Free Distant Echoes by Colleen Coble Page B

rising moon.
    “Send down the divers,” he told Masters.
    Masters nodded and gave the order. Three divers dressed in wet suits fell backward into the inky water. The salty spray hit Jesse in the face, but he barely noticed. He stared into the clear water, but the shadowy forms of the divers quickly disappeared from view. One diver carried a camera mounted on his suit, and Jesse watched the monitor. The halogen floodlight illuminated the blackness about thirty feet in front of the divers. Fish darted away from them as they swam. A dolphin moved in to bump against the lead diver’s hand.
    One diver moved to the seabed and picked up something. Jesse couldn’t tell what he’d found, but it obviously wasn’t a body. It seemed hours before one of the divers surfaced, but glancing at his watch, he realized it had been only half an hour.
    “No divers down here, sir,” the SEAL said, saying what Jesse already knew. “Nothing but the dolphin.”
    “Nani?” He was surprised the man recognized Nani.
    “It had a camera mounted on it.”
    He nodded. “She must have come back out. I wonder if Kaia knows.” Though Nani was free to come and go as she pleased, Jesse was astounded by the dolphin’s desire to be around people. Seaworthy Labs was doing some amazing work. He should stop over and meet the director, Duncan’s brother.
    A second SEAL surfaced. “Found the dart gun, sir.” He swam to the boat and handed it up to Jesse.
    At least they had that much. “Take me back to shore. I want at least six boats patrolling tonight,” he told the men. The engine roared to life, and the boat bounced along the waves, riding the swells with ease. He stepped to the bow and put his face to the wind. He inhaled the scent of the sea in the breeze. The ocean was as much a part of him as his type O blood. He felt keenly alive and alert, eager to get to the bottom of this problem.
    The boat docked, and he stepped off the deck onto the pier. Sailors milled around, and he spotted Lawton, who was headed toward him.
    “A patrol just found a body floating offshore,” his captain said. Lawton’s tanned face bore no expression other than grim determination. “A diver.”
    “Identity?”
    Lawton shook his head. “Nothing to tell who he is.”
    “Where’s the body?” Jesse wanted to check this out himself. Lawton nodded toward a group of men near the beach, and Jesse went toward the huddled sailors.
    The men stepped aside when Jesse arrived. He knelt beside a man about thirty-five. He was dressed in a black wet suit. The man had removed his tank and buoyancy compensator—or BC—and had unzipped his wet suit.
    “Any idea what killed him?” Jesse asked the doctor standing at the edge of the group.
    The physician stepped forward and crouched beside Jesse. He pulled back the edges of the man’s wet suit to reveal the diver’s abdomen. A dart was still in the man’s flesh. “You found a dart gun. Maybe ballistics can figure out if that’s the weapon that killed him.”
    The more Jesse stared at the man’s face, the more he looked familiar. He bore Hawaiian features. It might be wise to have a lifelong native of the island look at him. Kaia’s face flashed into his mind.
    “Get me a camera,” he told Ensign Masters. When his aide brought him a Polaroid, he snapped several photos, taking care to get only the face so it wouldn’t be too graphic for Kaia.
    He handed the camera back to Masters. “ Mahalo. I’ll see what I can find out. Call me if anything else happens.” He pocketed the pictures and headed for his Jeep. Once on the road, he pulled out his cell phone and called Duncan.
    “Hey, buddy, you’ve lived here a long time. Have you ever had any day care for your kids?” Too late he realized he should have asked someone else. With Duncan’s kids on the mainland, it had to be a sore subject for him.
    Duncan inhaled softly, but when he spoke his voice was still full of good humor. “Not really. My wife didn’t work.” He