Chapter 2

Will was still disorientated he had no idea how long it had been since he last saw Bee Jay’s sails. Now all he could see was water. The swell lifted him up but still, all he could see was ocean. He tried to make sense of things but couldn’t. He was in the water, they’d left him and they weren’t on any shipping lane so the chance of rescue seemed remote.

‘Mustn’t give up hope,’ he told himself. ‘He tried to work out how he’d got to be in the water but couldn’t remember anything since breakfast. He looked around and still saw nothing but water. Something showed in his peripheral vision. He turned to look and his heart sank. No more than fifty feet away was the unmistakable dorsal fin of a shark. He tried to remember what sharks frequented these waters. He knew that most presented no danger, however, there were all those unconfirmed reports of Great Whites off the coast of Cornwall. If they came up to Cornwall, they could easily be here. The tip of the shark’s tail broke the surface. He guessed the distance from fin to tail as about twenty feet, this was a hell of a big shark. Turning away from the shark, he saw her. Standing five foot six inches tall with an hourglass figure and clad only in a bikini she walked across the water towards him. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, which swung as she walked. He knew she couldn’t be real but at the same time, there was something familiar about her.

With his free hand, Will pointed to the shark. There was a splash beside him and he was aware of someone in the water beside him. He looked up at the woman and saw that she wasn’t walking on the water, but hanging over the side of a large white boat. There was a metal ladder hanging over the stern and the man in the water was dragging him towards it.

As we bounced across the waves, I looked from Bruce to the laptop and back to Bruce He seemed to be enjoying himself. Constantly adjusting the throttles to give us the maximum speed he thought was safe and monitoring the GPS. From time to time, he would glance back at me.

‘Are they still sailing away?’ he asked.

I nodded. I knew something was definitely wrong. If this was an accident, they should have noticed by now.

‘Maybe it’s not him. Maybe it’s just his life jacket gone overboard.’ Bruce was trying to make me feel better.

I nodded again but we both knew that couldn’t be the case. An empty life jacket would be caught by the wind and moving much faster than the red dot on my screen. I looked at the screen as I desperately tried to keep hold of the computer. Then I did something I hadn’t done since I was a girl. I prayed.

‘Please God let him be OK. He’s not really a bad man. He can be better. I can make him better. Please just give me that chance. Let him be alive.’

The throb of the engines quietened and the boat levelled out on the water. I gave Bruce a questioning look.

‘Nearly there. ‘ He said, ‘Instruments can only take us so far, from here on we’ll have to rely on these things.’ He pointed to his eyes. ‘Here take the wheel. Just keep us going straight ahead.’

I took the wheel and Bruce dashed down into the cabin and came up with a pair of binoculars, and jumped up on top of the cabin.

‘Okay, I’m going for’ard and if I see him I’ll guide you in, right? You do know your port from your starboard?’

‘I think so, port is left, right’

‘He grinned. ‘Yeah port is definitely left’

I watched him as he scanned the ocean looking for a sign more than once he lifted the binoculars to his eyes, only to put them down again. I was busy looking myself when Bruce barked out his first order.

‘Hard a starboard, Hard a starboard.’

I turned the wheel sharply to the right and the boat started to turn.

‘Port. Port. Port. Steady as she goes. —Yes! Yes! I see your man. I see him. Oh, my God.’

He quickly came back and dropped down into the cockpit, taking the wheel and easing the throttles forward a little.

‘What’s wrong Bruce, what did you see.’

‘Just keep calm, right. There are two sharks in the water and only one of them is Wainwright’