"Huh… Huh …"
Calleigh gasped for air and for his name. Neither came. The tingle of his fingers still warmed the small of her back but his hand, along with the rest of him, was gone. As hard as she stared there was only a calm swamp simmering in mid day Florida heat. A weed clogged stagnant surface smoothed out the ripple of his disappearance as if he had never been.
"Horatio!" she hollered, shaking herself. Her voice reverberated as far as the closest hummock of trees, grew heavy in the humid air and was swallowed down into the thick silence that claimed everything in the everglades at this time of day.
Then, twenty paces out, the murky surface heaved sluggishly. Sudden, quick motion drew Calleigh's eye as a hand and then an arm shot into view. Instantly locked on the spot she took a couple of quick, instinctive steps forward. Fingers curled around her nine mil without looking and freed it from its' holster as her feet wriggled down into the sucking mud and settled.
Horatio's shoulder rolled above the surface and she caught her breath, waiting for the red hair to emerge. The nine mil aimed itself, right where the gator's belly would be if the flow of motion kept going.
It didn't. Horatio was yanked sharply downward and went under again. Calleigh swung the weapon slowly clockwise and back, centering her aim on the spot where he had vanished.
Quick and sharply harsh in the sun, joined by two rows of deeply buried teeth, prey and predator erupted. Alligator tail and water met with a slap of sound followed a moment later by Horatio's sharp gasp for air. Calleigh's weapon swung instantly to the centre of the struggle but alligator and man were intertwined and moving too fast for her to risk a shot. The gator had Horatio by the upper leg and he was flailing weakly with his arms in a valiant attempt to swim towards her, towards the bank.
Holding her breath Calleigh bit her lip until it bled and then bit harder, waiting. The thrashing tangle came just a little closer and the huge jaws briefly opened to readjust their grip. Three bullets pumped rapidly into the gator's belly.
Water and weed exploded in a frantic froth of red and writhing body parts. Straining to see Calleigh waded out further until the water took most of her weight and only her toes touched bottom, just enough to push off strongly if she needed to. As she watched, breathless, the gator gradually lost its' grip. After a half hearted sweep of its powerful tail the scaly back sank slowly out of sight in a harmless froth of bubbles.
A two inch tip of tail flicked water droplets in all directions and dipped out of sight.Horatio floated motionless, face down in a blood red cloud of weed and water. Calleigh tucked her weapon back into its holster, pushed off the bottom and started to swim.
Ten strong strokes later she reached him, just as he was going under. Rolling him onto his back she tucked an arm neatly underneath Horatio's chin and kicked, beginning the short swim back. Leg muscles pumped and arms strained while Calleigh's brain sagged with relief
She had him.