CHAPTER 13
Lainie paddled back in and returned the kayak. Her father and Stan were talking with Yamada. Not feeling up to interacting with Stan yet, Lainie took a seat on a retaining wall and watched the chopper work. After checking her watch, she knew from working with police helicopters that they would have to finish soon and head in for fuel.
It was a beautiful day but hot. The sun was a mocker as far as Lainie was concerned. Shining so bright on a day when Evie’s light had been snuffed out. The day should be cloudy and overcast, as gloomy and bereft of hope as she felt. When the chopper turned inland, Lainie realized the search was ending.
Her father saw her and joined her at the wall. “Yamada is calling off the search. They need resources farther down the coast with a missing paddleboarder.”
“I saw the helicopter leave.” She swallowed, not trusting herself to say more.
“Stan and I are going back to the hotel. He wants to talk to the boys. What are your plans?”
“I’m going to hang out here for a while.”
“Okay.” He gave her a hug and then walked to where Stan stood waiting.
Lainie wanted to scream. Emotionally, she didn’t want the search to end. The police officer part of her knew that after all this time—it was Monday and Evie disappeared the previous Friday—there was no hope. Even if she was not mauled by a shark, she would not have survived in the ocean all this time. Where had she been for three days?
Lounge chairs were stacked on the far side of the beach. She walked over, grabbed one, and dragged it closer to the water, then sat and stared out over the ocean. How on earth could she go on?
At about two in the afternoon, Lainie realized she couldn’t sit and stare at the water anymore. It felt as if she was developing a sunburn on the part in her hair and on her legs. Everything else was pretty much covered. She could return to the hotel walking along the water, but she’d been staring so hard at the water that she decided enough was enough. She would walk out to the street. She was also tired and thirsty. There was a grocery store in the Queens’ Marketplace, where she could buy a bottle of water, so she headed that way.
She felt it was time to go but hesitated, ignoring the activity around her. The pain of loss was like a throbbing, dull ache that vibrated through her entire body. Truly believing Evie was gone was hard. Lainie’s mind couldn’t grasp the thought that a shark so consumed the dynamic person that was her sister that there was no trace left.
A swimmer yelled out, “Turtle! Turtle!”
Lainie turned that way as a crowd of snorkelers hurried toward the location. As several of them dove underwater to chase the turtle, a question popped into her head.
Would I feel better if I’d found a portion of her body?
Lainie didn’t know. All she did know was that she could barely stand the pain she felt. Nothing would make it better.
Ben arrived at the beach sometime after two o’clock. Yamada had called him when the search ended.
“I have an emergency in South Kona. I can’t allocate any more resources here.”
“How will you classify Evangeline Moffit?”
“Missing, presumed victim of a fatal shark encounter.”
Ben wasn’t surprised by the classification. He considered the case as he walked along the beach. The sand was crowded with happy, laughing vacationers. He tried to imagine what was going on in Elaine Jensen’s mind and couldn’t. Ben himself had one older sibling, a sister. She was a pediatrician in Florida. He couldn’t imagine losing her, especially in a way that was so completely bizarre and unexplainable. His elderly parents also lived in Florida. Stacey checked up on them, helped them out all the time. He doubted they would survive if something happened to her.
Just thinking about it made him want to call and check up on them all. He ignored the desire. He needed to concentrate on the here and now.
Where was Moffit?
Then he saw Elaine Jensen off by herself on a lounge chair. He’d almost walked right in front of her. Subtly backtracking, he made his way behind her. She appeared to be deep in thought. His heart went out to her, right now a sad, hurting figure in the middle of a beautiful beach. He said a silent prayer that the Lord would heal her heart and give her peace, then moved across the sand to find a place he could occupy unobtrusively and not be seen by her.
It was a stunning day at the beach. Ben could never be a cop in paradise. A place like this should be far removed from any type of violence and tragedy. Unfortunately, he knew that wasn’t the case.
Lainie made her way off the beach, crossing past the large outrigger canoes stored on the sand. A concrete path took her out to the parking lot. On the way she saw a colony of feral cats. A blonde woman, bright red from the sun, sat on the lava rocks feeding the cats. Making her way through slow-walking, toasted tourists smelling of suntan lotion, Lainie continued up the asphalt road that ran through the parking lot.
There was no sidewalk after the parking lot. The road leading to and from the beach was a narrow two-lane road, banked on either side by vacant, rocky dirt lots. Lainie followed the road, walking on the dirt edge. She could see the grocery store in the distance across a lava field. Cars came and went down the road, but Lainie was in her own world, paying only basic attention to what was going on around her. Some kids were ahead of her, on the other side of the street, walking toward the beach. Their screams broke into her thoughts.
“Watch out, Auntie, watch out!”
Jolted into the here and now, Lainie turned just in time to see a Jeep bearing down on her. She leapt to her right, into the rocky, dusty unpaved lot. The Jeep veered toward her.
That driver wants to hit me.
