Page 2 of Refuge for Ailsa

“Roger that, unit one twenty-six. We’re approximately forty yards off the end of the pier. Over.”

“KDFWR unit five thirty-one, this is BoyleCounty Fire and Rescue Emergency Medical Services responding. We’ve got our water rescue unit en route. Repeat, water rescue unit en route. Over.”

“EMS, do you have a medic with you?” Tavish asked.

“Roger that, KDFWR. Medic on board.”

“Roger. Standing by.” Tavish stared down at the body, then back up at everyone on the other boats. “What happened here?”

The same woman who’d been shrieking pointed at the man on the pontoon boat. “Him! He ran her over with the boat! She was screaming, ‘He’s gonna kill me! Help, somebody!’ but there was no way we could get to her fast enough. He ran her right over!”

“I didn’t hear anything of the sort,” a man on another runabout added. “We could all hear her. We didn’t hear the splash when she fell in, but we sure as hell heard her screaming. But she didn’t say anything about him trying to kill her.”

“She did too!” the first woman countered.

Tavish pulled his jon boat alongside the pontoon boat, secured it with fore and aft lines on the larger boat’s stern, and climbed up the short ladder to the deck. “Sir, I’m Conservation Officer TavishStewart with Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Could you tell me what happened?”

“I don’t know what happened here. One minute she was sitting there with a cocktail, and the next minute, she was overboard and screaming.”

Tavish couldn’t wait to hear the answer to his next question. “And how did she come to be under the pontoon boat?”

“I was going to get her, but I guess I misjudged where she was and I must’ve, I dunno, I…” His voice trailed off and he stopped.

There was a lot of yelling somewhere in the distance, and Tavish stood and looked around to find the EMS boat sliding into the water from its trailer and personnel climbing aboard. From where he was, he wasn’t sure if he was seeing right or not, but it looked like there was a deputy on board too. Good. The mess facing him was a situation he really didn’t want to handle alone.

The sound of a small motor made him glance around and he saw Chester powering up in his own jon boat. “What’s going… Holy shit. What happened here?”

“I think we’re about to find out,” Tavish answered and pointed out across the bay. The EMS boat was moving up quickly, and he’d been right?there was a deputy on board. Chester held onto the side of Tavish’s jon boat as the bigger vessel powered up.

“What are we looking at here?” a man in black uniform pants and a crisp white shirt asked. The crest of the Boyle County Search and Rescue EMS team was embroidered on it.

“I’m pretty sure she’s already deceased. She hasn’t moved since I pulled up here, so I decided it would probably be best to wait for you guys than to try to intervene myself.”

“Can you get me closer to the body?” the medic asked.

Chester motioned him over. “Yeah. Climb in my boat and I’ll push us up there.”

The deputy climbed from the deck of the rescue boat to the pontoon’s deck and met Tavish as he stood behind the boat’s operator. “This is what you walked into?”

Tavish nodded. “Yes, sir. I heard the boaters screaming and by the time I got here, she was already gone. There was blood everywhere in the water. I talked to him a little bit, but he seems to kinda be in shock.”

Another medic stepped up toward the boat’s operator. “Sir, I need to check you out.”

“Why? I’m not hurt,” the man asked, still sitting in the pilot’s seat but looking up at the medic with a blank stare. “I, I, I… I don’t know what happened here.”

“Did you have anything to drink, sir?” the medic asked as he flashed his pen light in and out of the man’s eyes.

“Yes, but not much. We were celebrating our twenty-first wedding anniversary. I don’t know…” His voice trailed off again and he didn’t say anything else.

Tavish turned to the deputy. “Something just doesn’t seem right here.”

“I’m thinking the same thing. By the way, Deputy HarleyWright.” The deputy stuck out his right hand, and Tavish took it to shake. “Good to meet you, horrible situation.”

“Yeah. I’ll say. TavishStewart.” Both men turned toward the medic in Chester’s jon boat. As soon as he saw them looking his way, he shook his head. “Yup. No hope there.”

“What did all these people have to say?” DeputyWright asked, pointing around at the circle of boats.

“Those five right there were already here. They were all saying that the woman was screaming for somebody to help her. One of the women said the victim was yelling that he was going to kill her.”

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