“Take her first,” I said, flutter-kicking out of the way and tipping my chin at Toby.
The cop grasped her arm and pulled her up so she could get a foothold on the ladder’s lowest rung. Then she slipped her other foot on the ladder, too, this one still clad in a black leather sandal. The second policeman lay out flat on the concrete above us and reached for Toby’s hand.
“Ma’am,” said the first cop. “You’re going to have to let go.”
“You’ll be okay,” said Lorenzo, who hovered above him. “They’ve got you. You’re safe.” He squeezed his face between his hands and shook his head at me. “Good lord, woman, what were you thinking? I told you how strong the current is here.”
“I couldn’t let her die,” I muttered, trying not to picture what might have happened if we’d gotten swept away. My teeth had begun to chatter as I realized how close I’d come to drowning, trying to save a woman I barely knew.
Finally, Toby was hoisted out, then the cops helped me. I flopped onto the concrete, my chest still heaving from fright and exertion.
“What happened?” I asked her, once I had scrambled to my knees and then to standing. “How in the world did you end up in the water?”
Toby crouched in a shivering heap, breathing hard, her eyes closed. Lorenzo took off his vest and wrapped it around her shoulders. She nodded her thanks. A town employee arrived to unlock the gate and we staggered over to the main pier.
Once I reached my pile of belongings, I wiped my face with my sweater, then pulled it on and slipped my feet into my sandals.
“Get a couple of blankets from the cruiser,” said the wet cop to the dry one. Then he addressed Toby, repeating my question. “What happened here?”
But Toby was shaking too hard to speak.
“I was working across the square,” Lorenzo offered, pointing to his table where the lanterns still flickered, carving out geodes of light in the darkness. “Unfortunately, I didn’t see exactly how it happened. I heard a splash and then my friend Hayley yelled for help. And then there was another splash.”
The cop looked at me. “And you are?”
“I’m Hayley Snow. This is Toby Davidson. We’d just walked over from the Westin,” I said, “working off a few calories after the Mallory Square Stroll tasting event. As if walking a couple of blocks could make up for all that fried stuff.” I smiled but got no reaction. “And then I left to meet up with some friends. I was halfway across the plaza when I heard a noise, like something hit the water.” I gestured at Toby. “I was afraid she’d gone over because I didn’t see her anywhere. Sure enough, she had.”
The dry policeman returned with a shiny silver space blanket and wrapped it around Toby, over the top of Lorenzo’s vest. “Why did you jump, miss?” he asked gently.
“I didn’t plan on j-j-jumping,” she stuttered. “A shot went off and I swear a bullet went right over my head.”
One cop’s eyes flickered up to meet his partner’s gaze. They didn’t believe her.
“I heard the cracking noises, too,” I said.
“There was no place to hide—I was an easy target,” Toby explained. “I was afraid for my life. I threw myself down to the ground but I misjudged how close I was to the water.”
Another look exchanged between the cops. “Are you injured?” asked the dry man.
“No,” Toby said, running her hands down her arms as if to check for wounds. But she winced when she came across an ugly scrape that reached from the inside of her elbow to her palm. And then I noticed the blood oozing from a shallow gash on her temple. I touched my own face.
“You’re bleeding. Did you hit your head on something?”
Toby put her hand to her head and just stared at the blood that came away on her fingers.
The dry cop frowned, looking as though he still didn’t buy her story. “You said you heard a shot. Did you see a shooter?”
She shook her head.
“Was there a flash of light?”
“I don’t think so. I can’t remember.”
“Did you smell anything, like gunpowder? Or sulfur?”
She dropped her chin to her chest. “I only heard the noise.”
He stared at her a little harder, then turned his attention back to me.
“So you heard a shot, too?”
“I did hear a cracking noise—that must have been what got my attention in the first place.” Had it been a gunshot? My adrenaline had caromed off the charts as I tried to rescue her, shutting off my brain’s usual whirl of curious questions. I touched my ears with my hands and shrugged.