The Mystery of the Kidnapped Whale - Marc Brandel [35]
The jammed pressure gauge. Slater’s old friend from Europe, Paul Donner. The trip to La Paz. The crease, like a scar, under Donner’s right eye.
It was all beginning to fit together in the First Investigator’s mind.
Chapter 14
Fluke’s Song
“I CAN’T DIVE DEEP ENOUGH to reach the wreck.” Constance was standing in the cockpit, facing Slater.
“Then how – ?”
“Please don’t interrupt me, Mr. Slater. Just answer my questions. I need all the information you can give me. Okay?”
Slater stared at her for a moment. Jupe could see the anger in his eyes.
“More questions,” he said. “Okay. What do you want to know?”
“Where is it exactly? The metal case with those – those pocket calculators in it.”
“Well, the valuable stuff –” Slater was trying to meet her eyes. “The only stuff worth bothering about is under the bunk in the cabin.”
“Is it lashed down?”
“No.” Slater glanced uneasily away from her. “Your father was trying to launch the life raft. We were going to take the box with us. And then – there wasn’t time. The boat swamped –” He shrugged bitterly. “We had to leave it there.”
“Is the cabin door locked?”
“No. It’s fastened open. You know –”
Constance nodded. She had been going out fishing with her father since she was ten years old. She knew every detail of the charter boat.
“I know,” she said. “Those heavy brass hooks in the deck. Dad used them to keep the door swung back so he could nip down to the cabin from the wheelhouse to get a beer.”
“Yeah.” Slater met her eyes again.
“What does the box look like?”
“It’s dark green. Made of steel. About two feet long. A foot wide. Maybe nine inches deep.”
“Has it got a handle on it?”
“Yeah. Like … well, like a cashbox. It’s got a metal handle on the lid.”
“I’ll need a line.” Constance paused. Jupe guessed she was figuring the best way to get the box off that wreck. “A good, long, strong line and a metal clothes hanger.”
“Sure.”
Jupe took the wheel while Slater found what she needed. Constance pushed in the sides of the clothes hanger, bending it into a diamond shape. Then she twisted the hook until it was at a right angle to the frame.
She looped the strong nylon cord into a coil and knotted the end of it to the wire hanger.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m ready to go now.”
Pete stepped forward.
“If you like –” he began.
He didn’t want to go with Constance. After what had happened, he felt he had had enough scuba diving to last him a long time. But he had to offer. He knew, in some way he couldn’t explain, that he would feel wrong about himself if he didn’t.
“I’ll go with you, if you like,” he said.
Constance smiled at him.
“No, you stay here, Pete. I’d sooner have you on board in case anything goes wrong.”
Pete smiled back gratefully. She was probably letting him off easy. But the way she put it made him feel a lot better.
He watched her as she hung the coil of nylon cord over her shoulder, adjusted her mask, and let herself topple gently backward into the ocean.
Fluke had been dozing a few yards from the boat. He opened his eyes at once as Constance swam toward him. He went to meet her in his usual eager way. For a minute Constance stroked his back, pressing her face close to him.
Pete could see that she was talking to the little whale. But she was too far away for him to hear what she said.
When he thought about it later, he could never really figure out how Constance managed to explain to Fluke what she wanted him to do. Not in words. But perhaps they didn’t need words to understand each other.
He remembered what he had felt watching them play in Slater’s pool. The friendship and trust between them was so deep that they seemed to share a common will. Whatever Constance wanted was what Fluke wanted too.
He saw them submerge. Constance had her arm around Fluke. They appeared to dive together like two halves of the same person.
Jupe kept his eyes on the monitor in the cockpit.
He saw the circle of light appear on the screen as somewhere deep