Free Dangerous Waters by Toni Anderson

dad’s a cop too. Mom died, almost two years ago now.” She looked a little lost when she mentioned her mother.
    “You miss her.”
    She nodded. Then she looked pissed, as if she hadn’t meant to tell him a damn thing. He took another swallow of beer to stop himself doing anything stupid, like trying to find out how that plump lower lip of hers tasted.
    She switched the subject. “Has the professor always been so…”
    “Messed up?” Finn nodded. “Ever since he found his wife and child with their heads smashed in, he’s clung to the slippery edge of sanity. The only things that keep him going are his research, searching for the killer, and maybe finding out what happened to his little girl.” His eyes swept her features. “You really do look like Bianca Edgefield, you know.”
    “You knew her?”
    “I was six when she was murdered, but she was one of those women who always made a fuss over us kids. Bought us bags of candy and ruffled our hair.”
    He’d liked her. Everyone else had treated him like he was stupid. Thom had fixed that.
    “What did your mother think of her?”
    “My mother?” A strand of her hair had come loose in the breeze, and he tucked it carefully behind her ear. She looked like she was thinking about removing his balls with nail clippers, but she held still. “My mother wasn’t around.”
    “Where was she?”
    “I have no idea. She took off when I was little and never came back.”
    He watched as another note was added to her mental to-do list. Did she think his mom hadn’t really run away from her dickhead alcoholic prick of a husband, leaving her kids to his nonexistent mercy? “She mailed a postcard a few weeks after she left. Postmarked Florida.”
    She nodded, but he could tell she was going to check it out anyway. What did he care?
    “Did you see anyone on the way to the dive site last night?”
    “Nope.”
    “Did you tell anyone where you were going?” Back to rigid cop mode.
    “No.” He frowned. “But I did write our coordinates on the dive sheets in case we didn’t come back. It’s SOP.”
    “You wrote them down that first time too?”
    “Sure. There was a sea otter sighting, which was unusual in that bay. We checked it out but didn’t find anything. Decided to do a quick dive while we were out there so the trip wasn’t a total bust.”
    “No surface crew?”
    “No surface crew either time. Thomas was emphatic the ship-wreck remain a secret. Nudibranchs are more active at night—hence the night dive.” He wished she was watching him so closely because she wanted him, not because she wanted to catch him lying. Heat spread through his body. Muscles tensing with unwanted attraction. Plenty of good-looking women came through the marine lab, but he didn’t believe in abusing his authority. He’d be quite happy for Holly to abuse hers, though. He wanted her. But he had to make sure she stayed far, far away from them all.
    “Do you have any theories about who the victim might be?”
    He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head.
    “Right. Thanks for the information.” She stepped away from him as if he’d given her some big clue in this investigation.
    “Holly?”
    She paused on the top step.
    “Are you involved with anyone now?”
    “No.” Her eyes glinted suspiciously at the reminder he’d overheard her earlier conversation with her boss. Too bad.
    He raised his bottle. “Well, if you ever want to go diving when you’re off duty, let me know.”
    “I’m not looking for a relationship, Mr. Carver. I’m here to solve a murder.”
    He opened his front door to go inside. “Who said anything about a relationship? I’m just offering a no-strings recreational dive.”
    A light came on from the next cabin and an icy glow washed over her features. “Good night, Mr. Carver,” she said with remarkable composure for a woman who was angry enough to spit nails.
    He grinned. “’Night, Sergeant.”

    Bianca Edgefield’s body was rotting beneath