Scoop took a seat at the table and lifted a file from the pile.
Abigail swallowed. “It’s been a long time. It’s a very cold case.”
“Then let’s heat it up and see what happens.”
“Guys…are you sure?”
Bob slung an arm over her shoulder. “That’s the thing you still have to get through your head, kid.” He winked at her. “You’re not alone.”
CHAPTER 3
Owen Garrison wasn’t one for suntan lotion and picnic baskets and lazy days on a beach. After forty-five minutes on Sand Beach, he was restless. The horseshoe-shaped beach was a rare stretch of sand carved out of Mt. Desert Island’s granite coastline, the water turquoise on the sunny early July afternoon.
Compared to Maine’s more expansive beaches to the south—York, Ogunquit, Wells—it wasn’t crowded at all.
But Owen paced in the sand, which clung to everything, as he kept an eye on Sean and Ian Alden, eleven and nine, towheaded boys who’d known no other home but the fourteen-mile-wide island. Their father was the local police chief. Owen had complicated Doyle and the boys’lives when he’d asked KatieAlden to head up the proposed Fast Rescue field academy in Bar Harbor. He wanted it up and running by fall, and Katie, a paramedic and search-and-rescue specialist, had taken on the challenge. She’d left for six weeks of training in London two days ago. The boys were doing fine, but Doyle was still sulking about not having her around for most of the summer.
Owen was just off a two-week operation in South Asia following a 7.5-magnitude earthquake and figured the least he could do was help watch the boys once in a while.
A kid—maybe Sean or Ian—squealed. Before Owen realized what was happening, he was jerked back into the past, remembering his sister on this same beach, running into the water and out again, squealing in delight, flapping her arms against the power of the waves and the shock of the cold water.
“Come on, Owen. Don’t be a chicken! You get used to the cold.”
But you didn’t, he knew. You might not feel it, but the cold would wear on your body, weaken it.
The day his sister drowned, the water temperature was fifty-five degrees. Early-stage hypothermia had tired her more quickly, shortening the time she could tread water amid the waves and wait for rescue.
Owen, helpless to save her, had watched Doe slip under the water.
Enough.
He snatched up two towels from the heap of stuff the Alden boys had insisted on carting down to the beach. He waved to them. “Time to warm up.”
They didn’t argue, although Owen had no idea whether they cooperated because of something they heard in his tone or because they’d had their fill of waves. Unlike most of their fellow beachgoers, Sean and Ian were wet from head to toe—and they were blue-lipped and shivering. Owen draped towels over them and opened up a blanket, spreading it out on the sticky sand.
“Sit. Wrap up good. Give yourselves a chance to warm up.”
Ian, the younger boy, skinnier than his brother, sat on the blanket and tucked his knees up under him, encasing his entire body in the oversized towel.
“Do you boys know what to do if you get stuck out in cold water?” Owen asked. He was in jeans and a polo shirt. Nice and dry.
Sean, his teeth chattering, sat cross-legged on the blanket. “Yell for help?”
“You should have a whistle with you if you’re out in the woods or on the water, kayaking, canoeing, whatever. If you get into trouble, you blow the whistle to alert people you need help. You should also have a life vest when you’re in any kind of boat. You almost never want to try swimming to shore.”
“Why not?” Sean asked.
“Swimming uses up your body’s heat faster. You want to conserve heat.”
Ian frowned. “Why?”
“So you don’t get hypothermia. That’s when your body temperature drops. At first you get blue lips and start shivering. But it gets worse—you get confused, you slur your words, your muscles get weak. You end up in a world of hurt.”
“Oh, right.” Sean nodded knowledgeably. “Mom told us. She says people don’t dress right on a hike, and they end up dying of the cold. Even in summer.”
“And in water, your body loses heat even faster. Try to keep as much of your body out of water as you can. If you can reach an overturned boat, hang on to it. If you can’t, keep your head out of water and stay as still as possible. Tread water if you’re in a life vest, get into the ‘heat escape lessening position’ or H.E.L.P.—you cross your arms high up on your chest and draw your legs up toward your groin. Huddle with other people in the water.”
“Have you ever been stuck in cold water?” Sean asked.
“No.”
“Have you ever rescued anyone who had hypo—” Ian frowned. “What is it?”
“Hypothermia. Yes. I’ve rescued lots of people with hypothermia.”