by J. D. Griffo
“Plus, it’s exactly as Sloan described,” Jinx said. “Look, those Germans are not only clever, but they’re practical too. They built a plastic covering over the entrance to the lake so you wouldn’t accidentally fall in.”
When Jinx grabbed the handle and lifted the lid, both women gasped. Even though this is what they had come to see, they couldn’t believe their eyes. They were looking down into a circular tunnel that would actually lead them directly into Memory Lake. All they had to do was climb down the metal ladder. Only three steps were visible, but peering down into the dark tunnel filled with what looked like ice-cold, black water, the surface seemed to be a million miles away.
This is why they took scuba-diving lessons, and this was the only way they were going to find out if Lucy’s TV Guide collection was laying at the bottom of the lake, so no need to hesitate now. Unfortunately, all Alberta could think of was Chi cerca mal, mal trova. The unpleasant phrase roughly translated to “He who seeks evil, generally finds it.” Was that what she was about to discover? Something evil? Or perhaps the complete opposite, an answer to the question of who killed Lucy Agostino? Yes, that had to be it. She couldn’t be en route to meeting up with evil with her granddaughter in tow.
“Having second thoughts?”
Yes, Alberta thought, but she kept them to herself. “Not a one. Race you to the bottom of the lake!”
Quickly and quietly, the women dressed in their wet suits and fins, adjusted their pressure gauges according to what they read in an online geographical survey were the atmospheric levels of the lake, strapped on their air tanks, and donned their masks.
“Remember, stay close by me and if you experience any trouble at all, what’s our distress code?”
“Three slaps to my left shoulder,” Alberta replied.
“Good,” Jinx said. “And what happens if I can’t see you?”
“I turn my flashlight on and off three times.”
“Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”
Kneeling next to the hole, Jinx put on her mask and then lay flat on the ground. She held on to the ladder with one hand and tilted forward until her mask was submerged just underneath the water’s surface. Rising back onto her knees, she looked up at Alberta and said, “The ladder goes pretty far down, but it’s going to be hard to climb even a few steps in our fins. I think we should just go for it and jump, what do you say?”
Alberta wanted to say that she would like to go home and pour herself a very tall glass of raspberry-flavored vodka, but instead she took a deep breath and lied, “Stairs are for chickens!”
Standing next to the edge of the hole facing the ladder, Jinx was about to bite down on her mouthpiece, but had some last-minute instructions to relay. “Remember, we’re only going to dive for fifteen minutes, so let’s synchronize our watches.”
“I have six forty-two,” Alberta announced.
“Me too,” Jinx confirmed. “So at . . . um, six . . . oh my God, I hate math! What’s fifteen minutes after six forty-two?”
“Adio mio, six fifty-seven.”
“Oh right, okay, then no matter wherever we are, no matter what we find, we turn back at six fifty-seven.” Jinx glanced at her watch. “Make that six fifty-eight.”
“Will you just go before we spend all night here!”
“I love you, Gram.”
Before Alberta could say that she felt exactly the same way about her granddaughter, Jinx had already jumped into the water. Momentarily frozen, Alberta felt her heart beat so loudly she thought it was going to burst out of her wet suit. If anyone saw her right now they would think she had completely lost her marbles and would haul her off to a mental institution. She could just hear her daughter, Lisa Marie, calling her an idiot for putting herself and Jinx in such danger. And she knew that wherever her husband Sammy was, he was shaking his head in disbelief. She could hear his gruff voice saying what he always told her when he thought she was about to do something stupid.
“I don’t know who the hell you think you are, Berta.”
“I’ll show you who I am, Sammy,” she said out loud. “I’ll show all of you.”
In quick succession, she made the sign of the cross, pressed her finger into the crucifix underneath her wet suit, bit down hard on her mouthpiece, and jumped.
As she descended lower, she saw that Jinx was right and the ladder was about ten feet long. Staring ahead she felt as if she was simply floating to the bottom of the pool during her scuba-diving lesson. And then she turned around.
Everywhere Alberta looked there was nothing but water.
In the distance she could see Jinx moving gracefully like she was a mermaid. Her hair extended all around her head as her fins flapped up and down in slow motion so she really looked as if she were born to live underwater. That girl could do anything that she wanted to. Alberta chuckled to herself and thought, Wait a second, so can I!
Taking a deep breath and exhaling to make sure her apparatus was working properly and she could truly breathe underwater, Alberta swam in Jinx’s direction. After only a few strokes, she let her body glide in the water and couldn’t believe how liberating it felt. The sensation was far different from the several hours she had spent practicing in the pool. Here the darkness and the silence made her feel as if she was floating in space. She was completely free and completely at peace.
She could tell by the way Jinx was moving languidly to the left and then to the right, allowing the water to guide her wherever it wanted to take her, that she felt the same way. Upside down, Jinx looked at Alberta and waved. Then she did a somersault and just before she started to dive lower toward the bottom of the lake she beckoned her grandmother to follow her. Alberta didn’t need any prodding. She couldn’t wait to explore this mysterious setting even further.
The lake was manmade. There wasn’t much algae or underwater plant life that Alberta could see and there definitely weren’t any fish. It was a little disappointing that the view wasn’t more tropical and cluttered with sea creatures and botanicals, but what the lake lacked in biology, it made up for when it came to clues. Alberta’s eyes grew wide when she saw four large metal boxes lying at the bottom of the lake.
She watched Jinx continue to swim farther away and realized she hadn’t seen the bounty, so Alberta pointed her flashlight in Jinx’s direction and turned it on and off three times. Immediately, Jinx turned around, thinking that her grandmother was in distress, and was relieved, but also confused, when she saw that she was perfectly fine. It wasn’t until she noticed what Alberta’s flashlight was illuminating that she knew their journey was a success.
Raising a fist triumphantly in the air, Jinx swam toward Alberta and together they did a sort of happy swirling dance round and round in circles. They actually did it, they found Lucy’s TV Guide collection, or at least the boxes that they believed contained the collection. The only way to know for sure, however, was to bring them home and open them up. But first they had to get them out of the lake.
They dove down and each grabbed a side of one of the boxes, but when they tried to lift it up, it would hardly budge. They tried again and were handed the same result. Jinx pointed to the other box, thinking that they’d have better luck, but the third time wasn’t a charm and they were still unable to lift the box any higher than an inch off the surface of the lake’s floor. Clearly the combination of the box’s contents, the water pressure, and their own inexperience was making what should have been a simple task impossible.
Jinx was going to suggest they try again when she noticed the time on her digital watch read 7:05. She couldn’t add quickly enough, but she knew it was several minutes past their cutoff time and they needed to swim back to the ladder. She was reluctant to go, but as novice divers she didn’t want to press their luck by staying underwater for too long. At least they achieved what they set out to do. They had found the boxes and were one step closer to finding out who killed Lucy.
Tapping her watch several times until Alberta nodded that s
he understood it was time to go, Jinx then turned around and started to swim back to the tunnel’s opening. Alberta had every intention of following her granddaughter until she saw a handle on the side of one of the boxes. Maybe that would make it easier to carry. Only one way to find out.
Grabbing hold of the handle securely, Alberta pulled up with all her strength, but again was only able to lift the box an inch off the floor. Growing weary, she dropped the box, causing a little splash of mud to rise up to her knees. As Alberta raised her flashlight to guide her back to the tunnel’s exit, she thought she saw something swim past her. Startled, she dropped her flashlight, but before she could pick it up, it hit one of the boxes and shut off. Suddenly, she was alone in the dark.
Before she could panic, she remembered what Freddy had taught her: If you close your eyes they’ll adjust to the darkness so you’ll be able to see shadows and the light coming from above. She did just that and lo and behold Freddy was right. When she opened her eyes it was still quite dark, but she could see there was another face staring back at her. Unfortunately, she could also tell that the face did not belong to her granddaughter.
CHAPTER 21
L’invidia prende non festive.
During all of Alberta’s scuba-diving classes, Freddy had never addressed the possibility of an underwater attack. She would have to remember to suggest that he amend his lesson plan, but until then, without any formal training in the matter, Alberta was forced to rely on instinct. And although she had vowed to stop being so passive and take a more active role in determining her fate, in this instance, her instinct told her not to fight back. It was a wise decision.
She didn’t know who was pulling her in the opposite direction of where she wanted to go, but she knew it wasn’t Jinx. For starters, her attacker didn’t have long hair, nor did this person use their predetermined distress signal to indicate that there was some sort of emergency. However, the real reason Alberta knew she wasn’t being forcibly dragged by her granddaughter was because she didn’t think Jinx would rip out her mouthpiece and yank her air tank off her shoulders. Her daughter might do that to her, but never her granddaughter. Luckily, familial animosity had skipped a generation, but unfortunately Alberta had no choice but to hold her breath and go along for the ride. Where that ride was taking her, she had no idea.
Without a flashlight it was very difficult to see, but she could feel that they were swimming slightly to the right and definitely up toward the surface of the water, so despite the violent approach, this person wasn’t trying to drown her. Although her vision was limited, it was definitely getting lighter and the water around her was no longer black but more of a light blue. She didn’t know if the lake was being illuminated by the last stages of sunset or the first rays of moonlight, but she didn’t care. As long as she wasn’t swathed in total darkness, she was grateful.
She was also oddly grateful for her assailant’s strength. Whoever was pulling her had to be strong, because her attacker had one arm around Alberta’s chest and as a result only had one other free arm to breaststroke their way to the surface. Although Alberta’s arms were being held down at her sides and were relatively useless, she was still able to use her legs and fins to give them additional speed and propel them upward much faster. One part of her brain hated working in tandem with whoever was kidnapping her—or was that lake-napping?—but the other part of her brain that contained her will to survive overruled any qualms she might have. The fact of the matter was that she was quickly running out of breath.
A sharp pain began to spread out from the center of her chest and she could almost see a thick rope start to wrap around her heart squeezing it as if it was about to burst. She could feel her throat start to twitch and expand involuntarily in a desperate attempt to take in oxygen that just wasn’t there. She pressed her lips together as tightly as she could even though all she wanted to do was open her mouth and take huge gulps of air. But she knew that if she did that all she would inhale would be water, and after that the slow process of drowning. She remembered reading that drowning was a peaceful death, but she simply had too much life left in her to accept death, peaceful or otherwise.
Feeling herself getting light-headed from the lack of oxygen and gripping fear, Alberta kicked her legs wildly and was able to free her left arm from her attacker’s hold. She raised her arm overhead and started stroking madly almost as if she was trying to pull herself out of the water. The second she broke through the surface of the lake, she gasped and allowed the air to reconnect with her aching lungs and flow all throughout her tired body. Still in panic mode, Alberta was breathing frantically, but she knew that if she continued she would hyperventilate. Willing the fear to remove itself from her mind, she forced herself to inhale and exhale deeply at a slower, more measured rhythm. Her heart was still racing, but soon she felt the pain in her lungs and head dissipate. She still didn’t have the strength to break free from her attacker, but at least she wasn’t going to have a heart attack.
Giving in to the motion, she allowed herself to be pulled to the bank of the lake. She didn’t care if she was allowing someone else to have control over her body as long as it meant that she was going to be on a flat, dry, unmoving surface. Once she got there, then she could figure out her next move. Her assailant, however, had other ideas. The moment they got onto the grassy slope of land, Alberta’s lake-napper got behind her, grabbed her underneath the armpits, and dragged her over the ground.
“Let go of me!” Alberta shrieked. She listened to her voice echo, but never heard a response.
Alberta’s body banged into rocks, fallen branches, and jagged bumps in the earth. Flailing her legs, she tried to dig her heels into the dirt, but any attempt to slow her attacker down was thwarted by the fact that she was still wearing her fins. But so was her assailant.
Alberta couldn’t grab on to the body that was dragging her through the woods surrounding the lake, but if she twisted herself far enough to one side, she might just be able to catch hold of one of its fins. Wrenching herself to the left, she reached out, but only grabbed the empty air. With her mask still on and the lens foggy from her heavy breathing, she could hardly see, but that didn’t mean she was going to give up.
Hurling herself to the right this time, Alberta swung her arm out as far as she could and this time was able to grab on to a fin. She pulled as hard as she could until the person who was dragging her fell to the ground and was as horizontal as she was. Finally, they were on a level playing field so she could find out who wanted to cause her such harm.
Alberta whipped off her mask just in time to see the rock fly through the air and slam into her forehead. She saw a shadowy figure rise up in front of her, and then everything went black.
* * *
Jinx was crying so hard that everything around her was a blur. She sat behind the wheel of her car, still dripping wet from being in the lake, and quickly glanced to the right and then the left before driving through the red light. Her cell phone in the cup holder next to her bounced around as she accelerated, but it was on speaker so the connection wasn’t lost.
“I’m so sorry, Aunt Joyce! I don’t know where Gram could be!”
“Honey, I need you to calm down,” Joyce said, forcing her own voice to remain calm.
“And slow down,” Helen added. “We don’t need another accident.”
Joyce’s phone was on speaker, and she was holding it between her and Helen so they could both hear Jinx’s story. “When you realized your grandma didn’t come out of the tunnel right after you, what did you do?” Joyce asked.
“I waited for a bit, but then I dove back down to where we found the boxes. I thought she might’ve still been trying to lift them up by herself.”
“And she wasn’t there?” Joyce confirmed.
“No, but I found her flashlight. It must’ve fallen somehow, so I thought she was swimming around in the dark and had lost her way.”
“Then what did you do?” Helen asked.
“I
started swimming and shining my flashlight all over the place to see if I could find her, and then—oh God!”
Helen and Joyce held each other tighter. “What happened then, Jinx?” Joyce demanded.
“I . . . I saw her air tank and her mouthpiece on the bottom of the lake. I’ve never been so scared in all my life!”
The sound of a car horn alerted Jinx that her car had drifted into oncoming traffic. She swerved the Cruze to the right, barely escaping impact with a much larger SUV.
“Be careful, Jinx!” Joyce cried.
“Honey, maybe you should pull over,” Helen suggested.
“No! I have to get to the police.”
“What happened after you started looking around?” Joyce questioned. “Did you ever see her again?”
“Maybe . . . yes . . . I’m not sure!”
“Focus, Jinx!” Helen yelled. “What exactly did you see?”
Wiping the tears from her eyes so she could see the road better, Jinx instead found herself lost in a recent memory. “At first I thought I saw Gram swimming away from me, but when I adjusted my flashlight to get a better look I saw that she wasn’t alone.”
Helen and Joyce both screamed at the same time, “Someone grabbed her?”
“Yes! And dragged her up to the surface!”
“Why didn’t you follow them?” Helen shouted.
“I got so scared that I screamed and my mouthpiece fell out! I was fumbling trying to get it back in, but I started swallowing water. I know I should’ve gone after them, but I thought I was going to drown, and I didn’t know how far I was from the surface, so I swam back to the entrance of the tunnel. I’m sorry!”
“You did the right thing, Jinx,” Joyce said forcefully. “Do you hear me?”
The only thing Jinx could hear, were her own sobs.
“Jinx, listen to me!” Helen barked. “You did exactly what you should’ve done and exactly what your grandmother would’ve wanted you to do. Do not blame yourself.”