Distant Echoes (25 page)

“I don’t.” She batted his hands away.

Jesse’s head poked up from the galley below. “Sounds like you two are having an argument.”

“My sister has a hard head.”

“
I
have the hard head? It’s the other way around.” She handed Jesse a container of yogurt.

He accepted it and pulled off the foil top then sat beside her. “What are you fighting about?”

“Bane is on a quest to find our mother.” She inwardly winced at her shrill tone.

“You’re impossible. I’m going below.” Bane stood and disappeared below deck.

Kaia knew she should go after him and apologize, but she stayed put. He was the one who had brought it up.

“I take it you don’t want him to look for your mother?”

“I have no interest in dredging up the past.” She took the foil top from him and tossed it in the trash bag hanging from a hook beside her. “What about your family? Did you have a good relationship with your parents?”

Jesse shrugged. “Yeah, I still do.”

“You grew up here, didn’t you?” Kaia asked.

“Yep. My parents were church-plant missionaries. Me and my sisters always felt part of something big. My parents are in Indonesia now.”

“Sounds wonderful.” She heard the harsh tone in her voice.

“Your grandparents must have been kind.”

“They were. But it’s hard to live in a place that prizes family and know your own mother hated you so much that she left you at the mercy of strangers.” A lump formed in her throat. She should be able to put the past behind her. Why couldn’t she? It’s not like her mother had the power to hurt her anymore.

Maybe Bane was right and she had an unforgiving spirit. She found it hard to overlook slights, and staring into Jesse’s face, she realized she still blamed him for dragging her away from her research when she should be grateful for his help extricating Mano from his trouble.

Jesse squeezed her hand. “I’m sure your mom didn’t hate you, Kaia. That would be impossible for anyone.”

The air suddenly seemed more fragrant and silky. Kaia couldn’t look at him. The earnest tenderness in his voice made her feel like a dolphin on land. “Tell me about your wife,” she said.

The feel of the air changed. She could sense Jesse’s withdrawal.

“What do you want to know?”

“How did you meet?”

He sighed and rubbed his head. “You sure you want to hear this?”

She nodded. “Go ahead. Maybe it will help to talk about it.”

“It was a typical girl-next-door thing. She lived right here on Kaua’i. She was best friends with my sister Jillian. I fell for her the first day I saw her and we were married fifteen years later. I thought I knew her. I didn’t.”

“You sound a little bitter.”

“Maybe I am. Killing your wife will do that to a man.” His gaze never left her face as he said the words.

“If you’re trying to shock me, you’ll have to do a better job than that. Heidi already told me she died, and you think it’s your fault.” His rueful grimace stopped the rest of her words.

“It was my fault. We were arguing and I looked away from the road. I missed a curve. I lived. She died carrying my son. I killed two people that day.”

“It was an accident.”

“It didn’t make them less dead.”

“You need to forgive yourself.”

“Actually, I have, but it doesn’t make what I did any less wrong.”

Kaia had had all she could take. She rose. “I think I’ll let you take the first watch and try to catch a little nap.”

Nineteen

I
t didn’t work. Jesse Matthews just took leave and is patrolling the water on his own time with the dolphin lady. If anything, they’ll be more of a nuisance.”

The man looked up from the papers on his desk. “He can’t be allowed to stop our strike. Not now. We’re too close.” He tapped his teeth with the pencil he held in his hand. He needed leverage. His thoughts lingered on the kid. He couldn’t do that, could he? He sifted through the emotions clouding his thoughts: regret, pity, hatred. His hate was strongest. Just like a butterfly had to fight to emerge from its cocoon, so he had to struggle through emotions that would paralyze a weaker man.

He glanced up and grabbed his can of Red Bull. “We might need a hostage to keep him in line. I hadn’t thought to do this yet, but maybe it’s time. Get his niece.”

His assistant nodded and left. Best not to think about it. Just do it.

J
esse’s eyelids were heavy. He fought to stay awake. Glancing at the luminous dial on his watch, he realized he should awaken Bane or Kaia and let one of them take over. It was nearly 2 a.m. and they’d both been sleeping over four hours.

He knew Kaia needed her sleep. If he could just stay awake, he’d let her sleep the whole night through. Maybe Bane could take over for an hour or so.

But it was so pleasant to sit here and watch the moon on the water. The sound of the surf was soothing as it ran toward shore like a playful sea lion. He’d get one of them to relieve him soon. But not yet. His eyes did a slow blink. He’d close his eyes for just a minute. The boat would troll along at this slow speed for a long time before it ran aground on the rocky shore. Jesse closed his eyes.

He awoke with a start and sat up. He dug his nails into his hand, and the pain sharpened his senses. He glanced around to get his bearings and realized he couldn’t have slept more than fifteen minutes. What had awakened him?

He listened, but all he heard was the throb of the engines and sound of waves against rock and sand. Then the noise that had been out of kilter came again. A soft thump. It came from below. Maybe one of the others had awakened.

But it didn’t feel right. The sound was stealthy, but he told himself it was because whoever it was didn’t want to wake up the rest of the sleeping passengers. He listened, but the noise didn’t come again. His gaze swept the horizon, then he frowned and squinted. Was that a small boat moored about twenty-five feet away?

He grabbed the night goggles beside him and adjusted them to his eyes. The boat sprang into focus. A man sat hunched in the bow of the boat. He seemed to be looking right back at Jesse. That couldn’t be good.

He put down the goggles and started to rise when something came crashing down on the back of his head. Falling heavily forward, his face smashed into the steering wheel. Warm blood gushed from his nose, and the coppery taste filled his mouth. Splatters of blood sprayed the dash in front of him. He reached out and grabbed the goggles again, using them as a shield against his bigger, heavier attacker.

He grappled with the man in the darkness before being struck again. Heidi and
Kaia were sleeping below deck, he thought. He had to save them. He vainly tried to force back the darkness that rolled over him like a crashing breaker.

K
aia awakened in the darkness. She rolled over and glanced at the dim glow of the alarm clock. Jesse should have come to get her by now. He was going to get a piece of her mind. Reaching out her hand, she felt for Heidi’s warm presence but felt nothing but empty bed. She raised her head and saw a dark shadow pass by the door. The moonlight illuminated the room enough to see that it was a man. Not Bane or Jesse though. The guy was too bulky.

He was carrying Heidi up the galley ladder.

Galvanized into action, Kaia sprang from the bed. “You there. Put her down!” She ran forward, tripping over her slippers lying on the floor. “Bane, Jesse, stop him!” The cry was hard to force out of her tight throat.

Heidi murmured, and Kaia felt a sense of rising horror at the scent of chloroform that drifted toward her. The man had drugged the little girl.

The boat tilted in the waves, and Kaia staggered, nearly falling. She righted herself and barreled through the doorway. She threw herself onto the intruder’s back. He thrust an elbow into her stomach and tossed her aside like an empty clam shell. She went down hard.

“Bane, help me!” she screamed. She could see her brother’s sleeping form on the bed. He rolled over, his mouth open. He’d been drugged too.

She had no idea why the man had left her alert. Maybe he’d thought she would be no match for his strength even if she awakened. Was Jesse unconscious as well? It might be up to her to save Heidi.

Kaia sprang to her feet and looked around for a weapon. The man’s bare feet were about to disappear onto the deck above her head. Nani chattered in obvious agitation. Kaia grabbed an iron skillet hanging from a hook and charged up the ladder. Shrieking like a myna, she jumped up the last rung and onto the deck.

The man was at the railing. She raised the skillet over her head and charged again, bringing the skillet down with a loud clang onto the man’s head.

He uttered a small sigh then toppled overboard with Heidi. “Heidi!” Kaia dove over the side. She came up, flinging water from her eyes. Where was Heidi? Then she saw the little girl floating face-down in the water.

The dolphin surfaced beside her and got to Heidi before Kaia could. She came up under the little girl and bore her on her back to Kaia. Kaia reached out and pulled Heidi to her, flipping her over as she did. Was she breathing?

She couldn’t tell, and she couldn’t tend to her in the water. Pulling the little girl behind her in a lifesaver’s hold, she got to the ladder. Holding Heidi against her, she tried to climb the ladder, but the weight was too much for her.

“Help me, God!” she cried out. Panting and sobbing, she tried again, this time balancing Heidi on one shoulder. She got her foot in the first rung of the ladder and heaved straight up.

Heidi began to slip, but Kaia grabbed her with her right hand while using her left to continue pulling them up the ladder. She finally lay gasping next to Heidi on the deck.

She glanced toward the radio. There was no time to call for help. She rolled Heidi to her stomach and grabbed a coil of rope to put under her stomach for pressure. Pressing on the little girl’s back, she forced water out of her mouth then laid her on her back. What was the protocol for CPR for a child? For a moment she couldn’t think. Then her training came flooding back. One full breath, five compressions. She leaned over Heidi and breathed into her mouth then began the compressions. She prayed while she went through the routine.
Please, Lord, let her live.

It seemed an eternity before the little girl sputtered and coughed. She vomited seawater onto the deck, but she was breathing.

Kaia ran her hand over the water beading Heidi’s forehead. “Heidi, can you open your eyes?”

Moonlight and dim decking light illuminated Heidi’s face. Her lashes fluttered, then she opened her eyes. “Kaia?” she asked in a weak voice. “What happened?”

“I’m not quite sure,” she said. “You fell overboard.” Heidi didn’t need to know the whole story unless Jesse okayed it. The little girl might suffer nightmares from the ordeal. Kaia prayed Heidi wouldn’t remember it.

“Oh.”

She managed a smile and pressed her palms against Heidi’s cheeks. “Nani brought you to me on her back. It was something to see.” She helped Heidi sit up.

Heidi coughed. “I don’t feel so good.”

“I’m not surprised. Why don’t you just lie down here for a minute?” Kaia snatched a dry towel from the chair and snugged it around Heidi. “Better?”

Heidi nodded, her small face pinched and white. “I’ll be warm in a minute.” Her eyes closed.

Kaia left her there and went to check on Jesse. Along the way, she glanced overboard but didn’t see the man she’d hit with the skillet. In the distance, she heard a motor and saw a small craft speeding away from her boat. The guy must have survived the incident.

She hurried to the helm and found Jesse on the floor in the dim light in the room. She choked back a shriek when she saw the blood pooled around his head. Sinking to her knees, she rolled him over. His eyes were closed, and blood matted his hair.

She touched his face. “Jesse, can you hear me?” There was a first-aid kit in the compartment to the right of where she crouched, but she didn’t want to leave him to get it.

He didn’t respond. Panic flared in her chest. She had to leave him for a minute. She crawled to the compartment and pulled out the first-aid kit. Opening it, she found an ampule of smelling salts. With the kit in her hand, she went back to Jesse, broke the ampule, and waved it under his nose. The acrid smell stung her nose and made her eyes water.

Jesse gasped and his head lolled from side to side trying to escape the odor. “Smells like your cat,” he muttered weakly. His eyes opened more fully then watered from the stinging fumes of the smelling salts. He struggled to sit up.

“Lie still; you’re hurt,” she ordered. She dug in the kit again and pulled out a pad and alcohol.

“Ouch!” He pushed her hand away. “That hurts.”

“Don’t be such a baby,” she told him. She dabbed at the cut. It wasn’t as nasty as she’d feared. Head wounds bled so badly. She put a butterfly bandage on the cut. That would have to do until she could get him below deck and get the blood washed out of his hair.

His eyes snapped open in a more alert way. “Heidi!” He pulled out of Kaia’s arms and sat up.

“She’s okay. Some guy was hauling her off though.” She told him about the chloroform and how she’d beaned the man with the frying pan.

“This is all my fault. I fell asleep.” His shoulders slumped. “I failed her too.”

She stood and helped him up. “We didn’t fail. Heidi is sleeping on the deck.” She led him to where his niece lay under the towel.

They watched the rise and fall of her chest. “You’re sure she’s okay?” he asked.

Kaia nodded. “I need to try to get Bane awake. He was drugged too.” She knelt and scooped Heidi into her arms.

“I’ll take her,” Jesse said. He staggered as he lurched forward with his arms outstretched.

“You’re too weak. Go first down the ladder, and I’ll hand her to you.”

She could see the protest in his eyes, but he shrugged then did as she suggested. Kaia dropped Heidi into his waiting arms then went down the ladder into the galley. “I’ll be down to put dry pajamas on her,” she called after him.

He nodded, and she went to try to rouse her brother. He didn’t move when she shook him, though she could see his chest move up
and down. He might have to sleep it off. She tried again, but Bane was like a dead weight in the bed. She could try the smelling salts, but maybe it would be better to let him sleep.