by Rick Chesler
The GPS and the hard disc drive components of the telemetry device, buried deep within the titanium housing as they were, had withstood the pressures of the deep—only the exposed camera and sensor elements of the device had been destroyed. So Herb Shock in the Imaging lab had been able to recover the original video recorded on the high-capacity disc drive.
Now Tara brought up the original murder video. She hunched forward over her desk, watching intently.
Then she let out an exasperated sigh.
Where there was static in the broadcast version, this original video showed only blue sky, a few clouds, expanses of empty ocean, and some glimpses of the sun—nothing incriminating. The clip revealed nothing significant that hadn’t been seen on the web. The killer could not have been deduced from this video. George Reed might still be in jail had Anastasia not confessed to the crime.
Tara shook her head in amazement. How much deceit, destruction, and death had resulted from the race to obtain these images, which, in the end, revealed nothing new at all?
For the last time, Tara watched Crystal Wilkinson struggle in vain for her life. Then she killed the video and headed for the door. Outside it was a beautiful day, and she had recently purchased a new toy.
She drove her Crown Vic down to Marina del Rey, where she used her key card to gain entry to Dolphin Basin, where her new ketch waited in its slip. No, not Anastasia’s. Tara had learned that the Reeds would be putting it up for sale—it held too many bad memories—after it was released from the forensic lab, and the Reeds’ divorce was finalized. But she had purchased one just like it, painted sky blue.
Tara decided to permanently conquer her fear of water, once and for all. She wanted to take Michael out on it soon, so today she would practice her first solo sail.
Stepping onto her new boat, she smiled at the name painted on the transom.
Dot Calm.
FURTHER READING /
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
Books
Bortolotti, Dan. Wild Blue: A Natural History of the World's Largest Animal. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2008.
Calambokidis, John and Gretchen Steiger. Blue Whales. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 1997.
Scientific Literature
Calambokidis, J., J. Barlow, J.K.B. Ford, T.E. Chandler, and A.B. Douglas. 2009. Insights into the population structure of blue whales in the eastern North Pacific from recent sightings and photographic identifications. Marine Mammal Science 25:816-832.
Calambokidis, J., G.S. Schorr, G.H. Steiger, J. Francis, M. Bakhtiari, G. Marshall, E. Oleson, D. Gendron and K. Robertson. 2008. Insights into the underwater diving, feeding, and calling behavior of blue whales from a suction-cup attached video-imaging tag (CRITTERCAM). Marine Technology Society Journal 41(4):19-29.
Lord-Castillo, B.K., Wright, D.J., Mate, B.R., and Follett, T. (2009). A customization of the Arc Marine data model to support whale tracking via satellite telemetry. Transactions in GIS 13(s1): 63-83.
Mate, B., R. Mesecar and B. Lagerquist. 2007. The evolution of satellite-monitored radio tags for large whales: One laboratory's experience. Deep-Sea Research II. 54: 224-247.
Other
American Cetacean Society blue whale fact sheet:
http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/bluewhl.htm
National Geographic, March 2009 issue.
National Geographic documentary, “Kingdom of the Blue Whale”:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/kingdom-of-the-blue-whale-3302#tab-blue-whale-facts
Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute, Whale Telemetry Group:
http://mmi.oregonstate.edu/wtg
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Epilogue