by Jon Coon
“What are you doing still up?”
“Mom cried herself to sleep again, and I’m mad at you,” Emily said. He could imagine her hands-on-hips stance and the pretense of a frown.
“Okay?” he waited.
“Why haven’t you called us?” Emily waited while he tried to come up with an answer.
“I thought your mom was looking for space. A chance to think things out, I guess.”
“You’re hopeless, Gabe. Okay, write this down. She wants you to come after her. After us. So do I.”
“And that’s why she told me she wanted time to think?”
“Right. You really do have a lot to learn about women. She needs to know you care enough to fight for us.”
That hurt. He’d risked everything to save Emily. Nearly died in the process. Now Carol doubted him? But that wasn’t Emily’s problem. “Honey, I promise I’ll always be here for you. I’m not sure what will happen between your mom and me, but I’m not going anywhere. Anytime you need me, call. I’ll be there. That’s a promise.”
“Call her, Gabe. Please.”
“I will. Soon.”
He stared at the fake fire, the real dogs, the empty tray, and the milk glass wondering. How do you know if it’s half-empty or half-full? And why is life so complicated?
He looked down at the dogs and asked, “I’ll call her. But what do I say?”
Smith and Wesson only smiled.
Acknowledgments
From the police diving community:
First Sergeant Mike Berry, who leads the Virginia state police dive team and has served there for thirty-five years. Mike is the owner and founder of Underwater Criminal Investigators Inc. and has written several texts. He trains police teams across the US and internationally. In recent years Mike has taken UCI training into China, Dubai, and Japan. Special thanks to Mike who has been a good friend, dive partner, and inspiration for over thirty years. www.ucidiver.com
From the Fire and EMS community:
Butch Hendrick and Andrea Zaferes. Butch founded Lifeguard Systems in the early seventies and has trained hundreds of rescue divers in the US and internationally. In my early days as a PADI regional manager in New England, Butch, who was the competition, was as good a friend for whom anyone could hope. I will always be grateful to him for introducing me to the dive rescue community. www.teamlgs.com
PADI
The largest of the recreational certifying agencies came later to Public Safety Diver training with materials and courses created by Mike Berry. I’ve proudly been a PADI instructor since 1975 and served as a regional manager for 29.5 years. As a former commercial diver and then instructor who loved teaching, I can’t imagine a career more exciting and fulfilling than my years with PADI. Years for which I remain incredibly grateful. www.padi.com
ERDI
The largest of PSD training organizations, ERDI is a well-established network of instructors with a strong following, training both rescue and police teams internationally. My special thanks to Sean Harrison, senior VP, for his editing help and encouragement. www.tdisdi.com
Dive Rescue International
Created in the seventies, DRI also has a strong following and excellent reputation. Based in Fort Collins, Colorado, their training network is worldwide. www.diverescueintl.com
From the writing community:
Beth (Jaden) Terrell is a coach, editor, award-winning author, and friend. Her guidance and patience have been critical. She is past president of SEMWA and past executive director of Killer Nashville, an important writer’s conference. Her friendship is precious and her books a delight.
Readers: Ruth Collins, Mary Helen Van Meter, Karen Murphy, Rachel Coon, Mary Kaye Hester, and Mike Berry.
Also to my new friends at Word Weavers and the Southeastern Mystery Writers Association, thank you for your encouragement and support.
A Note to the Reader
Mike Berry
Jon Coon and I have been friends for more than thirty years. We met at a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) medic first aid instructor course in Northern Virginia. I was a new PADI instructor and the newly appointed Virginia State Police dive team leader, and Jon was the new PADI regional manager and course director for the course I was attending. Like at any program of its kind, Jon made us each stand up and introduce ourselves. I had no intention of ever telling the audience who I was. I wanted to avoid the “I once got a ticket from a trooper” comments and stories. So when it was my turn, I stood and announced I was a PADI instructor living in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and to my horror, Jon cut in and asked (very loudly I might add), “Are you the Virginia state trooper and new PADI instructor living in Fredericksburg?” I was stunned. Everyone turned to stare and starting murmuring. I heard someone say, “I once got a ticket . . .”
I wanted to kill him. I reluctantly said yes, and he quickly announced, “I live just outside of Fredericksburg, and we are having lunch together today.” Shortly thereafter we became best friends, dive/adventure buddies, and training partners. Not because I wanted to but because Jon Coon “pushed” his way into my life just as he has done to many of your lives through either knowing him personally or through his lectures, courses, adventures, or books. If this book is your first introduction to Jon Coon, he’s about to push his way into your life too, so sit back and enjoy the ride!
Law enforcement diving, also known as underwater criminal investigation, is a unique aspect of public safety diving and should only be conducted by trained and certified underwater criminal investigators (UCIs). The underwater conditions they operate in are harsh and require advanced training and abilities. Their missions usually involve one of the three cores of UCI diving: body, vehicle, and evidence recovery. Operating in zero viability, muck bottoms, cold water, strong currents, and contaminated water is the norm for these special divers, and dangers like entanglement, out of air emergencies, and entrapment lurk around every corner. To be able to work safely in these conditions and still accomplish the mission is quite challenging and should only be attempted by those who have the right training, met the standards, and have reached the required levels of professional performance.
Jon’s book, Ghost River, gives the reader a glimpse into the world of an underwater criminal investigator. Like Gabe, I have had to deal with the death of a fellow team member as well as discover, on my own, the hazards of scouring around and beneath bridge piers. Once on a dive for a murder weapon, I was on a two-man jackstay grid pattern working toward a pier. The pattern is set with one end of the search pattern three-to-five feet under the bridge and the fifty-foot search line extends ninety degrees away from the bridge, held tight on the bottom by two twenty-pound down weights. Each end of the pattern has an ascent/descent line, also called an “up-and-down,” tied to the down weights that leads to the surface and a surface buoy. Divers holding hands communicate by hand-squeezes and search with their free hand as they move along the bottom following the search line. Once at the end of the pattern, the divers pick up the down weight and move the pattern over a few feet. Both divers re-grip, reverse directions, and continue their search, moving back toward the other end.
While conducting the pattern my search came to an abrupt halt near the end of my pattern when I hit something large and hard in front of me. The visibility was zero, and I had to feel its shape by moving my searching hand around its contour. It felt like a large rock or piece of concrete. I continued to explore its dimensions and discovered it totally blocked our path, and to my shock I soon discovered it continued over us. Somehow we had gotten under the pier, and I quickly realized the pier was suspended off the bottom and no longer supporting the bridge. My partner and I were wedged between the bottom and the pier like meat between two pieces of bread. I quickly grabbed my partner’s thumb and pulled backwards twice, meaning “Go back, okay?” He squeezed twice, meaning “okay,” and we quickly retreated, following our search line backwards. Keeping one hand up, following the concrete over our heads, we con
tinued to retreat until we cleared the pier. I grabbed his thumb again and pulled up twice, meaning “Go up, okay?” and we ascended along the pier. Once on the surface we discussed the shock of our discovery and its possible consequences as vehicles drove across the bridge above us.
Jon has a way of taking underwater criminal investigations, with all the dangers, challenges, as well as the glory, to a level that takes the reader on a suspenseful, heart-pounding adventure. This book, even though fictional, is based on real conditions, missions, and challenges. Gabe Jones represents hundreds of true professional underwater criminal investigators who serve as vital parts of their departments’ and agencies’ investigative teams, brave men and women who are called on when the land investigation leads to the water’s edge. You may be one of these special public safety divers. If you are, thank you for your service! If not, you’ve received a glimpse of the life of a true diving professional, an underwater criminal investigator. I hope you enjoyed the ride!
—Mike Berry
Mike Berry is a first sergeant with the Virginia State Police and serves as their search and recovery operations coordinator. He is a PADI master instructor and the founder and owner of Underwater Criminal Investigators (UCI), an internationally recognized leader in the training of underwater investigators. With thirty-five years of experience, Mike is a prolific author and has directed dive recovery operations for FBI, Secret Service, and many other police and military agencies internationally.
About the Author
A former dive safety officer for NASA and an oil field commercial diver specialized in explosives work, Jon Coon was a dive officer for collegiate, scientific, and archaeological projects internationally. His primary employment for the past thirty years was as a regional manager for PADI, the world’s largest scuba training agency, with over 25 million divers certified, who certifies a million students per year and is active in 170 countries. His job included oversight of 120 dive centers in seven states, sales, instructor training, writing, and photography. In addition to his work for PADI, he authored numerous articles, three novels, and a diver handbook for underwater archaeology. Jon is married, retired, and lives in South Carolina and winters in central Florida.
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