Deep Waters (The Security Specialists)

by Jessica R. Patch

  Leo pushed his coffee cup away. “You really think the two incidents are related?”

  “I do. I don’t have solid proof, but I mean, come on.” She toyed with an empty creamer cup he’d used for his brew. “The police are ruling it an accident, but Shepherd is sticking around. In case it’s not. At least for a couple of days.”

  Leo leaned forward. “Caley, if the police and medical examiner say it was an accident, then it was. I don’t need to remind you that our biggest fund-raising gala is in a few short weeks, and if Nora Simms gets a whiff of scandal, your job and mine will be over. Not to mention we don’t need donors pulling out.”

  Nora Simms was the daughter of Arnold Simms—one of the greatest marine biologists to ever live. His work with sea turtles was extraordinary and that’s why the center was named after him. Nora had already threatened Dr. Fines’s job and Caley’s six months ago when protestors picketed outside the research lab. The media had skewed everything and a few donors pulled out, believing that their research was inhumane to turtles. As if. Nora had been furious. Ranting about her dad’s life work going down the tubes.

  But Mary Beth might not have accidentally drowned. Seeing her killer brought to justice was more important than their jobs.

  “Leo, what if someone hurt Mary Beth? Do we tie a block to that possibility and let it sink to the ocean floor?”

  Leo’s face flushed. “Of course not, Caley. I’m not insensitive. But don’t you think, if it had been a homicide, there would have been some evidence? Even a trace?” He clasped her hand. “The professionals ruled it out.”

  “But the dorm room was trashed. What about that?”

  “Maybe someone heard she passed away and broke in to steal some of her belongings. Phone. Laptop. Cash. Who knows?” Leo had a point but the eerie feeling wouldn’t shake loose.

  Unsolved crimes happened all the time. “I’m going to look into it anyway, Leo. I have to. I’ll be discreet.” With Shepherd here and a contact at the police department, they could investigate, and if they turned up solid evidence, they’d cross that bridge when they came to it. “Two days.” That’s how long Shep would be around. Surely, by then he’d have a solid lead. “Nora won’t have to know a thing. Our donors won’t either.”

  Leo closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. “Fine, but be careful and keep the fact that her room was ransacked under wraps. No hint of a scandal. To anyone. This is my life’s work. I won’t lose my job over a hunch.”

  Caley swallowed and shoved the paper top into the empty creamer container. Thankfully, the interns had kept to their rooms while the police had done their job last night. “Okay.” At the moment it was a hunch so that was fair enough. “I’ll send a group text for the interns to meet us here in fifteen minutes. We need to talk about this. Supply some grief counseling if needed.”

  Leo nodded.

  Caley found Shep with two trays at a table near the exit. Her tray was loaded with French toast and bacon. Who was he feeding? An army? She took her seat and sent out the text.

  Shep held a strip of bacon in his hand. “What did your boss have to say?”

  Caley groaned and delivered the conversation.

  Shep only grunted and ate his bacon while studying the cafeteria. Interns trickled in. Some in tears, others unusually quiet. They’d been here since mid-May. Already, they were like family. Caley excused herself and tended to her team. When they’d all arrived, Leo spoke to them, offered counseling. Some of the interns wanted to hold a vigil and murmured plans.

  Caley finally stood and said a few words about Mary Beth. When they dispersed, she caught up with Billy. That’s when Shep made his way over to the beverage area. He poured a glass of juice while Caley talked. If he was trying to be invisible, that wasn’t happening. Shep was larger than life.

  “Billy, can you tell me anything? Why would she swim or kayak alone? Did she mention it?” Caley asked.

  Billy leaned against the end of the table. Face pale. Eyes hollow. “She said she was going to bed early. Read a book or something. But she’d been distant the past week or two. I thought she was low-key dumping me.” He shrugged. “I can’t believe she’d go in the ocean alone. Makes no sense.”

  Caley put her arm around him. “I don’t think she did. I think something else is going on here, Billy. I have what I think is proof.” The ransacking of her room had to be.

  “What kind of proof?”

  She promised Leo to keep the incident quiet. “I can’t tell you that. We have to keep things on the down low for now.”

  Billy gaped but nodded. “You don’t believe it was an accident, do you?”

  “No. Anything out of the ordinary with her? Other than being distant?” Caley waited while he seemed to process the information.

  “Ashley said she’s sneaked out a few times but wasn’t sure where she went. I figured she was cheating on me with someone else.” Billy rubbed the back of his neck. “That wasn’t like her. I can’t think of anything else, Caley. I’m sorry.”

  Caley nodded and looked to Shep. Not a single reaction on his face. She turned back to Billy. “Thanks. I’ll talk to Ashley.”

  She scanned the cafeteria for her. Ashley had come in with three other interns earlier. She must have gone back to her dorm room. Once they entered the hallway, Shep grunted.

  “I’m not fluent in grunt. Sorry,” Caley said.

  “Do you have a curfew here?” he asked.

  “No, they’re adults. As long as they show up to work we don’t pry into their private lives.” Caley headed toward the hall of dorm rooms.

  “Then why sneak? People only do that to hide something. Trashed room indicates someone looking for a hidden item of some kind. Drugs?”

  Caley snorted. “Doubtful. Mary Beth was an outstanding student at the University of Oregon. She was looking forward to her career. This is a highly respected internship program and we vet our students thoroughly.”

  “Well, then the other reason for sneaking off at night is she met someone. It adds up. She breaks away from Billy. Hides it from her friends. Women like to talk about their men. If she’s hiding him, then it’s someone they wouldn’t approve of or someone who needed it to remain a secret.”

  “You mean like a married man?” Caley froze in the hall. “No way.”

  Shep tossed a skeptical glance her way. “Not everyone holds the same moral compass in their hand as you do, Turtle Girl.”

  “Turtle Girl?”

  Shep shrugged. “Fits.”

  Except it didn’t. Neither did Little Flynn or Wilder’s kiddo. Caley was a grown woman. Not an adolescent. Just because Shepherd and Wilder had six years on her didn’t mean she was a child. She was a respected marine life vet. With her own home. Her own life. “Well, I don’t like it,” she said.

  That garnered her another grunt.

  “Back to Mary Beth.” She switched subjects. “You think this mystery man—if there is one—killed her, then came back later and tossed her room, looking for some evidence proving they were in an illicit relationship?”

  “It’s a starting point. Nothing else to go on.” He nudged her to get moving again. “Once we talk to this Ashley, maybe we’ll know more.”

  Caley knocked on Ashley’s door. A moment later, Ashley opened it and eyed Shepherd with a mix of confusion and what Caley could only define as intrigue. For a man as rough around the edges and intimidating as Shep, he held some physical qualities that would make a girl swoon.

  Like his lips—heart-shaped top with a protruding lower one. Crazy-soft-looking. Paired with bluish-gray eyes framed by thick dark lashes, he had zero trouble attracting female attention. And that wasn’t including the mysterious scar and superhero physique.

  The rumors she’d heard said Shep had never been in a committed relationship, but he’d dated the way a man with a cold went through tissue. Box after box.

  No, that wasn’t the kind of man Caley was interested in. So the attraction had to stay simple. Appreciative. Besides, he was a soldie
r. And she’d vowed long ago that she wasn’t marrying a soldier or a man who worked in law enforcement of any kind.

  Too risky for the heart.

  Shep narrowed his eyes. Uh-oh. He’d caught her gawking. She pushed her glasses up her nose. “This is my...” What was he? Her brother’s friend? “Friend. He’s stopped in for a visit.”

  Shep’s eyebrow, the one without the scar splitting the hairs, rose.

  “I wanted to talk to you about Mary Beth. Can I come in? We? Can we come in?” Caley asked and shoved her way inside, a good measure away from Shepherd.

  “Sure,” Ashley said, opening the door wider to accommodate Shepherd’s frame to enter without brushing her. “I think I was the last person to see her. She was in the equipment room around eight last night.”

  Why would she be there? Unless she really was going out to kayak or fill the oxygen tanks for an upcoming dive.

  “What’s in the equipment room?” Shep asked.

  “Boats, diving equipment, anything we use out on the water for work or play.” Caley slumped on the edge of Ashley’s bed. “Did she say if she was going out, Ashley?”

  “No. She said she left her beach bag in there.” Ashley pawed her face. “If I’d pressed for the truth maybe this wouldn’t have happened. I knew she was lying and I let her. To each her own, you know?”

  “Sure. How did you know she was lying?” Caley asked.

  “She’d been going out late at night. Several times in the past few weeks. I approached her about it, but she said she wanted to be alone. Not to worry. But why would you want to be alone that late at night? She seemed shifty. Distant.”

  “That’s what Billy said,” Caley said.

  “I think she was cheating on him. Or about to break it off for good.” Ashley collapsed in her desk chair. “Billy thought so too.”

  Shep might be right. There could be a mystery man involved. “She never confided in you? About another guy?”

  “No. She knows how tight me and Billy are. I guess she thought I’d tell him. But I wouldn’t have.”

  “Anyone else she might have talked to?”

  “Toby. He never liked Billy much. And Mary Beth had been spending a lot of time down in the lab with him. At first I thought maybe they had something going on, but he’s engaged and a stand-up guy. I don’t see him cheating. And honestly, I don’t see Mary Beth doing something like that either.”

  Neither did Caley. Shep’s eyes held skepticism.

  “If you remember anything else, please tell me.”

  “I heard her parents came last night and took her stuff. A few of us went to her room this morning and it was empty. Like she was never even here.” A tear leaked from her eye. “I can’t believe this.”

  Caley wrapped her in a hug. “I know. If you need anything, call me.” They left her room and were down the hall when Shep spoke.

  “Let’s check out the equipment room. See if we can find that bag she was hunting for. If there was a bag. Maybe there was something of extreme importance in it. Something that got her killed.”

  “Okay. And I hate to think it, but you might be right, Shep. She might have met someone who needed to stay a secret.” And if that were the case, they had to find him.

  * * *

  Shep had rolled the interviews with the interns around in his head in between trying to figure out why Caley had been gawking at him outside Ashley’s door earlier this morning. Like she was admiring him in a more than friendly way.

  He’d shoved the ridiculous notion aside and followed Caley around for the remainder of the morning, keeping out of her way while she worked. He and Caley had lunch once again in the cafeteria, and now they were inside the aquatic center, where he stood in the hub of a group of tourists while Caley shared sea turtle migration patterns and habits and advances in research.

  The passion in her voice held his attention captive along with the thirty other tourists hanging on every word. But he had to pull his thoughts away from her hypnotic voice and focus on the case and his plans to keep Caley protected if the intruder from last night returned. A possible murder wouldn’t stop Caley from her daily routine. Life had to go on. Just like in war. No way to make time freeze when a comrade had been lost. Fighting and protecting lives didn’t come to a standstill because people grieved. Caley wasn’t a solider like most of the Flynn family, but she was proving she was a fighter by standing here continuing with her spiel on sea turtles and not crawling into a hole to hide.

  He admired that about her. Admired her brain. The woman was ridiculous smart. And gentle. Patient. Okay, this was not pulling his thoughts away. This was fixating on a woman who was so out of his league it wasn’t even funny. Back to the assignment.

  The best working theory was Mystery Man wanted to stay hidden, which explained his motive to toss Mary Beth’s room, looking for a piece of evidence that would have exposed their relationship. But why kill her? Had she threatened to tell someone about them? Tracking down Mary Beth’s actions over the past few days was imperative, but no one seemed to know where she’d been.

  Someone was lying.

  Twelve interns working and living together day after day and no one could tell them where the girl went? Shep wasn’t buying that.

  Caley finished her talk and handed the crowd off to another staff member and photographer. Tourists loved their pictures.

  Caley shoved her glasses on the bridge of her nose—he could tighten those for her if she wanted—and strolled toward him. “Did I bore you?”

  “No.” Boring would be the last adjective to describe Caley Flynn.

  “You even listen?”

  Had she wanted him to? “I know loggerheads can get up to three hundred pounds and fishing gear is their biggest threat because they can get caught in longlines.” He enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing mild shock on her face. Yeah. He listened. Hard not to.

  But then she grinned and it sent a blip to his heartbeat. “Have you ever seen them swimming in their habitat? It’s amazing.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “To be honest I wouldn’t know one turtle from the next, but I planned to do some diving off the cays. On my cruise. Now, I’ll know that the leatherback’s carapace is black with white splotches while the green turtle has a light or dark brown carapace. And it’s sometimes shaded with olive. Oh, and the carapace is the hard upper shell.”

  Caley pulled her glasses off and studied him. Had he passed the test? Her narrowed eyes said she might be about to fail him. “Are you certified to dive, soldier?”

  “Yes,” he said warily.

  “Like navy good or just marines good?” A hint of teasing flickered in her eyes. Caley Flynn may not be military but the navy coursed through her veins by birth.

  “Good enough not to need a babysitter.”

  She glanced around. “I’ll tell you what. Since you’ve been such a trooper today, and I need to run out to one of the dive sites anyway, I’ll let my team and interns know I’m leaving and we’ll check some longlines, make sure no turtles are caught. Then we’ll do a little diving before coming back to shore. It’s a place Mary Beth and I dived—a favorite spot of hers. Maybe someone who runs the excursions might know something or has seen her diving with someone other than me or an intern.”

  Shep saluted. “Okay.”

  After one last tour at the aquatic center, Caley rustled Shep up a scuba suit, gear and tank. She drove to the marina and led him to the center’s boat. “All aboard,” she teased.

  Shep dropped his scuba gear next to Caley’s and shook his head. Not only was her tank hot pink but her flippers and scuba suit had an equally pink stripe running down them. The ultimate girlie-girl.

  “I see you pooh-poohing my gear, solider. It’s not a crime to love to pink.”

  She cranked the engine and brought the boat to life, then guided them from the mainland out to sea. He’d give her a pass on the pink gear since she handled the boat like a boss. Wind on his face, sun warming his back, Shep was once again impressed. The tast
e of salt coated his lips and he licked them as they continued farther out, the sandy beaches becoming nonexistent.

  He picked up the tank again, inspected it. Severe pink. “It should be a crime,” he insisted.

  She raised her sunglasses on her head and studied him. “Are you joking? I can’t tell.”

  He hollered over the buzz of the motor. “Yes, I’m joking.”

  She slowed the boat down and they floated toward a huge longline—Shep had fished this way a few times. Attached to the line were baited hooks. Probably after halibut or swordfish. Bright orange buoys marked the spots.

  “Fisherman will probably be back in the morning.” She suited up below deck, then came back up. Looking perfect in pink. “Just gonna take a quick look. Make sure no turtles are caught on the hooks. I’ll be up in five, ten minutes.”

  He almost balked at her diving alone, but she was an expert and he trusted her.

  She sat on the edge of the boat, and fell backward, gracefully, into the water. Shep watched until her hot-pink tank disappeared. In about six minutes, she surfaced. “No turtles. Let’s ride out to Soldier’s Reef.”

  Back in the boat, she zipped across the water, smooth as glass, and toward the artificial reef. “We’re two hundred yards from shore. Only going down about forty feet, but, man, just you wait. It’s awesome.” Her eyes lit up and she didn’t waste any time as she increased the throttle until they arrived to their diving destination. “Gonna moor the boat and we’re good.”

  She took a line and tied it to the cleat of the deck, then passed the other end through the eyebolt of the pickup line on the buoy before securing it to the second cleat. Something about the professionalism and quick way she worked...she wasn’t just a girl with her nose inside a turtle shell all day. There was even more to Caley Flynn than Shep had realized, and he happened to like it all. Way too much.

  “I guess we’ll chat with the charter boats that bring tourists out after we dive?” he asked.

  “That’s the plan,” she said as she grabbed her mask. “They’re all out on tours anyway.”

  “Hey, where are your glasses?” He hadn’t seen her without them once.