ʟᴜᴘɪɴ│ᴛᴋ [complete]

.38. ɪɴ ᴡʜɪᴄʜ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ (ᴏʀ sᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ) ɢᴏᴇs SPLASH

It wasn't noon yet. It was still morning. There was still time. Or so Manuel thought.

The moment he sighted the crowd standing by the pier, looking down into the water was the moment he realized he was already too late. What were all these people doing here this early in the day?

As soon as he spotted Carina wearing the chef's apron and prepping ingredients, he put two and two together. "Carina, please tell me you have a good reason to be out here so soon," he asked, not so nicely.

"Manuel! There you are." She crossed her arms defiantly. "We couldn't work without a blowtorch and it was hot, so we decided to have an early lunch. If you're concerned about Angelo getting all the attention, let me put your worries at ease: he went in with a shirt on."

Manuel could easily picture Carina insisting Angelo keep his clothes on before diving. "That's not what's bothering me," he admitted, lowering his voice. "We need to get him out of here."

"Why's that?"

"Someone's been asking around town for him. Police. Or possibly mafia. We don't know."

"Who's we?"

"The village elders. They've been covering for him, I guess, passing the word around."

This new-found information did not take long to sink into Carina's brain. "He should come up any moment now."

She turned to stare intently at the shimmering blue deep while Manuel focused on the bystanders in the foolish hopes the suspect he was looking for would somehow have it written on his forehead or whatnot. There were several regulars whom he promptly dismissed from his list of potential threats along with the few locals strolling by. There also was a family with three little girls who were way too overdressed for the midday heat that was presently hitting full force. Tourists, he thought.

And then, there were all these new faces he couldn't place: a group of bag-packers setting up for a picnic on the wharf, an elderly couple searching for some shade before the pale lady felt faint, a young man hiding behind sunglasses, wearing a light red short-sleeved button-down and tailored black chino shorts, a pair of leather slip-ons on his feet.

Manuel couldn't help the double take, admiring the man's sense of style and his nonchalant posture. He zeroed in on the flawless profile. The lips were pressed in a thin line, indicating some tension in his jaw, in stark contrast with the overall complacence. An anomaly Manuel simply could not disregard.

As he took a step toward the prime suspect, one the little girls belt out a cheer, pointing at the rocks which ran alongside the cove. Soon, everyone had their eyes on the young diver who had finally resurfaced and who was waving back at the crowd, holding up a basket full of spiky black balls.

"I sure hope you don't expect me to open these," joked Carina with a proud smile on her face as the handsome fisherman climbed out of the water under loud rounds of applause. Sea urchins were not easy to handle, to say the least.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of them," replied Angelo with his signature beam.

"So much for being discreet," growled a visibly upset Manuel as he shielded his friend from the crowd gathering around them. "Bambino, you need to run," he added, voice laced with inflexibility.

"What's the matter?" asked the oblivious young man who was trying to dry himself with a towel.

"Sunglasses. At 4 o'clock. Or is it 8? I'm not sure. Anyway, he's behind me and he doesn't belong here."

Carina and Angelo both peered behind Manuel's back to check out the suspicious bystander who had taken his shades off. "He doesn't seem very threatening," Carina noted. In fact, the young raven-haired stranger was as pale as death itself, barely able to hold his balance from the looks of it.

Manuel turned around to make sure they had properly identified the peril, only to regret it instantly.

SPLASH

The sound of a body hitting water had all the witnesses present turn their heads down to watch the white circles of sea froth ripple the surface of the otherwise tranquil ocean.

SPLASH

New ripples disturbed the water as another body sank below the surface. Manuel's instinct had him scan the gathering in search of his suspect, but all he found was a pair of shades sitting on top of leather slip-ons.

Merda.

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