Treasures hidden deep within

”Hey, did you see the coffee pot.” Looking at my boyfriend over the 20 boxes in the kitchen. He was knee deep in boxes in the living room. We just moved in together and I was excited to move into a bigger apartment.

My boyfriend is a police officer that just moved to my hometown. Hence the piles of boxes. He stepped over a few boxes heading down the hallway! “Yup, I found it,” he said laughing.

I walked towards his voice and found him in the washroom. Laughing while walking towards him! “Really, in the washroom. Honey I love your system, but the bathroom?”

He picked me up and brought me to the bedroom, for a little break! It was fun being 23 in love.

Several days later the boxes started to deplete and the apartment was looking more like a living space and less like a dorm. Thinking about Dax made me shiver, I liked us. I liked being in my hometown where I was brought up. I start my new job at the hospital in a week. I smile to myself and think about all of the adventures we will have. We both love snorkeling, scuba diving, jumping out of planes. My mom thinks we are crazy!

For the next two weeks Dax is on night shift and I will be working Days. We new this would overlap a-lot during our new journey but we will work it out. We are passing strangers. He wakes up and starts dinner for me then leaves. I get home and finish up supper and go to bed.

Two weeks turned into two months. Dak started to stop making me supper, and stopped leaving cute notes around. Feeling heartbroken I flopped on the bed searching dog rescues for a cute small dog. I thought that a pup would keep me company at night. I turned on my stomach to think about how we could work this out. Then I smelled something at the end of the bed. I couldn’t make it out but it’s something I never smelled before.

I jumped out of bed to turn the printer to print out the photo of the pup I really liked. A crate from the net and a dog bed. I wrote a cute note to my boyfriend asking for him to think about the idea of a dog. I wrote a long note and added a few racey sentences to catch his attention. Picking up the phone I called my best friend Laura to come over for wine. I asked her if she could help out once and a while over wine if we got a pup.

In the morning I sprayed my perfume on the envelope and placed it on the bed. I smiled and walked out the door. Soon Dak would be home. I really hope he can really give the idea a chance.

At work I kept looking at my phone to see if he left a message on my break, and nothing. Sitting at the nurses desk, I smelled the scent that was in my room. I looked to see what it was and all I saw was a nurse with long red hair walking out the door.

“Hey Delinda, who is that?” Looking at the nurse beside me on her computer.

“Daisy, why?”

“I’m not sure, I have smelled her perfume somewhere before and wondered who she is.”

“She works night shifts in the ER, she is a friend of mine!”

“Oh cool,” I said. Does she have a boyfriend, or a husband?”

“No, I don’t think so but the other day when I worked a night shift she did mention she met a hot police officer. He came and brought in a drunk guy that was in a bar brawl. “

“Hmm, interesting” I said “did you get his name?”

Now looking at me with a scowl, “no, what’s with all of the questions?” Getting up to leave.

The rest of the day I didn’t give it much thought as the we were swamped with patients.

At home I looked everywhere for a note from Dax. I was kinda getting excited to see about getting a puppy. I couldn’t find the note anywhere.

After a quick supper after a long day I flopped on the couch to turn on the tv. I smelled the scent again. This time I jumped up and searched the house to see if I could find something. Not sure what I was looking for I ripped all of the cushions off of the couch. I searched the bedroom, looking in the bathroom. That’s when I saw it. A Kleenex with black on it, staring at me in the trash can! It looked like a mascara smear mark. In the spare room I went to bed and wept.

I was going to call in sick but decided that I couldn’t face Dak today. But I left the living room upside down and left the Kleenex on the bathroom vanity. In lipstick I wrote a note on the bathroom mirror. COUGHT is all I wrote.

I got home, the house smelled amazing, and all cleaned up. With a note on the bed telling me that he loves me and looking forward to the weekend as we were going to go scuba diving at a friends cabin an hour drive away.

I smiled and thought to myself, was I dreaming everything. Was I just tired and missing my boyfriend. Did I overthink everything?

The drive to the cabin was great, like old times. We had our fingers intwined while he drove. The conversation was effortless and he was very attentive. As soon as we got to the cabin he picked me up and we crossed the threshold. We made love for hours. Smiling, for the first time in a while all theories of an affair drifted from my mind. I felt on top of the world.

He said we should go for a boat ride to see where we should go snorkeling. I sat beside him while he untied the knots on the dock. When he jumped in, I was in awe of how easily he jumped in. Like he did this several times before.

I pointed forward, let’s go to the diving rock! I love it there. He scratched his head looked at me and said,” let’s go somewhere else babe. That’s to far away!”

I shrugged and said, “ok skipper your in charge.”

He looked at me, grabbed my hand and kissed it. He said, I’m glad we are here for the weekend. It should be fun!”

When we got back he made me supper, and was sweet as pie. I said that I would get the diving gear ready for tomorrow. He didn’t hear me, but I smiled and walked away.

In the mud room I opened the box where the scuba stuff is stored and all I could find was my stuff. His gear was not there.

I walked into the kitchen and asked him about it. He said he was here three days ago and it was hanging in the boat house.

Confused I walked to the boathouse and there his gear in the corner hanging up. I shook my head and started to load his stuff into the boat. The tank was almost on empty. I went back into the cabin and asked him if he brought another canister as his was empty. He said there was one in the trunk. Ok I said, and grabbed my stuff from the mud room. As I was bending over to retrieve my mask the strap was out of its usual spot, and one flipper was gone. I went over to the other box to see if it was there. I opened the box and there was a scarf in there with the scent. I started to cry. This can’t be happening, shaking my head holding the scarf. I felt like all of the wind was knocked out of me. Sure enough my flipper was in there. I walked by Dak to load my stuff into the boat.

I sat in the boat, and started to sob. I unhooked the boat from the dock and jumped in. As a kid I did this a hundred times. Katherine’s cabin was a retreat for us as kids. I needed to clear my head and without thinking I drove to the diving rock!

I let the anchor down and decided to go for a swim. It was a very hot day. I took off my clothes down to my undergarments grabbed the mask and flippers.

I was in my happy place. Swimming around was what I needed. I started to second guess myself and thought perhaps Katherine left her scarf in the scuba box. After all it was her scuba box. The perfume could have been a coincidence. Clearing my mind , I was feeling better.

Then I saw it. A chain. I swam up to get as much air in my lungs to go and investigate. If someone was poaching fish I would cut the chain loose and let the fish go.

The water was a bit murky from me swishing my feet with the flippers, but I took a deep breath and swam towards the chain. It was stuck so I followed the chain deeper. I saw her. The long red hair was swishing in the water. Her foot chained to a cinder block!

I screamed under the water. Thrashing my feet to get to the surface. At the surface I was still thrashing, calling for help. I calmed myself down to try to untie her somehow. I grabbed the chain and pulled myself downward when I saw blonde hair moving in the water. I looked around and there was 4 women tied to cinder blocks. I screamed again and started to thrash my way to the surface.then I saw eyes staring at me through a mask! I tried pushing myself away from him but he was stronger. Much stronger.

I was starting to thrash harder, as he held me still. All of the breath seeped out of me. I could feel myself floating to the top. Then just as I was about to take another breath my body sunk hard. My leg was stretched downwards and the pain in my chest was to heavy to fight any more.