The Floating Girl: A Rei Shimura Mystery (Rei Shimura Mystery #4) Read Online Free

swim?”
    “Actually, I can’t swim very far,” I said. When Takeo looked puzzled, I said, “I swim, but you’ll see I’m rather clumsy. My best stroke is the sidestroke. Obviously, I’m not going to be able to make it as far as the buoys, if that’s where you want to go.”
    Takeo smiled at me.  “You don’t have to swim anywhere. A lot of people are just hanging around.”
    I looked and saw what he meant. Many of the people in the water seemed to be floating in place, playing ping-pong, or just standing together, conversing.
    “Our things will be safe on the beach?” I asked, gesturing toward my beach bag holding the comics and a little money.
    “Of course. This is Japan!” Takeo laughed and set off in a sprint for the water. I caught up just as he entered the water. It was gloriously warm, almost bath-like; I sidestroked for fifty meters behind his crawl before becoming a little bit tired.
    “I’m going to have to stop,” I called, stretching my legs downward to check the depth. It was about four and a half feet deep. I wondered how far out the drop-off was.
    Takeo swam back to me with a few quick strokes. He dove under the surface, grabbed me by the waist, and pulled me down for an underwater kiss.
    I came up sputtering and laughing. With our heads out of water, we kissed some more. We had only recently become lovers, so there was a playful quality to our time together.
    “I like your bathing suit,” he said, slipping his hand along the elastic of my bikini.
    “You wouldn’t dare,” I said.
    “Wouldn’t I?”
    Something soft fluttered across my inner thighs—was it a fish, or Takeo? I wrapped my legs around his waist, feeling my body temperature rise. “Just relax,” Takeo murmured, bending over me.
    As a wave of pleasure swept over me, I was relieved the surf covered the sound of our voices. But then a problem presented itself. Sometime during our wild wiggling my bikini bottom had gotten loose and floated away. Now I was bottomless, and could go in one of two directions—either suicidally into the heart of Tokyo Bay, or back toward the hundreds of families picnicking on the sand. The irony of my recent bikini wax struck me—I’d appear as immaculately groomed as a centerfold if I had to show myself. Which I had no intention of doing.
    “It’s quite simple, really,” Takeo said in between guffaws. ‘”Stay in the water. I’ll go out and buy a bikini at a beach shop. I’ll swim back to you with it. You can dress underwater.”
    “No!” I laughed back just as merrily. “How can you possibly find a bikini that resembles the American one that I’m wearing? It’s a better idea that you give me your swimming trunks. At least they match my top, and the boy-leg look is in. I’ll go out and buy you some new trunks. Do you really want the same style? I think one of the vendors on the beach is selling thongs. Is one-size-fits-all okay with you?”
    “Do you mean what you’re saying?” His eyes were huge and horrified.
    “Do you wear a different size ?” I asked mischievously.
    “Rei, you’re being impossible! If you leave me here without my bathing trunks, I’ll be completely naked. It is safer that you remain half dressed and concealed by the water than leave me with nothing at all. What if someone discovers me and reports me to the police?”
    “That’s not logical at all!” My mirth was starting to fade.
    “Look! Do you see those boys over there? What are they playing with?”
    I looked, and indeed there were a couple of elementary-school-age boys about twenty feet away lounging on water rafts. One of them was fashioning a kind of mask out of my bikini bottom, using the leg holes for eyes.
    “This is just too bizarre,” I said.
    Takeo swam over to them quickly and started talking. I couldn’t hear his explanation, but I saw the boy’s mouth moving in response, and then he rather reluctantly handed over the bottoms to Takeo.
    “Thanks. Now they’ll know they’re mine,