Free Dangerous Depths by Colleen Coble

delicious ?”
    “Or fish.” Rae smiled. “Maybe that’s why he’s such a jokester,” Rae said. “He was more interested in telling jokes than asking me questions.”
    “He’s an oh no, all right,” Jermaine said, standing behind Leia. “He called me too, but I’m not staying on the island while he takes his time figuring it out. I’ve got a singing gig in Vegas next month. This is my big break to escape this dullsville island. Tony was a great guy and all, but I can’t miss out on it because he was murdered. He’d want me to go.”
    Why do you say murdered ? Did the cop say the death was suspicious?” Leia asked. She had
always liked Jermaine. He was about Eva’s age and had gone to school with her. Eva had adored him ever since he’d defended her in a schoolyard bullying session.
    “He’s acting like it.” Jermaine fingered the gold clock guitar around his neck.
    “That’s ludicrous.” Shaina Levy bit her lip, and her voice rose. “Ono is just a small-town bureaucrat trying to act important. It was an accident.”
    “I can’t imagine the investigation would take long. It seemed to clearly be an accident,” Rae Jardin said. She tugged self-consciously at the red shirt she wore that did nothing for her short, plump figure.
    Leia wondered if she realized it was an insult to wear red to an Italian funeral. Probably not, she decided. The couple was too nice to deliberately show disrespect to the dead. “I suppose I’d better try Detective Ono again when I can get to a phone.”
    “You can use my cell,” Eric said, tugging the clip free from his belt. “I have a plan where there’s no roaming charge.”
    “ Mahalo no . I hate cell phones. They cause acoustic neuroma,” Leia said.
    Eric’s mouth dropped. “What on earth is that? Are you sure?” He glanced at the phone in his hand, then clipped it back on his belt.
    “It’s suspicious but not proven,” Leia admitted. “Acoustic neuroma is a rare type of cancer that develops in the nerves near the inner ear. Better safe than sorry. Besides, the call will wait until this is over.” She caught sight of Bane’s familiar dark head. Her initial reaction was to hunch down out of sight, but she forced herself to stand still.
    She watched him embrace Candace and murmur a few words of condolence. Leia’s fingers curled into her palms, and she told herself not to be a child. Still, Candace was a widow now, and it would be natural for her to turn to Tony’s best friend for comfort. Bane was a free man, and Leia had no claim on him anymore—if she ever had. She’d thought she was emotionally free of him too, but his sudden reappearance on the island had shown her how foolish that belief had been. Seeing him again was like free-falling off a cliff into a bottomless blue hole.
    Dirk Forsythe joined them. “Can I cut in? I need to get back to the shop, and the line looks an hour long.”
    “Sure.” Shaina stepped back to allow him to crowd in behind Leia.
    At nearly six-four, he towered over everyone but Leia. He’d always made her think of a blond Sylvester Stallone, and she expected him to drop to the ground and start doing one-armed push-ups any minute. He turned his languorous, heavy-lidded gaze on Shaina, and the other woman became visibly flustered. Leia had to bite her lip hard to keep from warning the woman that Dirk’s attention was merely polite. He talked about his fiancée back on O’ahu all the time, and no woman seemed to tempt him to stray. She admired that.
    “How’s Candace doing?” Leia asked him. Maybe she could distract him long enough for Shaina to recover her wits. Dirk was too attractive for his own good. He didn’t seem to have any idea how he made a woman’s heart go pitter-patter.
    Dirk shrugged. “You’d know that better than me. I’m sure she’ll be fine. The dive shop is worth some money, and it’s booming with business.”
    “I meant emotionally,” she said dryly. Men could be so obtuse. “They were