Free Follow the Evidence (A Mac Everett Mystery Book 2) by Nick Vellis

rehashed the rescue of the
guy and kid from the Danny-L . I’ve seen stuff about Coast Guard rescues
on TV, but hearing it from a guy who did it, well I was in awe.
    “I sent the kid up first while I
held on to the unconscious adult male,” Webber said. “I put the adult in the
basket and Senior Chief Fox took over. When the basket was clear of the water,
I headed for the sailboat. The swim was a workout, but the vessel was much
closer than when we first spotted her,” he said.
    Typical of the military types I’d
lived and worked with all those years, Webber understated the difficulty and
his own contribution and gave credit to his crew.
    “It was about a twenty minute swim.
I thought about having the helo pick me up and drop me closer, but that would
have taken too much time. When I got to the sloop, I was able to catch her swim
platform on the down roll,” Webber continued. “There was no one on deck. I went
below.”
    “What was your impression?”
    “It was weird, sir. Nobody was
home. The investigators say passengers must have gone overboard, but…”
    “You don’t believe that, do you,
Marty?”
    He hesitated pursed his lips then
continued. “No.”
    “What else did you see?”
    “There were a couple cuts in the
seat cushions. They could have been from a knife. There was a broken bulkhead
door and the seacock was open. Water was flowing along the lower deck.
    I’d read about this mysterious
thing call a seacock in the Coast Guard report. I’d done a Google search and
found it was a valve used to drain water from a boat when it’s hauled out of
the water. Opening it with the boat in the water sounded like it could cause a
seriously bad day.
    “You closed the seacock?”
    “Yes sir,” he replied. “It was
clogged with debris, but I closed it.”
    “How long do you estimate it had
been open?”
    “Not long, sir. There was maybe
three foot of water in the bilge, maybe a little more. I started the pumps. By
the time I left her, the water was down to eight or ten inches. The pump was
doing a good job.”
    “You see anything else that stood
out for you?”
    “Stuff was thrown around, broken…”
    “More of a mess then just being in
a hurricane?”
    He thought a moment then nodded.
“It looked like there’d been a struggle in that cabin, but...”
    “But what?”
    He frowned and looked out the
window.
    “What is it?” I asked.
    “I don’t know, sir…just a feeling.
I don’t have any facts or…”
    “Spill it,” I said.
    “Well, sir the whole thing looked
staged. It seemed like they were trying to make it appear they’d abandoned
ship.”
    “How about emergency equipment,
life jackets that sort of thing, was that still there?”
    “No sir, they were all there. The
flotation jackets, the flare gun-all the usual stuff was there, oh, and the
radio was working.”
    “You didn’t see any flairs or hear
them on the radio, did you Petty Officer?”
    He shook his head.
    The young man just looked at me.
Something had happened onboard that boat and he was reliving that stormy
day-wondering.
    “What happened to the Wind
Dancer after you left her, Petty officer?”
    “She sank before she could be taken
under tow. The seas were building. It was a hurricane, sir.”
    “Yeah I know,” I said. “You did an
amazing job rescuing those people and you got a video of the sailboat’s
interior. Thank you for your service Petty Officer.”
    He had that glazed look in his
eyes. He was remembering something terrible.
    “Look son,” I said, “I’ve see shit
no one should see too. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I see it again. You’ve
got to put it out of your mind. You did everything you could for those people.
They were gone before you got there, but your actions, and that video, might
lead to some answers. Hell, you saved two other people that day.”
    “I know that, sir but it doesn’t
make it any easier.”
    “I understand, but you can’t save
‘em all, Webber.”
    “That’s what