Nothing.
“Again, closer in,” Murdock roared over the pounding noise of the crashing waves.
They walked again, hoping to find a body on the bottom or being washed out by the rip currents.
“Here!” Horse Ronson bellowed. He duck-dived, and a moment later came up holding Les Quinley’s head above water. They rushed him to shore, cleared his mouth, then did mouth-to-mouth CPR.
Doc Ellsworth took the first turn. He had worked barely two minutes when Quinley coughed and spat up water in Doc’s face. Quinley gasped, shuddered, and then began breathing.
“Jaybird, run up to the quarterdeck and get an ambulance down here fast,” Murdock said. “We’re taking no chances.”
Three minutes later, Quinley tried to sit up. They told him to stay flat on his back.
“What happened, Quinley, do you remember?” Murdock asked.
Quinley frowned, spat up some more salt water, and shook his head.
“Not much. I saw us going over. Damn wave was the biggest I’ve ever tried to come through. Then we flipped, and something damn hard hit me on the top of my head, and that was it.”
The Navy ambulance roared up to the soft sand and stopped. A doctor and a corpsman raced across the beach, and knelt beside Quinley.
“Check him out, Doc,” Murdock said. “We pulled him out of four feet of water. He wasn’t under more than three minutes, maybe four.
CPR got him breathing again.”
The Navy doctor checked his chest, then his back, then his pulse.
“How do you feel?” the doctor asked Quinley. “Fine, sir. Just took a little underwater swim.”
“A SEAL, right?”
Quinley nodded.
“Still, I better check out your gills. Can you walk to the rig?”
Quinley nodded again, and stood with some help. He wouldn’t lean on anybody while walking through the sand to the ambulance.
“I’ll be back for chow,” Quinley said.
Jaybird had the men right the boats and collected the floating oars.
Murdock looked at the men and shook his head. “No, let’s knock it off for today. Jaybird. Get the boats checked in and dismiss the men.
We’re on for 0500 tomorrow morning.” The next day he talked to Dewitt about bringing Milly over for the evening about nineteen-thirty, after dinner.
“Ed, I want Ardith to see that a couple can be together even though one of them is a SEAL. Would Milly be a good example to show to Ardith and to talk about it?”
“Hell, I don’t know. Sometimes Milly gets really uptight about my staying in the SEALS, especially when we ship out.” He frowned, and paced the small office. “Yeah, I think it will be okay. I’ll tell Milly not to scare her off.” He stopped, and stared at Murdock. “I’d guess you really like this lady.”
“Yeah, I’m afraid I do. Maybe I like her too much. She’s hoping I’ll take a job running the Navy from the Pentagon in a nice nine-to-five job so I’ll be home every night.”
“She’s not Navy then.”
“Her father is a U.S. Senator from Oregon.”
“Oh, boy.”
They both laughed. “Then we’ll see you about nineteen-thirty,” Murdock said.
That night the affair started off politely and innocuously. Then Ardith stood, put down her beer, and frowned.
“Milly, when Blake told me that you’d be coming over tonight, I figured that you’d be spoon-feeding me the Navy party line. You know, how great it is being with this swabby, and how it’s for the protection of the nation, and how it’s the most patriotic duty that anyone could have anywhere.”
“By George, I think she’s got it,” Ed said.
Ardith shot him a serious look, then sat down beside Milly. Ardith was a contrast to Milly. She was tall, blond, and slender. Milly was shorter by a head, with dark hair and eyes and a nearly olive complexion. She was also a little on the chunky side.
“Now, Milly,” Ardith said. “Tell me exactly what it’s like living with a Navy SEAL, especially how is it when he’s out there somewhere getting himself shot at by the bad guys.”
Milly took a quick look at Ed, then caught a deep breath. She pointed at Murdock. “You must like this guy quite a lot to be asking about this. At least you won’t be living this problem day in and day out. You’re in Washington, D. C., you said.” She paused.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to say it’s worth it, living with Ed,” she went on, “despite all the drawbacks of SEAL country, and the separations. The night training, and the odd hours he sometimes has, I can put up with. Every relationship has something like that.
“It’s these missions they go on that get to me. I didn’t tell Ed for a long time, but I’m on hold while he’s gone. I don’t eat well, I don’t sleep a lot, usually I lose about ten pounds, and I get these migraine headaches.
“Psychological headaches? Sure, but they still hurt just as bad.
Now, that’s about all I want Ed to hear. Ardith, why don’t you and I go powder our noses somewhere and have a girl-to-girl talk.”
The two women went into the kitchen, then into the bedroom.
Murdock looked at Ed, and shook his head. “Man, did I figure it wrong.
Sounds like your bringing Milly over here provides Ardith with the final nails in my coffin.”
“Never can tell. Milly sometimes talks to the jury a little.”
“Milly know about our orders?”
“She knows we’re going shortly. Can’t just spring that on her the night before. Takes her a little getting used to each time.”
“Oh, man. No wonder there are only two of the sixteen of us with live-in women. Maybe SEALs and long-term women don’t mix.”
“It’s a damn tough mix, Murdock. To make it work there’s got to be a lot of give-and-take on both sides.”
Murdock looked at the bedroom, and cut off any idea of going in there. That would really do him in. He tried to figure out a defense, but gave up.
“Isn’t there a Bulls game on?” Ed asked. They watched most of the first half.
When the women came out of the bedroom, Murdock knew that Ardith had been crying. She’d repaired the damage, but not quite all of it.
She waved at Murdock.
“Hey, Navy guy. I need some help in the kitchen.”
When he got out there, she closed the door and kissed him soundly, holding him so tightly he wondered where one of them stopped and the other one started. She came away from him slowly, the bright smile back on her pretty face.
“Now, I hope that made up for the long girl talk we had. We went over a lot of different things. What to expect. How it works when your man leaves. How to handle it. I learned a lot. Did you know that Milly has a master’s degree in electronics, and that she’s an engineer and is the top troubleshooter at an electronics firm that makes all sorts of computer hardware?”
Murdock shook his head.
“Milly says she makes three times as much money as Ed does, but it doesn’t bother him,” Ardith added. “Isn’t that fine?”
They cut the pie and heaped on vanilla ice cream, and Murdock carried the four pie plates on a big tray into the living room.
“Dessert is served,” Ardith said. Murdock noticed she was sounding too bright and cheerful. That in itself was a bad sign.
They ate the dessert, talked a while, and found out more than they wanted to know about Milly’s work at the electronics firm. Then Milly said it was time they went home.
“Five A.M. at the quarterdeck, I hear,” Milly said. “You guys will need a little sleep.”
When they left, Ardith took Murdock’s hand and led him to the couch. She sat down as close to him as she could get. She kissed him on the cheek, and watched his expression.