Sixty Minutes

The Prompt

Write a crime fiction story.

The music is "Breathing Underwater" by Hot Milk

Sixty Minutes

He looked at the gauge on the oxygen cylinder. He had maybe an hour left.

A month ago he became a multi-millionaire with a lottery win, and had always wanted to look after friends so made immediate provisions for them in his will, and let them know. He had no family, he lost his parents years back and was an only child like his parents had been.

He had always wanted to do some deep-sea diving to explore old shipwrecks, so with his newfound wealth, he bought a boat and a diving bell so that he could engage in something that he had wanted to do since he was a child.

He had a few of his friends who were qualified and able seafarers and could deal with the technicalities of the boat and the bell.

The diving bell could only hold one person, and his friend recommended an oxygen cylinder just in case of any mishaps, a spare-tire scenario. They said ninety-nine times out of a hundred it would be fine but you needed to be prepared.

He had found a potential wreck he wanted to explore, a World War One German Destroyer. He couldn't leave the diving bell but would be able to see it and take photographs and video with his camera and phone. Of course that far down there was no signal but he had contact via the cable that connected the diving bell and would be used to bring it back up.

When he hit the bottom, he was amazed at the view of the sunken ship and started taking pictures with his cameras and phone. He would have so much when he got back to the surface. He didn't know what he would do with everything, maybe put it together for a YouTube video, this was just the result of his hobby and money.

He was so excited, that was until the lights went out and he could still see the wreck and then he saw his support cable hit the sea bed.

What the hell......

There was no air coming into the bell now, and he wouldn't last long without oxygen.

There must have been some accident.

He was a little worried but he was sure his friends had called the coastguard and no doubt someone would be on their way to rescue him.

There was no way to leave the bell, at this depth without a diving suit he would be crushed.

He waited.

How long would it be?

He started thinking of where else he could go and what else he could do now he was a multi-millionaire....

And He waited and waited, and waited ....

🌊⛵🌊🚢🌊⛵🌊🚢🌊⛵🌊🚢🌊⛵🌊🚢🌊⛵🌊🚢🌊

On the boat, there was lots of laughter, and beer was flowing.

"That's it lads we're all going to be millionaires"

"What a bloody moron, did he not know that we all thought he was an idiot?"

"I can't believe he set this up and didn't tell anyone we were coming out"

They had severed the cable, sealing his fate, to a slow painful suffocation.

"What if someone asks?"

"Who will , he walked out of his job when he won the lottery and told his boss to shove his job up his arse. He burned all his bridges. No one will miss him, they will just assume he is off to somewhere where he can spend his money. Then we will report him missing and he will pronounced dead, and we will be millionaires"

"We can sell the boat as well, just need to chuck this diving bell stuff over the side"

Then they headed back to port, to find a buyer for the boat.