Page 6 of Hold Your Breath
Climbing out of the dive van and slamming the rear door behind her only a little bit harder than needed for the latch to catch, she looked around and saw that poor Chad was throwing up again. Derek must have been enlisted as babysitter, since he stood fairly close, although far enough away to avoid any splatter. He caught her gaze and waved her over. Suddenly glad that she had to talk to the sheriff, she made an apologetic face and pointed toward the ice. In return, Derek offered a rude gesture that she pretended to ignore as she moved toward Rob.
Field County Sheriff Rob Coughlin was easy to spot. Not only was he the size of an ex-college-football star, but he also had what Lou could only describe aspresence. She imagined it was useful in emergency situations. Even if he hadn’t been wearing the tan uniform, she could’ve pegged him as both a cop and a leader.
The sheriff saw her coming and focused his attention on her. “Louise,” he called out when she got close enough for him to greet her without actually yelling.
“Hey, Sheriff.” They’d met a couple of times in passing—even worked a Search and Rescue op together once—but this was the first time they would actually have a conversation, or interrogation, or whatever. Up close, he didn’t lose any of his appeal. His dark hair was mostly covered by his hat, leaving only his lightly silver-flecked sideburns exposed. Midday stubble created just a shadow of a scruff over his cheeks and jaw. Everything about him was hard but appealing—from the lines of his face to the muscles in his body. Maybe not grumpy-Callum-level appealing, but still. She couldn’t complain.
“Rough training session, huh?” Although the corners of his eyes crinkled in sympathy, he never lost that watchful appraisal.
She gave an affirmative shrug.
“Let me just get your basic information, and then I’ll get your statement.” He touched something attached to his duty belt, and she cocked her head to see what appeared to be a digital recorder. At his prompting, she gave him her full name, date of birth, address, phone number, and pretty much every other piece of personal data she had.
Once finished, he asked, “Why don’t you run me through what happened?”
“Okay.” She tried to organize her thoughts, not wanting to bethatinterviewee, the one who sounded so dumb the cops all played the recording over and over at roll call. “We had ice-rescue classroom training all morning and then headed here after lunch for the practical.”
“Why not Verde Reservoir?” Rob interrupted. “Wasn’t that the original plan?”
“I guess.” As the newbie on the dive team, Lou just went where she was told. “Oh, wait—I do know this answer. Callum mentioned that the thaw a few days ago had melted a bunch of the snow in the parking lot. All that water refroze, so the steep hill at the entry is like an ice slide right now. We’d never have been able to get the dive van up that. Plus, he said the ice on Verde is more unpredictable, so I think he was glad to have an excuse to switch to Mission.”
He nodded and gestured for her to continue.
“We got suited up and headed over to the hole in the ice. After we practiced getting ourselves in and out of the water for a while, we moved on to getting other people out. It was my turn, and I’d gotten the harness around Phil. He was pretending to be a panicking victim, so he moved away from me toward the north side of the hole. I…ah”—this was the embarrassing part—“couldn’t really keep my legs from floating up behind me, because of the dry suit, so I got a little frustrated and ended up kicking…um, the dead guy. I must’ve knocked him loose or something, because he floated up to the surface.”
The sheriff watched her impassively, not saying anything. She didn’t know what else to add, so she just shrugged and joined him in silence.
“You see a lot of dead bodies?” he finally asked.
She paused before answering, examining his expression and trying to figure out where he was going with that line of questioning. “My first, actually.”
“Huh.” Rob darted a look toward the still-heaving Chad before refocusing on her. He really did have the serious-cop gaze down pat. “You’re pretty calm about it.”
“That’s thanks to the years of practice in suppressing my emotions.” Too bad she didn’t have more luck suppressing her smart-ass mouth. “Or maybe it was because I called my mom after…you know, the dead guy appeared. After our conversation, annoyance took precedence, so I forgot about being horrified and nauseated. I’m sure I’ll have nightmares for weeks to come, though—about the dead body, I mean, not about the call to my mom.”
The sheriff smiled, dissolving his poker face into a disarmingly attractive expression. Laugh lines had formed around his pretty brown eyes. “I have a mom like that, too.”
Waseveryonein Field County improbably attractive—and completely out of her league? “Why did he float up now?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Sure you want to know?”
“Not really.” She chanced a look at his face. “But it probably can’t be worse than what I can come up with using my imagination. Hit me.”
After a long stare, he raised one shoulder in a shrug and jerked his chin at a small gray-haired woman talking to one of the deputies. “The coroner theorizes that the victim probably had been in the water for a few months, but it wasn’t until the recent warm-up that he started decomposing. Decomposing bodies float. His ankle was tied to a twenty-pound weight that Callum and Wilt just pulled out of the water. When you kicked the victim”—Lou had to hold back a wince at that—“the cord hooked to the weight pulled free, allowing the body to rise.”
She blinked at him, fascinated and disgusted.
When she didn’t say anything, he continued. “If you hadn’t disturbed the body, he still would’ve reached the surface this summer. When decomposition is far enough along, even the weight wouldn’t have kept him submerged.”
The coroner, who had joined them during the sheriff’s explanation, added in a gravelly smoker’s voice, “So you basically kept a summer tourist from being scarred for life by having a headless corpse pop up next to his pontoon boat. Good job.”
Lou eyed the other woman’s deadpan expression and wondered how to respond. “Oh. Um, good.” Time to change the direction of the conversation. “Hi. I’m Lou Sparks. I’m a new member of the dive team.”
“Belly Leopold.” She took Lou’s hand and gave it a single strong shake. “Field County Coroner. I’m not new.”
“Belly?”
“Belinda. Don’t call me that.”
