Read Online Deep Shadow by Randy Wayne White - Free Book Online Page A

iguanas, Amazon parrots and monkeys, too—you name it.”
    “That’s kind of cool,” Will said, but his tone was cooling. “Is that why you’re diving a lake instead of the Gulf? To check it out and see if there are any exotics?”
    I shrugged, a perverse streak in me wanting the boy to know what it was like to be answered with silence.
    “You’re not going to tell me why you’re diving the lake, either, huh?”
    I said, “It’s not my trip. A friend of ours planned it. Any questions, he’d have to answer.”
    “Do I know the guy?”
    “His name’s Arlis Futch. Captain Futch. He’ll be here in the morning.”
    “Tomlinson said there was a chance you might let me go.”
    “That’s up to Captain Futch, too.”
    The windows of the Red Pelican produced enough light for me to read the boy’s reaction. He didn’t believe me.
    “What’re you going to tell the guy when he asks about me?”
    I said, “Knowing Arlis, he won’t. But he might ask you about your first open-water dive. How’d you like Key Largo?”
    Will ignored the question and skipped to my reason for asking. “It doesn’t bother me a bit, being in closed spaces. Being kidnapped—that’s what you’re wondering about, isn’t it? Underwater, same thing—I liked it. You sound just like the shrinks now. If you’ve got something to say, why not just come out and say it?”
    I smiled. Smart kid. “Okay, I will. Even in a lake, a diver has to be able to count on his partners. There’s nothing simple about recreational diving. I don’t know why they use that term.”
    I expected the adolescent shields to drop a notch. Instead, he replied, “I count on myself all the time. Always have, so I guess you can, too. If I do something wrong, all you have to do is tell me. I’ll fix it. That sound fair?”
    Yes, I had to admit it. It was reasonable and fair.
    Before I could respond, he added, “Or maybe there’s something else you’re worried about. The shrinks don’t come right out and ask me about that one, either.”
    I started to pretend I didn’t know what he was talking about but decided that lying was the worst way to deal with William Joseph Chaser. He was talking about the man he’d killed, one of his abductors. I said, “It doesn’t worry me. You had a choice and you made it. It was the right thing to do. If anything, it tells me you can handle yourself in a tight spot.”
    Will said, “What’s the problem, then? I’d like to go. I’ve never been underwater in a lake before. Maybe you can tell the guy in charge—Captain Futch, you said? Maybe you could convince him that I’d do okay.”
    There was something in the boy’s tone that bothered me. It was the airy way he had asked, What’s the problem, then? Tomlinson had been pushing me to discuss the subject, so I decided I would never have a better opportunity. I said, “How do you feel about it? You killed a man. Does it bother you?”
    “I thought we were talking about diving a lake.”
    “You said if there was something I wanted to say, say it. So there it is. I’ve heard that you won’t discuss it with your doctors. That you don’t talk with anyone about what happened.”
    We were beneath the ficus tree now. Will took his bike by the handlebars and swung his leg over the seat as if mounting a horse. “Sometimes I know things about people,” he said. “It’s always been that way. So I know enough to keep my mouth shut because there are things I don’t want people to know about me.”
    “Intuition?” I said.
    “Maybe. Or instincts—the kind animals have. I’m not sure how I know things, but I do.”
    I listened carefully, inspecting his tone and his words for arrogance, but there was none. He had said it matter-of-factly, more like a confession than boasting.
    “Tomlinson asked me to bring up the subject. Do your instincts tell you why?”
    I expected the question to unsettle the kid, but instead he looked at me until my eyes had found his. In the winter