Page 74 of Try Easy

One More Night

Keoni

The blood drainedfrom Keoni’s face, and the fear that had been momentarily forgotten while he’d been arguing with Lou came back in full force.

“What do you mean ‘missing’?” he asked.

Henry began pacing back and forth along the hall. His hair was in disarray from raking his hands through it, and his eyes were wild.

“He’s gone,” Henry said, meeting Keoni’s stare.

Keoni grabbed Henry by the collar of his shirt and yanked him onto his toes so that they were nearly at eye level.

“What happened?” he growled.

Henry clutched Keoni’s wrists. “Turn me loose,” he said.

Keoni shook Henry, making his teeth clatter together. “Tell me what happened.”

“Let him go,” Lou told Keoni, stepping between him and Henry. “You’re choking him.”

Penny came into the room and stared at them. “What’s going on?” she asked.

Keoni released Henry, and they all turned to look at Penny.

“Bones is gone,” Keoni told her.

Penny’s mouth dropped open, and her face went white. “Do you mean…” Penny swallowed, and tears sprang to her eyes. “Do you mean he’s dead?”

Henry hung his head and didn’t respond. Penny lunged herself at Henry and started hitting him in the chest with balled-up fists. Her sobs filled the room. Henry let her hit him for a few moments and then finally grabbed her hands and pulled her into a tight hug.

Keoni met Lou’s eyes over Henry’s shoulder, and they stared at each other. Lou’s eyes filled with tears. She shook her head as if she could deny the truth, but Keoni knew she was thinking the same thing as him. This was all his fault. If he had been on time, if he had gone on the dive, if he’d have been there…

There were too many ifs and they all added up to the same thing. Bones was gone, and it was all because of Keoni. It was as if Eddie’s death was happening all over again. Keoni sucked in a deep breath, feeling like he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. He sank down to the stool at the bar and held his head in his hands.

He refused to believe Bones was dead. Maybe there was still a shred of hope that he was alive, just missing.

“What happened?” Keoni demanded. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

Lou took Penny by the arm and led her to the sofa, where they sat holding each other while Henry began the story.

“When you didn’t show up,” Henry started, and then stopped abruptly when he saw Keoni’s face harden.

“Go on,” Keoni said through clenched teeth.

“When you didn’t show up, we waited for a few minutes. Then Bones got impatient. He was convinced you weren’t going to show.” Henry’s eyes darted to Lou and then back to Keoni. “Anyway, we set out for Shark’s Ridge. The weather was clear, if a little windy. It was a perfect morning for a dive.” Henry paused and swallowed hard before continuing. “Bones said he was going deep, at least 250 feet. With a single tank of air and such a deep dive, he could only stay on the bottom for about ten minutes. I waited, counting down the minutes.”

“Why didn’t you go after him?” Penny shouted, jumping up from the sofa.

“You don’t understand,” Henry shouted back. “It would have been suicide for me to go down after him, like jumping off a ten-story building. I don’t know what I’m doing diving that deep. I was only there to drive the boat.”

Keoni saw a flash of red in front of his eyes, and he leaned against the counter, trying to get a hold of himself.

“Did you look for him at least?” Penny asked.

“Of course I looked for him. I searched for an hour. Then I called the Coast Guard. They’ve got boats out there now, looking for him.”

“They’ll find him,” Lou said.

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