Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
X anthe tapped the end of her pen on her thigh as she studied the charts on her screen. Her personal and professional lives both felt too chaotic. Work gave her the focus she needed to regain a semblance of control.
“Another vessel just reported seeing K Pod,” Allistair said, seated next to Xanthe at his computer terminal in the research station. Samantha was on the far side of the room, diligently working on the toxicology reports for the water samples she’d collected yesterday.
Everyone had put their regular work on hold to try and figure out what had happened. To find why Onyx and the others had stranded when and where they had. There had to be an answer. Xanthe wanted hard evidence so she could do something to stop it from ever happening again.
“Where?” She got up and went to look at his monitor over his shoulder. A digital map was displayed, showing positions of vessels in the various waterways that made up this part of the Salish Sea.
“Here.” He pointed to the location in the water.
Only a few miles west of here. “Did they say whether Triton and Zephyr are with them?’
“Yes. Both look like they’re doing okay.”
She exhaled a relieved breath. “That’s fantastic news. Sam, you got anything more about traffic in the area around Cedar Point yesterday?”
“Nope,” Samantha answered without looking away from her monitor, her tone clipped.
She’d been short with Xanthe all morning.
Xanthe wanted to pull her aside and ask her what her problem was.
This wasn’t high school. They had important shit to do.
If Samantha had a problem with her, she could come talk to her like an adult.
She’d rather deal with Samantha’s fire than this sullenness.
Xanthe shared a look with Allistair and returned to her desk. The past few days had been absolute shit, and tensions were running high.
On top of everything else, her car was totaled, and Blaine hadn’t come back to her place last night. He had called her from the accident site and explained everything, including that damned note, then sent her pictures and video of the damage. Thankfully, Maddy was okay.
The car had been towed to a body shop. Her insurance was currently processing the claim, and she would pick up a rental car in the next day or two until she could decide what to do about getting another. The driver responsible hadn’t been found yet.
Blaine had offered to come back and stay with her overnight. She’d declined because she’d known he wanted to take care of Maddy. And she’d wanted him to know that she wasn’t afraid to be alone in her little cabin. She refused to let someone scare her away from the one bit of security she still had.
That wasn’t all, of course. Left alone with her turbulent thoughts all night, she realized she was on a dangerously slippery slope with Blaine.
In spite of all the personal conflict between them, she liked him. More than liked him and the way she felt around him. The way he made her feel, especially after all he’d done to help yesterday.
But that didn’t mean she was going to jump into anything with him.
Except maybe a bed, if he was willing to keep things casual. That seemed like a great idea to her. He had her body and mind wound tight, and he was the only one who could give her the release she needed.
With effort she put all of that aside and made another few phone calls to various contacts. Right now, she needed to focus on making sure Onyx hadn’t died in vain.
“Did they tell you when the tissue sample results would be ready?” Allistair asked her.
“They’re making them a priority, but it’ll still be at least a week or two. Maybe more.” So far she hadn’t uncovered any video evidence of the animals being stranded, or what might have happened right before. No vessel strikes involving a whale had been reported in the area around that time either.
The theory that made the most sense to her at this point was that the others had followed Onyx too close to shore and become stuck. Had they been hunting? Or had Onyx just been too weak to fight the pull of the tide anymore?
Starvation was a big indicator. It would have weakened her and her immune response.
Could have made her more susceptible to toxic chemicals from the well-documented pollution in the water from runoff and industry from the mainland that Samantha was currently looking into. Could it have been something else?
There was only one other possibility Xanthe could see. “What if it was sonic?”
“From what?” Allistair asked.
“Sonar or something. Weapons testing, something like that.” It had happened before. Military vessels were fairly common in the area. A loud sonic anomaly could easily have disoriented Onyx in her weakened state, confusing her and impeding her ability to navigate.
“I mean, maybe.” He didn’t sound convinced.
She grabbed her phone and called Lachlan, following the hunch that she was onto something important. “Who do you know who would have that kind of information?” she asked him after explaining.
“I know a couple of people you could contact. But even if they know something, they’re not gonna tell you.”
“Would they tell you?”
“No. I’m an outsider now.”
“Understood. I’ll try first. Still worth a shot.”
“Let me know what happens. You coming out with me this afternoon?”
He was going to take another look around the area, see if he could spot any clues or anything of concern. “No, I’m currently without transportation because my car was totaled last night. Someone hit Maddy from behind and sent her off the road when she was driving it here.”
“What? Is she okay?”
“She’s fine.” Xanthe was a little surprised by the sharp edge of concern in his voice. “We’re not sure, but it…might not have been an accident,” she murmured, but caught Samantha glancing over at her.
“What the hell? Dammit, I knew I should’ve followed her last night.”
Xanthe blinked at the vehemence in his tone. “I’m guessing you two talked last night?”
“Yeah.” He sounded angry.
She instantly thought of what had happened to his wife. Wondered if he might be blaming himself for not being there to protect Maddy.
“You’re sure she’s alright?”
“Far as I know. Maybe a little sore, she hit a tree head on.”
“Where is she?”
“Blaine’s house.”
“Okay. Might stop there on the way to the harbor if I have time.”
“Uh, sure.” She left out the part about the note. “Let me know if you see anything out there today. We’re looking at a few things here trying to figure out what happened. I’ll let you know if anything comes of them.”
She called the contacts Lachlan had suggested. None of them could confirm a military vessel in the area yesterday. Whether they were telling her the truth or not, she couldn’t say.
A few hours later, she was hunting around for video surveillance footage on the west side of the island that might have captured K Pod’s movements yesterday when her insurance company called to say they had a rental car waiting for her.
Since she had no new leads or information on the strandings to work on for the moment, she asked Allistair to take her into town.
After picking up the rental, she stopped to get groceries so she actually had something edible in her fridge and pantry. As she put her bags in the trunk, she spotted Mae coming out of the store pushing a cart.
Mae stumbled, caught herself and leaned heavily on the cart.
Xanthe rushed over. “Mae? You okay?”
Mae nodded, put on a smile that was just a bit stiff. “Hi. Yes, just me being clumsy.” Her cart was full, probably because of all the people she fed on a weekly basis.
“Here, let me help you get this unloaded.” Without waiting for a response, Xanthe took hold of the cart handle, staying close as Mae started across the lot.
“This is embarrassing,” Mae muttered.
“Why? It’s just me. No one else even saw you.”
Mae scowled. “Getting old sucks.”
“Well, there’s sure nothing old about your mind.”
“Yet.” She dug in her pocket for her keys, visibly upset. Her hand trembled. “How are you feeling today?”
“Better than yesterday, but still upset.”
Mae nodded. “Understandable. Do you know why yet?”
“No, but we’re working on it. We owe it to Onyx.”
“You’ll find the answer. I know you will.” She patted Xanthe’s hand, steadier now. “And Blaine certainly rose to the occasion yesterday, didn’t he?”
“He did.” Xanthe eyed her. “You’re not trying to play matchmaker, are you?”
Mae blinked at her. “What? Why would you ever say that? You can’t force people to fall for each other.”
No, but she didn’t think Mae was above trying to give a little push in that direction when she thought it was a good idea. “Where are you parked?”
“Just over there.” She nodded ahead and to the right. Pressed the unlock button on her keyfob.
The trunk of Mae’s little car popped open. Xanthe headed for it, helped Mae load all the bags in, and shut the lid. “I’ll return the cart for you.”
“Thank you.”
As she headed past the front of Mae’s car, she stopped. The front left bumper and headlight were smashed in. “Mae, what happened?”
Mae grunted as she opened the driver’s door. “Little fender bender, that’s all. Something ran out in front of me last night partway home from Cedar Point. A deer maybe.”
She looked more closely at the damage. There was no blood. No traces of hair that she could see. But there were definite scratches.
The kind that resulted from hitting another vehicle.