Shades of Deception

by Charlie Hudson

  She braced herself as she surfaced close to the ladder, Gary leaning over and motioning to her. “You okay? You okay?” He scanned her face worriedly as she nodded and came to the ladder, looking anxiously to see what was going on.

  He reached down to steady her climb. “Let’s get your gear off. Can you tell us what happened?”

  The scene aboard was controlled. Tyler and the two men surrounded Matt who was laid prone on the deck. Everyone else had moved forward to clear the space and Crystal let fear spill into rapid breathing when she went next to Tyler. One man was performing CPR.

  Tyler took a step back, lowered his voice, and partially blocked her view. “Are you okay? I know this is a shock, and we’ve notified the Coast Guard.”

  Crystal nodded, her voice actually cracking. “Is he, is he…?”

  Tyler didn’t glance around. “They’re doing what they can. What happened?”

  Gary eased a cup of water to her and stepped away again. She lifted it with trembling hands, gulped it down, and lowered the cup. “It’s hard to say, I mean, we were in the kitchen area. I had stopped for a second to look at the dishwasher. It couldn’t have been for long. Vis wasn’t great with all the silt and I didn’t want to lose sight of Matt.” She allowed a shudder. “I don’t know, maybe it was longer than I thought. I saw him and thought he was waiting for me — I didn’t notice at first…”

  “It’s okay, this isn’t anything you’ve dealt with,” Tyler said calmly. “Practice and for real are two different things.”

  She nodded again and saw the second man taking over CPR in her peripheral vision. Matt didn’t seem to be responding. “Yeah, he…, Matt was like unconscious and the reg was out of his mouth. I stuck it in for him, but he…, he couldn’t…, I mean, then I remembered that wasn’t the right thing with an unconscious diver. I knew I had to get him out and the other exit was closer than the way we’d come, but it was harder than I thought it would be. I mean, getting him turned around and…”

  Tyler cut in quietly. “You did what you were supposed to. Thank God, Maury and Stan were close to you. Before you went in though, did Matt say anything about a problem, about not feeling well?”

  Were Maury and Stan dive professionals? What if they fucking revived Matt? “No, no, everything was fine. I mean, I guess it was. He was mostly talking with the two ladies from Brazil. I just don’t understand…”

  “Got the last two up,” Gary said and pointed forward.

  A firm voice came over the radio. “Big Blue, Big Blue, this is the Coast Guard. We have your location. ETA less than five minutes. Do you require evacuation?”

  Tyler motioned for Gary to take Crystal and spoke into the handset. “Coast Guard, this is Big Blue. Roger, and yes, evac of one, resuscitation efforts continuing.”

  Continuing? For that long with no results? That meant Matt was dead, didn’t it? Damn it, why had the Coast Guard been nearby? But, it wasn’t as if they had some kind of magic. If normal procedures hadn’t revived him, nothing would, right? Crystal let Gary hold her elbow and walk her forward. The older couple she’d been talking to before the dive stood, parental concern on their faces. “Come sit with us,” the woman said and held her arms out tentatively.

  Crystal leaned into her briefly, then pulled back to sit. “Thank you. I, I don’t really know what to say.”

  Her husband held out a towel. “At your age, I can’t imagine you’ve ever seen anything like this.”

  She shook her head. “I did take the rescue course and we practiced this, but it still came as a shock. I did what I could…, I mean, I think…”

  “Of course you did,” the woman said quickly. “I was having a little trouble with cramping in my left foot and we cut our dive short. We were on-board only a couple of minutes before they surfaced with Matt.”

  Crystal was feeling more confident Matt wasn’t going to recover and she didn’t want to overplay being fearful or weepy. “The two guys who brought Matt up — it seemed right to let them take him.”

  “Absolutely,” the woman’s husband joined in. “Maury is a firefighter from Cleveland and Stan is a physical therapist. They’re both CPR qualified. No one will say you weren’t doing what you were supposed to.”

  The sound of the Coast Guard vessel’s engines drew everyone’s attention. Crystal inhaled a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She had to concentrate and stick to what she’d rehearsed for hours. It was plausible and so far, no one was doubting her.

  Roger Lariby was waiting for Bev when she pulled in front of the Scuba-Plus dive facility. The philosophical expression from the day of Mr. Belton’s death had been replaced with a somberness Bev could sympathize with.

  “Hell’s bells,” he said in shaking her hand. “All my years in this business and I’ve never lost a staff member. To have it come so soon after the other is almost unbelievable.”

  Bev couldn’t argue with his statement. “It was Raney? They pronounced him dead?”

  “Yeah. Leslie scooted to the hospital as soon as we got word he’d been evacuated. She called to tell me maybe fifteen minutes ago.”

  The Coast Guard had escorted Big Blue to the closest homeowner’s park where the ambulance and Beau Wilson had been waiting. The first responders had Matt headed to the hospital within minutes and the Coast Guard had performed the initial tasks for their report. Beau had stood aside, called Bev to let her know when the Scuba-Plus boat was on the way to their dock and he would meet her there.

  With the body not on site, the scene wasn’t quite the same as the day Bev had responded to the previous incident. There were almost as many witnesses this time and Beau seemed to have separated them into two groups.

  Roger swept his hand to the fenced back area. “Beau kept Tyler, the Captain, Gary, who was mate, Maury and Stan, the two divers who started resuscitation, and Crystal Sharpe, who was diving with Matt, on the boat. They’ll have the most direct knowledge. I don’t know how much the others can tell you. I want to say something about Crystal, then I’ll take you back.” His voice dropped, despite no one being within hearing distance. “She’s a kid, really — not quite eighteen. She’s part time and mostly works on the retail side. She’s taken several classes and is a skilled diver. I’ll let you get the details of what happened first hand, but you can imagine how shaken up she is. From what I’ve heard, she reacted correctly. Nobody’s saying she couldn’t have followed through with all the rescue procedures, but there was no reason for Maury and Stan not to have taken over the way they did. You’ll get what you need from them.”

  Jesus, what a hell of a thing for a teen to cope with. “How is she?”

  “Not hysterical if that’s what you’re asking. Leslie knows her better than I do. I’ve been impressed with the work I’ve seen her do and we’ve never had any complaints about her. I’ll be in the office when you’re ready or if you need anything. We’ll have the customer list for you in a few minutes with everyone’s contact information.” Roger opened the side gate rather than have her go through the shop. The group of waiting divers looked at Bev expectantly.

  She introduced herself, thanked them for their patience and promised to get through the interviews as quickly as possible. She took Beau out of hearing distance of the group. “What do you know at this point?”

  “Not a lot other than finding out the guy — Matt Raney — didn’t make it. I think I’ve sorted through who’s who. As far as I can tell the five on the boat are the only ones who might know much useful. How do you want to do this?”

  “Roger will give us all the contact info. Start with anyone who might be leaving town tonight, so we can get them on their way. I’ll go on-board. If you finish before I do, join me and we’ll divide whoever is left to interview.”

  Bev strode to the boat and was greeted by Tyler. He and Gary were regulars at the Scarlet Macaw, although she couldn’t recall ever having an actual conversation with either.
The two older men were seated together on the opposite bench by the marine head. They were talking quietly and nodded acknowledgement. The girl, Crystal, was next to Gary, a blue and green striped beach towel wrapped like a shawl. She was slumped a bit which was to be expected and her hair, almost the same shade as Bev’s, was cut short, naturally wavy without tight curls. She was slightly angled away from Bev and must have noticed Gary’s reaction. She twisted, green eyes clear although the reddening of her nose showed traces of earlier tears. She stood, rewrapping the towel to tuck it around her. Bev glimpsed a small green-print bikini on a slender, muscled frame.

  “Bev, this is Crystal Sharpe.” Gary said, standing close to the teen. He was only a couple of inches taller, a stocky build and a thick neck. Football maybe in his earlier years if he’d been into organized sports. A faded long scar on his left forearm that must have been vicious when it was fresh, tailed into a tattoo of a stingray. His black hair was cut so short if there was any curl, it didn’t show.

  Bev tried to keep from sounding too official. “I’m Police Detective Henderson. I know this is difficult for you, but it’s better to ask questions now while everything is fresh on your mind. I understand you’re not eighteen. Do you want to call your parents and wait for one of them?”

  An odd look flashed across the girl’s face. “Uh, no. It’s just my mom and she’s at work. She doesn’t dive and if I tried to explain on the phone it would probably scare her. I’m, I’m okay to talk.” She cut her eyes to Gary. “Would it be okay if he stayed with us?”

  Gary nodded to Bev’s unspoken question. He didn’t look to be much older than the teen — his mid-twenties, Bev thought. It wasn’t strictly protocol, but interviewing a minor could be tricky, and it wasn’t as if there was a crime involved. Yes, it was possible the girl hadn’t responded correctly to the emergency. That, however, was a risk every diver took with a buddy.

  “No problem,” Bev said and Tyler moved aft to be with Stan and Maury. Her guess was all three men had been through this kind of process before. Gary and Crystal made room on the bench for Bev to sit.

  “I’ll get your personal information and diving background from Mr. Lariby, so we don’t need to go over that. Was there anything at all unusual about the day before you went into the water? Anything Mr. Raney mentioned about not feeling well or any kind of problem?”

  Crystal was shaking her head. “No, not all. I mean, we didn’t really talk too much. I was here early because I’d been helping fill tanks between the morning and afternoon dives. Matt didn’t get here until it was almost time for roll call.” She gestured forward. “We were in the front position and the two ladies from Brazil were closest to us. I mean, like we said hi and everything, but I went over to talk to the Wallaces — that’s the older couple who dives with us quite a bit. They have a lot of stories about places they’ve been.”

  “What was your dive plan?”

  “Pretty simple, really. Matt…” Crystal’s voice quavered, then she inhaled deeply and exhaled. “Matt taught me the wreck course not too long ago. We were going all the way into the mess area — that’s…,” she paused. “Do you dive? Have you been on the Spiegel?”

  “Yes, not inside to there,” Bev said. “Did you have any problems with the descent?”

  “No, everything was fine. I mean, visibility was about sixty feet, but there wasn’t much current which was a really good thing as it turned out. We went through the corridors and machine shop and all. Matt was leading. We were in the kitchen and I stopped to look at the dishwasher. All that stuff is pretty cool. It didn’t seem like it was more than maybe a few seconds, but I didn’t actually check exactly how long it was. I keep thinking about it and maybe it was a longer than I thought. I mean, I knew Matt was going to be poking around too. It was silty though and it got to where I could barely see him. When I caught up, it took me a second to realize he was in trouble. His back was to me and I didn’t notice at first the regulator wasn’t in his mouth. He was at kind of a funny angle and I thought maybe he was looking at something special. I came around to his side and the reg hose floated in front of my face.” She darted her eyes downward and then resumed her gaze, her voice shaky. “I didn’t know what was going on, but I grabbed it and pulled him to face me. He was unconscious and I tried to get the reg into his mouth so I could clamp it in. You know, like we practiced. Then I remembered about, if a diver is already unconscious, getting him to the surface is what matters.”

  Bev nodded encouragingly. “I was trying to stay calm and just focused on what we practiced when we had the Rescue class. It was harder than I was expecting, you know, to get him turned the right way, and move as fast as I could to get him out. There’s another exit and it was closer than the way we’d come in. It’s like all of sudden, you wish you had an extra pair of hands.” Her voice pitched upward and she paused again to exhale and settle her tone. “So, I brought him out and caught movement to one side. Then Maury and Stan — I didn’t know who they were, except I knew they were on our boat and I could just tell by the way they were acting they knew what they were doing. I thought for a tiny second about not letting them take over, and it’s not like I’m not strong for my size, but, well, I was sure they could get Matt to the surface better than me.”

  Bev kept her voice neutral. “That was good thinking.”

  Crystal gave a sideways glance. “So when I came up, Gary, was looking for me — well, for all the divers, really, to get us on the boat. I had seen one pair below me. He asked if I was okay and I told him I was.”

  Bev raised her eyebrows.

  Gary said. “I’d gotten the Wallaces to their seats and was facing out to see if anyone else was at the safety stop when Maury came up with Matt. Stan wasn’t far behind him. Maury had started in-water resuscitation and they were pretty close to the ladder. Tyler and I pulled Matt in. Maury and Stan have been diving with us before and we knew they were rescue qualified. The three of them worked on Matt while I waited for Crystal, in case she needed help. Stan had told her to complete her safety stop.”

  Crystal sniffed loudly as if to withhold tears. “I told them what I could, then everything sort of happened at once.”

  “We had the last divers coming up and the Coast Guard arrived,” Gary said and inclined his head toward Tyler, Maury, and Stan.

  It wasn’t difficult to imagine the scene. An advantage to the size and layout of the Corinthian was the passengers could all be shifted forward to be out of the way of the evacuation.

  Bev stood. “I know this is difficult for you, Crystal,” she repeated. “I don’t need anything else right now. Are you going to be okay to get home?”

  “Uh, if you’re done with me, too, I can take her,” Gary volunteered. “One of the other staff can give Tyler a hand with the boat.”

  “Yeah, that’s fine,” Bev said. She would just as soon have Crystal gone while she talked with the more experienced men about their impressions. “We can take care of official statements in the morning. Can you be at the station at 9:00?”

  The pair nodded and Bev moved to the trio. Tyler’s black hair was pulled into a short pony tail, his beard and moustache neatly trimmed. An old scar ran from his heavy left eyebrow into the hairline and his dark brown eyes were level with Bev’s. His forearms were surprisingly void of tattoos, although a shark was on his right calf. There was barely an inch difference in height between Maury and Stan, close enough to claim six feet. Mid-forties was her guess and their builds were opposite. Stan had the lean look of a marathoner which might have been an entirely incorrect assessment. Even though he wasn’t overly bulky, Maury had a barrel chest and enough muscle tone to indicate he probably worked out regularly.

  “Cleveland Fire Department,” he said upon introduction. “Stan is a physical therapist at Lakeland Sports Clinic.”

  The basics of the interview didn’t take long. The two men were staying for a week, if Bev needed to speak with them
individually later. After the known facts were recorded, she was ready for the two speculative questions they had no doubt discussed among themselves.