Set in Stone

Chapter 49

Over breakfast the next morning, Grace was feeling frustrated with herself. Her encounter with Tessa Blanchard the previous morning had been on her mind ever since it had happened, leaving her questioning herself about how she had handled it. Had she been too stern in her effort not to sound like a pushover of a boss? Could she have come across in a more understanding way and maybe convinced Tessa to open up to her? There was no way to know now.

"Thinking about Tessa again?" Roman asked, looking at her while sipping from a cup of coffee.

"Yeah," Grace sighed. "I just don't get it, Rome. Like, why do people stay with partners that beat them? Assuming it is a partner that's beating her of course. Why would someone stay in that situation? If you struck me that would be it, no questions asked and no second chances. Not that I'm saying you ever would, obviously."

"I know what you're saying," Roman assured her. "And I don't really have an answer for you if I'm honest. I guess people get into the mentality that their partner will change because they love each other. Of course no one who actually did love someone would ever dream of beating them in the first place."

"It's not something I've ever encountered personally before," Grace said, looking down at her half eaten meal. She was doing more pushing the food around the plate than eating it. "It makes me sick, Rome, literally sick."

"Trust me, I agree," he said. He left a moment of silence before changing the subject, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "It's kind of crazy to think that Layla will be a certified junior diver by the end of the day. She's really taken to it like a duck to water."

Grace couldn't help laughing at his truly awful turn of phrase. "That's right up there with the worst of your Grace puns."

"That's not even close to the worst of my Grace puns. I can start using them again if you want?"

"Try it and see what happens," she said, giving him a warning look. It struck her immediately that she had just made a joke hinting at domestic violence. After the events of late, it didn't seem funny in the way that it would have done at one time.

"I'm done if you are?" Roman asked, pushing his empty plate away.

Grace faced up to the fact that she wasn't going to be eating any more of her breakfast and pushed her plate away too. "So, we've decided we're going down to the boat early?" she asked as they got up to leave the hotel's restaurant.

"Yeah. I'll text Andrea in a minute and tell her we'll meet them down there. If we go there just the two of us, there's a small chance that Tessa might decide to talk to us. I think it's unlikely, but there is a chance. If not, we can help her get the boat ready to go out."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Grace said as they weaved their way across the restaurant towards the exit.

Twenty minutes later, they were getting out of Roman's Mercedes down at the docks. Finding a parking space had not been difficult, given that it was still relatively early in the day. Another hour or so would see visitors and tourists starting to flock in, as they did every day.

Grace retrieved the travel case containing her scuba gear from the trunk, and the set off walking along the waterside towards Graceful Adventure.

"Peaceful at this time of day, isn't it?" Roman commented.

It was true, Grace realised as soon as he said it. The only sounds they could hear were water lapping against the wall at the edge of the dock, and seagulls squawking. "This is part of the reason I've always wanted to do something like this for a living," she said. "No frantic pace, no being stuck in traffic for hours at a time."

A woman's screamed pierced the peaceful atmosphere. Grace and Roman looked at each other with concern.

"That sounded like it came from over by Graceful Adventure," Roman said.

"Tessa?" Grace queried. By then, they were both already jogging in the direction of the boat, which wasn't much further along the dock.

When they got past the bigger boat that had been obscuring Graceful Adventure from their view, Grace saw that it was indeed Tessa Blanchard who had screamed. She was inside the boat, cowering on the floor near the steering wheel. A man in a grey hooded top and black shorts was standing over her, kicking the shit out of her.

"Hey! Fucking stop that, asshole!" Roman yelled angrily.

Grace had already abandoned her travel case, running around the dock to the ramp that led down to the boat.

"Grace! Wait!" Roman called, running after her.

"Get the hell away from her!" Grace shouted, sprinting down the ramp onto the boat. When she got on-board, things seemed to start happening in slow motion.

The man, presumably Tessa's boyfriend, started to spin around. Grace realised that she hadn't got a plan for what to do when she was confronted by him. She also realised that she had seriously fucked up by leaving Roman behind. He was only just starting to run down the ramp. Grace saw Tessa's attacker pulling a gun out from the back of his shorts, his face full of rage.

Let him go, she told herself. The cops could deal with him. She started to raise her hands to indicate that she wasn't going to be a threat to the guy, yet he pointed the gun right at her. There was a loud bang, and Grace felt like she had been punched in the chest. Looking down at herself, she saw a red blob expanding across the middle of her chest.

Oh shit! He shot me! He actually fucking shot me, she thought, feeling herself falling to the deck. It struck her as remarkable that there was hardly any pain. As she fell, she saw that Roman was now on the boat. Shocked, he was standing there gaping at her with a look of horror on his face. Meanwhile, the shooter was away up the ramp, fleeing.

Get some pressure on the wound, Grace told herself as she hit the deck, clasping both of her hands to her chest. "Help me," she gasped, looking up at Roman.

Rushing over to her, Roman already had his phone in his hand. "Ambulance! I need an ambulance!" he was shouting into the device. "My girlfriend has been shot! I don't know who the guy was, he ran off! Just get someone here now! We're at the docks, down at the far end! The boat is called Graceful Adventure!"

Grace watched Roman drop his phone, rip his shirt off and ball it up. He shoved her hands aside and pressed the shirt down hard onto her chest, applying better pressure than she had managed. "Stay with me, babe," he cried, panic in his eyes. "There's an ambulance on its way. Help is coming."

Although she knew it was a bad idea to close her eyes, Grace felt herself fading into unconsciousness.

No, this can't be my time to die. Not here. Not like this, she thought desperately.

"Grace! Grace!" Roman yelled at her, begging her to respond.

Everything went black.

THE END