Faye watched the little girl’s pink bathing suit blur into the brilliant blue of the ocean. In a few minutes Heidi rode a rolling wave onto the beach. Faye looked down at her own modest black suit. She could join the child in the water, but it would mess up her hair, and she and Curtis had an engagement with business associates later. She didn’t want to have to wash it again.
She pulled a beach towel out of her bag and spread it on the pale golden sand. She’d just lie in the sun and watch Heidi play. A few other women and children were playing along this section of Queen’s Pond at Polihale Beach, but not many. She settled her sunglasses on her nose and lay on her stomach with her face turned toward the water where she could watch Heidi.
The sun baking into her skin felt good, and the tightness in her muscles began to relax. She still hadn’t met Kaia. Every day when she got home, Curtis asked her if she’d met Kaia or her brothers. His face clouded every time she said no. She was going to have to disappoint him again today. They’d both been sure the women’s paths would cross, considering Kaia’s connection to Jesse and Heidi.
Her eyes closed against the glare of the sun that penetrated the edges of her sunglasses. A shout startled her. She sat up and looked toward the water. She relaxed when she saw Heidi dumping sand from her pail.
Someone shrieked again. “Where’s Michael? Where’s my son?” The hysterical mother ran toward the water.
The cry was something no woman could ignore. It touched the deepest fears in every female. Faye stood and ran to the water’s edge with the woman. “Are you sure he’s in the water?”
“He was right here a minute ago,” the woman said, her tone frantic.
The other mothers began to call for the little boy. While they checked the water, Faye hurried toward the restrooms. Children were never where you expected them to be. She rapped on the men’s door. “Michael, are you in there?”
The door opened, and she looked down on a small boy of about four. “Are you Michael?” He nodded. “Your mommy is looking for you.” She took his hand and led him toward the beach.
She looked across the sand to the water. The waves were bigger now, tipped with foam. She handed Michael off to his mother then looked around for Heidi. There was no sign of the little girl. “Have you seen Heidi? She’s blond, about eight.”
The women shook their heads. “We were looking for Michael,” one woman said.
Faye cupped her hands around her mouth. “Heidi, time to come in.”
Only the terns’ harsh calls answered her. She scanned the waves again and told herself not to panic. Just as Michael had been found, Heidi would be too. Maybe she was in the restroom as well. But she would have passed her on the way back, she reminded herself. Faye ran down the beach toward another group of children but Heidi wasn’t with them.
She ran the other direction. Clouds had gathered in the west, and the wind began to freshen. Her knees felt weak and wobbly, and she was lightheaded. Heidi had to be here. But there was no sign of a blond head in the water anywhere.
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she turned and looked up and down the sand. She saw small footprints leading toward an area where palm trees marched along the water’s edge. Terror squeezed her lungs, and she followed the prints. “Please, Lord, please let her be all right,” she muttered.
The footprints ended near a battered pier where the beach petered out into jagged black rock. Straining her eyes, Faye stared out at the waves and saw a distant sea kayak with a blond head poking up in the middle. Heidi. Faye looked around for another kayak or dingy—anything. But there was no other craft at the crumbling dock. She needed help. The child was no match for the growing waves.
She sprinted back to her bag and rummaged for her cell phone. She couldn’t find it. Biting back a groan, she upended the bag onto the sand. Her cell phone went skittering across the beach. She grabbed for it and fell as it slipped past her. The sand scraped the skin from her knees, but she hardly noticed the sting.
She picked up the phone and dialed Curtis at the office. When she told him what had happened, he promised to call Jesse and have him come right away. Faye dropped her phone onto the sand and ran back to the pier. She couldn’t see the boat any longer. Sobbing, she sank to her knees and prayed like she’d never prayed before.
Kaia rubbed her eyes. She was never going to get used to this night work. Her body clock needed sunshine glinting off the surf and the sound of terns cawing overhead. She got dressed, brushed her teeth, then looked around for her keys. They weren’t on her bedside table where she thought she’d left them.