Black Tide Rising Read Online Free PDF Page B

sending up curtains of spray as Mary led Jens and Dan to the workshop. It had been Dan’s suggestion to check it out. He had needed an excuse to get the other two out of the house while Gene made the call to the Gold River police detachment.
    â€œShe’s not going to be here,” Mary said, keeping her voice low so Jens wouldn’t hear. “This is where Jens was working last night and she was already gone when he got up to the house.”
    Dan shrugged. “She might have come back while we were out looking for her and come down here to check.” It sounded weak even to him, but there was no way he wanted to be the one to tell Mary and Jens about the totem and the blood. He hated giving bad news. It was the one thing about police work that he dreaded. Plus he didn’t know how either of them would react, and right now Mary was doing a good job of keeping Jens calm. They would find out soon enough once the police arrived.
    â€œI guess.” She looked dubious. “At least it’s keeping him busy.”
    Dan nodded. “We should check down on the rocks too. Can’t do anything on the outside, but we can look down by the fuel storage tanks. She might have slipped or lost her nerve and be stuck halfway down.”
    â€œMaybe. Doesn’t seem likely, but I guess we have to check everything.”
    The workshop was empty, and after they had checked it and scanned the rocks below, the three of them returned to Jens’s house and stood quietly in the kitchen, looking out through the open door to the ocean beyond. Silence grew like a physical presence, thick and heavy, stretching and coiling to fill the space around them until it muted even the crashing of the waves. It was finally broken by Jens’s choked sob. Mary turned to him and grasped his arm.
    â€œCome on, Jens. Let’s go up and call the police. They’ll figure it out.” She pulled the distraught man close and led him back out. Dan followed.
    â€”
    â€œAlready done,” Gene told them when Mary explained what she wanted to do. “I could see you hadn’t found her and I figured we shouldn’t wait any longer.” It seemed he too did not want to be the one to tell them the news.
    â€œOkay,” said Mary, though she looked surprised.
    â€œDid they say how long they’d be?” asked Dan, offering a silent thank-you to whatever power had allowed him to dodge that particular task. He knew he would have to wait for the police to arrive or face an unpleasant barrage of questions, not only from the guys who responded but also from Mike, Dan’s boss when he was on the anti-terrorist squad, and the rest of the group back in Victoria, who would undoubtedly hear about it. On the other hand, he had promised Claire he would meet her later that week up in Kyuquot, and the weather forecast was predicting another storm would move in early the following afternoon. He hoped to beat it by leaving later that day.
    Gene shook his head. “Probably take them a few hours. They’ll make it high priority, but it’s a pretty small detachment. They may have to bring someone over from Campbell River.”
    Dan fought to keep his frustration in check. Patience was not something he had a lot of, but he didn’t want to upset Jens more than he already was. Sitting around waiting, doing absolutely nothing when there were things to be done, would drive Dan crazy—and it wouldn’t help him figure out what had happened to Margrethe either. If that was her blood he had found, then there was a lot that needed doing. He knew the police would search Jens’s house. It was standard procedure. But if Jens wasn’t involved—and Dan thought he probably wasn’t—then the search of the cove and surroundings needed to start now.
    And he couldn’t let Claire down. Their rendezvous might be almost a week away, but the weather on this coast was unpredictable. He cursed under his