Death in Deep Water by Paul Kemprecos

Author:Paul Kemprecos [Kemprecos, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Thriller
ISBN: 9780615903101
Google: CHn6ngEACAAJ
Amazon: B00A2SZCBW
Goodreads: 19211166
Publisher: Suspense Publishing
Published: 1992-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Mike Arnold was working in the orca stadium. He stood on the stage at the poolside, wearing a red-and-black Oceanus wet suit, and didn’t see me take a seat in the bleachers a few rows behind him. He raised his arms like the hood ornament on a Rolls-Royce. Rocky’s big black fin came straight at Arnold, who didn’t move.

Rocky slithered entirely out of the water and lay on the stage next to Arnold, dwarfing the man. Arnold didn’t seem alarmed. He gave Rocky a fish and stroked his back. Then he blew on a whistle. Rocky slid off the stage and back into the pool. He went through his whole repertoire of tricks. He jumped straight out of the water. He swam along the side of the pool and waved his fin at the empty bleachers. He did several arcing jumps. And with each trick, I grew more respectful of his grace and power and of Arnold’s control of him.

I walked down to the splash area and applauded. Arnold turned and saw me. His smile melted.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“Reporting for duty. What is it today? Piranha? Crocodile? Plesiosaurus?”

He shook his head. “This is Saturday. You don’t have to come in weekends. Somebody should have told you.”

“No problem. It gave me a chance to see the show. Pretty impressive.”

His eyes narrowed. He was combing my voice for sarcasm. “Rocky does all the work,” he said.

“I saw him come up on the stage. Aren’t you worried? I mean, after the accident.”

“Don’t believe everything you read in the newspapers.” He glanced out at Rocky’s dorsal fin slicing through the water. “Rocky won’t hurt me. We get along just fine. He likes to do tricks. You treat Rocky right, and he’ll do anything you want him to. You just can’t take him for granted. He’s sixteen thousand pounds of predator. Forget that and you’ve got trouble.”

“Is that why you’re not going in the water with him?”

“Yeah, partly. House rules. The park owners say no one in the water until we figure out where Rocky’s head is. We can do most of the tricks from the stage except the one where he jumps out of the water with someone on his nose or the trainer rides him. We had to scrub that trick anyhow. Rocky doesn’t like people on his back. Orcas are like that. They’ve got their individual personalities. Some you can bat around like a kid’s teddy bear. Some are touchier’n hell. You walk on tiptoe around them. It’s like that old joke. What do you call an eight-hundred-pound gorilla?”

“You call it ‘sir.’ ”

Arnold laughed. “That’s right. Same with Rocky.”

I walked over and leaned against the plastic wall. “Guess you’re right. If he really wanted to make trouble, he could snatch you right off the stage.”

“Yeah, he could bite me in half, but he won’t.”

“Rocky’s not like a shark, you mean.” I hadn’t meant to stick it to Arnold. The comment just slipped out.

I thought Arnold would do his usual pit-bull imitation, but he looked embarrassed.

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