Shark Lover (22 page)

            “I
just think it would be too painful to surf again. Now that I think about it.
Back then I wasn’t as traumatized as I am now. I’ve had years to let the
incident sink in and I think that’s why I am so fearful of the water now. Plus
I just think everything about surfing would remind me of him,” He said looking
down into the covers. “But the board is what gets me. I still don’t get how it
made it back in one piece. You would think there would have been a shark bite
in it or some sign of a struggle, but it’s completely flawless. That is what is
so confusing.”

            “I
don’t think you should give up on it. Surfing was your passion and passion is
hard to find. It doesn’t have to be today, tomorrow or even any time soon. You
could try to surf again in a few years. I’ll even go with you if you want. Just
whatever it takes to help you get over your fears and make your father proud.”
She moved in and kissed him softly on the lips. “That’s strange about the
board. Have you ever asked any of his friends the story about what exactly
happened that day?”

            “You’re
right about that. It doesn’t have to be anytime soon. I’ll remember that. And
no I haven’t asked any of them. I figured it would be too traumatizing to hear
the entire story. I did talk to Ernie about it once. He just said he didn’t
remember the details. He recalls seeing a shark in the water and he screamed
for the rest of them to get out. I don’t think he actually witnessed the
attack, but who knows. It would be good to get the entire story figured out I
suppose. I think I would have more closure. Anyways, this is depressing,” He
said quickly changing the subject. “Maybe we could go eat those steamed veggies
now? Well, I’m not sure if they are so steamed anymore. They are probably cold
by now, but we can always warm them up.”

Cathy
took the cue that he was tired of talking about his father’s death and went
along with his suggestion to eat. She nodded her head yes in agreement as her
stomach rumbled. She hadn’t eaten since lunch and she was starving now. As she
was getting up from the bed to head to the kitchen, Marc put up his hands in a
movement to stop her from leaving. She giggled before saying, “I thought you
said you wanted to go eat.”

“I
still do want to,” He said as he pulled her close. “I just want to hold you for
another few minutes. I love holding you.”

She
held his arms as they wrapped around her tighter. She loosened her shoulders
and let herself relax in the moment of peace. “You do?” She questioned
surprised. She hadn’t met a man who wanted to hold her like this. She liked it.
Marc held her in a way that was special. He held her like he didn’t ever want
to let her go. She didn’t want him to ever let her go, she didn’t know what she
would do if he wasn’t near her or in her life. Cathy hadn’t felt this loved in
her entire life.

“Yes.”
He replied softly in her ear.

He
could see the sun setting through the shades and he couldn’t imagine getting
up. Things were impeccable. He had Cathy, the girl he loved in his arms.
Letting her go would mean letting this amazing moment go and he was ready to do
so yet. She was so smart, beautiful and everything he had ever wanted in a
woman. She understood the death of his father and how it had affected him so
badly. It was almost as if she knew him better than he knew himself. He could
lay like this forever. Everything was flawless, he couldn’t think of a problem.
He didn’t know what the future would hold, but today everything was absolutely
perfect.

            She
awoke to the phone ringing loudly in her ears. She pressed her face into the
pillow case. She didn’t feel like waking up. Looking at the blinds, she could
see the sun wasn’t even shining through them yet. It was too early to be awake.
Why was she awake? Then the phone rang again and she remembered someone was
trying to get ahold of her. She wondered who would be calling her this early in
the morning. Nobody she knew would be up at this time.

            She
reached across the bed and grabbed the receiver. She was probably the only
person she knew who still had a home phone. She loved her phone. It was a
rotary telephone that she couldn’t dream of getting rid of. It had so much
history to it and she loved artifacts that told a story. There was something
special about owning someone else’s piece of the past. When she was younger,
she had loved creating stories about where her antiques came from and the life
that they had before she had owned them. But she remembered now was the
present, not the past and remembered that there was still someone on the line
who wanted to speak with her.

            “Hello?”
She said sleepily into the receiver.

            “Hello,
is this Cathy Montanan?” A man with a deep voice asked.

            “Yes,
may I ask who this is?” She shivered in the cold of the morning as she wondered
who it might be on the other line. She hadn’t heard this man’s voice before,
which concerned her.

            “This
is Officer Mike Sanchez. A missing person’s case has been filed for Marc
Porter. You were listed as his significant other. Have you seen or heard from
him lately?” Mike’s gruff voice demanded. 

            Cathy
sat up in bed shocked as she dropped the receiver. She took a few minutes to
breath and picked up the phone again. “What do you mean a missing person’s case
has been filed? I just saw him last week. That’s the last time I saw him, we
are both extremely busy people. We’re both working full-time and doing graduate
school on top of it. The last time I texted him was a few days ago. That’s the
last I have heard from him.” She paused thoughtfully. “Am I under suspicion
Officer?” She asked with a scared note in her voice.

            “Not
exactly, Ms. Montanan. It’s our procedure to ask family, friends and
significant others of the missing individual first. Once we narrow down the
inner circle, we then look outside of the missing person’s closest contacts and
start searching elsewhere.” He took a deep breath before questioning again.
“What was his tone like when you last spoke to him? Was he depressed? Did you
notice any sign of different behavior?”

            She
paused for a moment to catch her breath. She was still astonished from the news
that Marc had gone missing. “The last time I spoke to him in person was about a
week ago or so. He seemed fine to me. We were at the beach and then we went
back to his apartment for dinner. Marc was happy and enthusiastic at that
point. He did mention something about being depressed about his father and not
surfing anymore, but I think it was just him telling me something about his
past that he thought I should know. I didn’t take it to mean that he was
depressed now. His behavior was the same as always. He was calm and laid-back.
May I ask who filed the missing person’s report?” She enquired with fear.

            “His
mother, Sally Porter, filed the report late last night. She says her son calls
her every night to check in on her. She has a hard time getting around since
she has developed arthritis. He calls to make sure she is doing alright and she
started getting worried when she didn’t hear from him for a few days. Sally
said that wasn’t like him and that she was troubled that she couldn’t get ahold
of him,” Officer Sanchez stated with some emotion in his voice. “Thanks for the
information Ms. Montanan, we appreciate it. Do you have any further questions
or information?”

            “That
definitely doesn’t sound like him. He does always check in on his mother. I’m
starting to get really concerned now too. Has anyone seen him since a few days
ago?” She asked in spite of herself. She wished she would have put aside her
homework or her work at the aquarium to check in on Marc. It would have only
taken a second, but she had just been overworked this week and hadn’t been able
to get away from her busy schedule.

            “We’ve
checked in with all of his friends and family, but they haven’t seen him since
a few days ago or longer. We’ve taken on the standard procedure of looking
through his apartment, tracking his phone and his license plate. We can’t pick
up any signal on the phone and the car was tracked to a towing place. Sadly we
don’t have any leads yet, but we will let you know more information as soon as
we know more. Is this a good number to reach you at Ms. Montanan?”

            “Please
let me know more information as soon as you get it. This is really important to
me. Marc is the love of my life. I’m going to go help in the search,” She said
as she popped out of bed and started to dig through her drawers to find some
decent clothes to wear. “Yes, this is a good number to reach me at. Thanks for
letting me know Officer Sanchez.”

            “Alright,
Ms. Montanan. You better be careful though if you go looking for him. We are
still not sure if foul play was involved. We will be in touch. Have a nice
day.” He hung up the phone as Cathy heard the dial tone still ringing in her
ear.

            She
threw on her clothes as quickly as she could. She got her keys and starting
running out of the house. Finding Marc was her number one priority. Later she
would call the aquarium and let them know what had happened. They would
understand. Her best friend, lover and boyfriend was missing. They would have
to apprehend that something like this was important and that she would need the
day off to go look for him. She would find him no matter what. Marc was going
to come back to her, no matter what.

            As
she got to her car, she pulled out her phone. There was no way that she was
going to go through this all alone. She needed her partner in crime, her other
best friend, her sister. Carly answered on the second ring and sounded groggy.

            “Cathy?
Is that you? Do you realize that it is only 6 o’clock in the morning? Human
life isn’t even up yet and we shouldn’t be either.” She said sleepily as she
was about to hang up before Cathy chimed in to stop her.

            “No
wait, Carly! This is an emergency. Marc is missing. I need your help to find
him. Nobody has heard from him in days and a missing person’s report has been
filed. I’m so worried about him.” She appealed with exclamation. 

            “Wow!
That’s horrible. I’m up now and I am ready to help you. Where should we meet?
Where do you think he would have went? He’s bound to turn up somewhere.”

            “I
don’t really have a clue. Let’s just start at the university? Maybe he might
have been working on a project or something there. He may have just gotten
caught up in a project. I know how that is. It happens to me all of the time.
Then if we don’t get any answers there we can always check the beaches. I’m
sure Officer Sanchez will eventually call me back with more information, but
I’m just not sure of when yet. That’s the problem. I just hate waiting for the
answers. I want to know now.”

            “Well,
let’s just meet at the university and start there. I think that’s the best
idea. We’ll go from there. I’m just as worried as you are. Let’s go now.” Carly
got out of bed and started heading towards the door, eagerly set to help her
sister find her long lost lover again.

Carly
had always loved a good mystery. When she was young, The Nancy Drew series had
always been her favorite. She would find herself getting lost throughout the
pages day after day. Now she had finally found her own mystery to solve. She
jumped at the chance to solve the mystery first before the police could. Marc
would turn up eventually. There was no chance anything bad had happened to him.
From what Cathy had told her, he wasn’t the type to act on a whim. He wouldn’t
have risked losing his life or putting himself in any type of danger. She was
almost one hundred percent sure about that.  

*
* *

When
they had both arrived at the university, Carly hugged Cathy showing her
sympathy. They both ran into the building as fast as they could. Cathy knew
that time was running out. If Marc needed her help, she would try to give her
all to find him and help him out in this situation. Once inside the building,
she tried to think of who would be most helpful in their search. She knew they
both had professor Tyson. Cathy wasn’t looking forward to talking to him. She
knew he wouldn’t be too thrilled to help with the search. She pushed Carly in
the direction of his office. They had to keep the pace going and not give up.
Cathy entered his office as he looked up at her dully.

“Cathy,
do you need something?” He asked monotonously looking back down at his papers.
He was sitting at his desk, the window right behind him. Cathy wasn’t surprised
that he was here this early in the morning. He was obsessed with his work and
didn’t ever take a break from it. She often wondered why the school kept him
around since he wasn’t good with the students, but she could tell his work
ethic was what kept him on as a professor at the school. 

“I
was just wondering if you had any information on Marc Porter. He’s been missing
for a few days now. I was hoping he was possibly working on a project up here
at school and maybe you saw him around.” She stammered while losing her voice.
Cathy shivered realizing how nervous Professor Tyson actually made her feel.

“I’m
sorry to hear that,” He began, not sounding so sorry. “But no, I haven’t heard
anything or seen anything. Sorry. I hope he turns up. Now if you girls will
excuse me, I have a lot to do before my morning class comes in.” He turned away
from Cathy’s gaze and got up to open the door for them. He practically threw
Cathy and her sister out of the office.