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Marty Deeks repositioned his board under one arm and managed to catch his towel just before he dropped it. It was awful timing. Messing with them cost him an uninterrupted view of the girl surfers' impressive chest and trim waistline as she passed him on the way back to the car park. He glanced back at her once with a puzzled frown and watched her shove her board into the back of a jeep before jumping in. Odd, he thought. Why would she be leaving now? It was just the start of the surfing day. Maybe she'd been hassled by someone on the beach or something.

Deeks caught at his towel again and wandered out onto the sand. It was early still and the beach was deserted. He wouldn't be out here at all if he'd been able to get to sleep, but he had a lot on his mind lately with the new job and the new apartment and the nastier than he was used too cases.

Surfing was a great relaxer, but at the same time, the cold water would wake him up enough to make it through the day on virtually no sleep. Then there was Eric. It felt good to have a friend that he didn't need to hide his identity from, that he could be relaxed and real around, someone laid back and easy going with some of the same recreational interests as he had.

He spotted Eric paddling out energetically. As far as he was concerned, the kid had way too much energy for his own good, and that came from one thing and one thing one: riding a desk job all day long, stuck in an office without windows. Deeks couldn't understand people who could ride desks all day like that. It was totally unnatural, but Eric made up for his desk bound existence by surfing almost daily in all kinds of weather. He'd even gone surfing once in a hail storm. With that kind of commitment, Deeks guessed that Eric didn't enjoy his desk bound existence nearly as much as he pretended to.

Deeks dropped his towel on the sand and lifted his board, but something caught his attention. A guy on a jet ski was coming in fast and he was headed straight for Eric. Deeks stepped closer, toes dipping into the water, watching the scene with unease. There was no reason for anyone to crowd Eric that he could see. Maybe jet ski guy was the reason that the girl surfer had left the beach so early. Deeks's gaze hardened. One thing that he couldn't stand was bullying. If this guy was gonna cause trouble then he was gonna learn a lesson – Deeks style.

He watched as Jet ski guy cruised closer. Eric had just gotten his board turned around and hadn't seen the guy.

Then jet ski guy snatched up a weapon and shot Eric.

"Crap!" spat Deeks taking a few stumbling steps into the water, but he immediately realised that he was too far away to be of any help to his friend. Still, Deeks clambered onto his own board and began paddling towards the scene as quickly as he could, keeping his eyes locked onto Eric and the jet ski guy.

Deeks watched helplessly as the kid slumped half off of his board only to get hauled in by jet ski guy. For a second he was grateful that the guy wasn't just going to let Eric drown and then he began frantically cursing under his breath as he realised that Eric was being kidnapped right under his nose and that there wasn't a damned thing that he could do about it. Either Eric was dead and being dragged off to be dumped out into deeper water, or he was watching his friend get kidnapped.

Deeks strained his eyes trying to pick out all of the details that he could. He couldn't see any identifying features on the guy except that he had short brownish hair. The jet ski was painted electric blue all over and he couldn't make out any identifying marks on it at all. Jet ski guy cut loose Eric's board leash and glanced casually his way before he headed off out into the ocean at full speed with Eric draped limply over his legs.

"Eric!" yelled Deeks, uselessly. He followed along on his board until he caught up with Eric's board. He sat up then and watched the jet ski until it faded from sight. Then he took Eric's severed board leash and paddled awkwardly back to the beach with Eric's board in toe. He carried his stuff and Eric's stuff back to his car at a run.

Deeks pulled his work cell from his glove box and dialled up a four digit code twice over. Then he flung himself into the drivers seat and headed back to the office. He couldn't help but think that it had been a bad sign that jet ski guy had been heading out into deep water with Eric, where there was nothing but hungry sharks.

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