Death By Blue Water (A Hayden Kent Mystery Book 1) (16 page)

Twenty-Eight

Hayden and Mallory stared at the boat lying deep beneath the murky water of the lagoon. Neither woman said anything. Hayden glanced up at the sound of approaching vehicles. Seeing the ambulance and a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office car, she took Elena’s arm and led her back to the house patio before the cars pulled up into the driveway. Mallory went around front to direct the paramedics to the backyard and the pregnant woman.

Elena gazed up into Hayden’s face. “So you see. I did it. Not you, me. And that cop, Paul, he knows it.”

“Elena, if you killed him, how did the boat get back here, and why do you think Paul knows? Do you know how to drive—” Hayden stopped talking as the gurney rounded the corner.

Two paramedics, both women, rushed to Elena’s side. One slapped a blood pressure cuff on her exposed arm. The other swiped her forehead with a contact thermometer, glanced at the readout and shone a light in her eyes. Neither spoke. As Hayden watched them, she thought they made their job look like a ballet.

“Tell us what happened. Did you feel lightheaded, did you see spots, and did you feel dizzy? Is this your first pregnancy? Has this happened before? What were you doing before you fainted? How do you feel now?”

Laughing at the barrage of questions, Elena said, “I always get this way. This is my third pregnancy. I stop driving after the second month. Things tunnel down and boom, I’m flat. These two young ladies were here, they called you while I was still out. I’m fine now, really. If they hadn’t called you while I was out, I wouldn’t have let them call you. I’m fine. I’ll go lay down for a while and I’ll be even better. This will pass by the fourth month. Then I’ll be right as rain.”

“Mrs. Anderson?” The paramedic looked up to see Elena nod. “I’m sorry. I know you just lost your husband. Have you seen your doctor?”

“Yes, he suggests I go on as normally as possible. I have two other children to think of too.”

“Your vital signs are normal now. If this is usual for your pregnancies, and if you’re sure you don’t want us to take you to the hospital...”

Elena shook her head in reply.

“Then please sign this release and we’ll be on our way. If you feel faint again, call us.”

Hayden escorted the paramedics to the front of the house. As she turned to come back, she noticed the Penmartins’ driveway was empty. She searched her memory for the sound of an engine starting. She couldn’t decide if she’d heard one or not immediately after the paramedics arrived. Now the excitement was over, she realized the boat engine was also silent.

Mallory met Hayden as she rounded the corner of the house. “Wow. Now what? Do we tell her sister, the police, or the Coast Guard?”

“Or nobody?” Hayden asked as she saw Elena come up behind Mallory.

“I’m very tired now. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get some rest.”

“We understand, but one question,” Hayden said. “Do you know how to drive a boat?”

“I never have. I never liked them. In fact, I’m a little afraid of them. It looks like I managed though. How else could it be there? I know to turn the little copper things and make it sink. That I know. Maybe I knew enough to drive it here. Maybe I did what they think I did. I’ll tell you this though. No. Never mind. I’m tired. Thank you for coming.” She turned and walked back to the house.

“Elena, wait,” Hayden called out.

The woman turned and looked back over her shoulder, her face creased with tiredness.

“How do you know it’s Richard’s boat down there?”

“Where else would it be, Hayden? No one knows where it is, and I have a sunken boat at my dock.” Elena continued her slow walk to her door.

“Did you see a silver car next door?” Hayden asked Mallory. “Looked like a Crown Vic. Like the one in front of my house this morning.”

“Hayden.”

“No, seriously. Did you see a car next door?”

“Nope, but I thought I heard one start up after the paramedics got here, just after the boat engine went quiet. I wondered because I didn’t see anyone leave the boat, even though we were in the backyard. Who knows, probably a cleaning person at the house.”

Mallory stood outside Hayden’s Tahoe and waited for the air conditioner to take the worst of the heat out. “You’d think they’d invent something that would do this automatically. Finger your remote, the alarm goes off, the doors unlock and the car cooler takes down the heat.” She grimaced as she touched the dash. “Nope, still too hot.”

“OK, girl, now you’ve figured out how to make a million dollars, I want a piece of the action when you patent it.”

Mallory stuck her tongue out and climbed up on the running board.

“This will get you off the hook, Hayden. We need to tell someone.”

“Do you think she’s crazy?”

“No. Why?”

“This is turning into a double blackout murder. What are the odds the two likely suspects blacked out on the same night?”

Mallory chewed her lower lip. “I missed the implications of that. Coincidence? Unless Janice told her, she couldn’t know about your blackout. What do you think of her story?”

“I don’t think she did it. I think she’s being set up too.”

“Great, let the police prove that. What’s wrong with you? And what are you intending to tell Janice?”

“Mallory, something’s not right. Okay, they had a lousy marriage. He beat her and was going to divorce her or she him. I think it happened exactly the way she said. I don’t think she killed him. We don’t know if that’s his boat down there and we don’t know if the boat down there is recent. Georges could have pushed it up under the dock. There’s enough clearance for them to park two Makos, one on top of the other and still have that boat down there. If she hates boats the way she says, she probably didn’t spend much time on the dock and no time inspecting what was under it. No. Something else happened.”

“What are you thinking of doing?”

“Diving the Humboldt. Then I’m thinking of having you call the Coast Guard, say you’re getting information for my case and ask to see their investigation file. Think they’ll bite?”

“No, but I’ll try. Don’t forget my tanks.”

Twenty-Nine

“You girls sure you want to do this today?” Cappy pointed over his shoulder with his chin. “That sky is looking a bit low. I think we’re gettin’ some weather. You two may get bounced around some.”

“You up for jumping the buoy in seas? It’s too darn hard to hook it on a day like today any other way,” Mallory said.

“Yeah, this old man will do that for you but I want you to know what you’re up against. It’s liable to be six foot rollers if this storm keeps approaching. I think we’ll be back before it hits though.”

“Back? You mean we’re just doing one dive?” Hayden put her hand to her heart pretending she couldn’t stand the thought of only having one dive.

“You want a second one, you’ll get a second one. We’ll see how you feel after the first. We should have the place to ourselves. At least I have your tanks all set up and good to go.” He pointed to the four tanks secured by the bungees lining the side of the boat. “I picked them up this morning since Seahorse said they were through hydro, so they’ve been inspected for another year. I was going to drop them off for you tonight, save you a trip on the weekend. Mal, I’ve set two of mine up for you. No charge.”

“You had them filled? Thanks, Cappy. We dropped some off too, they’re in the car. Can we leave them on the dock in your safe locker until we get back? ”

“Well, I’m not about to let you drown. Of course I had them filled. It’s thirty-two percent in case you’re interested. Sand dweller. I had the boat out about forty minutes ago. Didn’t think I’d make it back in time for your dive. Got stopped for a Coast Guard check. I hate it when that happens, but at least this time I didn’t have customers.”

Cappy was right, no one was tied up to the buoys when they arrived. Hayden and Mallory did their usual simultaneous back roll off the port and starboard gunnels. They met up at the line going to the wreck. The water wasn’t as clear as it had been when Hayden did the dive last. She motioned to Mallory to pick up the line and stay on it. She fell into place behind her friend. Hayden’s dive instructor certificate lapsed a few years ago when she dropped her insurance, but her instincts were very much current. She watched as Mallory hand-over-handed the line to the far side of the marker before she followed.

At about sixty feet the wreck came into view. Hayden stopped, straining to see the opening in the wheelhouse. The visibility was so poor she could hardly see the wheelhouse at all. Briefly, she thought about getting Mallory and aborting the dive. She shook her head and decided she wanted to think about the meeting with Elena and what, if anything, she’d share with Janice. Hayden always thought better underwater. Something about the monotony of the in-and-out sound of her breath and the absolute quiet that surrounded her. She felt totally at peace underwater, and totally in control. Wanting to see how much of the hole in the wheelhouse she could see on the descent and where it first came into view, she let go of the mooring line and struck out for the wheelhouse.

She saw the outline of the boat and Mallory below on the deck. Mallory looked like she was going to swim up to her level. Hayden put her thumb and index finger together in a circle indicating that she was okay and gestured for Mallory to swim to the wheelhouse. She would meet her there and they could swim together on the wreck and into the wheelhouse so Mallory could see where Hayden found Richard. Mallory responded by signaling okay, and swam off and around the back of the wheelhouse.

Lost in thought, Hayden tried to imagine Elena murdering her husband. She understood him catching a foot in the anchor line. It happened from time to time. If you weren’t a careful boater, you could easily toss yourself overboard. What she couldn’t see was Elena entangling him. Hayden heard what sounded like a jet plane taking off. She paused in the water column and looked around to see the source of the noise. Seeing nothing except the outline of a fish in the distance, she picked up her gauges to check her depth. She shook her gauge to clear the display. Her air gauge indicated her air pressure was dropping rapidly.

Hayden looked down to see if Mallory was in sight. She wanted her to check her tank and see what was going on there. Not seeing Mallory, she banged her tank banger and put her hand behind her, cupping it so she diverted any bubbles that might be escaping from her valve into her line of vision.

Her heart fell to her stomach. A constant trail of bubbles pushed past her mask.

Acting quickly, Hayden struck their emergency signal, three sharp hits on her tank with her banger. She loosened her cummerbund and slipped the tank around to grasp it under her arm. She’d had a regulator go bad once before. Or it could be loose. Either way, she needed to let Mallory know she was going to the surface. If the regulator failed, she could disconnect it and breathe from the tank. Once she had the tank in a position where she could see it, she realized the newly serviced tank had lost the seal that secured the valve to the bottle.

There was nothing that would keep the nitrox in the tank. No way Hayden could control the flow long enough to gain the surface.

She swam for the mooring line, breathing what she could from her regulator. A quick glance at her pressure gauge told her the tank was nearly empty. Not stopping to look back, Hayden trusted Mallory heard her signal and was on her way to assist her. She made her way quickly up the mooring line to the boat.

She could see the marker just above her when she breathed her last breath from the tank. The black tape, which she knew hung at fifteen feet below the surface. Looking down, she saw Mallory coming quickly up the line beneath her. Breathing out continuously now so her lungs did not over inflate and possibly burst, she continued heading for the marker, silently praying for Mallory to catch up with her. It seemed hours but Hayden knew it was only seconds.

She was at the marker when Mallory caught up with her. Mallory had her regulator out of her mouth, pointing toward Hayden before she came abreast of her. Breathing deeply from the regulator for two breaths, Hayden pointed to Mallory’s second regulator, which was still attached to the keeper on her BC. Mallory shook her head so Hayden handed the regulator back to her friend. Mallory took two breaths and returned the regulator to Hayden. In this manner, they ascended slowly to the surface.

Cappy stood on the swim platform as the two heads broke the surface. “What the heck are you two doing? Having skills practice at one hundred and twenty feet? I should shoot you both. I would if I had a gun on board. Maybe I should flare gun you two.”

“Cappy, toss me a line. I want to tie my BC on to it.” Hayden blew into the hose that would fill her buoyancy vest and allow it to float even with the weight of the tank. She removed her weight belt and handed it to the Captain before she let go of her vest.

They were tossing in six foot rollers, as Cappy had predicted. The women looked at each other. “Get on board,” Hayden ordered Mallory. “You don’t look so good and it isn’t easy being green.” Hayden removed her fins and handed them to Mallory where she stood on the swim platform. She then swam the BC over to the ladder and helped Cappy wrangle it up the ladder. Exhausted, she let him wrangle her up the ladder too.

“The valve blew. I don’t know what else I could have done. I banged emergency, swam for the line and nearly made it to the safety stop before the air gave out. When my regulator went defective a couple of years ago, I’ve breathed from the tank. Not the most comfortable trip back to the boat, but at least I had air. What do you do when your valve goes defective? You can’t control the airflow. I kept breathing from my regulator. I figured it was as good a solution as any. But the free flow from the tank made breathing feel like air and water were being forced down my throat.”

“You feel all right?” Cappy watched at her closely, waiting to see if she exhibited any signs of embolism or the bends.

“Yes, we weren’t down long enough to have to worry about getting bent and even though I came up fast, I was breathing the whole way. Mallory too from what I could see. Thank God you were there, Mallory. This would not have been a time to be diving alone.”

“I think you are through diving the Humboldt. Last time cracks in your hoses, this time a defective valve. That’s not bad luck, that’s a warning from Neptune. Wait until I get my hands on Seahorse. Don’t touch your other tank. I want them to take it apart while I’m there. I want to see what they did. They have no business dealing with tanks if they don’t know how to put them together.”

“Cappy,” Hayden tried to interrupt him.

“They better not have given them to that new…”

“Cappy, stop ranting. Look at this. The valve is fine. It’s the o-ring. It looks like it’s defective. Luck of the draw, Cappy. No problem, just one of those things.”

Cappy came over and looked at the tank and the valve. “That’s no accident. Someone wedged a knife in there between the tank and the valve and slashed the o-ring. Look, you can see a scratch on the side of the tank right near the cut in the o-ring. It would hold up for a while. There’s no way to cut through once the valve is on the tank. This might have lasted for a dive or two but it would have gone eventually from fatigue.”

“Your tank, my friend,” Cappy said, his eyes wild with anger and fear, “was sabotaged.”