Chapter 69

The crack of the gun was the last thing Julie heard as she sank in the sea. It was opaque, full of sediment, and maybe twenty feet deep. She had jumped straight down, and now she stayed on the bottom under the dock, holding her breath in water that was moving violently and as numbing as a full-body ice pack.

Julie clung to the thick, slimy piling, thanking God for the barnacles that gave her something to grip. All the same, she tried not to cut herself, scared stiff to bleed in that roiled, muddy water. It was terrifying not to be able to see beyond arm’s length! But she quickly realized the murkiness was a good thing because it meant that Susan couldn’t see her, and Susan was far more dangerous than anything in the water.

Julie’s lungs were exploding; she had to have some air! Slowly, she let herself rise to the surface.

“...ARE YOU, BITCH? YOU CAN’T STAY DOWN...”

Quickly, Julie sucked in the deepest breath she could manage and pulled herself down again beneath the dark, frigid water. Susan’s garbled voice instantly faded away.

Clinging again to the thick piling, Julie hung on for dear life against the powerful, swirling current that threatened to tear her away. She waited and waited until she couldn’t hold her breath a moment longer and was forced to come up for air.

Hand over hand, she rose to the surface, garbled sound becoming more distinct. There was tramping and yelling, men’s voices. She broke the surface of the water out of sight under the dock, gratefully gulping a lungful of the salty air.

“...DOWN! PUT THE GUN DOWN! DO IT NOW! NO! DON’T...!”

Gunfire cracked again and there was a thump on the dock right over Julie’s head.

“OH, SHIT!”

“IS SHE DEAD?”

She? It was Susan. Susan was shot! Julie moved to the outside of the piling, straining to see.

“HERE! I’M HERE! HELP ME!”

Suddenly, Joe appeared above her.

“MERLIN! HANG ON! WE’LL GET YOU OUT!”

It was Joe…

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