Distant Echoes (11 page)

F
aye walked along the beach with Heidi running ahead of her. The little girl stopped and tossed lava rock into the turquoise waves before skipping ahead again. Faye didn’t know where the child got so much energy. In the three days she’d been watching her, they’d gone horseback riding, been to Fern Grotto, and gone on a picnic to Waimea Canyon.

She was already exhausted. How she would keep this up for another month, she had no idea. Faye found herself remembering how it was when her own children were young. She hadn’t enjoyed this age then, but maybe she’d been too much of a kid herself. Once Heidi got used to her, maybe things would be less tiring.

She caught up with Heidi only after the girl plopped down to the sand and began heaping it into a pail. “Want some help?” Faye asked her. The little girl shook her head and didn’t look at her. She’d been sullen and uncooperative all day, and Faye was fed up with it. She was only doing this because Curtis thought it was a good idea, and at least the kid could cooperate.

“I’m going to swim, Auntie Faye.” Heidi got up and went to the edge of the water.

Faye watched the little girl’s pink bathing suit blur into the brilliant blue of the ocean. In a few minutes Heidi rode a rolling wave onto the beach. Faye looked down at her own modest black suit. She could join the child in the water, but it would mess up her hair,
and she and Curtis had an engagement with business associates later. She didn’t want to have to wash it again.

She pulled a beach towel out of her bag and spread it on the pale golden sand. She’d just lie in the sun and watch Heidi play. A few other women and children were playing along this section of Queen’s Pond at Polihale Beach, but not many. She settled her sunglasses on her nose and lay on her stomach with her face turned toward the water where she could watch Heidi.

The sun baking into her skin felt good, and the tightness in her muscles began to relax. She still hadn’t met Kaia. Every day when she got home, Curtis asked her if she’d met Kaia or her brothers. His face clouded every time she said no. She was going to have to disappoint him again today. They’d both been sure the women’s paths would cross, considering Kaia’s connection to Jesse and Heidi.

Her eyes closed against the glare of the sun that penetrated the edges of her sunglasses. A shout startled her. She sat up and looked toward the water. She relaxed when she saw Heidi dumping sand from her pail.

Someone shrieked again. “Where’s Michael? Where’s my son?” The hysterical mother ran toward the water.

The cry was something no woman could ignore. It touched the deepest fears in every female. Faye stood and ran to the water’s edge with the woman. “Are you sure he’s in the water?”

“He was right here a minute ago,” the woman said, her tone frantic.

The other mothers began to call for the little boy. While they checked the water, Faye hurried toward the restrooms. Children were never where you expected them to be. She rapped on the men’s door. “Michael, are you in there?”

The door opened, and she looked down on a small boy of about four. “Are you Michael?” He nodded. “Your mommy is looking for you.” She took his hand and led him toward the beach.

She looked across the sand to the water. The waves were bigger now, tipped with foam. She handed Michael off to his mother then looked around for Heidi. There was no sign of the little girl. “Have you seen Heidi? She’s blond, about eight.”

The women shook their heads. “We were looking for Michael,” one woman said.

Faye cupped her hands around her mouth. “Heidi, time to come in.”

Only the terns’ harsh calls answered her. She scanned the waves again and told herself not to panic. Just as Michael had been found, Heidi would be too. Maybe she was in the restroom as well. But she would have passed her on the way back, she reminded herself. Faye ran down the beach toward another group of children but Heidi wasn’t with them.

She ran the other direction. Clouds had gathered in the west, and the wind began to freshen. Her knees felt weak and wobbly, and she was lightheaded. Heidi had to be here. But there was no sign of a blond head in the water anywhere.

Tears sprang to her eyes, and she turned and looked up and down the sand. She saw small footprints leading toward an area where palm trees marched along the water’s edge. Terror squeezed her lungs, and she followed the prints. “Please, Lord, please let her be all right,” she muttered.

The footprints ended near a battered pier where the beach petered out into jagged black rock. Straining her eyes, Faye stared out at the waves and saw a distant sea kayak with a blond head poking up in the middle. Heidi. Faye looked around for another kayak or dingy—anything. But there was no other craft at the crumbling dock. She needed help. The child was no match for the growing waves.

She sprinted back to her bag and rummaged for her cell phone. She couldn’t find it. Biting back a groan, she upended the bag onto the sand. Her cell phone went skittering across the beach. She grabbed for it and fell as it slipped past her. The sand scraped the skin from her knees, but she hardly noticed the sting.

She picked up the phone and dialed Curtis at the office. When she told him what had happened, he promised to call Jesse and have him come right away. Faye dropped her phone onto the sand and ran back to the pier. She couldn’t see the boat any longer. Sobbing, she sank to her knees and prayed like she’d never prayed before.

K
aia rubbed her eyes. She was never going to get used to this night work. Her body clock needed sunshine glinting off the surf and the sound of terns cawing overhead. She got dressed, brushed her teeth, then looked around for her keys. They weren’t on her bedside table where she thought she’d left them.

Hiwa meowed as she scooped her up and carried her through the house. She went through the pockets of the clothes she’d left on the kitchen floor by the washer last night but didn’t find them. She glanced on the counter. No keys. It was already nearly five, and she wanted to stop to see her grandfather before she had to report for work.

She set Hiwa on the floor and threw last night’s pizza into the trash. This kitchen was a pit. She’d punched the snooze button on her alarm too many times. Her goal for the afternoon had been to clean house, but it wasn’t going to happen today. Three days’ worth of dirty glasses sat on the counter as well as the dirty pots from making a week’s worth of granola. She was a health nut about her food, and she wished that care extended to housekeeping.

She took ten minutes to set the kitchen to rights, but she still couldn’t find her keys. What a scatterbrain she was. Where had she left them? This morning she’d gotten home at six, gulped down a bowl of granola with flaxseed, and headed for bed. No, wait, she’d thrown a load of clothes in the washer first. Maybe they were in the laundry room.

The phone rang and she grabbed it.

“Kaia, can you meet me at the pier below you? I’m about to pass it right now. Heidi took a kayak out by herself.” Jesse’s voice held a touch of panic.

Kaia didn’t ask questions. “I’ll be right there.” She clicked off the phone, grabbed her jacket, and ran out the door.

Hadn’t that woman he hired been watching Heidi? Kaia’s anger and fear grew as she reached the top of the cliff and saw the size of the swells from the storm blowing in. Easily twenty feet, they could swamp an inexperienced kayaker in minutes. Heidi was resourceful, but she was just a child, and Kaia doubted she had the expertise to manage these waves.

The navy boat was just pulling up to the dock when she arrived. Jesse’s face was grim and strained. Kaia wondered how much sleep he’d had over the past few days. She’d half expected him to accompany her on the patrol at night, but another sailor had joined her.

She hopped aboard the boat without waiting for it to dock and dropped the backpack containing her diving gear onto the deck. Jesse grabbed her hand to steady her against the rolling of the vessel, and she dropped into a seat beside him. “Any sign of her yet?”

He shook his head. “Can Nani help us?”

“I’ll call her.” She opened her backpack and pulled out the equipment she’d been carrying with her on the patrols. Leaning over the side of the boat, she put DALE into the water and turned it on. The clicks and whistles it emitted couldn’t be heard above the sound of the surf. White spray struck her in the face as the boat headed out to sea, and she licked the salt from her lips. It was hard to hang on to DALE with the bounce of the vessel.

She was beginning to think Nani wouldn’t respond when she finally recognized the dolphin’s dorsal fin running along the side of the boat. “There she is!”

Nani leaped into the air and splashed down then raced alongside the boat. Jesse told the pilot to head along Polihale Beach just north of Barking Sands. Kaia spotted a figure waving from a dilapidated pier along a piece of land that jutted into the sea. “Who is that?” she asked, pointing.

Jesse squinted. “I think it’s Faye, Heidi’s nanny.” He directed the boat to veer over to pick her up.

The woman’s eyes were red, and her mascara had left tracks of black under her eyes. She clambered aboard. “Oh, Jesse, I’m so sorry. I don’t know how she managed to slip away from me like that. A mother had lost her child, and I was trying to help find him. I was
only distracted for a few minutes.”

Jesse pressed his lips together. “How long has she been gone?”

Faye glanced at her watch. “Maybe an hour?”

Kaia checked the other woman out. She recognized Faye’s bathing suit as one that had cost the earth, and she smelled like she’d bathed in expensive French perfume. The Kate Spade sandals she wore would have cost Kaia’s wages for the week. She looked Hawaiian, but Kaia had never seen her before.

She frowned. Why would a woman of such wealth be babysitting? Kaia hadn’t had a chance to ask Jesse much about the new nanny. But the woman was obviously distraught, and Kaia knew how quickly a child could slip away. She’d had a hula student wander off once, and it was something she never forgot.

“She could be far out to sea by now.” Jesse turned and looked out over the water. He ordered the pilot to head back out.

Kaia leaned over the side of the boat. She’d tried to teach Nani the series of clicks and whistles that she’d assigned to Heidi’s name the first week they’d been out together. She could only pray the dolphin remembered and had figured it out. The device emitted the sound of Heidi’s name, and Nani leaped in the water then zipped ahead of the boat.

“Follow the dolphin!” Jesse shouted over the noisy surf.

Nani had made the connection. Kaia could hardly believe it. Now if only the dolphin could find the little girl. The skipper revved up the engine, and the boat’s bow slammed against every wave. The repeated jarring would have knocked Kaia to the deck, but she held on to the railing and strained to see through the spray. As Nani swam toward the Na Pali mountain chain, Kaia looked ahead then turned to look behind her. She saw something bobbing in the water.

“Is that a kayak?” Kaia pointed toward the shore. The upended kayak dipped and rolled with the waves tumbling it toward shore.

“It is!” Jesse leaned into the wind, his gaze on the boat.

Faye started to sob. Kaia jumped to the railing and cupped her hands to her mouth. “Heidi!” she shouted.
Please, Lord, let her be alive.
Her eyes burned. She knew Jesse was just as aware as she was that the little girl was unlikely to survive for long in seas like these.

Nani paused then turned back. Kaia felt a stab of disappointment in the dolphin. She hadn’t been leading them to Heidi. The clicks and whistles hadn’t represented anything meaningful to her. So much for their breakthrough.

Kaia squinted in the sunshine and continued to scan the waves and shout Heidi’s name. Nani sped by the boat and veered toward shore. In that moment, Kaia spotted Heidi in the water. “There she is!” She shucked her jacket, kicked off her slippers, and dove overboard.

The swells hampered her vision, but she struck out with adrenaline-driven strength in the direction she’d seen Heidi. She glimpsed Jesse off to her right in the water as well. She rode a swell to the top and saw the little girl clinging to Nani’s dorsal fin. The dolphin was pulling Heidi toward the boat.

Kaia shouted and pointed. Jesse heard her and shook the water out of his eyes. He waved that he’d seen them too, and they turned around and swam to intercept Nani and Heidi. They reached the boat the same time as the dolphin with her precious cargo.

Heidi let go of Nani and grabbed for her uncle’s hand. Kaia came alongside and together they hoisted Heidi to the waiting men, who lifted her to safety. A wave grabbed Kaia and flung her away from the boat.

She went under, gulping water. An undertow caught her, and she instinctively fought it for a moment. Heidi needed her, and she wanted to get to the boat, but the current was too strong. She let herself go limp and went with the riptide until it released its grip. Her head broke the surface. The boat was even farther away. Then Nani came to her, and she grabbed for the dolphin. Nani towed her back to the boat.

Jesse was at the ladder, spitting water. “I thought you were a goner,” he sputtered.

Kaia grabbed the ladder and hauled herself up. Jesse followed, and they both collapsed onto the deck.

Kaia lay gasping then rolled to all fours and looked for the child. “How’s Heidi?” She felt strung as tightly as a ukulele until she saw the
keiki.
Heidi lay in Faye’s arms. They were both crying. Faye was smoothing the child’s wet hair out of her face.

Too tired to stand, Kaia collapsed back onto the deck. Jesse grabbed her arm and helped her to a seat then went to his niece. Heidi turned and buried her face against her uncle.

“I’m sorry,” she gulped. “Are you mad at me?”

He embraced her with one arm and held on to the rail with the other. Then he sat down and pulled her onto his lap. “You could have been killed, Heidi. You almost were.”

She burst into fresh sobs. “The waves were so big. I kept swallowing water. Every time I got to the top of a wave, it sucked me under again. I asked God to send Nani, and he did. I was drowning when she came. She saved me.”