The neoprene sleeve from the dive suit floated to the surface, the diver’s right arm still encased within. The sleeve was recovered two days later by a lobsterman tending to his pots. The coast guard responded to the grisly find and eventually found the Boston Whaler still anchored above the rock reef. They compared notes with police and identified the victim, whose parents reported him missing the night of the killing.
CHAPTER 13
Rick arrived at Grumpies at precisely 7:30 p.m., but Katie was nowhere to be seen. Rick figured she had been detained by the investigation. If she intended to bag dinner, he knew she would call. The place was mobbed as usual for a Friday night. He called over the hostess and reserved a table for two. The hostess knew Rick. They dated once.
“That will be about half an hour wait, Rick. Is that okay?”
“Sure thing, Becky. I’m waiting for someone so I’ll just grab a beer until she gets here.”
“Who’s the lucky lady tonight, Rick?”
“Just someone I’m lucky to have join me for dinner.” Rick smiled but the hostess didn’t.
Rick knew many of the people in the bar. The place was a popular hangout for many Port Rosey locals. The restaurant had changed hands many times over the years, but the current combination of sports bar, quality food, and reasonable prices seemed a formula that worked. Rick loved their burgers. He ambled over to the bar and ordered up a summer ale. There is nothing quite like the refreshing taste of cold beer on a hot summer’s night. As he raised his glass for a second swig, he noticed Jack sitting at the opposite end of the bar.
“How goes it, Jack?”
“Hi, Rick. Been doing okay. The fishing has been hot. Had some weird shit happen to me after we spoke.”
“Like what?”
“I gotta tell ya, I hooked into something that just kicked the crap out of me. When I say big, I mean gigantic. I had twenty pounds of bass on the line and then this thing hit.”
“You think it was a shark? Maybe a small mako?”
“It could have been a shark but I doubt it. I had the thing hooked and there was no jump. Makos like going airborne. But there were other equally large fish swimming with the one I hooked. When it came near the surface, I saw the backs of other big fish. Couldn’t make out what they were. Busted my eighty-pound braid like it was sewing thread.”
“That’s two odd deals you got into out there in the past week. First those albies flying out of the water being chased by something big, and now these things? I wonder if this has anything to do with what Katie has been up to?” Rick glanced at this watch—eight o'clock and no Katie. “Now she is officially late.”
“So what are you thinking those fish were, if you had to guess?”
“There aren’t many local fish that can pull that way, Rick. And nothing that eats twenty-pound bass for lunch. Maybe shark or a bottlenose, but I’m not convinced it was either. Dolphins are way too smart to be accidentally fooled by a baited hook. These were some kind of schooling fish. With all the weird weather changes going on and the Gulf Stream moving closer, maybe some odd fish came up from down south.”
“I’m with you, Jack, but what are we talking about? Maybe a school of big wahoo or some big king mackerel, or maybe barracuda?”
“Your date just arrived.”
Rick turned around to spot Katie talking with Becky over by the front door. They were both smiling. Rick was hoping his one-night stand wouldn’t interfere with tonight’s plans. He needed to intervene fast.
“Think I’d better go rescue her before my reputation is tarnished even more than it already is. Nothing like the wrath of a cocktail hostess scorned. Just ask that pro golf guy.”
Katie saw Rick approach and gave him a quick wave and smile.
“Hey, you okay? Was wondering what happened. You’re never late.”
“Tough day at the office,” Katie said. She gave Rick a light kiss on his lips. “I could use a nice tall one when we sit down.”
“Your table is ready. Follow me,” Becky said, winking. Rick wanted to give her the finger but he thought better of it.
“Nice table, Rick. In the corner, in the back, in the dark. Perfect for how I feel right now.”
“What happened?”
“Another body was found off Boulder Point today. Correction—another body part was found. It was the arm of what was once a young scuba diver. Poor kid. Tragic things are happening in the Sound, Rick, and I need to figure out what before it’s too late.”
“Do you have any clues?”
“We do, Rick, but the one hypothesis we’ve come to is so hard to believe that we need substantial proof before I even float the idea to my boss or the police.”
“What do you think it is?”
Before Katie could answer, their server arrived. Katie cringed.
“Hey hey, how’s my brainy and hot Italian princess doin’?”
“Ricco cut the crap.”
“Eh, eh, this ain’t no act, princess. I’m the real thing. One hundred percent original Italian Stallion and I got the black two-door parked out back to prove it.”
“Hundred percent asshole is more like it.”
“Not nice, not nice at all sweetie. What can I get for you?”
“I’ll just have a pint of whatever you have on tap.”
“And you, my friend.”
“I’ll have another BP summer ale.”
“Got it, get it . . . good . . . BRB my nubile Neapolitan nymph.”
“I think I need to slap that guy.”
“Rick, he’s harmless. An asshole, yes, but totally harmless. We go back to high school. Ignore him. I really need your support right now.”
“We got some heavy stuff going down and I’m at the center of trying to figure it all out. In the last week, we had a shredded body wash up in Smith’s Bay, two dogs mysteriously disappear off Boulder Point, a kid diver disappears and only his arm surfaces, and all signs seem to point to some marine animal as the perpetrator.”
“I was talking with Jack before. Earlier today he hooked something very big and very unusual. It ate a twenty-pound striper. But it spooled him and he never got a good look at it.”
“When? Where did that happen, Rick?”
“Lady and gent, your drinks are served. Ready to order?”
“Give us a few minutes,” Rick said.
“Yes sir, Captain Ahab.”
“He said he didn’t think it was a shark and that there were other similar fish swimming with it. He is really at a loss for an explanation. I think it happened late afternoon in deep water near buoy 9.”
“Do you think it could have been a large school of large fish?”
“Katie, I don’t know. Do you think the fish Jack hooked is linked to the deaths? And how fucking big are you talking about? It would take one mother of a fish to eat a twenty-pound bass, let alone kill someone.”
“Rick, I’m not talking about one fish. I’m talking about the possibility of an entire school of big creatures.”
Ricco was back. Without even looking up, Rick ordered a bacon cheeseburger with fries and cole slaw and another beer.
“I’ll have the same,” Katie said.
Katie continued, “Rick, there is some evidence that the bite marks on the guy they found match the profile of some kind of fish that could be enormous.”
“So what? The guy could have been dead in the water and a bunch of fish, maybe big bluefish, decided to feed on the corpse just like great white sharks feed on whale carcasses.”
“Not likely. If we computer model one of the bite marks found on the victim against normal-sized indigenous fish the results indicate a fish that’s between seventy-five and one hundred pounds.”
Rick’s jaw dropped. “There’s no fucking way. Are you shitting me? That can’t be possible. There’s nothing around here that big. Those computer models are all screwed up.”
“And if we extrapolate from scientifically sound growth rate charts, a fish of that weight would be at least six feet long.
”
Rick put down his burger and stared at her. “I think you’re overworked Katie. Six feet long? One hundred pounds? Not a shark? That ain’t science, Katie, that’s science fiction.”
“Listen, it’s possible. There are aberrant specimens throughout the entire animal kingdoms, individuals that have undergone genetic alteration either through evolution or environmental factors. This is all possible. And what scares me is that we don’t know if this is just one small pod or an entire school. I have been having nightmares about all this.”
“Here you go my sweetness. Medium rare, just like you like your meat. How can anything so smart look so good? And here is your well done burger Captain. Just like you like your meat. May I get anything else for you?”
“Not now, thank you.” Rick was on his best behavior.
“Katie, the biggest fish I have ever seen in these waters was a sixty-pound striped bass caught on my boat by my friend, Chuck. The biggest bluefish I have ever seen caught was twenty-two pounds. You are suggesting a fish five times that size. I’m having a tough time wrapping my head around that. A school of hundred-pound killer creatures with an attitude would just about annihilate anything they came into contact with.”
“Exactly. That’s what I’m worried about.”
Katie expanded on her fear by using bluefish as an example of predatory fish behavior. “Given their cannibalistic nature, bluefish tend to travel in packs or schools of equally sized fish. That is a built-in protection mechanism. The larger fish feed on the smaller ones and on fish of their own kind. Again, if our computer models are correct and the killer creatures are in fact that big, then there are likely sizeable numbers of them around. Jack probably hooked one and saw its traveling mates come to the surface. That would be worse than some wayward shark.”
“Katie, eat your dinner and drink your beer. Give yourself a little break from all this. I hear you. I believe you even if it doesn’t make sense. Can I tell you that I’ve really missed you?”
“Being with you is like being on a treadmill: a lot of work to get nowhere. You have this knack for just dropping out without notice or cause and then coming back like nothing ever happened. Like when you went off to Alaska for four and a half months. It was simply, gotta go, see ya kiddo. And then you stroll back into my life like some Grizzly Adams expecting me to welcome you with open arms and open legs. It doesn’t work that way, Rick.”
“This is a lot more than just missing you. I want to make this right and have all this work out. I know you still care. And you have to believe me when I say I do, probably much more than you might realize.”
Ricco interrupted at the wrong time and finally pushed his luck with Rick too far. “How was your dinner my sweetness? Some dessert? I’m sweet too.”
Rick motioned for Ricco to come closer. “Yes we would like dessert. As a matter of fact what I would like you to do is to get on the next fucking train out of Port Roosevelt and head to the city. Little Italy to be precise. We would like two fresh cannoli from Ferrara’s on Grand Street, between Mott and Mulberry, and two espresso, each with a lemon wedge and a splash of anisette. And don’t come back to this damn table until you have that. That is what the princess wants. Got it?”
Katie had to laugh at that one. Ricco was as pale as his white shirt and she could tell he was taking Rick seriously. But then again, she knew Rick well enough to know that he just might be serious. Ricco walked away, tail between his legs.
Down deep, Katie wanted things to work out with Rick but he could be such a wild card that his persona could change from one day to the next. Yet, she was willing to give him another chance. It seemed like she was always willing to give him one more chance.
“Look,” he said. “I feel like I’m half a person when we are not together. That is just the way it is. I got a lot of shit out of my system over the past few years. I stopped all the cage fighting and put baseball behind me for now. I’d like to really build my charter business up here and in Florida and I have a few ideas for some new fishing products that I think could make me some money. And I want to go back to school to finish my degree and teach and coach baseball at the high school level. I want to settle down, Katie. With you. Sounds like a plan, right?”
“Yes it does, Rick. But we have talked about plans before and each time I got the short end of the stick in those deals.”
“I know I’ve said it before and I know I’ve misled you but this time is really different.” Rick reached for Katie’s hand and took it in his. “All I ask is that you give me one more chance. Just one last chance and I will make this right. You don’t owe me this but I’m just asking as someone who was once your best friend and lover.”
Katie’s eyes locked tight to Rick’s and she saw something in him that she had never seen before. His eyes revealed a truth, a depth of sincerity that moved her to her core. She believed deeply that the eyes always tell the truth, that the eyes are the only real window onto someone’s true being. When they first met and locked eyes like this, the sensations she felt aroused her. At this moment, the sensations went first to her heart. She had a fleeting thought that tonight she might just not go home, or at least not alone.
A half hour had elapsed since Ricco was given his dessert instructions. He came back to the table with two espressos in hand and two slices of cheesecake. “Coffee and dessert is on the house, I couldn’t find any cannoli.”
Katie and Rick ate the cheesecake, drank the espresso, and laughed about old times. Rick paid the bill and, as they left Grumpies, Becky said simply, “Have fun.”
Katie answered, “You can bet on it.”
CHAPTER 14
It had been about a year since Katie was last in Rick’s home. They had picked up three bottles of wine and some sushi takeout and made love all night in front of the fireplace. There were no inhibitions, and nothing was off limits. Pure passion and lust filled their time together: throughout high school and college, she pretty much stuck to the books and wandered off her conservative path on just a few occasions. While she certainly was no angel, having had a couple of quick graduate school flings in the sack, nothing compared to the time she spent with Rick. That lovemaking was off the charts for Katie and she’d usually enjoy a love hangover for days. She often longed for him but suppressed those emotions, especially when he was off on another of his meaning-of-life expeditions. The relationship had been on shaky ground for a long time and the last thing she needed now was more frustration.
Rick’s home was an old captain’s house, originally built in the mid-1800s. His grandfather had owned it and passed it down to Rick’s father. Rick was the eighth owner of the house, which was set upon a small hill overlooking Port Roosevelt Harbor. Rick put a lot of time and money into restoring it and now he had his home just about where he wanted it. Much of the decor was of a nautical design or had an outdoorsman’s touch. And while Katie would have probably done things a bit differently if it were her place, she liked the house and its cozy character. Rick was a bit of a pack rat so the house was filled with all sorts of oddball collectibles and memorabilia. He had some old duck decoys, antique fishing equipment, baseball collectibles, old sporting art and plenty of books, many inherited from his grandfather. Rick was a voracious reader and he loved old books, something he had in common with Katie. Reading also kept Rick’s mind off vodka, which had been on his mind every day since being drummed out of baseball.
Katie especially liked the den, even more than the bedroom. The full-wall stone fireplace was part of some very special moments in her love life, not the least of which were some soul-searching conversations with Rick during difficult periods in their relationship. But the flames from the fireplace also fanned some of the most romantic and sensual experiences Katie had ever had. Considering that it was now late August and the nighttime temperature was still in the eighties, ecstasy by the fireplace was not in the cards for this visit. The house was still hot from the heat it had absorbed throughout the day.
“Katie, I’m g
oing to turn up the A/C just a bit and cool down this house.”
“That’s fine, Rick. Hey, where did you get this collection of old Hemingway books?”
“Found them in a little bookstore in Lambertville, New Jersey. Remember when I worked down in that area for a few months? One day I walked into the Book Nook on Union Street and there they were. Bought all six right on the spot. Great price too. That’s a first edition of The Old Man and the Sea and a first of A Farewell to Arms.”
“Cool. I love reading Papa. Perfection and genius in simplicity.”
“You got that right. The man knew how to use words sparingly, not like some of these windbags today. I still take rides down to that shop. You should come with me some time. You’d enjoy it. Beats the pricey books shops in the Hamptons. The trip to New Jersey is always worth the gas and the time.”
“I would enjoy that. Maybe I could even find some old marine biology books. You know how I love to collect those. I really like this old French map of Alaska. Very neat. Did you get that down there too?”
“That map was a gift from the chef at the lodge in Alaska where I guided. She got it from one of her Eskimo friends.”
“She must have really liked you to give you something like that?”
“Yes she did, but that is all past tense now.”
“Where’s Jenny?”
“She’s out in the back. I keep her in the run this time of year. It’s a nice spot with shade and plenty of room to exercise. She’s probably sound asleep in her house right now. I’ll bring her in later so you two can reconnect.”
“Do you still hunt with her?”
“We still hunt some pheasants and ducks but she really loves woodcock. She’s the best at that of all the labs I’ve had. She’s getting old—slowing down a bit. But She’ll be all over you when she sees you again. All seventy-five pounds of her still loves you.”
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