Deep Sea

Chapter 17: Secret

Chapter 17: Secret

"She lied?" Ilia looked at Joe. "You lied?"

"How did you..." Joe looked surprised.

"You wouldn't be foolish enough to play around by the rails in the middle of the night, alone." he explained his reasoning. "So what really happened?"

"Joe?" the doctor looked at her expectantly.

Joe bit her lip. She was warm again, her thought process was back to normal and she could consider this situation carefully.

No one pushed you overboard a ship in the dead of night because they liked you. The water was far too cold. Everyone who ever set foot on a sailing vessel knew about the dangers of hypothermia even in warm weather. If someone pushed her overboard, it was to take her out. And the only reason she could think to do that was because of what she was getting closer and closer to figuring out on the bottom of the sea.

But who was it?

Who pushed her?

All she knew was that it was a push. It wasn't a particularly hard push, just a push. It could have been anybody.

The question was; did she trust everyone in this room.

The doctor was obvious. If he wanted to kill her, he wouldn't have pushed her overboard. When doctors turn killers, they tended to kill in ways that were almost undetectable. And he knew she was on CBI's. He wouldn't try to kill her by putting her in water. For all they knew about the injections, she could have floated there for days without any negative side affects.

There was no question about Kai in Joe's mind. If he had been trying to keep the structure that was underwater a secret, he never would have reported in to Jack. And, on an instinctual level, Joe trusted it. It just came with the territory of being partners.

Ilia was the only one in doubt. She had only been on the Haltija for a little while and she was in on everything. Joe didn't know anything about her except that she was awful quick to get close to Joe and that she didn't have any problems pushing Joe into water.

And even as she considered her, Joe cursed herself for thinking such bad things about a girl who was such a good friend.

Ilia laughed with her, joked with her, gave Joe a tattoo for crying out loud! A tattoo that the doctor assured her, after clicking over it disapprovingly as Kai waited outside for her to change into the sweats she wore now, was already healed and unaffected by the salt water.

Ilia was a dear friend to Joe.

But Joe was analytical. She tried not to let emotion interfere with what she considered completely logical thought. She would tell Ilia but keep an eye on her in the future. No need to not be careful from now on.

Joe realized she had been thinking to herself for a long time while they just stared, waiting for her to answer them.

She took a deep breath and said, "I was pushed."

The reaction was exactly what she predicted.

Ilia and the doctor gasped and, a moment later, Kai demanded, "Who?"

"I don't know." Joe shook her head. "I didn't see. I was getting some fresh air and I felt someone just shove me over."

"Why didn't you say that sooner?" the doctor demanded to know.

Joe sighed. "I just don't want whoever pushed me to know I know. If they think I don't know, they wont be as careful as they would be if they knew I was suspicious."