Becky flushed and nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it quite that way. I’m just really surprised to see you here.”

  “You made a police report, and we must confirm that we have all the details, so we can get to the bottom of the issue. If it’s a crime, … then to find all the evidence we can, so we can get a conviction.”

  “And yet I don’t have any good way to describe him, except that he was a white male or potentially a mixed race or maybe just had a suntan,” she shared, raising both hands. “He had come off the beach, right around the corner from Wreck Beach.”

  “Hang on. Are you saying he wasn’t at the beach?” Kate asked, her voice sharp.

  “No, he was just around the corner a little bit,” she clarified, clutching her hands. “Whenever I go down there, I don’t …” She tossed a half-worried glance at her mother. “I don’t go there so much for the beach itself, but for the privacy,” she replied reluctantly. “If you continue to walk around the point a little way, you can sit and really commune with nature at a couple places on the rocks.”

  Kate thought about that and nodded. “Okay, so you went around this corner, and what exactly did you see?”

  She sniffled. “A woman, at least I thought it was a woman,” she added, taking a moment. “She was on the rocks, fully dressed, and then this man came up beside her. I don’t know if he pushed her or what happened. I wasn’t looking, but the next thing I know she’s in the water, and he looks like he’s trying to help her. I wanted to believe he was trying to help her, and I’m standing up on my feet and cheering him on but not saying anything, wondering if I should call for help or what I’m supposed to do,” she muttered, half-worried and half-clutching the lapels of her robe, tighter and tighter. She looked lost for a moment.

  “Go on, please.”

  “So it looks like he’s almost got her, but … instead he seems to push her back in the water. I couldn’t clearly see, as they weren’t close to me. For all I know, she fell back in.”

  This wasn’t what Kate expected to hear.

  Becky flushed and shook her head. “I know that sounds terrible, but there was such a creepiness to it, especially when she went down the second time.” Becky shuddered. “It looked to me as if he wasn’t helping her at all.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “That’s partly why I’ve been bawling my eyes out because I feel terribly guilty.” She cried out, “I don’t even know what I was supposed to do, but, since I didn’t do anything, I’m just as guilty as he is.”

  “Think about it. If you had gone down there, would you have made it in time?” Kate asked her.

  “No, I don’t think so. Or that’s what I want to believe because that’s the only way I can really absolve myself of the guilt,” she admitted, “but I don’t really know.”

  Kate understood that. It was hard to go through something like that and then wonder what if. She needed to confirm with Rebecca what a normal reaction that was.

  She said as much to the young woman. “Just remember. You were not trained to rescue someone. It’s natural to freeze, questioning what to do next. I think the what-ifs are the worst thing when something like this happens. What if I could have gotten there in time? What if I could have saved her? What if I had done something different?”

  Kate held a hand out to her. “I don’t think in a circumstance like this that you could have reached the woman in time or that it would have made any difference. We don’t know whether this man was helping her or hurting her. For that matter, we don’t know if he could swim. He may have been dealing with his own trauma from some previous scenario or something.”

  “Oh, I never thought of that,” Rebecca muttered, staring at Kate. “I guess that’s possible too, isn’t it?”

  “It’s absolutely possible,” Kate agreed. “It’s quite a common reflex for anybody who has come close to drowning or has watched somebody drown or has been in any kind of scenario like that to just go to pieces, and they freeze up. They can’t help because it’s not within them to pull themselves together once the shock and/or trauma takes over. As sad as it may sound, they aren’t the right person to be helping.”

  “So, if I had been there, maybe I could have helped?”

  “You phoned the police, and I’m here to determine just what it was that you saw. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but her body was recovered yesterday morning,” Kate shared. “An autopsy has been performed, but no other obvious factors, like a gunshot wound or anything like that, could be found on her body.”

  “Right.” Rebecca wrung her hands. “My God, I just … don’t ever want to see something like that again.”

  “Of course not,” Kate murmured, “and, with any luck, you won’t. Can you remember anything to help identify this man? Anything at all? Did he leave right away, or did he sit down on the rocks and cry or pray or anything?”

  “He stood there and watched her as she went down. He didn’t try to phone the police or anything.” And then she stopped and added, “I don’t even know that for sure because I was in such shock myself. That should teach me a lesson. I was in shock and didn’t know what to do. So, if he was there on the spot, I can’t imagine how he must have felt.”

  “Exactly. I don’t want this man doing something to himself out of guilt or despair either,” Kate noted. “So, if we can contact him or find out who he is, that would be helpful.”

  “I don’t know.” Becky shook her head. “And that just makes me feel like an even bigger idiot.”

  “Hush now,” her mother said from behind them. “You’ve already been through enough trauma. Don’t make it worse.”

  “And yet, how much worse was it for that young woman?” Rebecca wailed.

  Kate didn’t have any argument for that because Rebecca was right. As Kate stood here, she noticed just how bright and comforting the front room was. That said much about Rebecca’s mother’s personality. She smiled at the other woman and added, “I presume she can stay here with you for another day or two.”

  “Oh, of course,” the mother replied, as she pulled Rebecca a little closer to her. “She just needs a couple days to get over this.”

  Kate nodded. “I presume you left before he did.”

  She nodded. “I bolted,” she confessed. “I don’t even know what else I could have done anyway, but I just … bolted.” She shook her head. “I’m really struggling with who I am and what I did or didn’t do,” she admitted, with a sheen of fresh tears. “I did phone the police, but I don’t know if that was enough.” And her voice trailed away.

  “There was nothing else you could do,” Kate declared. “So let that go, and just remember. As this investigation goes on, I might need to contact you again. In the meantime, if you do think of anything else, please call and let me know.” And she slipped over her card.

  Rodney gave her one as well and added, “I work with Kate, so the two of us will be on this case until we sort it out.”

  “Thank you,” Rebecca said gratefully, looking over at the two of them. “Thank you so much. I really hate to even imply that this guy might have done something wrong because who the hell am I to judge? Apparently I didn’t do anything right either.”

  “You absolutely did something right,” Kate reiterated. “You contacted the police, and I’m not sure anybody else could have done anything, short of being a doctor or somebody with life-saving skills.” She gave Rebecca a reassuring smile and went on. “It’s not really something that you had a choice over, as you just happened upon this event. Plus, the water is cold, and the current is strong. You could have easily drowned yourself.”

  Her mother frowned. “I don’t remember hearing much about Wreck Beach. Where is it?”

  “It’s right on the banks of the university,” Kate supplied, as she eyed the older woman and then the daughter, who looked resigned to an explosion about to come. Kate smiled and added, “One of many popular places down there.”

  Her mother turned to Rebecca. “Surely enough beautiful beaches are close by that you don’t have to go into these isolated ones, honey. You know better.”

  Rebecca nodded. “I’ll certainly reconsider it now, won’t I?”

  “So you should,” her mother stated crossly. “I mean, look at what happened. Stay on the true and narrow, and you’ll be in much better shape.”

  Kate, with a small smile on her face, nodded at Rebecca, who seemed relieved, as if the storm had been averted. “We’ll see ourselves out.” She turned to leave, and Rodney did the same. “Remember. If you think of anything, just let us know.”

  Grateful, Rebecca nodded. “Thank you, Detective.”

  Kate understood exactly what she meant, as she headed out to Rodney’s car.

  Once outside on the sidewalk, Rodney asked her, “What was that all about?”

  “A young woman not wanting her mother to know that she had been frequenting a nude beach,” Kate explained, with a knowing smile. “A very appreciative daughter, since we didn’t tattle.”

  He chuckled. “It’s always the quiet ones who surprise you.”

  Kate snorted. “Only because you already expect that behavior from the other ones.”

  He nodded. “The quiet ones have to do it on the sly, so nobody knows.”

  *

  Simon was hard-pressed to put the thoughts of the lovely little vessel Running Mate out of his mind, though it wasn’t so little at all. He absolutely did not need it, unless one considered the benefit of getting out on the water to relax. No doubt that stress was one of the biggest issues he needed to combat. And Kate too.

  Even if he handled his stress on a day-to-day basis, it was an insidious disease going on in the background that continuously worked to gain a foothold, with the intent of eroding his health. Not something he was prepared to lose at this stage of his life. Baxter himself looked to be quite happy and content, and it was an interesting choice to sell a yacht that he had enjoyed with his family for decades. However, with the march of time, Simon knew and understood all too well that families changed, that priorities changed.

  Simon didn’t even have a family, so this family-size yacht was clearly too big for him. Yet his affinity for the Running Mate never dimmed. He would buy that yacht, but, for now, he put the thought out of his mind, as he walked from project to project to inspect his building rehabs. He also stopped in at several suppliers today, where he had a couple arguments over some invoices that were paid, yet the suppliers weren’t. Just a typical business day for anybody who did this kind of work. The biggest problem was often the damn phone calls that just never left him alone.

  He stepped into a popular coffee shop and waited in line, and, when it was his turn, he quickly ordered a coffee to-go. As he waited in yet another line for it to be made, he heard a shout behind him.

  He turned and there was Baxter, walking up to him. Simon laughed. “What the hell?” he asked, as they shared a handshake.

  “I know, right? But that’s what happens when we live in the same area. You put any more thought into that yacht of mine?”

  “You mean that barely a yacht thing?” he teased.

  Baxter rolled his eyes. “You know I always wanted bigger.”

  “Of course. You wanted a faster sports car. You wanted a better motorcycle and everything else. I know all about it all too well.” Simon laughed.

  “Yeah, especially once I hit middle age, and the kids hit, like fourteen,” Baxter shared, thinking back. “Just something about seeing a stretch of freedom ahead but not quite being there, something that I could taste but I couldn’t eat yet because it was in the future. It was attainable, but I couldn’t have it yet.” He shrugged. “That was kind of painful. I needed time to assimilate through my kids’ teenage years and then their college years. Now they all have families of their own”—he sighed—“and my wife wants to travel. I’m torn, but happy to do it her way for a while.”

  “Are you though?” Simon asked curiously. “The last thing I want to do is take away the freedom that the Running Mate gives you, then have you come back in five years and whine about how much you miss her. I’m not sure I would be ready to let her go in five years.”

  Baxter chuckled. “And with good reason,” he agreed, “but that’s the way I would want her to go, you know? To somebody who would get out there and enjoy life. You work too hard.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been told that a time or two,” Simon conceded, with a smile. “Yet I also know that the years will pass by very, very quickly.”

  “I think, in a way, they pass by even more quickly when you have kids. Your days are so full that you don’t quite ever get a sense of time without the kids. Then suddenly there’s spring break and summer holidays and Christmas, and the years tumble by without your thinking about the culmination of all of them and those experiences. It’s this never-ending rotation that never stops. … And then it does.”

  Simon nodded. “As I don’t have any kids, I haven’t really had a whole lot of that cyclical thing going on, yet time does seem to go faster as I get older.”

  At that, Baxter laughed, and then he grew serious, with an expression on his face that Simon couldn’t place. “What are your thoughts on the boat?”

  “You mean, on the Running Mate?” he asked, with a pointed smile. “You sure you’re ready to sell? I do hear a hint of upset over the whole thing.”

  Baxter gave a one-arm shrug. “It’s been my baby,” he admitted. “But, just like her babies have flown the coop, it might be time to have mine go as well.” Then he looked at Simon and smiled. “We had a health scare this year, and that means we get to reevaluate some of the things that we still want to do, while we have the time. As much as I wouldn’t mind keeping Running Mate, we need the money from the sale to realize some of these other travel plans.”

  “Ah.” Simon nodded at that. “That makes a whole lot more sense.”

  “The trouble is, we have all these things that we want to do and could do, but then we have to decide if we’ll actually do them.” Baxter eyed Simon with a certain seriousness that surprised Simon. “If you don’t make those decisions soon, and then something happens, it’s too late.”

  “I gather the health scare must have been pretty bad.”

  “It was. She was in treatment for nine months,” Baxter shared, his voice dropping with emotions. “But she’s free and clear now, so we’ll spend the next five years doing a lot of what she wanted to do. She spent her life raising the children, and I could get away occasionally. Sure, a lot of them were business trips, but it was still a break, and it was a change for me. It was something that I could do but that she couldn’t. We’ve talked about a lot of things over the years that she was counting on me to continue to do or to keep us on a plan, even though I may have changed my mind a time or two,” he admitted, with an eyeroll. “So it’s time for us to do a few other things. I might buy another yacht down the road, when we get there. You never know. Maybe I’ll come knocking on your door, seeing if you’re still as happy with your purchase then as you might be now,” he added, looking at Simon intently. “Maybe you’ll be willing to sell it back to me—though I doubt that will be anytime soon.”

  Simon smiled. “In that case, let’s talk price.”

  After that, it didn’t take long to hammer out a price that made them both happy. When Baxter stood, he shook Simon’s hand and stated, “There’s another advantage of your getting her too.”

  “What’s that?” Simon asked, as he sent a text to his lawyer to draw up the paperwork.

  Baxter laughed. “I’ll come and visit you and her over the years,” he shared ruefully, as Simon chuckled at his tone. “This last year I’ve hardly taken her out.”

  And, with that, and a promise to come and crack a couple beers down the road, Baxter walked out, leaving Simon with a smile and a sense of completion and joy. He’d bought something that had been on his mind for a very long time, but he hadn’t quite got around to doing something about it. Now finally it had been the right time to do this.

  Something about being in a relationship with Kate made Simon feel more settled. It made no sense because she seemed to also have sparked his psychic abilities in a way that made him way less settled. Still, she’d helped him to find a sense of value from them. A purpose.

  As he got up to toss his plate and napkins in the garbage, a strange prickling raced along the back of his neck. Curious, he turned and looked around. A line of people were at the coffee counter again on both sides, one to order and another to await their drinks being made. They were mostly young, laughing, some of them on their phones. But one man, probably in his mid-fifties, just stood there, his hands in his jacket pockets, glaring but not necessarily seeing what was around him. It was weird.

  Suddenly he turned and stared directly at Simon.

  Simon jolted with the power of his gaze, before it slipped past him, almost as if releasing him. Such a strange and unnerving experience. He took note of the gentleman—nondescript brown hair, nondescript brown suit, nondescript brown shoes. Everything about him was kind of nothing. Average. Simon was more than a little disturbed by the realization that he couldn’t find something more distinctive about him, so he quickly walked out of the coffee shop.

  Chapter 5

  Kate, with Rodney at her side, pulled up to the first of the witness addresses they’d been given regarding the multiple drowning files. She double-checked her notes to confirm the address and frowned. “It doesn’t look like a great area,” she noted cautiously.

  “You mean because we’re in the commercial district and this looks more like a homeless shelter?”

  She nodded. “What are the chances that it is a shelter?”

  “Let’s go find out.” He hopped out of the vehicle, and she quickly raced to catch up.

  As they walked in, she nodded. “Either it’s a halfway house or something similar.” At the front desk, Kate introduced herself and asked if they could see Norman Rogers.

  The woman frowned. “I’m not sure that he’s around,” she noted tentatively. “Were you expecting him to be here?”