Call of Water (Madame Tan's Freakshow #1) - Marina Simcoe Page 0,81

told Ivan. “I’ll wait for Lero to contact me himself.”

“All right. The girls are in the kitchen, do you want to say hi?”

He couldn’t leave Le Loup Solitaire without seeing the staff he had worked with for years. It took him at least an hour to say hi to everyone and catch up. Then he stopped by his apartment and Lero’s townhouse.

Both were locked with the lights off. He had to use a window to get into each.

He found no further messages in Lero’s place but was able to recover his own documents and bank cards at his. These he put in the zipped pocket of his swim shorts, intending to take them with him.

After a visit to the bank to organize his finances, he was finally ready to go back.

By the time he returned to Le Havre Beach, it was late evening.

Taking his shoes off, he walked to the water’s edge, letting the surf run over his toes. The sea water here was diluted by the stream of the Seine, replacing some of the salty brine with the pungent vibes of the big city.

“You know how to find me when the time comes.” Lero’s words bounced inside his brain with the annoying quality of a puzzle to be solved.

“Stay near the water.”

Wading deeper into the surf, Zeph closed his eyes, scanning miles and miles of the water in the English Channel and beyond. He tried to detect any trace of his friend anywhere around the coast of this continent and much farther.

There was nothing.

“...when the time comes.”

This could mean a number of things, neither of which was possible to confirm at the moment. All he could do was wait.

With a deep breath, he reached out again, searching for someone else, now. A faint but alluring tendril of longing filtered through the water to him from far away.

Ivy.

She promised to wait, and she was there, swimming in the sea, waiting for him.

The pull of her, delicate and enthralling, drew him in like the moon drew the tides. Subtle but unstoppable.

Stripping down to his shorts, he dove into the surf, merging with water.

Chapter 29

I WASHED THE DINNER plate and placed it into a dish rack to dry. The kitchen was small and cozy, as was the rest of the one-bedroom house I’d rented from the owner of the nearby hotel.

It hadn’t taken me long to settle in. The place came furnished, and I hadn’t brought much with me.

After I’d said goodbye to Zeph back at the Lake Ontario, I drove straight to the airport as promised. I called my parents from there. Whether he cared or not, I left a voicemail for my father, letting him know I was okay.

Then I called my Mom. I wanted to thank her for taking care of my things, to let her know that the police report had been closed and that I was leaving to start a new life. However, our conversation ended up being her mostly screaming at me. She was disappointed I refused to go ahead with the lawsuit she had planned. So, I told her I loved her and hung up. After years of trying, I’d learned there was no way to fix the relationship we had, but I could at least maintain whatever little there still remained.

During the past week and a half since I’d arrived on the island, I’d been distracting myself from worrying about Zeph by salvaging what was left from my business.

My two-months absence had cost me a lot of my clients and seriously tarnished my reputation in the industry. It didn’t help that I could only provide the vaguest of explanation as to why I was late with all my orders. Despite the high quality of my product, it would take me months if not years to re-build what I’d lost.

Wiping my hands on the kitchen towel, I walked out into the yard. The house backed onto a small beach with black sand past the concrete breakwater.

“As long as you are in the water, I will find you.” Zeph’s words never left my mind, drawing me to the beach, every chance I got, to wade in the sea.

Taking off my sundress, I walked into the warm surf wearing only my turquoise bikini.

Waves sloshed lazily around my ankles, water caressed my skin, rising higher as I walked deeper. I went as far as I dared, submerged up to my breasts now, and stopped, staring past the small island across from the beach and into the sea stretching