What Lurks Beneath by Ryan Lockwood

Author:Ryan Lockwood [Lockwood, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2015-04-12T16:00:00+00:00

PART III

OCEANUS

CHAPTER 43

The date had gone well. Really well, for Eric.

Ashley actually seemed interested in him, in his work. She wasn’t looking at her cell phone now, or making some lame excuse to get up and leave, like many of the women he’d gone out with in California.

They’d just had a few drinks and finished an early dinner, on an outdoor patio at Oceanus, overlooking a saltwater lagoon embedded in man-made rock terraces. The towers of the hotel rose off to his left, silhouetted by the early twilight. Eric had wanted to take her someplace else on the main island, but she’d insisted that the food here was the best.

He’d just told her how he’d grown up on the West Coast, how his parents weren’t around much when he’d been a kid and so he’d taken to reading lots of books, building models, taking apart handheld radios and old television sets and putting them back together.

“So you’re the baby?” she said.

“I am. And you?”

“I’m the oldest. I have three siblings too.”

He smiled. “Tell me again where you grew up.”

“In the Bahamas. But not here.” She leaned back in her chair and looked past him, out past the resort and toward the ocean. “A place called Two Finger Cay.”

She touched the gold cross around her neck. “When I was young, I spent a lot of time at a small church on the island. It’s a little one-room building, made from old shipwreck wood. I always prayed that my daddy would make more money, or that I could get off the island and do it myself.”

The waiter moved up beside the table and asked them how everything was.

“This conch salad is amazing. I could eat it every day,” Eric said. The savory crunch of the cold salad, the fresh citrus and spice, perfectly complemented his bottle of Kalik.

The waiter grinned at Ashley. “You betta watch out for dis one, girl.”

“Hush, Lionel.”

The waiter walked off with a tub of dirty dishes, laughing to himself.

“What was that all about?” Eric said.

She blushed. “In the Bahamas, conch is thought to be an aphrodisiac. He thinks you’re trying to get us in the mood.”

Eric scooped a large spoonful of the salad and offered it to her. She smiled and took a small bite. She studied his face. “You never came back to see me again, until now. And you’re leaving soon. I don’t understand.”

That morning, Eric and the others had gathered data on what was supposed to be one of their final blue holes. It had been awkward, with nobody getting along. But they were wrapping up this week, after almost a month, and had visited almost every accessible marine blue hole or submarine cave in the vicinity. They’d decided to visit The Staircase a final time, tomorrow.

They still had nothing, even though it was almost time to pack it up.

He said, “I was going to come back sooner. It’s just that . . . it’s about the elevator.” He took a deep breath. “I have a hard time with elevators.

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