First-Class Lawyer

Chapter 46 - Investigation (iii)

At this, George Manson went silent for a long time.

Just when the officer thought that he was going to obstinately stay silent to the end, he wearily loosened his tongue. "It isn't much, really. It's just that I had been in a diving accident before. The sea snakes coming first for me today reminded me of that experience."

"What type of accident?" the officer prompted.

Imperceptibly, George Manson's teeth clenched and, just as quickly, unclenched.

What type of accident was it? It was already an incident of many years ago.

He didn't think that he had a bad memory, but when he thought back on it now, it was hard to pinpoint exactly how many years it had been.

He couldn't even remember the details of the accident. Only vague fragments, as if the memories were deliberately eluding him, not letting him catch hold of them. Or perhaps, somewhere in his subconscious, he preferred to forget that incident.

It should have been at a holiday resort on De Carma. He was still studying back then. Was it in middle school? In any case, he was still quite young.

In spite of his young age, he was already a veteran diver at that time. Owing to his conceit, he hated having someone tag along on his dives, believing that only novices needed that. So, when he went into the water, he ordered others to stay away from him, even getting his bodyguards' to block the instructor for him.

In the end, those bodyguards did leave him be, letting him dive alone.

At that time, he was even proud that his words carried enough authority for people to comply.

Now, in retrospect, he really was a complete idiot.

George Manson kept silent, then said to the officers after a while, "A simple mistake. I forgot to check my diving gear. The regulator was a little old and the O-ring was so deformed that something went wrong with the sealing."

He couldn't recall concrete details of that day. He only recalled that he had dived really deep before discovering that the bite of his regulator was leaking. Gas was pouring uncontrollably into his mouth and nasal passages.

The officer, "I'm sorry. Were you later saved by the instructor?"

George Manson shook his head, "No."

He couldn't get it under control, and he couldn't save himself. As he struggled in the sea, he then realized that he wasn't accompanied by a buddy or an instructor. He was at a depth that only veteran divers would enter, where normal people could never get to.

In other words, no amount of struggling would have helped...

The officer's finger on the recording device twitched. "Huh? Then..."

George Manson's finger stroked the rim of the wine glass. He slowly said, "A stranger saved me."

The man had fished him out of the deep abyss and even seemed to have adjusted his regulator for him. But at that time, he was completely stricken by terror. He clutched a death's grip on the other like he was his only lifeline, probably giving the man a first-hand taste of being on the brink of drowning.

"In the confusion, I didn't even get a good look at him. I only remember that the fingers, grabbing onto me, were fair..." George Manson looked transfixed in the memory. "Very fair. It should have been a young man. His fingers were long and slender, yet they were strong. And he was very calm."

He paused for a moment before repeating, almost dazedly. "Very, very calm."

Later, he tried looking into it. The diving gear in that resort bay was compartmentalized, and he would randomly take any of the four sets of gear from the VIP 6 locker when he went diving. Coincidentally, the person who saved him was also using gear from the VIP 6 locker. His regulator had been tampered with as well—likewise, a deformed O-ring causing the same sealing problem.