Colleen Coble (16 page)

Amy smiled and nodded as if it was fine with her. Which of course it was. “You’ll like it. Some friends of mine own it, and they’ll take very good care of you. Where’s your entourage? And I thought Zoe was coming with you.”

“My staff is coming. I like to get away sometimes without them, but you know how it is. And Zoe should be along momentarily. She stopped off at the restroom.”

“You’re here to relax?”

He nodded. “I’m going to try to get some surfing in. You game to go with me and show me the best spots?”

“The surfing is great right now. I have an extra board if you didn’t bring yours. It was Ben’s.” Her brother’s name hovered in the air between them, and Preston’s smile faded.

“I’d be honored to use it.”

She eyed him. “I want to open a midwife practice here, Preston, but I lost my supervising physician. You’re friends with Dr. Hollensby. Any chance you could put in a good word for me with him? He’s thinking about helping me.”

Preston smiled. “He mentioned it to me on the phone when I bowed out of golf and told him I was coming here. I think he’s going to do it. I told him you were the best out there.”

“Preston!” She leaped to hug him. “Thank you, thank you!”

“My pleasure.” He grinned.

Amy released him. “Well, I’ll let you get to Hope Island. When would you like to go surfing?”

“Tomorrow morning?”

Dara guided him toward the car. “You’re taking Zoe out on a yacht for the day. You won’t be done until seven.”

“How about dinner?” he called to Amy. “And I’ll get up at dawn if you want to surf.”

“You’re on,” she called back. She saw a familiar figure hurrying her way. Waving, she went to meet Preston’s wife, Zoe.

Zoe’s short brown hair was styled in a pert cut that suited her tiny face. Her face lit when she rushed to hug Amy. “I wasn’t expecting to see you! What are you doing here?”

Amy had always felt a connection with Zoe. They were close to the same age and both loved children. “I’m living on Hope Island now.” She brought Zoe up to speed.

Zoe’s brown eyes were shadowed. “Oh, honey, I think you should let this stuff go. What good will it do to be obsessed like this? It won’t bring Ben back.”

Amy stepped back. “I owe it to Ben to get to the truth.”

Zoe sighed. “You’ve always been a crusader.” When Dara called to her from the car, she squeezed Amy’s arm, then turned. “We’ll talk later. Let me know if there’s anything I can do. I’d like you to be at peace with this.”

Preston and Zoe waved at her as they drove off, but Dara looked the other way. Amy figured it would be a miracle if the woman let Preston go surfing in the morning.

She started back toward the car and heard the
whup-whup
of a helicopter growing louder. She shaded her eyes and stared into the sky. A Coast Guard chopper was approaching. Was Curtis coming back? When the craft landed, she saw it was the same one.

Curtis motioned from the open door. “We need you! A woman is in labor on the boat, and we can’t find Sara.”

Amy gasped and ran for the helicopter.

The fishing boat pitched to one side, and the bow rode lower in the water than the stern. It was quickly taking on water. Curtis glanced at Amy, then focused on the task at hand. Two people were waving frantically from the rail. The woman was curled up on the deck, clutching her swollen belly.

Josh’s voice spoke in Curtis’s headset. “At the last radio contact, the husband said she was trying not to push.”

They all had to speak by microphone to hear above the roar of the chopper’s blades and engine.

Amy gestured. “I need to get down there!”

Curtis shook his head. “That boat is going down.”

Amy leaned out the open window, and the wind made her hair fly around her head. “I don’t think we can get her up here in the shape she’s in.”

Curtis took her arm and pulled her back inside. “You can’t lean out, Amy, not without wearing a gunner’s belt.” Even he wouldn’t lean out of the open door without a gunner’s belt to keep him from falling.

Josh took his arm. “I think she’s right, buck. We could lose the baby if it comes while she’s in the water. We just have a few minutes. We can deploy the rubber raft and transfer her to it if necessary.”

Curtis didn’t want to run the risk of losing Amy, but he finally nodded. “You’re a strong swimmer, I know. You’re going to have to drop into the water and swim to the boat. Think you can do that?”

Her face was pale and set. “Of course. I’ll need my instruments.”

“We can put them in a dry pack and tie them to your waist.” Josh pointed at the red jumpsuits. “You need a jelly fish too.”

Curtis grabbed the jumpsuit and handed it to Amy. He held up a blanket and averted his gaze while she changed into it.

“I’m ready,” Amy said from behind the blanket.

He turned and saw her zipped into the wetsuit. A hoodie covered her hair.

Amy grabbed her bag and handed it to him. “Let’s get down there.”

He prepared her bag for submersion in the sea. Attached to the gunner’s belt, Alec sat on the edge of the doorway with his feet
dangling over the edge. He adjusted his mask and pulled on his fins, then waited for the signal.

Curtis tapped him on the chest. Alec disengaged the gunner’s belt and waited again. Curtis tapped him three times on the shoulder and Alec studied the water below, then dropped like a gull toward the waves.

When Alec’s head popped up, Curtis sent the raft down to him too. As soon as the raft hit the water, Alec tugged the line on the bundle, and the raft inflated. Holding on to the raft’s line, he swam to the boat, attached the line to the ladder, then clambered aboard.

Curtis took Amy by the arm. “We’ll drop you as close to the boat as we safely can. When you know you’re all right, raise your hand in the air to signal that you’re all right before you start swimming for the boat. Got it?”

“Got it.” She sounded a little breathless.

If he had any other options, he wouldn’t send her down there. But the woman and her baby could die if they didn’t get help. He attached the gunner’s belt to her chest, then guided her into position. “Josh, get us down a little if you can.”

Josh nodded and maneuvered the helicopter a little closer to the swamped boat. Curtis knelt beside Amy. “Keep one hand on your mask and the other across your chest so you don’t hit it hard with the water. Stay in a slightly seated position with your fins pointing up. Give me a thumbs-up when you’re ready. I’ll tap you three times on the shoulder. That will be your signal to look for debris and, if it’s all clear, to jump. Got it?”

“Got it.” She swallowed, then adjusted her mask. Her eyes were wide behind the plastic. Her face was pale and set, but she jabbed her thumb up. “Ready.”

He triple-tapped her shoulder, then disengaged the gunner’s belt. “Look around below you. If it’s all good, jump.”

His throat tightened as she looked at the waves, then shoved
herself off the floor of the helicopter and plummeted toward the water. Leaning out, he watched her hit the waves. He held his breath waiting until he could see her again. Where was she? It was dangerous for an untrained person to jump from this height, and he fully expected to get into trouble with his superiors for allowing her to do it. Her form had looked good as she’d gone into the water, but the force of hitting the waves had been known to knock someone out.

“I’m going down!” He sat in the doorway and inhaled. Then he saw her head pop up. “Wait, there she is.”

She jabbed her thumb in the air, then began to swim toward the boat. Alec was leaning over the woman, but he turned to watch Amy’s progress as well. He motioned with his arm as if she should hurry. Her strokes were long and sure, and she steadily neared the boat. Alec reached over the side and grabbed her arm as she started up the ladder. He hoisted her the rest of the way.

She knelt by the woman, then leaned around and grabbed her bag. Curtis couldn’t see well with her and Alec blocking his view. He anxiously watched the boat pitch and yaw. The thing could take a nosedive and sink at any time. He began to pray and saw Josh’s lips moving too. This was going to be close.

The boat wallowed low in the water. “That thing’s going under any minute!” He attached the gunner’s belt and sat in the doorway waving his arms at his friend. He gestured to the boat. “Get them off there!”

Alec looked back at the raft and made the gesture to back off. “He’s not ready yet.”

Come on, come on
. There seemed to be a sudden flurry of movement, then Curtis caught a glimpse of something in Amy’s arms. “She’s delivered the baby!”

Time seemed to drag as Amy continued to kneel by the woman. She would need to clamp off the umbilical cord and deliver the placenta before they could get off. Praying, he waited.

Finally, Alec rushed to the ladder. He climbed down and seized the raft’s line, then dragged the raft closer to the boat. Amy disappeared belowdecks. What was she doing? She needed to get out of there. Curtis could barely keep from going down himself. When she finally emerged, she had a bag in her hand. She pulled out a blanket and wrapped the baby in it. The husband helped his wife to her feet and half carried her to the ladder.

Alec climbed to the top of the ladder to assist while the husband helped the woman put one foot down onto the first rung. The woman swayed on the ladder, and Curtis held his breath, sure she was going to fall. She clung there for a long minute, then made it down another two rungs before she swayed again.

She lost her grip on the ladder. Amy made a grab for her but missed. The woman hurtled down, and the force of her fall knocked Alec from the ladder as well. They both plummeted into the water.

The husband shouted and leaped overboard after his wife. With the baby in one arm, Amy clambered down the ladder. She rushed to the side of the raft.

Alec’s head popped up, and he had hold of the woman. The husband reached them as well and helped tow her to the raft. From here, it looked like her eyes were closed.

Moments later they were all in the raft, but the boat began to sink. If they didn’t get away in time, it would drag the raft down with it. Curtis blew his whistle to attract Alec’s attention, then waved his arms again, giving the sign to back away. Alec turned and grabbed the paddle. He paddled frantically away from the sinking boat.

The boat shuddered, then went under. The eddies caught the raft, and it began to rotate back toward the whirlpool, taking the craft to its grave.

“Please, God,” Curtis whispered, clenching his fists. Alec paddled harder, and the eddy released the raft.

“They’re free of it!” Josh yelled. “Deploy the rescue basket.”

S
EVENTEEN

A
my clutched the warming blanket around her. She couldn’t stop shivering as she waited to disembark from the helicopter at the airport in Kitty Hawk. Evening shrouded the helicopter, and the interior lights lit it only with a dim glow. Her shudders were more a reaction to the stress than to the cold water, and her ears vibrated from the roar of the rotors. The woman and baby had been unloaded first and rushed to the hospital.

They were the last ones in the helicopter, and sitting in the tight space where she could hear Curtis’s breathing and smell his cologne was such an intimate experience, one that made her wonder exactly what this emotion in her chest was. If she leaned over a bit, she would be able to touch him.

His face radiated approval. “You did great. Need another blanket?”

Her teeth were chattering, and she was cold clear to the bone. “I’m frozen. Glad they’re okay.”

He tucked another blanket around her, then wrapped his arm around her. “I hope you don’t mind, but we have to get you warm.”

“I don’t mind.” She relaxed against his warmth.

“If you were scared, you didn’t show it.”

“I was terrified. When she fell overboard, I couldn’t believe it. I was sure she’d drown.”

“The baby was early?”

Amy nodded. “About three weeks. She looked to be about six pounds though, so I think she’ll be okay. This is one birth that her family will retell for years.”

“I bet they name her after you.”

Amy gave a weak chuckle. “So they said.” The memory of holding that brand-new infant, literally snatched from the jaws of death, warmed her.

She clenched her hands in her lap. “I suppose we should get out ourselves.”

“Yeah.” But he made no move to release her and move toward the door. “Listen, Amy, I have to tell you that I don’t know another person, male or female, who would have done what you did today. You’re an amazing woman.”

Heat scorched her cheeks, and she wanted to look away from the intensity in his eyes, but she didn’t. “I’m glad I could help.”

He covered her hands with his. “I think I owe you a special dinner as thanks.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to. I think lobster is in order.”

The heat of his hands warmed her better than the blanket. When he pulled his hands back, the coldness flooded back. “I’m famished, now that you mention it.”

“No wonder. You’ve been in the frigid water, and it’s getting late. We still need to get my car back too. You want to eat here in Kitty Hawk or somewhere else?”