Page 13 of Let It Snow

“I’m fine—was sick.” He held onto the rim of the lifeboat with one hand and had one arm around the rail of the ferry. He was about twenty feet away and the boat swayed again, but not violently. She moved toward him. There was a cabin door close to where he was.

“Head for that door—” She shouted but a roar of wind and ocean took her voice away.

She watched the padre let go of the boat. She thought he was going to come toward her across the short expanse of deck toward the cabin door. He stumbled. She moved in his direction.

A shadow darkened the already gray sky and she looked up behind her in time to see a forty-foot swell approach. She yelled, but couldn’t hear her own voice. She turned back and saw the padre staring at the oncoming wave, standing still as if waiting for it to take him. Shana grabbed onto the window latch behind her and held on as the water slammed violently against the boat causing massive sprays of water over the deck, pushing her forward. The shock of the ice-cold ocean water nearly stopped her heart. She couldn’t breathe for a beat, couldn’t yell as she saw the water hit the padre, saw him fall. The boat dipped. Snow and wind stung her eyes as she held on.

And then she watched, frozen in place, frozen to the core, as the boat swayed back up into place and her eyes frantically searched the deck where the padre had been a moment before. He’d disappeared.

“So what are you doing on duty tonight? On Christmas Eve? For real?” Cap asked Vendi.

“I’m the O in C. I pull whatever duty I need to pull—especially during an unexpected storm.” He pulled a grim smile and added. “What’s your excuse?”

Cap grunted. “I live here.”

“Exactly.”

Dane didn’t care who was in charge, he needed to get out there and take a look at that ferry up close for himself. Take a look at Shana’s face, see for himself that she was still there. Still in his orbit.

He shoved his phone back in his pocket for the third time since he spoke to her. Too briefly. He couldn’t raise her. Maybe her battery was dead. His signal was iffy now.

“Where’s the patrol boat? Did they get to the ferry yet?” He looked out the window at the snow and the wind and the ocean against the dark gray sky.

“It should be close but I’ll call her—poor visibility could be slowing her down.” Vendi picked up his binoculars and peered into the distance. He put the binoculars down. “Shit, those waves are high.”

The radio buzzed and Vendi leapt for it. Cap spun around. Dane moved his eyes, but kept his cool. On the outside. His heartbeat ratcheted up until his blood flowed like a raging rapid.

“It’s the 30—they’re on their way back,” Vendi told them. He listened and took in the report. When he signed off the call he faced Dane.

“The 30-footer is heading back to the station because the waves are too high and the visibility too poor. They can’t get to where the ferry is—at the elbow of their route, close to open ocean and the worst of the waves and wind.”

“Let’s get that 47 fired up and get out there,” Dane said. As if he were in charge.

Vendi compressed his lips. “No need.”

Dane heard the unspoken “not yet.” He contemplated whether he could manage the boat on his own, if he could get by Vendi. Whether Cap would back him up or arrest him.

Chapter 7

As soon as Pedro went over, Shana forgot that she was wet and cold and rushed to the rail in time to see a spot of red tossing around in the dark water. She searched quickly until she spotted a life ring hanging nearby. Yanking it loose from its hook, she tossed it over in the direction where she saw the padre and hoped to hell he could get to it.

After one last glance over the rail into the rough water and she could swear she saw him, waving his arm, a flash of the red sweater bobbing, she dashed for the nearby cabin door. Glancing at the lifeboat—it was more like a raft—hanging there in an intimidating tangle of cables for lowering and lifting, she realized she needed help. Sliding and shivering, she rushed back to the doorway to go inside. There was an alarm somewhere inside. She needed to find it fast—no way she could take the lifeboat out on her own.

She ran back to the cabin and reached for a phone on the wall inside the abandoned snack bar. Everyone stared at her. A crewman rushed toward her. She said, maybe too calmly, “Man Overboard.”

Then she pulled the red lever the instant she spotted it and pressed the intercom call buttons. Listening to the buzzing, she was never more aware of the seconds ticking away. The ferry wasn’t traveling fast, but they were far from Pedro by now. She felt the engines slow and the boat turning and was alarmed. There was no way the captain and the boat could have reacted that fast.

She yelled and was about to run back up those metal stairs to the bridge when she heard Andy’s voice. But he wasn’t on the phone.

“What the hell happened? You pull the alarm? Did the man—”

“Man overboard.” He’d already known. The crew had spotted him.

“Shit—” Andy ran past her with two crewmembers in tow, barking orders. Something about bringing the lifeboat down and going out with the emergency crew.

Shana hesitated only a split second, feeling a shudder of cold and knowing she should change into something dry. There was no time. She rushed back outside to where the padre had gone over, and studied the nearby lifeboat to figure out how the hell to operate it. In a few thundering beats of her heart she saw Andy running and stumbling toward her with two crew members following closely behind.

“Where did you last see him?”