by Kenna White
“Did I come at a bad time?” Jamie pushed her glasses back into place with her finger.
“Heck, no.”
“Hey, Jamie.” Connie grinned from the window where she was washing dishes in the galley. “Coffee? Got a fresh pot.”
“I’d love some. I forgot to make any this morning.”
“How can you forget to make coffee?” Ruth Ann said, motioning for her to have a seat at the table.
“I got busy.You know,”Jamie shrugged.She didn’t have much of an explanation. Forgetting to make coffee did sound a little inane, but she often became so absorbed in her work she forgot simple tasks. Burning food in forgotten skillets was just another day at the office for her. She had learned to rely on microwavable dinners. If she forgot them, at least she wasn’t risking a fire.
“Milk and sugar?” Connie asked.
“Milk.”
“I thought you took sugar in your coffee,” she said with a confused look on her face.
“Not me. That must be the other Dr. Hughes you know.”
“Your sister takes sugar in her coffee, Connie,” Ruth Ann said. “Not Jamie.”
“She doesn’t anymore. She switched to Splenda. She thinks one packet of that stuff a day is going to make her skinny. HA!” Connie filled a cup and brought it to Jamie on the deck.
“Can I get another cup, too? Thanks, peaches.” Ruth Ann gave Connie’s rear a pat as she passed.
“You know what the doctor said,” Connie warned.
Ruth Ann shot her a pleading look and quivered her lower lip for emphasis.
“Okay. One cup.That’s all. I should have made decaf,” Connie muttered and went to get it.
“I heard that and don’t you dare give me any decaf,” Ruth Ann warned. “Decaf coffee is like having phone sex. If you want to get excited, you have to do it yourself.”
“Jamie, what brings you down to the marina?” Connie called from the galley.
“Can’t a person drop by to say hello?” Jamie said, taking a seat at the table.
“Sure they can and we’re glad you did,” Ruth Ann said, joining her. “But you have that look.”
“What look?”
“This I-have-something-to-ask-you look.”
Jamie leaned forward and looked at her reflection in the glass topped table.
“I don’t see any look.”
“Okay. No look. Just a friendly visit,” Ruth Ann said, patting her leg and smiling warmly.
“Actually there is one little detail I wanted to discuss with you,” Jamie said after clearing her throat and adjusting her glasses.
“Ah ha!” Ruth Ann cackled. “I was right, peaches. She wants at ask something,” she yelled toward the galley window.
“So you’re a Sherlock Holmes. Big deal,” Connie replied, carrying a tray of coffee mugs and a plate of banana nut bread to the table. “What can we do for you, honey?” She sat down and hitched her chair in close.
“I need to make a dive here in the marina but there’s no moorage available for my boat. I was wondering if I could use your boat as a base for my dive.”
“Sure. Where do you want to take it?” Ruth Ann said.
“No, no, Raggie. You weren’t listening. She wants to dive off the Kewpie Doll right here where it sits, in our slip. Is that right, Jamie?” Connie asked.
“Yes. I need a place to leave my extra tank and gear. And a place to change into my wet suit.”
“Sure, you can. What are you diving for? Slimy critters?”
“Something like that.” Jamie didn’t want to confess the real purpose for the dive. What if she couldn’t find what she was looking for? Somewhere in the back of her logical mind she knew that was a distinct possibility. She had made enough dives in Budd Bay to know finding something as small as a key ring made finding the proverbial needle in a haystack seem easy.
“I bet she’s diving for buried treasure,” Connie said sinisterly. “There’s a pirate ship under Hudson Marina and it’s filled with gold and silver.”
“That’s it.” Jamie chuckled and took a sip of coffee, lest she give away her secret.
“When are you going to do it?” Ruth Ann asked.
“Later this morning, about ten or ten thirty. It will be low tide and only fifteen to twenty feet deep. Is that a problem?”
“Nope.” Ruth Ann went inside and returned with a key on a lanyard. “This unlocks the dock-side door. Help yourself.”
“You won’t be here?”
“Connie’s having her eyes tested. I have to drive her because they put those drops in and she won’t be able to drive.”
“You don’t mind?” Jamie said, taking the key.
“Hell, no. Make yourself at home. The ladder on the stern folds down but you have to unlatch it at the top first.”
“Maybe she needs one of us to be here while she’s down there,” Connie said, obviously trying to talk Ruth Ann out of going. Connie had been a bus driver for the Olympia transit system for twenty-five years. Jamie suspected, even with her eyes dilated, she trusted her own driving more than Ruth Ann’s.
“I don’t need anyone here. I can handle it. I may have a very short window of opportunity anyway. Once I stir things up, the visibility will be pretty poor.”
“If you see our butter knife…” Connie trailed off.
“I’ll keep an eye out for it,” Jamie said, finishing her coffee. “I better go. I have to have my tanks filled.”
“We’ll probably see you later then. We should be back by noon or so,” Connie said.
“Maybe you should take a look for Dana’s key ring while you’re down there,” Ruth Ann said casually.
“She’ll never find that,” Connie argued. “And it’s a shame. I heard that little piece of bling was worth a hefty chunk of change. Dana said it was white gold.”
“I understand it was a gift,” Jamie said, staying noncommittal.
“Uh-huh,” Connie said cautiously then looked at Ruth Ann.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake. Tell her.”
“Tell me what?” Jamie asked.
“Shannon had it especially made for her.”
“I knew that. Dana told me.”
“Did she tell you Shannon gave it to her as a peace offering when Dana threatened to walk out on her last year?”
“So you know this Shannon person?”
“Yeah. She runs a travel agency over in Lacey. She has booked three of our cruises. She organizes the cruises for several GLBT Web sites.”
Jamie knew there was more to be gleaned, but if Dana wanted her to know about her and Shannon, she would tell her. Jamie didn’t need to pry and she certainly wasn’t going to squeeze tidbits of half informed information from Ruth Ann and Connie. All she hoped to do was retrieve Dana’s key ring and return it to her. She was willing to invest an hour or two and a tank of air for that purpose, but Dana’s private life was none of her business, and from what Dana divulged so far, it didn’t appear she was going to offer much more.
Jamie collected her equipment, had her tanks filled, and headed back to Hudson Marina. Once back on the Kewpie Doll, she changed into her wet suit and geared up for the dive.As gently as possible, she slipped into the water, hoping not to disturb the sediment at the bottom. She knew she had one good clean chance at grabbing anything lodged in the soft black silt before raising a mushroom cloud that would obliterate her vision. After that, she would have to wait for the silt to settle again.
It was after one when Ruth Ann and Connie returned home to find Jamie changing tanks. She was frustrated. More than frustrated, she was angry.
“Are you still at it?” Ruth Ann asked.
“Yes,” Jamie replied, clenching her jaw.
“Did you find anything good?” Connie came out onto the deck sporting oversized sunglasses.
“Oh, yes. I forgot.” Jamie opened the mesh bag attached to her weight belt and pulled out a blackened butter knife.
“Is this yours?”
“My grandmother’s silver butter knife!�
�� Connie exclaimed, examining it lovingly. “How in the heck did you find it? We assumed it was long gone.”
“It must have fallen point down. It was stabbed into a clump of mussels growing on a cinder block. A little polish should clean it up,” Jamie said, stepping over the railing, ready to go down again.
“Thank you, honey,” Connie said, coming to the railing to give Jamie a hug in spite of her bulky diving gear. “This means a lot to me.”
“You’re welcome,” Jamie smiled and fitted her mask against her face.
“Jamie, what are you looking for?” Ruth Ann asked with a concerned scowl. “And why?”
“I wish the hell I knew,” she said. She put the mouthpiece in place and stepped into the water.
What started out as a Good Samaritan effort to try and retrieve Dana’s key ring had turned into a personal crusade. Every time she came up empty-handed made her try again, and again, and again. You are being pigheaded, she told herself. Unnecessarily stubborn and unreasonably foolish. This is not like you. There is no way I am going to find it. Why hadn’t she listened to herself that evening during the party when she explained that fact to Dana? But oh, no. She was spending hours groping around in the muck and mud, hours she should be spending in her lab. She was using up the last of her tanks of air for nothing.
Jamie checked the gauge on her tank. The needle was on red. If it wasn’t empty, it was only a few minutes from it. That was it. She had tried her best but much as she hated to, she had to resign herself to failure. She gave one last look across the bottom, then headed for the surface. Suddenly she stopped, hovering several feet off the bottom. She looked down. Something had caught her eye. But where? A microsecond’s worth of something. Quickly, she swam back down, her eyes darting back and forth over the rocks, trash, mud and shells.
There, nestled in a clump of seaweed, visible only when the current stirred the wide green blades,was a glimmer of something. Jamie exhaled and took another breath but the tank was finally empty. She felt nothing fill her lungs. She swam toward the object, her lungs demanding oxygen. She took one swipe across the seaweed with her gloved hand. She didn’t know if she got it or not but she had to surface and surface now. She felt her lungs burning and kicked wildly, propelling herself upward. As her head and face broke the surface, she spit out her mouthpiece and gulped for air. She was almost afraid to look at what was in her hand. It could be the key ring or just a handful of seaweed.
“I thought you’d never come up,” Ruth Ann said, looking over the railing.
Jamie took several more breaths before moving to the ladder. She handed Ruth Ann her fins and climbed aboard, her hand still clutching whatever she had grabbed. She slipped out of her tank and dropped her weight belt.
“What the hell are you doing with that? You took all that time just to grab some slimy seaweed?”
Jamie slowly opened her hand, the blades of seaweed laced between her fingers. Nestled in her palm, under the seaweed, there it was. Dana’s key ring. It was muddy and covered with green slime but it was unmistakably hers.
“What’s that?” Ruth Ann said, staring down at it.
“That, my friend, is a miracle. Pure and simple.” Jamie rubbed it with her fingers, dislodging the slimy algae coating.
“That’s Dana’s key ring, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Jamie found her glasses where she had left them on the table and studied the discolored object. A smile grew across her face as she examined it, the keys still attached and dangling from the ring. Dana’s initials were still legible, the engraving not yet filled in by the tarnish.
“Damn, Jamie. What a stroke of luck. First you find Connie’s grandmother’s silver butter knife, then you find Dana’s gold key ring.”
“Is that what you were looking for, Jamie?” Connie said, squinting over Jamie’s other shoulder to get a look at it.
“Naw, she wasn’t,” Ruth Ann said then looked up at Jamie. “Were you? Is that what you were diving for all along? Dana’s lost key ring?”
“I wanted to give it a try. I felt partially responsible for her losing it. I knew it was a long shot but I had to at least take a look.”
“She’ll be so pleased you found it. I bet she’s pacing the houseboat, waiting for the telephone to ring.”
“She didn’t know I was going to look for it. I was afraid I couldn’t find it.”
“You’re going to polish it up, aren’t you?” Ruth Ann said.
“Yes. It hasn’t been in the water that long. It should come clean.” Jamie wanted to say it would come clean because it was silver, probably silverplate. But Dana had told them Shannon had given her a white gold key ring. They must have misunderstood and Jamie saw no reason to contradict them.
She was just a short walk to Dana’s slip but wanted a chance to polish the key ring before returning it to her. She headed home, placed some water softener and salt into an aluminum pie pan, and added warm water. As soon as it was dissolved, she dropped in the key ring. It instantly changed from dingy black to gleaming silver, shining as if it was new. Jamie was right. It was silver. She called Dana, but the cell phone rang six times before Dana’s voice mail answered. Jamie left a message.
“Hi, Dana. It’s Jamie. Give me a call when you have a chance. I’d like to talk with you. Nothing terribly important. You might call it interesting though. Talk with you later. ’Bye.”
She had just finished hauling her diving equipment up to her apartment when her phone rang.
“Dr. Hughes here,” she said, balancing her cell phone against her chin as she carried an armload of equipment into the study.
“Hi, Jamie. It’s Dana. I just got your message. What did you need to talk to me about?” There was barking in the background.
“Where are you? On the houseboat?”
“No. I’m walking across Sylvester Park. I walked up to the post office and library. Somebody’s dog is having a fit because he can’t reach a squirrel up the tree.”
“Would it be okay if I met you somewhere? It won’t take long but I need to talk with you.” She knew she should go ahead and tell her why but she couldn’t. She wanted to see her eyes light up and hear that gasp and giggle when Jamie gave her the key ring.
“Sure. But what is it, Jamie? Is something wrong?”
“No. Nothing is wrong.”
“Would you like to come by the houseboat? I’ll be back soon. Dock A, slip thirty-eight. And then there’s the security code.” Dana paused. Jamie quickly understood.
“That’s okay. I understand. You don’t have to give it to me. Maybe we could meet outside the security gate.”
“No, it isn’t that. I don’t mind telling you. I just don’t want to say it over the telephone. You never know who is listening.”
“Unless you are a fugitive from justice, I doubt your phone is being tapped.”
“But there is a group of pedestrians I’m sure can hear every word I’m saying.”
“Can you give it to me surreptitiously?” Jamie said.
“Okay. First number. Your age, the numbers added together. Then Juliana’s age added together. Got that so far?”
“Yep.”
“Finally, the last two numbers on Bo’s Madonna.”
“Nine three one six?”
“Very good, Dr. Hughes.”
“See you in thirty minutes.”
Jamie checked the key ring to make sure it was polished as well as she could get it then headed to the marina. She punched in the security code and started down the dock. A hanging basket of petunias swung from the corner of the houseboat as it swayed from the wake of a passing boat. Jamie stepped onto the deck and knocked.
“Right on time, Dr. Hughes,” Dana said, wiping her hands on a towel as if she had just finished cleaning something. “Come in. And what’s this big secret you couldn’t tell me over the telephone?” She followed Jamie inside.
“It’s not a big secret necessarily.”
“It sure sounded like it. Sit down. Would you like a cup of
coffee or maybe a glass of juice? I’m sorry I’m all out of soda. I meant to get some at the store but you had me all flustered with your mysterious visit.”
“Nothing, thank you.” Jamie sat in one of the bar stools next to the little nook table. “I just wanted to do this in person.”
“Do what in person?”
“Give me your hand.”
“Why?” Dana extended her hand. “Are we now officially engaged?” she joked.
Jamie pulled the key ring from her pocket but kept it hidden. She placed it in Dana’s hand and closed her fingers around it.
“This.”
Dana opened her hand. There was a split second of silence followed with a shriek.
“THE KEY RING?! Oh my, God. Jamie! Where? How?” Dana seemed incapable of forming a sentence. She sunk into a chair and stared at it.
“Lucky. Just plain lucky.”
“You found it down there? Down there where you said nothing could be found, not even a ship?”
“Like I said, I got lucky. It landed on a clump of seaweed. It never made it to the bottom. If it had it would have been lost. The sediment was three feet thick. It was so soft it sucked things in like quicksand.”
“You did that for me? You went scuba diving for me and my key ring?” Dana clutched it to her chest and grinned. “What a special thing to do for a friend. Thank you,” she said and kissed Jamie’s cheek.
“You’re welcome. I’m glad I could return it. I guess that makes my certification card worthwhile.” Jamie looked past Dana at a large cartoon panel leaning against the wall on the back of the sofa. “So, this is where Ringlet lives.”
“Yes. She’s drying. I just signed it so I can scan it into my computer later.”
Jamie went to get a closer look at it. The human in the cartoon was scowling and shaking her ankle, trying to dislodge Ringlet’s grip. The dog had her front paws wrapped around her owner’s leg, suggesting she had been humping her ankle. The bubble over Ringlet’s head read: I prefer to call it safe sex.
“Now, that’s funny,” Jamie said, laughing. “I like it.”
“Thank you. Sometimes Ringlet is a little irreverent. My readers seem to like that.”
“How many do you submit at a time?”