The Undertow / Season 1, Episode 5
Saltwater Secrets
Rena Okafor’s boots scraped against the wet deck of the Coast Guard cutter as she gripped the wheel, the cold metal biting into her palms. The fog hung low over Pelican Bay, a damp shroud that pressed against her face, tasting of salt and something older, something sour. The hum of the engine vibrated through her bones, but it couldn’t drown out the memory of last night’s call—Nowak’s voice cracking over the radio, describing the body on the rocks. Saltwater in the lungs, he’d said, but the man hadn’t even been in the water. Not when they found him. Her stomach churned, not from the roll of the waves but from the way the bay seemed to watch her now, gray and endless, its surface rippling like a sheet pulled tight over something restless. “Starboard, two o’clock,” Nowak called from the bow, his voice muffled by the damp air. He leaned over the rail, binoculars pressed to his eyes, his orange jacket a smear of color against the monochrome haze. “Looks like a buoy, maybe. Or—hell, I don’t know. It’s moving.” Rena adjusted the throttle, easing the cutter forward, the diesel growl deepening. The fog parted just enough to show a flash of red bobbing on the water, erratic, like a child’s toy jerked by an unseen hand. Her pulse...