Free Death By Blue Water (A Hayden Kent Mystery Book 1) by Kait Carson Page B

Cappy nearly tangled his arms as he struggled to put his gear on unaided. “The last time you ended up in the channel. I swear, you have the underwater navigation skills of a newt.”
    Hayden laughed as she balanced on the gunnels before tipping herself over into a back roll. Popping to the surface, she removed her regulator. “Water’s fine. I can even see the bottom. See you at the anchor.” She doubled her body and flipped head first to the sand some thirty feet below.
    Routine took over and she automatically checked the buckle on her weight belt, her computer, air, and time. She checked all of these items on the boat, but it never hurt to be sure everything was in perfect shape after getting wet. A lot of disasters happened because something that seemed to function perfectly on the boat failed under water.
    Stopping in the water column, Hayden looked around her. The water temperature neared the upper eighties, almost too hot. Two eagle rays did a mating dance below and to her left. She watched, fascinated as they danced their underwater ballet barely touching wings and then pulling off to circle each other again. One of them, male or female, she didn’t know which, dove down to the bottom, as if challenging the other to follow. It settled down on the sand below and gently fluttered its wings, slowly burrowing into the sand. Eagle rays never rested on the sand. They always floated in the water column. Stingrays behaved this way, covering themselves so only their eyes showed. Hayden watched in fascination. So totally lost in the scene, she nearly spit out her regulator when Cappy touched her arm and pointed in the direction of the anchor line. He took his regulator from his mouth and shouted, “I won. You couldn’t find it.” His words sounding gargled, but they were recognizable.
    Hayden removed her regulator in response, and stuck her tongue out at the man.
    Two grouper and a lobster later, the pair ascended to the boat.
    Hayden grabbed Cappy’s arm as she stood looking over the gunnels before she removed her scuba tank. She pointed downward at something shiny. Cappy answered with a shrug. Slip slide striding to the swim platform, she jackknifed her body down to the bottom. She had plenty of air and the dive was shallow enough she didn’t have to worry about descending again so quickly. Hovering above the sand Hayden looked for the object that had caught her eye. She’d managed to keep it in sight most of the way down but at the very end, the light shifted and whatever she’d seen disappeared.
    Shrugging to herself, Hayden turned to begin her ascent to the boat. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash. Turning slowly so she didn’t lose sight of it again, she swam in the direction of the flash. She scooped up the shiny object and put it in her BC pocket.
    “Girl, are you going to get me in trouble again? What did you find down there? I didn’t see anything. Your track record would indicate what, a gun?” Hayden turned to present her tank encumbered back to Cappy, so he could help her out of her gear.
    “Look, I found a bracelet, a charm bracelet. Probably real gold. Gold won’t tarnish underwater. It’s been years since people wore charm bracelets. I had one. My parents gave it to me for my ninth birthday. I hear they’re coming back now. I see them in magazines again, but this looks like the old kind. Lots of disks.”
    “Hayden...Look ahead of you.” Cappy’s voice was grim. He pointed over her shoulder at the horizon. “Isn’t that a FWC patrol boat coming to greet us?”
    The sea had picked up slightly while they had been underwater. They sat and waited for the patrol boat to approach, neither going to do a second dive until the patrol boat either stopped to talk or passed them. The boat passed by. Cappy pulled the anchor and Hayden fished the bracelet out of her BC pocket. The gold had no encrustation. She looked at each of the discs in turn.
    “Spanish. Not so old. The last one is