Page 80 of Contention

Dietrich steps back and sighs loudly, the muscles in his body going strangely lax. “I was afraid you’d say something tedious like that.” Kara sees his line of sight focusing on another boat about to pass on their side, oncoming in the distance. He sees it and then looks back at the man in front of him, the man that has started to relax.

Then, Dietrich is grabbing him again.

“Holy shi-” Kara barely stifles her exclamation of shock when Dietrich pushes the other man up and over the side of the boat. Feet over head, the man tumbles off with a shout and a loud splash some distance down. More horrifying; the oncoming boat begins laying on their horn, trying to pull further away from a collision with a human body.

“Man overboard,” Dieter hollers loudly as the boat that passes them shrills its horn repeatedly, the driver likely furious that he’d been put in a position to nearly hit someone. Then, comes the sirens.

Gale pinches the bridge of her nose, muttering caustically, “And, so it begins…”

Kara stares at her, wide eyed, horrified. “Is heinsane!Did he just…?”

“Oh, yes. He did. I generally never know if it’s best to laugh or cry where he’s concerned.”

Cursing loudly, Dietrich spins to look at the somewhat unsurprised men sitting quietly behind him, their work laptops on their laps. “Send down the ladder. Let him back up. Quick.Faster. I’d love for him to be up here before the cops board.”

And so, they pull up the soaking wet man just as the water police pull up in their little boat. A man with a loud speaker says, “Cut the engine. We’re coming over.”

Dietrich smiles widely, but there is no friendliness in it as he mutters between his clenched teeth, “Goddammit.”

Chapter 20

The two water police board, a tall one with a big beard and a shorter, stockier one with giant sunglasses obscuring half his face. Both look irritated. “Do you know why we’re here?”

Dietrich shrugs, as if there isn’t a soaking wet man wrapped in a towel seated a few feet away, eyeballing Dietrich with poorly disguised concern. “Ah. Probably because someone fell overboard in a high traffic corridor where no swimming is allowed?”

“Fell overboard is stretching it, young man,” the heavily bearded cop says. “Looks like he was thrown overboard on purpose, which gets you reckless operation at a minimum. Especially with more motorized vehicles passing by. We’re going to need this boat to dock immediately.”

Incredulous, Dietrich scoffs. “I’m not at the wheel, so clearly I’m not operating this thing.This is asinine. It was a clumsy accident. I slipped and accidently fell into him. There’s no foul play. We are not docking for a fucking citation.” He twists to look over at Gale expectantly.

The cop is hissing in the background, “Excuse me?”

“Your turn, friend,” Gale says blandly to Kara. “Go get him out of the mess he made. He loves that.”

Is shecrazy? “Gale, he’s not looking at me, he’s clearly looking at you.”

“Well, he wanted you here, so…negotiate down to a simple violation or something. It’s a perfect learning experience.”

Horrified, Kara wants to strangle her mentor for putting her in this situation. Dietrich clearly threw the guy overboard and she’s expected to…lie?!

With her nerves racing, Kara gets up and tries to mentally puff herself up. She’s tough, she can handle this, no different from a court room. When she gets to the group, she stands with her hands on her hips, placing a calm expression on her face even though her mind is racing.

They are all looking down at her. She’s not very tall in flip flops. Flip flops don’t strike fear into the hearts of men, unfortunately.

Dietrich looks irritated that Gale sent her over, his gaze on Gale accusingly. Gale naturally ignores him. Probably enjoying herself.

Using her courtroom voice, Kara says, “Officers, good morning. What seems to be the problem here?” Start out simple, that always works. Make them talk more.

The short one with the deep scowl snorts. “Are you blind? A man got thrown overboard, why do you think we’re here little woman?”

Little woman?!

Giving him an unpleasant stare, Kara forces a thin smile on her lips to show she isn’t cowed. She carefully crafts her words so they can’t be used against her. “Mr. Bittinger told you that he lost his footing, knocking…Terry…off his feet. A terrible accident. I’m sorry, what makes you think this happened on purpose?” Kara gives them a surprised look, as if horrified they would even think such a thing of the handsome blonde man. Dietrich artfully hides his eyes behind giant bronze aviators that compliment his skin tone perfectly.

The taller cop subtly flinches at the name ‘Bittinger’. Kara wonders at that. She almost wants to play the ‘do you know who this is’ card just to see what happens. The shorter cop seems oblivious or simply doesn’t care.

“It’s against the law to put passengers in danger, especially in a no swim zone with heavy traffic, miss. I’m quite sure I saw a fight and a man got thrown in the path of another boat. That’s a serious violation, if not a criminal offense.”

Kara feels strongly about ethics and literally nothing ethical has happened on this boat. Regardless, if she’s expected to defend Dietrich, it’s rather clear that she needs to suck up her idea of right and wrong. They aren’t in court; she can try to diffuse the situation in a way that befits her client.

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