Chapter 30

Where was she?

From his vantage point on the U.S.S. Worth, a Coast Guard vessel, Val strained to see what was going on aboard the Josephina. A moment ago there were two figures on the boat. Now he could see only one, and it damn sure wasn’t Cameron. He’d known that her pressing the alarm wasn’t an accident, confirmed by his inability to get her on her cell moments after. Thalia had traced the signal to just offshore Star Harbor.

He didn’t know how much time he had, so he’d made one phone call to a man he thought could help: Cole. His brother had come through for him, getting the Coast Guard out as fast as humanly possible.

The Worth pulled up alongside the Josephina and the Coast Guard made its usual notice of boarding through the speakers. Within moments, he, Cole, and a five-member Coast Guard team were boarding the vessel, weapons drawn. He couldn’t get up there fast enough.

“Where’s Cameron?” he roared at Junior.

“She fell overboard,” he said, sounding distraught. “She got tangled up in the rope. Dear God, help her!”

Signaling to Cole to cuff Junior, he ran to the side of the vessel, grabbed the rope, and started tugging. After a few moments, it still wasn’t budging, so one of the Coast Guard officers rushed over to help. Cam is down there, Cam is down there kept buzzing in his head. They all strained their muscles pulling, but after a few moments, it became clear that the rope wasn’t coming up.

“The anchor must have gotten caught on something,” the Coast Guard officer said. “We’re right over the sandbar.”

“There’s a civilian down there!” Cole yelled.

“The diving team won’t be here for another minute. Maybe even two,” the officer said.

“We don’t have that kind of time,” Val said. “And we’re just wasting time now.” Time she doesn’t have. “Give me your knife,” he told the officer, kicking off his shoes and tossing his keys and electronic devices to the deck. “I’m going under.”

“Be careful, bro,” Cole said.

The Coast Guard officer pulled out his knife and slapped it into Val’s hand, and without another second’s hesitation, Val dove in.

Even in the summertime, the Sound was pretty chilly, but he got over the shock fast, grabbed the rope, and started pulling himself down, using it as a guide. His ears popped and ached, but he ignored it. Forget about the pain. Get Cam.

About fifteen feet down, the water was so murky he couldn’t see anything. He was going by touch now, praying he’d find her fast. Praying she was still alive. Just when he was about to lose hope, he felt a foot. Cam! Her ankle was tangled up in the rope, and he felt her leg; she didn’t seem like she was moving. The rope was taut on both ends, so he started sawing with the knife, just below where her ankle was trapped. He was running out of breath and feeling light-headed, but within seconds, the weapon did the trick. Not bothering to untie her ankle, he simply grabbed her under the arms and kicked upward, hard and fast.

He got back up to the surface and gasped for air. A couple of Coast Guard officers were there, looking down at him, and another Coast Guard boat had pulled up alongside the first one.

“Help me get her onboard,” he said, dragging Cameron’s lifeless body to the side of the Josephina.

The officers pulled her on deck, and by the time he’d gotten up, some medics had already started CPR. Cameron still wasn’t moving and her skin looked way too pale, her black hair long, wet strands on the deck. Don’t die on me.

“Breathe!” Val shouted. He knew it wouldn’t do any good to scream at her while she was unconscious, but he felt helpless just standing there while the medics worked on her. “God damn it. Breathe!”

Cole handcuffed Junior to the rail, then came over, wrapped a blanket around Val, and squeezed his shoulder. The pressure was the only thing keeping him sane. Time seemed to stand still. The pumping and the counting and the yelling seemed interminable.

And then, just as he’d almost lost hope, she twitched.

“Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,” a medic counted.

She twitched again, and threw up all over the deck, choking and sputtering.

“We have her!” a medic yelled, holding her on her side so she could cough out the rest of what she’d swallowed.

“Val—” she said, before coughing so hard she turned red. She’s alive!

“Oh, thank God!” Junior said, trying to move toward her but constrained by the handcuffs.

But no one was getting in Val’s way. He threw off the blanket and rushed over, a medic moving aside. Then he knelt down beside her and rubbed her back. “I’m here, Cam. Don’t talk. Just focus on breathing, okay?”

She gasped and nodded and struggled for air, making long rasping coughs that shook her body. Finally, after many minutes, she calmed down enough to catch a breath.

Val rubbed her back. “Good girl. Keep breathing.”

“Agent Grayson,” one of the EMTs said. “We really need to apply some oxygen. Can you please step back?”

“Yes, of course,” he said, giving them room to strap the mask to her face. Cameron reached out to him. He took her hand and squeezed.

“We’ve got to get her to a hospital,” the EMT said.

Cameron shook her head back and forth. No.

“I’m not leaving you,” Val said, and she calmed down immediately.

“Guess you’re coming with us,” the EMT said.

As if he’d leave her alone like this! “Cam, if you can, I need the answer to one question. Did Junior do this to you?”

She nodded. Yes.

A cold fury raced through him. He wanted to kill Junior. Throttle him until he suffocated. “Cole!” he barked. “Take him in. I’m calling my team.”

His brother nodded. “After I do cleanup. Get what you need here.”

Junior tried to step toward them again. “She just had a near-death experience!” he yelled. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about!”

“It’s never been clearer,” Val said. “I bet you thought that by getting rid of Cameron we wouldn’t be able to connect you to the drug operation.”

Junior stood stiffly. “I have no idea what you are talking about. Cameron almost died and you’re spouting off about drugs?”

Val kept one eye on Cameron as they loaded her onto a stretcher and began to ease her across the deck to one of the Coast Guard vessels.

“Game’s over, Kirkland,” Val said, disgusted at how fake this guy really was. “Just so you know, we were able to track the flight path of the plane stored at your dad’s house from there to Perth, Canada. We have witnesses that say you landed in a private airfield just southwest of the city before taking off again.”

“What plane?” he said, the barest hint of a smile on his face. “Without a plane and without proof of ownership, you’ve got nothing.”

“And that’s where you’re wrong. Not only were we able to trace it to the Yukon, where you had it and the copter destroyed, but I just got word from my team that they were able to trace the shell corporation’s paperwork back to one of your assistants. He’s only too happy to testify against you in exchange for immunity. You’re done.”

Junior’s smile didn’t falter. “None of this will hold up in court.”

Val shook his head. “I could give you my own professional opinion, but I don’t have to. I’m just handing everything over to the Attorney General’s office and letting them have a crack at you. Jeff Tepper told me he can’t wait to get your file in his hands.”

At Jeff’s name, Junior’s smile faded a little bit, but he rallied fast. “My father—”

“Is going down with you,” Val informed him. “It’ll be impossible for him to say he didn’t know about the aircraft stored in a huge hangar on his own property. We’ve already arrested him.” Val couldn’t resist twisting the knife in deeper. “In fact, I think he’s considering immunity in exchange for testifying against you.”

Ice man to the end, Junior merely tipped his chin up. “I look forward to seeing you in court.”

“Agent Grayson, we’re ready for you!” one of the EMTs shouted.

“A minute!” he shouted back. To the waiting Coast Guard officers, he said, “Send your divers down. I want to know everything—what the anchor caught on, the knot he used—anything that can help me make a case for attempted murder. Cole,” he said, giving his brother a long look. “Do what you gotta do. You’ll be hearing from me soon.”

“Take care of your woman,” he said. “I’ll wait for your call. Good luck.” Then he directed his attention to the officers and the cleanup operation.

He got on the Coast Guard boat and called Thalia right away. “We got Junior. He tried to kill Cam.”

“Oh, my, God!” Thalia said. “Is she all right?”

“I don’t know,” he said clenching his fist. “But your concern is the operation. You know what to do,” he told his teammate. “I’ll be back as soon as I know Cam’s going to be all right. We need to do this fast. The minute I get back from the hospital, we move.”

“We got this covered, Val,” Thalia said. “I’ll get the team in place for when you get back. Ellen’s here with me.”

“Good,” he said. He hung up his cell phone, and then he held Cameron’s hand all the way to Cape Cod Hospital.

“Val?” Cameron croaked. Her throat was sore and her chest ached terribly. It felt like an anvil was on top of her rib cage, pressing down on both her lungs. Her voice sounded muffled to her own ears, and her body felt like lead.

“I’m here,” a deep voice intoned. “I’m not leaving you.”

A firm hand stroked her hair, and she immediately relaxed. “Am I dead?”

“No.”

“Why does my voice sound so weird?”

“You have an oxygen mask on your face. When you ingested all that water from the Sound, some got in your lungs and you caught pneumonia. You have an antibiotic drip to help clear up the infection.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. No hypoxia. No brain damage. No acute respiratory distress syndrome. Just pneumonia. I’m quoting Julie, here.”

She cracked her eyes open. And there was Val, staring down at her. He was sporting a five o’clock shadow and there were bags under his eyes, but no one had ever looked so good. She stared in wonderment and he just gave her a smile.

“I’m not dead.”

“No, but you’ve been in and out of consciousness for a couple of days.”

A couple of days? Oh, my God. My parents! Cici! The stores. She struggled to sit up but was impeded by wires and tubes and the heaviness of her own body.

“Hey,” Val said, taking her hand, “take it easy. Lie back. You’re stuck here another week at least, so just relax.”

She did as he asked. “I called your parents and let them know what was going on. They’ve been here since you’ve been in the hospital and are staying in town at Hermione Alcott’s place. I also took the liberty of contacting your store managers in Boston and Star Harbor. Joan and Anna have everything under control.” He pulled something out of his pocket and placed it by her bedside. “I even bought you a new cell phone to replace the one that was thrown into the Sound, but you have to set it up with a password and outgoing message. When you’re ready, that is.”

All of the turmoil and emotion she’d been suppressing from the past couple of weeks finally caught up to her. She started to cry. And then she started to cough.

“Hey,” he said, trying to wipe away the tears. “Hey, don’t. It’s okay. Everything’s okay.”

She finally stopped coughing. “You saved my life,” she rasped. “And on top of that, you did all these nice things for me.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what you do when you love someone.” He lifted her hand and kissed it.

“Val,” she said, and fresh tears dripped down her cheek and onto her oxygen mask.

“C’mon, Cam, shhh—” he said, and pressed a button. “I’m afraid you’ll start coughing again if you start crying.”

She nodded. “I’ll try to stop.” Every time she started up again, her throat felt like it was closing up.

“Good,” he said, smoothing her hair down again and wiping her eyes. “Good. Your job is to get better, you hear me?”

A nurse burst into the room. “She’s awake! Dr. Kensington will be so happy to hear the news. I’ll page her right away!”

“Can you take off the oxygen mask so we can talk?” Val asked. “Just for a little while?”

“Well, I’m really not supposed to, but under the circumstances …” The nurse checked Cameron’s vital signs. “I don’t think ten minutes will hurt,” she said, removing the mask. “Here,” she said, “let me help you.” Carefully she removed the mask from her face, and Cameron immediately felt less claustrophobic.

“There,” Val said. “Better?”

Cameron nodded.

“We need to talk about a couple of things.”

“I don’t want to talk about Junior,” she said. Flashes of that awful day kept filtering through her mind, and honestly, she still felt like she needed some time to collect herself. She just couldn’t believe how manipulative he’d been. He’d fooled her. Fooled everybody.

“I’m going to need a statement eventually,” he said, his voice gentle, “but we can skip that for now.”

“Thank you.”

“Just so you know, he’s in jail. No bail allowed given that he’s a flight risk. The congressman was taken into custody, too, but is now out on house arrest. People are calling for his resignation, as they are for Junior’s. It’s not a very good scene.”

“Poor Grace. And Taylor.” She felt just awful for the rest of the Kirkland family, who probably had no idea what was going on.

“Here’s something to feel good about. After I escorted you to the hospital and got your parents and Julie on board to monitor you, I went back to Boston and led the sweep to arrest every known player in the drug operation. The whole thing took five hours and 250 agents and officers, but we ended up making 105 arrests, including the Kirklands. It’s safe to say that we have officially shut down the bath salts operation.”

“That is so wonderful, Val. I’m so proud of you.”

“Don’t be. If I had figured everything out just a few minutes earlier, you’d never have gotten on that boat with Junior.”

She shook her head. “You didn’t know. No one did. He was so convincing.”

“I don’t believe this,” he muttered. “I can’t believe how nice you are. The man tried to kill you and all you can say is how convincing he was.”

“There’s no use dwelling on it.” She’d just end up second-guessing her own poor judgment in not seeing what Junior really was. If she’d dug deeper into what Cici had told her Junior did the night of Taylor’s party, maybe even confronted him, she might have figured it out. Now, there didn’t seem to be any point to it. She was alive and Junior was in jail. What else mattered?

Silence from Val. “The last thing I want to do is push you, but there’s something I have to tell you.” He cleared his throat. “What do you remember from that day?”

“I only remember what happened before I went under.”

“Junior tied you to the rope attached to the anchor, then pushed you over, I’m guessing.”

She gave a shudder, remembering that feeling of knowing she was going down and that nothing she could do was going to stop it. “Yes. And I just wasn’t strong enough to pull up.”

“No one would have been. The anchor caught on something protruding from the sandbar.” His gaze was searching. “Can you guess what it was?”

“I can’t.”

“You’ll never believe this,” he said, shaking his head. “I hardly do myself, but it was part of a shipwreck.”

There was a long pause while her fuzzy mind kicked into gear. They were about five hundred yards offshore from Star Harbor, opposite Minamessett Beach, right over the sandbar. Boats were wrecked every year, but she’d never heard of one being left in the Sound. That is, except—

“Is it the Lorelei?” she breathed.

Val nodded. “Yes. The divers pulled up the artifact the anchor was stuck on. I had them deliver it to Branford at the Star Harbor Historical Society, but it’s yours, Cam. As far as I’m concerned, you found it, so you should decide what to do with it.”

“But what is it?”

“A treasure chest. And finder’s rights to claim the area.”

She waited for the punch line. It never came.

“You are not serious.”

“I am.”

“But how do you know it’s the Lorelei? It could be any wreck.”

“Once we cleared the crime scene, Bran and your uncle sent out Jimmy Bishop to do a search. While Jimmy was down there, he found the bell with the inscription of the ship’s name and the year 1707. Bran and your uncle are completely fired up, wanting to send out a full expedition right away, but they’re waiting to report the wreck to Massachusetts authorities until they hear the word from you. Bran’s confident that the government will grant permission to salvage if you promise to designate it a historical site and work to preserve the ship’s history. He told me that National Geographic and a few other nonprofit organizations are willing to come in as sponsors, too. You could be a part of this, Cam. Three hundred years of history and it could all be yours.”

“Whoa,” she said, her throat suddenly tight. She swallowed, trying not to cough again.

“ ‘Whoa’ is right,” he said with a smile. “So what are you going to do?”

“I—I’m not sure. This is a lot to handle. I want to speak with Nigel and Bran, obviously. Try to wrap my head around the history and the legend that’s at stake. I think I need some time.”

“I understand.”

At that moment, there was a loud ruckus at the door as both her mother and father pushed their way in.

“Cameron, oh, my God, Cameron!” her mother cried, rushing toward her in a swirl of silk and perfume. “You’re awake!”

“Are you all right, dear?” her father asked. “We were just downstairs in the commissary. We have not left your side, have we, Val?”

“No, sir,” he said. “You’ve been here the whole time.” He gave Cameron a little smile. And then she realized that meant that Val had been here the whole time, too. Except for the time he spent arresting dangerous people. What had she done to deserve him?

Clarissa took her hand and held it to her face, dragging her attention away from her man. “We’ve been wrong. So wrong, darling. Please forgive us.”

“Forgive you? For what?”

“For pushing you toward Junior Kirkland. Oh, my goodness, what a mess that turned out to be! It’s been all over the papers. He’s been arrested, the Kirkland name smeared. Did you know that some of the cases he prosecuted have come under suspicion? Apparently, he had a DEA agent in his pocket! And several judges, too! The scandal keeps coming.”

Her father made a harrumphing sound. “But all of this pales next to the fact that he tried to take your life. We owe Val a great debt of gratitude for saving you.” And then, to her utter surprise, her father patted Val on the back.

Clearly, something had happened between Val and her parents while she was unconscious. Something promising.

“… and as soon as they clear you for travel we’re transferring you to Mass General, and when you’re able to leave, we’re going to set up your old room for you, and you can stay for as long as you like. Until you’re feeling better, all right, Cameron?” her mother said.

Everything else was a blur … the near drowning, the Lorelei, Val staying by her side day and night … but not this. “I’m not coming back to Boston for a while, Mom.”

Clarissa blinked. “But of course you are. Mass General has the absolute best care for issues of this kind, and we’ve already got the head of pulmonology willing to approve the transfer. Now as I was saying, I have your room all set, and …”

“Mom, I’m staying here.” Her voice was raw and throaty, but she said the words as precisely as she could. “With Val. And my friends.” She glanced at Val and he nodded.

“Julie’s been here every five hours to check on you,” Val said. “Avery already set up an appointment with a psychologist for you, as soon as you’re ready to go. And Lexie won’t stop calling me, asking if you’re awake so she can bring by a lemon cake.”

“And you, Val?”

“What do you think, Cam?” The look in his eyes told her everything she needed to know. He loved her. And nothing else mattered.

“I’m staying,” she announced again.

Clarissa looked disappointed. “Oh, dear. What will I tell Dr. Ishoo?”

Frederick put his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Just tell him that our daughter is getting the best possible care on Cape Cod, and that she doesn’t wish to be moved.”

Clarissa looked up at him. “Oh, Frederick,” she sighed.

“It’s what she wishes, and we need to respect that,” he said. “She’s in good hands, and Dr. Kensington has promised the best care for our little girl. She’s a smart woman and a good doctor. I know she will deliver. And now I believe that Val and Cameron would like a few minutes to themselves, before the nurse comes back to put the oxygen mask on our daughter.” With that, he led Clarissa out of the room.

As soon as they were gone, she blinked at Val. “What did you do to my father?” she asked.

Val just shrugged. “While your mom was on the phone talking to everyone she believed could help you, Fred and I had a couple of man-to-man talks.” Fred?! “I think the better question is, what did you do to Cameron Stahl, socialite? Not going back to Boston for a while? What will the Symphony Board do without you?”

“Oh, they’ll manage, I suppose,” she said, stifling a cough. “Binky Button has been after my Fundraiser Chair position for years. Perhaps I’ll let her take it and focus my energies on other worthy causes. Like the Star Harbor Historical Society.”

“Or maybe we can figure out how to split our time so that you can do both.”

“You would really do that for me?”

“I’d do anything for you, Cam.”

She gazed up at him in wonder, her taciturn man with the fire in his eyes. Val loved and respected her. He’d charmed her father, managed her mother, and was willing to rearrange his life for her. He fit here, in her world, with her. Or maybe she fit in his. One thing was certain; they fit together. She almost started crying again, but checked herself.

“You’ve already done everything,” she whispered.