5.
As expected, they released him the next day. He slipped on his tan jacket, adjusted the cuffs of the green shirt he wore, flexed his shoulders to settle the coat then gathered the sack containing his other personal belongings. He still had to wait on Rick Turner to pick him up, but at least he had something he could do before leaving the hospital.
He rapped a knuckle gently on the door to Schell's room, seeing the curtain was drawn partially around her bed. At her invitation that it was all right to come in he entered the room.
She was laying on her side, gazing out the window and she twisted slightly to see who it was and stopped at the sight of him.
"Lieutenant Caine…" she said in mild surprise.
"Schell, not Shelly." he murmured back holding his sack before him as his eyes characteristically scanned the room. He was rewarded with her gentle blush and the soft snort of amusement.
"They've sprung you, Lieutenant." She commented.
"At long last. But I have to wait for my ride so I thought I'd come in and visit." His head tipped and he glanced at her as if looking over the top rim of a pair of glasses. Then his eyes moved again and Schell realized he was working up some sort of courage to say something to her.
"Would you like to sit down?" she asked. He flashed a brief smile, nodded and pulled the chair over closer to the bed, before setting his sack aside and sitting down.
"I see they got rid of your needle."
"Finally…" She said slowly shifting back onto her side and looking at him as he settled into the chair, tugging his slacks into place, then folding his hands together. He was looking at the nightstand next to her bed. "I hate needles," she added which drew his attention back to her. He smiled in understanding.
"Have they decided when they're going to let you go?" he asked.
"Possibly tomorrow, as long as I don't get vertigo, you know, the usual stuff."
He nodded again, his eyes flicked from her face to the nightstand again before he looked back at her. She looked tired still.
"I've spoke to friend of mine in the Seattle Police Department. He's going to let me take a look at the remains of that sailboat you rented. As a professional courtesy," he said.
Schell frowned a little. "Why?"
"Because I think something happened on that boat. And I want to see what it was that caused it to explode."
For a long time she simply studied him, trying to sort things out and he could see that odd fear lurking far back in her dark blue eyes.
"I'd like to ask you a few things, to help clear some items up for me before I go over there," he said, and he couldn't help but hear her sigh of resignation.
She set her hand over her eyes. "I don't know if I can answer them. Right now I can hardly think straight."
"I understand so I thought I would just tell you what I saw, maybe that will help?" he asked and looked at her hopefully. "Plus I want to ask you one particular question."
"If it's what was I doing so close to the channel, I don't know," she said flatly.
Horatio smiled a little, looking down at his shoe before looking back up at her.
"What I want to ask you, Schell is," he paused a moment, studying her tired face and that white hair. "What are you so scared of?"
The look she shot him told him that he had hit something hard on the head. She couldn't answer him, and she just stared at him, her breath catching as she froze in place.
"I…." she started, looking away as confusion washed over her. "I…"
"It's all right, Schell," Horatio said, leaning forward. "Maybe this will help. Just relax, all right? Listen to what I have to say. Okay?" he looked at her hopefully again as she swallowed down the sudden lump of fear in her throat. She clutched the blankets up closer to her. Looking at him uncertainly she then nodded. He smiled gently at her.
"When I saw you from the car deck of the ferry, I only saw the sailboat and noticed it was drifting into the deep water channel. Now I know maritime law says the bigger vessel must defer to wind driven craft, but most sailors know to keep away, unless something is wrong. As we were getting closer I saw you coming up out of the engine compartment, before turning to get out of the cabin and you were running to get away from something. You tripped as you came out and you were running for the stern. That's when I began shouting at you to get off the boat. When you looked up, you saw that you were drifting into the path of an oncoming ferry. That was something you didn't expect. And you paused. When you did that, I saw something flash in the cabin then your boat exploded, knocking you into the water. As the ferry swept past the debris in an evasive maneuver I spotted you in the water and dove in after you. Are you with me so far?"
She nodded slowly.
"Can you tell me what you were running to do when you came out of the cabin?" he asked softly. Those dark blue eyes fixed hard on his for a moment and he could see the effort she was expending as she tried to remember.
"The radio…" she finally whispered, looking away from him. Confusion still on her face. "I was trying to get to the outboard radio."
"Good," he said gently. "That's good."
"The ferry…" she whispered. "I never saw the ferry. The boat had died. I was trying to see what was going on with the engine and I…" she paused again and he could see that realization of stark fear in her eyes. Instinctively his hand reached out and firmly took hers, squeezing reassurance.
"Don't push it…" he said gently. "You're doing great, just don't try to force it. See if you can answer me this. When did the engine die on the boat?"
She blinked and gripped his hand like it was a lifeline. Glancing away a moment , she frowned in thought.
"Just over by the point on Bainbridge Island, I was heading back from Blake Island State Park." She gently bit her lip. "The breezes had died and I needed the engine to get me back to Shilshole. It wouldn't start so I went to check on it. Thought the bilge might have been blocked or something." She looked back at Horatio.
"You saw something else in the engine compartment didn't you?" he asked. Schell was beginning to shake.
"It's all right," he murmured, shifting to move closer and not releasing her hand. "It's okay."
"I don't understand…" she whispered, very near to tears. "I saw a little box, some wires and something ticking and I knew it wasn't supposed to be on the engine block of a diesel. It was attached to the fuel line. I knew what it was but…"
"It's okay, Schell. Just relax."
"Somebody tried to kill me…" She whispered in horror. She was looking directly at him as he slowly nodded his head in affirmation. With her jaw trembling slightly she searched his face. "Why!"
"That's what I intend to find out for you." He said firmly. "And I don't want you to worry about this, all right? I know it's frightening, but I will help take care of this." His other hand reached up to flick away a few strands of her white hair from out of her eyes.
"Schell, why do you have bus schedules on the nightstand?" he abruptly asked, changing tactics as he realized what he was doing and pulled his hand away from her face, with the faintest touch of regret in his eyes. Schell frowned, still wrestling with her fear and glanced at the night table.
"I was trying to figure out how to get home from here." She looked back at Horatio as he dropped his head, trying to hide his reaction. Studying his hand holding hers, his gaze flickering back to meet her eyes. He smiled softly.
"You don't have a car?"
"I sold it, I'm going on commission in Miami, and since I'm flying I didn't need the little beater anymore."
"There's no-one who can pick you up?"
Schell slowly shook her head no, to his astonishment. He blinked a few times, processing that information then he squeezed her hand again.
"Well you do now."