’ll check in with the LGPD first. I’ll talk to that officer you mentioned, Ryan Tarpy.”

  “As a professional courtesy?”

  Hammer laughed. “Something like that.”

  Hiro tried to picture Hammer showing up in town. “So, what — you’d be like my bodyguard or something?”

  “Is that what you want?”

  Hiro looked out over the lake. “Definitely not. I don’t want the boys to know I called you. They already think I’m paranoid. If you show up, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “Okay,” Hammer said. “Then you’ll never see me.”

  Hiro laughed. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

  “Do you know what kind of car I drive?”

  Hiro had never seen him drive anything other than the police cruiser. She couldn’t picture him driving anything else. “No, I guess I don’t.”

  “Good. You’ll never know I’m there.”

  “And what about the boys?”

  “If you don’t see me, then I guarantee they won’t see me either. You get some sleep now, Hiro,” Hammer said.

  She wanted to sleep. Needed to. She’d hoped to get some advice from Detective Hammer. Encouragement. But the idea of him coming up here to help was more than she’d dared to wish for. She hesitated. “So, you’re really going to do it? I mean, I’m really going to see you tomorrow?”

  Detective Hammer laughed. “No. Remember? You won’t see me. And neither will the guys. But I’ll see you.”

  He was up and about late for a Thursday night. But it was safer this way. He’d parked Black Beauty in the pizza joint’s parking lot and thought about his day. He’d almost messed things up at the fair. He’d wanted the kids to see him, true. But something had changed. The way they’d reacted was an unexpected twist. Fear should have driven them away from him. Made them stay in a tight little cluster, looking over their shoulders every ten seconds. But instead they’d started searching for him. Why?

  Whatever the reason, he was still glad he’d gone to the fair. The little bonus he’d picked up was well worth the risk he’d taken. It would make an absolutely delicious addition to his plan. A little good luck. A little bad. It all evened out.

  The whole incident was a sign. Fate was warning him that it was time to take this to the next level. The last level.

  He’d worked hard on his plan over the last couple of days — and it was a beaut. He grabbed the bolt cutters from the pickup bed and walked down to Big Foot Beach. Standing on the shoreline, he strained to see The Getaway floating in the darkness. The old cabin cruiser was anchored in the perfect spot too. When it was time to put the details in motion, nobody would even notice him swimming out to the boat.

  And that time was nearly here. According to the weather report, the wind would be out of the southeast tomorrow night. It would blow the boat away from shore — which, of course, was absolutely ideal. It was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. So that was it. Decision made. Friday was the big day.

  It would mean the end of his job, though. No big loss. He’d been an errand boy and babysitter for too long. Let the boss clean up his son’s messes from now on.

  He’d planned for everything. Plan A. Plan B. And a rock-solid exit plan for each one. Tomorrow he’d decide which plan to follow, depending on which way the wind blew. Then again, he knew which way the wind would be blowing. Out of the southeast. He chuckled quietly.

  Hefting the bolt cutters onto his shoulder, he turned away from the water. It was time to get to work and send those boys one last message — just to be sure he kept a little fear burning in their guts.

  “Sleep tight, fellas. I’ll be back tomorrow night.”

  Lunk was the first to
notice that their bikes were gone. The three of them nearly sunk the inflatable paddling to shore.

  Sprinting across the road, they ran to the tree where they’d locked up their bikes. Lunk had some choice names for whoever had done this, but he didn’t want to say any of them out loud. Not while the other guys were within earshot.

  Cooper held up the cable. “It’s a clean cut.”

  “Are we going to call the police or what?” Gordy put his hands on his hips. “Who steals three bikes?”

  “Somebody with a pickup,” Coop said.

  Lunk inspected the cable. “Fat Elvis?”

  Coop shrugged. “It’s like Gordy said. Who steals three bikes at a time?”

  “I’d like to get my hands on him,” Gordy said. “How are we supposed to get to Scoops?”

  Lunk would like to take one swing at the guy with his concretefilled bat. But his bat was gone too. There was no way he’d be able to buy another bike.

  “I’m calling the police,” Gordy said. He tapped out the numbers on his phone. “Somebody stole our wheels. In my book, that’s grand theft auto.”

  Only Gordy would say something like that. He swung the phone up to his ear and started pacing. Lunk checked the ground around the base of the tree to look for tracks. That’s probably what Hiro would have done.

  “The police said we should come to the station to make a report,” Gordy said. “It’ll take us forty-five minutes to walk there.”

  Lunk picked up a stone and chucked it as far out into the lake as he could throw it. “What are they going to do, anyway?” He watched the stone hit the water with a splash. “The bikes are gone.”

  Coop nodded. “I think you’re right.”

  Gordy pointed toward the state park guardhouse. “Maybe it was the ranger. Maybe he didn’t like how we cabled the bikes to his tree.”

  Coop shrugged. “Might be worth a try. But something tells me this is all related.”

  “Another warning?”

  “Something like that,” Coop said. “We’ll check with the ranger. Then we’ll do what we should have done a couple of days ago.”

  Gordy looked at him. “What?”

  “Look for that camera. Hard.”

  Lunk hardly looked up for the next three hours. They walked the entire beach. Slowly. And they sifted through every clump of seaweed. They picked their way along the rocky shoreline and searched under every dock all the way to The Geneva Inn. If the camera were there — they would have found it.

  Lunk pressed his hands against the small of his back and arched backward.

  Coop leaned against the Geneva Inn’s pier. “Okay, now I’m sure the camera isn’t here.”

  “Which means . . . ?” Gordy let the question hang there.

  Coop pointed out to deeper water. “It’s out there. Sitting on the bottom of the lake.”

  Gordy nodded. He didn’t say anything. None of them did. They all knew what it meant: it was up to Cooper now.

  Gordy took the inflatable back to The Getaway to grab his phone and call Hiro. Lunk and Coop walked to the end of the dock and sat on the edge to wait.

  Coop stared toward the spot where Kryptoski had gone berserk with Krytpo Night. “We need that camera.”

  Lunk was still thinking about the bikes. The warning. Hiro really had been right all along, hadn’t she? Too many weird things had happened to chalk them all up to coincidence.

  Coop didn’t take his eyes off the spot. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

  Lunk eyed him. Was he talking to himself? “You’ll beat it, you know.”

  Coop shot him a questioning look.

  “The water thing. Whatever is going on in there.” He tapped Coop’s head.

  Coop didn’t look so sure.

  “Frank ’n Stein’s walk-in freezer,” Lunk said. “Both of us were trapped in there — with no hope. But you beat the odds.”

  Coop didn’t answer but kept staring at the water.

  “Last May — in the basement. There was no way you should have survived that.” Lunk hesitated. “It’s like you’re immortal or something. I know you’ll beat this too.”

  Coop smiled and shook his head. “Immortal? Really?”

  At least he seemed to be lightening up a little. “All I’m saying is, somebody must be looking out for you.”

  Coop gave him a sideways glance and pointed to the sky. “I know somebody’s looking out for me. I can’t believe I just heard you admit it.”

  Lunk shrugged. “Totally out of character for me. But I’m a realist.” He didn’t believe in luck. And if God wasn’t behind it, then what other explanation made any sense? “That’s how I know you’ll beat this.”

  “Hey.” Gordy paddled up to them. “Hiro ordered a pizza for us from Olympic Restaurant. They’re going to deliver it to the beach.”

  “Did she check to see if her bike got stolen too?”

  “It was still locked up at The Cove, right where she left it last night. She’s on her way here now.”

  Coop nodded. “What did she say about our bikes?”

  “It really shook her up,” Gordy said. “It rattled my cage too, as a matter of fact. I feel like we were robbed or something.”

  Lunk stared at him. “We were.”

  “Exactly,” Gordy said.

  Lunk just shook his head. The three of them wedged themselves in the inflatable and started for the beach.

  “If we want to get to Scoops later, we’re going to have to walk,” Gordy said. “Everybody else is going back to that outlet mall in Kenosha. Hiro said they’re going to a late movie too. Probably won’t be back until way after midnight.”

  Lunk hoped the news about his bike wouldn’t spoil his mom’s good time. She needed this vacation.

  “Is Hiro going with them?” Cooper asked.

  Gordy shook his head. “I told her all about us looking for the camera. She wants to hang out with us.”

  “Back to the bikes,” Cooper said. “Does she think this is related to all the other stuff?”

  Gordy nodded. “She connected the dots immediately.”

  Lunk was connecting some dots of his own. His mind flew back to the other night when Coop got clipped by the pickup. Lunk needed to stay close now. Stay on guard. If something happened, he would do a better job of protecting his friend this time. He had to.

  Cooper treaded water and clung to the side of the inflatable two hundred yards off the beach. This was the spot — as best as he could figure — where Kryptoski had gone on the rampage with Krypto Night.

  Four o’clock. Cooper wished he hadn’t waited so long. The sun was getting lower — and without it shining directly overhead, the water would be shadowy at best. Storm clouds were moving in too. More than a front. It looked like a mountain range stretching as far as he could see.

  Looking for the camera out here was a really bad idea. Stupid.

  “We’re in the zone,” Gordy said. He stretched one arm toward the south shore and the other toward The Getaway moored at its buoy a hundred yards closer to the beach. “Oh yeah.” He sighted down his arm like it was a surveyor’s scope. “This should be about right.”

  Coop looked back toward The Getaway. Lunk stood at the bow with his lifejacket on, watching them. Beyond him, Tommy Kryptoski sat behind the wheel of Krypto Night, revving the engine. It was the first time Coop had seen him in days.

  They’d picked a really lousy time to do this.

  Hiro sat across from Gordy in the inflatable, hugging her knees to her chest. “It could be anywhere within a square block. There’s no way Coop can search this whole area.”

  Cooper wasn’t sure he’d be able to search even one square foot. “How deep is it here?”

  Gordy peered over the side as though he could see the bottom. “Twelve, fifteen feet. Twenty feet max.”

  Twelve feet or twenty. It didn’t matter. Either way, it was out of reach. But he had to try. He had to. This wasn’t just about finding the camera. It was a way of showing Hiro how much he believed her
— and how sorry he was that he hadn’t done it earlier. He rinsed his mask and slid it into place. Dipped his face into the water. Looking parallel to the surface was okay — but looking toward the bottom? It was dark. So dark.

  Gordy stared into the water. “You know, if Hiro is right, you could find a whole lot more than a camera down there.”

  “Gordy!” Hiro stopped him. “You’re not helping.”

  But it wasn’t like Coop hadn’t already thought of that.

  “Coop?” Hiro leaned over the edge. “I love what you’re trying to do. But you don’t have to do this.”

  He knew she meant well. But her offer didn’t make him feel any better. “Thanks, Mom.”

  Even with the mask on, he saw the sadness in her eyes. Apparently he didn’t make her feel that great either. “Sorry. I just — ” How could he explain himself? This whole thing was maddening. He loved the water. Loved snorkeling. Twenty feet was nothing. He’d done it plenty of times. And now it had become some kind of a test of manhood. Terrific.

  He pushed away from the inflatable, gave two strong kicks, and gulped in a deep breath of air. Do this. Do this. Let’s just do this.

  He emptied his lungs and took in one last big breath. Holding it, he bobbed below the surface, feet first. He piked his body, closed his eyes, and dove — forcing himself to go deeper. Into the dark. He opened his eyes. No bottom — there was no bottom. Only blackness — and an icy terror. Something was down here — waiting for him. God, help me! He spun and clawed for daylight. He broke the surface — still clawing. Was he shouting too?

  “Help him, Gordy!” Hiro’s voice.

  He felt the inflatable. Clutched it. Tried to climb inside.

  “Coop — you’re going to capsize us!” Gordy’s voice.

  Somebody grabbed his arms and held them in place.

  “God, help me. God, help me.” Did he just say that out loud? Or was it only in his mind? His vision started to clear. He was halfway in the inflatable — like a beached whale. “God . . . help.” He lay there, panting.