14- "Lake Powell"
The plan to find the boat was simple, yet exceedingly difficult: find the boat of the Livingston's (the yacht "Great Mystery" named for Jack's first novel) and bring them in for questioning.
The problem? 186 miles long. Over 2,000 miles of shorelines. 96 major canyons that shoot off the lake, some of which are 15 to 20 miles in length. The police had a main boat, and police officers would all be on the easiest form of transportation: wave runners, searching every canyon, starting at the marina and heading northeast.
Grissom stayed back on the main boats, but Greg and Taña were dressed to the nines in skintight wet suits, listening to instructions from the main police officer.
"Okay, the yacht we are looking for is called 'The Great Mystery'. Two suspects on board, a young, Caucasian male, seventeen years old named Jeremy Livingston. 29 year old female, Vivica Livingston. Suspected of murder, so be very cautious. Do not approach boat without the consent of CSI Grissom, me or FBI Special Agent Szmerka. CSI Grissom and I are going to be on Boat One, set your radio frequencies to channel 18, we set a secure channel there. Special Agent Szmerka will be on wave runner 14. You all have your secure directions to which canyon you search. Agent Szmerka is section leader for wave runners. When done with your canyon radio us and we will direct you to another. We do not stop until the sun goes down, until we find them, or until we hit Hite Marina at the other end. The sun has begun to rise; we begin now."
The huge crowd of police officers ran down to the shoreline, most certainly scaring away any potential beach goers for that day, and everyone climbed on to their assorted boats, Boat One in the lead as they slowly boated out of the marina and into the middle of the lake. Boat One shut off the engines, drifting, as Taña lead all the wave runners slowly pass the boat. They paused for a second of pure silence as the sun finally rose and began to warm the officers.
Then, Taña's voice on the radio. "Let's go!"
The revving of many engines broke the calm morning air as all the wave runners shot off, at high speeds, into different directions. The search had begun.
7 wave runners and five more speedboats were patrolling the main lake, whereas 43 other wave runners sped off into the distance. 55 search engines, and 96 canyons to go.
Greg let out a teenage whoop as he flew over the waves at top speed, the water spraying at his face as he sped over to hit his canyon. He wanted to find the Livingstons, but not quite yet. This was awesome. He and Taña had the canyon furthest northeast, so they had the longest distance to travel in a short amount of time. They cut off most small canyons, the ones a yacht couldn't fit in, and he and Taña were heading over to the longest canyon offshoot of the lake: San Juan River Arm. They approached it, some officers' voices cackled saying which various canyon was cleared.
They reached the middle of the canyon at around 12:30, and Taña motioned to Greg to stop near her and take a small break. They each had a refill of gas they were tugging around and they figured it was the time to refill the tanks. By listening to their radios, Boat One was slowly moving towards them, near Dangling Rope Marina.
"CSI Sanders and Agent Szmerka, do you copy?"
"Yes, we copy."
"What is your position?"
"We are halfway down San Juan River Arm. Nothing yet."
"Good, keep us posted."
They got back on their boats and sped off again, and turned a sharp corner and they both saw it at the same time. "The Great Mystery" was beached near a little shore.
"Wow." Taña said, "Look what we found."
Greg smiled, "I'll call it in."
Taña retrieved her binoculars and looked through them, sizing the situation. Greg finished as Boat One replied "Copy. Do not let them see you."
"Copy."
"Oh, holy shit!" Taña said, making Greg almost drop the radio.
"What?" He asked.
"Well, I was right about the son/mother relationship thing. Look at the second window."
He grabbed his binoculars and looked through them.
"Holy cow! I didn't even know it was possible to twist that way!" He removed the binoculars. "That is some hardcore stuff. I can't even watch."
So they drifted there, sitting in the hot sun, the waves making their boats bounce around in a sickly way, trying not to think of the scenario in the boat anchored near them. Greg was looking away from Taña when he heard a splash, and her wave runner was empty, and her lifejacket was hung on the handle.
She surfaced in between their wave runners, smiling. "I can't take that sun anymore! How can you live in a desert everyday?"
"You get used to it. Geronimo!" He jumped off his wave runner as she swam away rapidly to avoid being crushed. They swam around serenely and were whispering, as if the Livingston's would hear them, but when Taña was attempting to get back on her boat Greg said suddenly, without even thinking, "I really did love you, you know."
Taña slipped and fell back into the water in surprise. He swam up near her, and she swam backwards, spooked at his sudden change of character.
"Greg... that was ages ago... I guess I should have been a little more sympathetic, but you were extremely mean to go and do that. So selfish and cruel. Why are you getting so close to me?"
"I need to know... did you love me?"
"Oh, Greg." She said, and she looked sad, almost scared of him, "Greg, there is no purpose to dwell on lost dreams. We were young, and I got over it. We were different people... what are you doing?"
Greg smiled, "I think... yes... I think I am going to kiss you."
"Uh..." But before he could, a sound of an arriving engine alerted them to Boat One's soon arrival and they broke apart and clamored back onto their wave runners. Taña tried to avoid his gaze, but Greg was trying to gain eye contact, but they had more important things to concentrate on right then. Boat One docked on the same beach, and the other people on the wave runners stayed out on the water as Greg and Taña beached too, and Grissom handed both of them their guns and they walked over to the boat.
It wasn't hard to find the two (they were being quite loud) but they knocked the door down anyway as the cop with them yelled "FREEZE!" and four guns were pointed at them.
Vivica and Jeremy were surprised, to put it in a good way, and they both struggled to put on their clothes only to be handcuffed and lead away. It was then when Taña noticed the camera and all the videos.
She pointed, and Greg smirked and mouthed the word "kinky". They gathered all the tapes. Some were labeled "diary", other obviously labeled "porn". Greg said, "Nick is going to have some fun analyzing these tapes."
Taña rolled her eyes, "Just don't let him bring them home with him."
They laughed and the boat was driven in, put on a tow truck, and was towed back to the LVCL. Taña, Greg and Grissom were back in the lobby at the main marina, and thanked the Arizona and Utah police for their time and effort, and two squad cars were being used to bring the suspects, separate, back to Las Vegas, where CSI had jurisdiction.
It was night fall when they finally began to get ready to drive back to Las Vegas. Taña had excused herself to go to the restroom and while she was washing her hands she took a good long look at herself in the mirror. She had a slightly pink face from the sun, and she felt a little wobbly from being on water all day. It was going to be a long night ahead of her, so she opened her bag and took a sleeping pill she rarely used but often needed. She didn't want to dream of Greg again.
She walked out of the bathroom to find Greg waiting for her.
"Ready to go?" She asked, but he came right up to her and kissed her, knocking her back into the wall with a loud din. When he parted from her, he said, "I've wanted to do that since graduation. Let's go."
Taña was still flabbergasted as she followed him out to his car, and in the dark she threw him up against the car and kissed him.
"I've wanted to do that since third grade." She whispered, and then got into the passenger's seat. Greg smiled stupidly and drove after Grissom.
It was dark, and they were in silence when Taña said, "Greg, I have to tell you something."
"What?"
"I've been... hiding... something... from... you... Wow, these sleeping pills work really well." She said, slowly drifting off.
"Sleeping pills?" Greg asked, but Taña was already passed out, and Greg shrugged and continued to drive. Their night was just beginning.
A/N: damn good sleeping pills, I must say!
"There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause severe swelling. So what's the problem?"
-Dustin Hoffman
