Sunken Shadows

by Kathleen Brooks

  “How many people on board?” Wade asked Coast Guard dispatch from Ryker’s radio.

  “Unknown. We received a Mayday and then heard the explosion a second before the connection went dead. I’m sending you the coordinates for the EPIRB.” A second later the coordinates from the boat’s emergency position-indicating radio beacon, or EPIRB, pinged onto his phone.

  Wade was a rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard. He was stationed in nearby Charleston, South Carolina, and with the location of the emergency call, he’d arrive a good ten minutes before a boat from the base.

  The night was clear. Gavin and Ellery’s wedding had been perfect in their small town of Shadows Landing. The clear night also allowed him to see the smoke rising up into the moonlit sky. “ETA three minutes,” Wade said calmly as he scanned the area, taking in the river’s depth and turns. He pushed Ryker’s boat to dangerous speeds for amateur boaters, but he’d grown up on this river and he knew every bend, twist, and turn.

  “Damn,” he said to himself as he came around a wide bend and saw a boat fully engulfed in flames. “Dispatch, I’m on scene. I have one boat on fire, looks to be a fifty-footer. I don’t see anyone yet.” Wade took in the scene. “There’s a second smaller boat nearby. It’s anchored. I don’t see anyone on it.”

  Wade slowed as he approached the fire. He could feel the heat from it even though he was still a good distance away. He carefully scanned the area as he shed his tux jacket, kicked off his shoes, pulled his shirt off, and found what he was hoping he wouldn’t. There was someone floating face down.

  Wade dropped anchor and was already diving into the water. The warm water covered his head before he moved his arms in strong and sure strokes toward the body. It only took him seconds to reach the man. Wade wrapped an arm around him and hauled him quickly to the boat. Wade pulled himself up and over before reaching down and dragging the waterlogged man onto the boat.

  “I need a medic,” Wade said into the radio before putting his finger to the man’s neck. No pulse. The man was in his fifties and wearing swim trunks and a polo shirt. Fortune’s Mine was embroidered on the pocket. Wade pressed his hands to the man’s chest and began CPR, even though by the evidence of the knife wound to his gut, CPR was unlikely to help.

  * * *

  Darcy Delmar took slow breaths on her oxygen as she dove under the dark waters of the Cooper River. She had a lead, and she didn’t want anyone to know it. That was why she had snuck out in the nighttime to go diving—something that wasn’t advised when she didn’t have a partner. But nothing was going to stop her. She’d found a clue that could lead to the biggest treasure recovery in history.

  The Cooper River was deep, up to forty feet in the middle, and she hoped she didn’t have to go that far down. She was armed with a knife in case she ran across a shark and a metal detector with a flashlight attached. She looked at her depth. She was twenty-seven feet down as she slowly scanned the thick mud and sand of the river’s bottom.

  The bottom of the river could only be described as spooky. She had very limited vision. The water had a chill to it that made her a little jumpy. And she’d watched way too many horror movies when she was a teenager not to envision a killer shark or giant squid lurking just outside the light of her flashlight, ready to eat her.

  Darcy felt the fear, but she embraced it instead of letting it rule her. She’d done night dives before. She was prepared for anything. Instead of worrying about sea creatures set to attack, Darcy focused on the clue she found and slowly scanned the area with her metal detector. So far she had a bag full of cans, tools, and junk, but nothing from the year 1719.

  Looking once more at her depth, she went deeper still. Thirty feet was nothing new to her. She was trained as a deep diver and felt comfortable diving to one hundred feet before needing advanced equipment. And luckily for her, the part of the Cooper River she was diving in wasn’t even half that depth.

  Darcy scanned the bottom of the river with her metal detector but then froze as she raised her flashlight. The metal detector hadn’t gone off, she didn’t need it to. She’d found it.

  * * *

  The man was dead. Wade sat back on his heels and looked out across the water. A boat burned and a boat anchored. Which one belonged to the dead man?

  “Dispatch, I’m getting a closer look at the boat anchored near the fire.”

  “What’s the name on it?”

  Wade pulled up the anchor and slowly cruised to the surviving boat. “Sea Runes,” Wade said to dispatch before reading off the registration number.

  “The boat’s owner is Ms. Darcy Delmar of Key West, Florida.”

  “I’m boarding,” Wade said as he tied off his boat to the Sea Runes and climbed aboard. “Hello? Coast Guard. Is anyone on board?” Wade yelled.

  He waited but heard nothing in response. The boat was older, well used, and well loved. It was in great condition, which also meant that unfortunately the door was solidly locked. He wasn’t able to get inside without breaking in. Wade looked through the windows and when he was sure no one was around, he used his cell phone’s flashlight to peer through the wheelhouse window. A large map of the Cooper River hung, and next to it a large map of Charleston Harbor and beyond. There was red marking all over both maps, but it was the X on the Cooper River that caught his attention.

  Leaning closer, Wade confirmed what he thought he’d seen. X marked the spot and the spot was exactly where he was now. So the question was, where was Darcy Delmar?

  “Wade, backup is arriving in two minutes,” Wade heard the dispatcher’s voice crackle over the radio.

  Wade moved to the back of the boat and looked at the large tub of water set up close to the motor. Wade looked to the right of the motor and cursed. He knew where Darcy Delmar was.

  The small ladder that allowed boarding from the back of the boat was in the water, and when he looked closely he saw a glow stick was attached to the base of the ladder. The glow stick alerted the diver of the boat’s location.

  Wade leaped back onto Ryker’s boat and picked up the radio. “Diver in water, repeat, diver in water. I’m going in after her.”

  “I’ll alert the rescue crew,” dispatch replied as Wade lifted up the bench seat and pulled out Ryker’s gear. He didn’t need much as he didn’t plan on staying under long, so he grabbed fins, a mask, and a small oxygen tank that attached to a mouthpiece so that he didn’t have to strap tanks onto his back. The small independent bottle of oxygen wouldn’t give him long, but enough to make a quick dive to find Ms. Delmar and bring her to the surface. The question was, once he had her, what would he do with her? Thinking that she could be the killer, Wade strapped a knife to his thigh before turning on the flashlight and getting into the water. The muddy waters of the Cooper River closed over his head and he began to search.

  2

  Darcy reached out with her gloved hand and brushed the thick mud and sand from the object jutting five feet up from the bottom of the river. Her heart beat rapidly as she felt the solid object under her hand. She’d done it. She’d found it.

  She was so excited her hand shook as she continued to clean the object enough to determine it was in fact a small rowboat. Taking a deep breath of air on her tank, she pulled up her swim bag and reached inside. Before she could excavate the rowboat further, she needed to claim it. Darcy pulled out a GPS tracker and attached a small flag with her name, address, and phone number on it. She dove down and stuck the flag into the bottom of the riverbed and made sure it was secure before turning her attention back to the rowboat.

  Darcy was reaching for the small brush she carried in her bag when a light caught her attention. It was just a blink of a light. So small she could barely see it through the murky waters. One would think that meant it was far away, but because the water was murky, the source of the light was likely much closer.

  Dammit, he’d found her. That bastard! Well, she wasn’t going to let him steal another discovery from her. Darcy turned off her light and began swimming strai
ght for him. She’d teach him to stop poaching her hard-earned discoveries once and for all.

  * * *

  Wade had seen a light. He knew he had. But then it was gone. Did Ms. Delmar think to hide from him until he ran out of air? There was no hiding from the dead body on the surface or the fact that numerous Coast Guard swimmers would be descending on the area shortly. As for a plan of escape, it was a bad one.

  Wade kept his gaze on the last area he’d seen the light and swam straight for it. A ripple in the water that shouldn’t be there was the only hint Wade got before a person shot into the light from the shadows and tackled him—as much as someone could tackle someone underwater. But the person wrapped their arms around his waist and he felt them searching for his tanks. They were going to pull his oxygen. Too bad he was using independent oxygen for this dive.

  The long hair and breasts pushed against his stomach gave it away that his attacker was female. He’d found Darcy Delmar, or more accurately, she’d found him. And she was fighting him with all she had.

  Wade tried to dislodge her as she moved to attack his face. He felt her trying to rip the oxygen from his mouth before giving up and reaching for his mask. He decided he’d had enough. He’d wrestled in the water with his cousins and this little hellion, while doing an admirable job, had nothing on his cousins.

  Instead of swimming away, Wade wrapped his arms around her. He fisted a diving strap in one hand and pinned her neck with his other hand before kicking hard for the surface. His oxygen was running out. He needed to get to the surface. The little hellion didn’t give up, though. She was struggling to reach for something when he suddenly felt the poke of a knife against his side right as they broke the surface.

  “You bastard! I’ll kill you!” she sputtered as she spit out her oxygen.

  “I think you already did,” Wade responded as he held tight despite the knife to his side. He saw the moment she realized she was caught. Her eyes went wide, and she took in the boat on fire and the Coast Guard who had arrived.

  “You’re not Leon Snife,” she sputtered. “What the hell is going on?”

  “I’m with the Coast Guard and you, Darcy Delmar, are wanted for questioning.”

  “For what? Whose boat is on fire? Why are there people on my boat?”

  “For murder.”

  * * *

  “Murder!” Darcy shouted and suddenly flashlights were turned onto them.

  “Put down the weapon and lift your hands in the air!” someone yelled at her.

  “Look at me, Ms. Delmar,” the man holding onto her said as she looked around in surprise.

  Darcy dragged her eyes back to the man she should have never mistaken to be Leon, even underwater in the dark. This man had quiet confidence written all over him. His body was lean and muscled. His shoulders were so wide she couldn’t see around them without leaning. And how did he smell good? This was the Cooper River, nothing should smell good in it.

  “Ms. Delmar,” he said again as she drew her gaze from the top of his shoulders that were visible above water to his face.

  “I didn’t kill anyone.”

  “Why don’t you hand me the knife and then we can get out of the water and talk.”

  “Oh,” Darcy said, looking at the knife she had a death grip on. “I wasn’t going to hurt you. I thought you were someone else, and I just meant to cut his oxygen hose.”

  The man held out his hand and Darcy handed over the knife.

  “Put away the guns. She’s cooperating. Aren’t you, Ms. Delmar?”

  Darcy nodded. She’d never been in trouble her whole life, and now there were guns aimed at her and they all thought she killed someone. “Who do you think I killed?”

  Hands reached down from her boat and grabbed her. Darcy shrieked and instinctively tried to fight them off.

  “Ms. Delmar,” the commanding voice of the man in the water said, cutting through the panicked haze. “Let my men help you onto your boat. They need to make sure you are not armed. Help them out and allow them to search you, okay?”

  “Okay,” Darcy said, going limp as they sat her on her own boat. Her equipment was peeled from her body and she was patted down as she watched the man climb from the water.

  First, his head appeared. His wet hair was dark as night and she wondered what color it was when it was dry. Next came forest-green eyes, a smooth angled face, a strong neck, and those shoulders.

  “Hey, watch it,” Darcy snapped as a pair of hands ran down the sides of her breasts as they checked for weapons.

  She heard the man from the water chuckle and turned her attention back to him in time to see his bare sculpted chest and rippled stomach appear. No wetsuit? That was strange. Stranger still was when he climbed all the way up. He was wearing . . . tuxedo pants?

  “Who are you?”

  “Wade Faulkner,” he said with a happy-go-lucky smile that seemed out of place from the stern and serious man he’d been just minutes ago in the water.

  “Did the Coast Guard get a new uniform?” God, those pants were riding low on his hips. If they just fell a little more . . .

  Wade chuckled as he sat next to her and pulled off his flippers. “I was at a wedding. Okay, guys, let me talk to Ms. Delmar for a moment. I don’t think she’s going to attack me with all of you around.”

  Darcy was so grateful when the men backed up. “We need to finish searching the vessel,” one of the guys stated.

  Wade nodded and then turned toward her. “Can we have the key to unlock your boat? We need to have a look around.”

  Darcy pulled the rubber bracelet from her wrist and handed it to Wade. There was something about him that made her trust him. “Would you please tell me what’s going on?”

  “Do you know whose that is?” Wade asked, gesturing with his chin to the burning boat as he handed the key to another member of the Coast Guard.

  Darcy squinted, but it was too burnt for her to tell. “I’m sorry. I can’t tell.”

  “You thought I was someone named Leon Snife. Who is he, and why did you think I was him?”

  Darcy sighed as she wrung her hands. She noticed her knee was bouncing and she tried to calm herself. “He’s one of my rivals.”

  “For what?”

  “I’m an underwater archeologist.”

  “You mean a treasure hunter,” Wade said.

  “Yes. And no. I have studied the best ways to have minimal impact on the ecosystem when I make a discovery. And I also want my discoveries to end up in museums, not sold to the highest bidder on the black market,” Darcy explained.

  Everyone thought she was crazy. She’d spent years working to find this one treasure. She’d been labeled a kook. Her friends called her eccentric. The few remaining members of her family didn’t understand her. And she was almost out of money. If she didn’t find this treasure soon, she was going to have to give up her dream.

  “So, who is Leon?”

  “He owns Fortune’s Mine Treasure Hunting, and he’s despicable. He’s the worst of the worst. He follows me and other hunters and swoops in under the cover of night and steals what we’ve discovered. He only likes the action. Not the years of research and history that goes into finding a sunken ship or treasure.”

  “And he’s stolen from you before?” Wade asked, looking interested.

  “Yes. I found a handmade canoe from over a thousand years ago and I marked it with my own small buoy and headed to make a formal claim on it. When I got back with the state’s representative and a representative from the museum, my buoy was still there, but the canoe was gone. A massive hole was left in the riverbed where the canoe had been. Three weeks later, a thousand-year-old canoe was put up for auction in a country that doesn’t really care about U.S. law regarding salvage and finds. Can you guess who the seller was?”

  “Leon Snife,” Wade said, and Darcy felt as if she’d finally found someone who understood. “I bet you’d like to kill him for what he did.”

  Darcy was taken aback a little. “Not kill hi
m. But ruin him, sure. I’m not the only one who’s tried either. He’s as slippery as an eel.”

  “Who else has he pissed off?”

  Darcy almost laughed. “The better question is: who hasn’t he pissed off?”

  “How many hunters are in Charleston now?” Wade asked.

  “I don’t know about the amateurs, but Leon is here and a couple professionals. Between the amateurs and the professionals, there’s always someone around. The amateurs come and go so I don’t know them well, but Leon uses them just as he uses us.”

  Wade stood up and held out his hand for her. “Can I show you something?”

  “Of course, what is it?”

  “I need you to tell me if you recognize someone.”

  “Here?” Darcy asked, looking around.

  “On my boat.”

  Darcy glanced at the boat tied up to hers but didn’t see anyone. “Um, okay.”

  “You can just kneel here and lean over. I’ve got you.”

  Wade put his hands on her waist and Darcy felt the heat seeping in through her wetsuit. She wasn’t going to kid herself. Wade’s large strong hands felt glorious. What she did for a living could be quite solitary and having a man touch her . . . “Oh no!”

  Darcy’s stomach heaved at the sight of the dead and bloody man on Wade’s boat. She promptly spun around, trying to get away from the body, but Wade had her in his arms. She tried to push away, but he tightened his grip. And that’s when she threw up all down his gloriously warm and strong chest.

  3

  Darn, he didn’t want it to be Darcy, but the second she saw the body Wade was starting to believe was Leon Snife, Darcy tried to bolt. Innocent people didn’t run. Darcy, her sinfully curvy body he was sure she got from hours of swimming each day, was pressed against his chest. He tightened his grip and held her face to his chest. Diving into the water for a nighttime chase wasn’t on the top of his list of things to do.