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didn’t show it. After freeing her, he laced the open cuff inside of the gun’s trigger guard, locking it with three clicks, then he engaged the safety.
    She wanted to tell him that there was no point trying to hold onto that gun. The moment the gunpowder got wet, it would be all but useless until it dried. She didn’t.  She was now more convinced than ever that, while he needed that gun, he had absolutely no intention of using it on anyone.
    Once it was cuffed to his wrist, he reached into the back of the plane and grabbed a yellow box.
    She wondered what it was, but the gravity of the situation overrode her curiosity.  “I’m not jumping.  There’s no fucking way I’m jumping.”
    Remy tossed the yellow box out of the aircraft, watching it splash in the water. “We’re going to start a rapid descent.  When we’re within fifty feet of the water, we’ll jump.  That’ll help ease the impact.”
    “There will be no impact because I’m not fucking jumping.  This is…” Violet’s words slowed to a stop when, as promised, Remy began quickly descending towards the water until she could see the white bubbles of the waves crashing against the dark ocean waters.  It looked like millions of milky dots shattering against a pool of black ink.  Her eyes flew back to Remy just as he took her blazer from around his bloody leg.  He secured one arm of the blazer to the joystick, and the other to the safety handle on the ceiling.  The helicopter immediately stopped falling, and began a slow climb, once more.
    “This should keep it in the air for a while longer.  We have sixty seconds before we’re too high to jump safely.” He turned to her.  “I spotted a buoy floating about ten feet away.  We should be able to make it.  I’m going to count to three.”
    Violet almost screamed when he took her wrist. “Archibald, please…”
    “We’re dangerously low on fuel, and we’re hundreds of miles from land.  One way or another, this plane will crash into the ocean. You can go down with it, or you can come with me right now.”
    She was horrified.
    “I know you have no reason to believe me… but I won’t let anything happen to you.  I promise.”
    She jammed her eyes shut, then nodded, gripping his arm in return.
    His blue eyes grew serious as he looked at her, the moonlight making them blaze bright in the darkness.  “One…”
    “Oh god.”
    “Two…”
    “Oh my god.”
    “ Three!”
    “Oh my fucking god!”  She released a blood curling scream as Remy fell sideways out of the helicopter, taking her with him.
    The fall was quick.  Too quick.  They hit the water hard, plunging rapidly into the infinite depths of the dark, freezing abyss.  Violet held her breath as the shocking chill of the water surrounded her, and immediately began to kick.   When she realized Remy was no longer holding onto her, she slowed her swim and looked down just in time to see his pale hand disappearing in the black expanse.
    For a moment, she contemplated letting him go, letting him sink.  With his bum leg there was no way he’d have the power to kick his way to the top.  He’d held her at gunpoint for the better part of the day.  She should be happy to let him drown.
    But she couldn’t.  She wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to live with herself.  Plus, that nagging instinct was back.  The one that screamed inside of her that this man wasn’t a killer. This man wasn’t a monster.  She couldn’t let him go without getting to the bottom of all this.  If Remy was innocent, and she helped him prove it, the things it would do for her career were beyond measure.  Even if her gut was wrong, and he was guilty, she’d still have the story of the year on her hands.  One that could possibly land her a show of her own, if she played her cards right.  That story would be gone completely if the main suspect died before she could even close the case.
    It was decided. Violet rotated, and swam deeper into the