Influence

Chapter 29

Maris clamped her arms around her and stared at the nothingness where Aiden's boat should have been. "Fuck."

In her opinion, the ocean took more than it gave. It carried away the ashes of dead loved ones and conveyed overpriced boats out into international waters. It mocked her, this weak human who had never been a particularly strong swimmer, waves pressing against the dock where she stood. It did no harm, not now. But if it wanted to, it could swallow her and everything around her in one merciless tidal wave.

Ryan jogged up to her side. "Guy in that boat over there, mid-seventies. Been at this marina for more than a decade and only knows Aiden to say hi and wave, he says Knot Yours left less than an hour ago."

"Knot Yours?"

"The name of his boat."

"What a douchebag name."

"I guess it's sort of clever."

"No, it's not. He wants everyone in the world to recognize that he's a rich prick with a boat valued at more than what he believes their lives are worth. He's entitled to it. They're entitled to clean it."

Ryan cocked his head at her. "You okay, Garcia? Your face is flushed. And you're projecting a lot onto a guy you've never met."

"I'm pissed off. Less than an hour." She felt like spitting. "We needed to talk to him."

"I've already called Sergeant Symons. He's on it. Aiden can't be too far from here."

"Far enough. We don't have time for them to track him down."

"Not like we have a choice. You're going to want to hear this next part." He flipped back a page to his notebook. "Our witness says there was a disturbance before Aiden left. It involved a man and a woman, mid to late twenties. The man he describes as tall and vaguely familiar—he remembers someone who resembles him from his granddaughter's social media posts. The woman he describes as medium height, chin-length dark hair, who was, and I quote 'a real looker.'"

"Jesus, you've got to be kidding me. How the fuck are those two everywhere and yet we can never find them?"

"We're closing in."

"No, we're not. We're falling farther behind. They're three steps ahead of us and all we did is manage to lose a 90-foot yacht."

"100-foot. And it will be found. Aiden will be found. You'll get your chance to question him."

"What if they're working with him? What if they plotted to murder Goldie? What if they left with Aiden?"

"I appreciate you... I guess we'll call it brainstorming. But it doesn't make sense, Maris. Aiden attacked Tam Martin. I don't think they're on the same side."

"Sometimes people change sides, given the right motivation."

"And what would that motivation be?" He scanned the lines of boats, as though he'd find the answer wedged in between them.

"To evade justice, obviously."

"Even if that were the case, I talked to three different people who saw Tam and Jasper walk off the boat, and down the peer. They didn't go with Aiden."

"You could have said that straight off."

"And miss your rant? Never."

Her pulse beating like her veins would burst open, she turned on her partner. "This isn't funny."

He stepped back as she stepped forward. "Calm down, Garcia."

"I'm not interested in calming down. This case is serious, and your work is sloppy."

"My work? Did you forget the part where I did all our work while you stood here sulking? And now, I'm left wondering if you're going to push me into the water just so you can blow off some steam. I swear to God, Maris, you need to take a fucking personal day and get your head straight."

"My head is straight. I don't need a day off; I need to solve this case."

"Why?"

"Because I'm a detective, Ryan. That's what detectives do. We solve cases."

"No, I mean, why do you—you and not anyone else. Why do you need to solve this particular case?"

"Because it's my case."

"Our case. It's like every other case we've been assigned to, only it isn't, is it?" He stuck his hand out at her as she began to protest. "No, listen. An influencer gets murdered and now here you are. You're driven in a way I've never seen before, but you're headed for a cliff."

"You're exaggerating again."

"Not by much, Maris. If you drive over a cliff, you aren't going to figure out who killed Goldie Finch. I'll have to solve the case myself, because I'm sure as shit not going over that cliff with you."

"You don't understand. I have my reasons. It's not a bad thing to care deeply."

"Framing it like that is disingenuous. I used to admire your professional detachment, but now? Your emotional investment is at a level that isn't logical or helpful." He turned his attention towards the path of a seagull as it swooped between two nearby ships. "I'm going to ask Sergeant Symons to remove you from this case."

"Don't you fucking dare!"

"Then explain to me what's going on. Tell me what I don't understand. Why are you falling apart? I've never seen you more than slightly miffed and now you've gone full blown super nova."

Maris swayed. For a moment, she couldn't tell if she was on land or floating on the water. "You're right. This isn't just any case. Not for me." She couldn't trust herself to stand anymore, so she lowered herself to the peer, swinging her legs over the edge. Her feet dangled above her enemy.

Ryan joined her there. "So you say. But you haven't told me why."

"Because, if I did... we aren't supposed to become the case. This isn't supposed to be about me."

"This conversation is about you. But the rest of it you're going to have to spell out for me because I'm not following."

She closed her eyes, listening to the sounds of the mingling of ocean and human life. Gulls calling, waves lapping, children up the dock laughing and screaming. She could be here or any other place close to the ocean. In a place far to the north, the same waters rolling in and out against the shore, gulls and children all calling to each other across the roar of the waves, her mother in her navy fatigues, emptying a jar of ash into the ocean. She'd wondered, how many bodies the ocean held. No cemetery on earth could compare to the ocean's depths.

She opened her eyes. "Do you think her family will have her cremated?"

Ryan placed his notebook into his breast pocket. "Are you talking about Goldie?"

"She didn't want to be cremated. She'd always been afraid of being burned. She didn't want to be embalmed either. Too many chemicals. Goldie wanted a natural burial, only by the time she died, she'd imagined there'd be a human composting system where her body would nurture redwood saplings or something like that. She always said she could see the end of things before the beginning. A huge tree a thousand years from now. That doesn't sound so bad to me."

Ryan gripped the side of the peer. She could feel him staring at her even though her focus remained on the water in front of her. Children screamed, gulls screamed, the ocean screamed. Maris screamed inside her mind as she had every moment since Goldie's death. She screamed so loud she almost missed the only words her partner would say to her for the next long while.

"Holy shit, Maris."

_____

I echo Ryan's thoughts here... 

Maris has been keeping a big and consequential secret! If she'd told people earlier on she would have been removed from the case immediately. What do you think now? Do you understand why she's been so personally invested? Or... do you think this revelation might make her a suspect?

Thanks for the reads, votes and comments!