Dangerous Depths

by Colleen Coble

  “I thought about it. The curator would have suspected me right off though, because I argued against selling the remains. I had to take it all or none. It needed to stay together anyway.”

  Leia digested his explanation in silence. It tilted everything she thought she’d known growing up. Her father had taught her the truth was always best, that character is something built on a daily basis. His character had always been the example she strove to model. His motive was good, she couldn’t deny that. But the cost to her family and to his own integrity had been huge. “Does Mama know?”

  “No. She wouldn’t understand.”

  “Neither do I, Makua. Not fully. I understand your reason, but you trampled everything you taught me to believe in. Honor, truth, character. Was it all a sham?”

  He shook his head vigorously. “I know it looks that way. Maybe when my character was put to the test, I failed. I had to do what I thought was right for the situation.”

  She was going to have to think about this when she was alone. She couldn’t catalog it with him looking at her. She glanced at Bane. “Are the police coming?”

  “I think I hear the helicopter now. Do you know who grabbed you? I recognized Logan. Who was the other man?”

  She heard the chopper too, now that he mentioned it. The whop-whop of the propeller blades grew louder. “Logan called him Moe. Somehow they knew my father had the artifacts. Westerfield hired them.”

  “I should have told Ono to investigate him. I didn’t have any proof he sabotaged my plane, but I should have passed my suspicions on to the police.” He glanced at Akoni. “Any idea how Westerfield knew you had the artifacts?”

  Leia looked at her father. “I always thought he was so upset with you because the robbery happened on your watch. Now you’re saying he was furious he lost out on the chance to buy them. What’s the real story?”

  Her father’s head hung even lower. He put out his hand and slowly lowered himself to sit on the platform bench. “He suspected all along I took the artifacts because I was against the sale. His was the most vocal voice accusing me. He never gave up on getting at the truth.”

  “Why are these bones and artifacts not buried?” Bane asked. “Did Koma know where you buried the artifacts?”

  “Yes, he arranged for his nephew to help him take them down. The boy got transferred to O’ahu before the final box could be taken to the cave.”

  “A submerged cave?” She had to raise her voice to be heard over the helicopter as it came in for a landing. “You have to give the artifacts back, Makua. You know that.”

  “I can’t, Leia. It would kill your mother for people to know what I’ve done.”

  “You have to. It’s the right thing. We have to trust God to turn this out for the best. That was your mistake in the first place. You didn’t trust his sovereignty.” It was getting too loud to talk now. She motioned for them to go down. Her father went first. When she would have followed him, Bane took her arm and leaned in close to speak in her ear.

  “You need to practice what you preach. Where is your trust in God to work things out for the best in your life?” He pulled away and searched her face.

  She stared back at him. The police were shouting for them now. There was no time to talk about this, but he was wrong. She wasn’t going to gamble with a child’s life, and that’s what he wanted. Shooting him an annoyed look, she went down the tree. She couldn’t tell the police about the artifacts. Her father needed to be the one to come clean. If she could talk him into giving up the artifacts, he might not get into too much trouble. Maybe he’d get a suspended sentence when it came out that he had the best intentions for what he’d done.

  Hina leaped from the tree behind her, and she picked her up. The helicopter rotors had quit turning, and she hurried to where Ono stood with her father.

  The detective turned toward her, his mustache quivering. “Are you all right, Pilgrim?” Though he still called her the nickname, his eyes were sober.

  “A little shaken up, but I’m not hurt.”

  “What happened?”

  She launched into the explanation of how the men had seized her and where they’d taken her. “I talked them into coming here because I hoped you’d all still be here looking for me.”

  “What made them think your father had stolen the artifacts when he had been cleared of any wrongdoing?” Ono was writing everything down in a small red spiral notebook.

  “I don’t know. They seemed to have been hired by someone else. They referred to Mr. Westerfield.” At least the detective wasn’t questioning her father’s guilt.

  “We got back the autopsy on Tony,” Ono said. “He died of puffer-fish poisoning, so it was evidently accidental.”

  “You can’t believe that with everything else going on!”

  “Coincidences happen now and then.”

  She caught Akoni’s eye, but he turned away, and she knew he wasn’t going to come clean. She swallowed and looked over to Bane. He must have sensed her anguish, because he stepped closer and put his arm around her.

  “I can tell you about Westerfield, Detective. Let Leia get some rest. She’s exhausted, and I’d like to get her back to her family. They’re all waiting back at Ipo’s house for word.” He told the detecttie all he knew about Sam Westerfield. “My boss, Ron Pimental, can tell you more.”

  Ono nodded. “I’ll give him a call. I’m sure we’ll have more questions, but that’s enough for now. Get some rest. We’ll head out to the cabin you mentioned and take a look around. If they’ve been staying there, we might find some clues.” Ono walked off to talk to another policeman.

  Leia leaned against Bane. Fatigue had caught up with her, and her eyelids felt heavy. Hina meowed and reached out to touch Bane’s arm. “I forgot to tell you—Hina saved me today.” She couldn’t help the smile that curved her lips.

  He dislodged Hina’s claws from his T-shirt. The cat licked his hand. “This fur ball? I can’t see her saving anything but another trip to her feeding trough.”

  Leia covered her smile with her hand, her fatigue lifting.

  “Ajax needs lunch,” Bane grumbled.

  “Hina would have him for lunch. He’s terrified of her.”

  “With good reason. She’s a psycho.”

  “You’re just jealous.”

  He glanced at her as they walked toward her grandmother’s cottage. “Maybe I am. I’d like you to look at me with the same love you do the cat. I’m not giving up, Leia. Almost losing you made me realize even my desire for children isn’t as strong as my love for you. A life without you is no life at all.” He stopped and turned her toward him. “We were meant to be together.”

  She looked away from the love in his eyes. She loved him too much to let him make that sacrifice. Mano and her father hurried to catch up with them, and the moment was lost when they could have talked. Maybe it was for the best.

  “Mahalo for not giving me away,” her father said, his voice low and strained.

  It hurt to hear the shame in his voice. Leia was used to seeing him stride around with a confident walk and a booming laugh. When she was growing up, she thought he was the biggest man in the world. He seemed shrunken and diminished in her eyes now. She needed his help to figure out who was coming after them. Moe and Logan would be back. “Makua, can you think of anyone else who might have figured out that you had the artifacts?”

  “I’ve been wondering about that ever since you told me. The investigation cleared me of suspicion.”

  “How did you manage that?” Bane asked.

  “Luck, really. I staged the break-in to happen when I was on duty. I put the artifacts in the back of my van. Coincidentally, security cameras caught another man slipping out the back door at about the same time, and it obviously wasn’t me. So I was cleared.”

  That sounded ominous. Leia paused and put her hand on her father’s arm. “Who was he, and what was he doing going out the back door?”

  “I’ve never figured it out for sure. I didn’t rec
ognize the man, so I know it wasn’t Westerfield. That same night we had some things come up missing from Queen Liliuokalani’s palace as well. I think the thief might have been the same. The camera didn’t get a good look at him. He had a stocking over his face.”

  “I wonder if it could have been Moe or Logan. Describe his build and anything you can remember about him,” Bane prompted.

  “He was a big guy. Broad shoulders, big feet and hands.” Akoni shook his head. “Sorry, that’s all. He was dressed in black and the stocking distorted his features. I couldn’t even tell what color hair he had.”

  “Moe is a big guy. It could have been him,” Leia said.

  “He was like a tank when he attacked me at the cave,” Bane said. “We’d better decide what to do with the artifacts we left back in the tree before those two come back.”

  “I want to put them with the other things.” Akoni started down the path again. “I’ll go back after them when the police are gone.”

  “No, Makua, we have to give them back. They don’t belong to you.”

  He turned on his heel. “They don’t belong to anyone. How would you like people gawking over your poor remains three hundred years from now? It’s not right, Leia. You know it’s a disgrace to the bones of our ancestors. It’s bad for the mana in them.”

  “I do understand, but sometimes we have to trust God to work things out.” Listen to her, what a hypocrite she was. Bane was right. Trusting in God was the last thing she’d been doing.

  Akoni pressed his fingers at the bridge of his nose. “Maybe you’re right. I don’t know what’s right and wrong in this situation anymore. But I can’t stash the artifacts anyway. I don’t dive. Koma took them to the ship for me.”

  “I’ll go get them,” Bane said. “What ship?”

  “The Spanish galleon.” He looked away. “The cave is right behind it.”

  Leia wanted to pummel him. “You’ve known all this time where the galleon was?”

  “I didn’t think anyone would ever find it, and the bones and artifacts would be mingled with the others who died there. The other boxes are in a small cave just off the ledge where the ship sits, and we planned to set off an explosive and seal the mouth of it.”

  “That’s going to be hard to reach. We’ll need special air and equipment to work that deep. I bet Ron already has some lined up though,” Bane said. “I’ll go down after it.”

  “How did Koma dive that deep? I got narced in just a few minutes.”

  “He didn’t seem susceptible to it, but he’d been a diver a long time. He used to even free dive.” Her father looked back toward the tree. “It will take several trips to bring everything up. There is quite a lot.”

  “I’ll go get it,” Bane said.

  Leia shook her head. “You can’t do it alone. It’s not safe to dive alone, especially that deep.”

  “Koma and his nephew did it,” her father pointed out. “It took them three trips, but he knew the area well.”

  “It’s too dangerous. I can’t let him go alone.”

  “I’ll go too,” Mano said.

  “Your blood-sugar levels have been unstable,” Bane said. “I can’t let you go down.”

  “We could do it right after my insulin shot.”

  Bane was still shaking his head. “I think it was an hour after your shot you had your last reaction. You’re in no shape to do any diving right now.”

  She couldn’t let Bane go by himself. It was too dangerous. Of all people, she knew just how dangerous it could be. “I’ll go with you.” Bane and her father began loud protests, but she held up her hand, then turned and continued down the trail. “You can’t change my mind. I’m going with him.”

  Eva washed the ink from her hands. She liked her job at ARC, and today’s duties were her favorite—stuffing envelopes with a newsletter for a local business. Her neck and shoulders hurt though. She and Lani had stuffed lots of envelopes today. Probably a billion, Lani said. Eva thought her friend was right.

  “What are you going to do tonight?” Lani stuffed her lunch box in her backpack.

  “Maybe scuba!” Eva bounced on the balls of her feet. “Maybe Bane will take me. I’m going to ask him. And I want to see Leia. I had a bad dream about her.”

  “Can I come?”

  “You don’t know how to scuba,” Eva pointed out. She didn’t want to be mean, but it made her happy that she could do some-thing Lani couldn’t do. Lani’s fingers were thinner and could stuff things easier than Eva could. At least Eva could scuba.

  “I could learn.” Lani scowled and went toward the door.

  Eva felt bad. She was being selfish. Jesus didn’t like her to be selfish. “I’ll ask Bane about it.”

  Lani’s smile came back. “Call me!” she sang out as she ran out the door.

  Eva grabbed her own backpack and put her crumpled box of Cheetos into it. She touched the penknife Hotshot had given her. It made her happy to see it. Stepping into the sunshine, she started toward home.

  “Eva.”

  She turned. “Hey, Hotshot, where you been?” He looked funny today, kind of glum. Eva wished she could cheer him up.

  “You remember I told you I would need your help one day?”

  Eva straightened and nodded. “I remember.”

  “Today is the day. We need to get your dad out of trouble. He took something that doesn’t belong to him, and he needs to give it back. I thought he might have put some of the stuff in the sled he was making, but there were no compartments. So we have to help him.”

  “My dad wouldn’t steal.” The idea made Eva mad. Her dad was good. The best man she knew.

  “It was an accident,” Hotshot said. “He didn’t know it belonged to me. But he’ll be in trouble if we don’t help him. You’re the only one who can save him.”

  Eva’s chest swelled at her friend’s words. Sometimes she dreamed she was Luke Skywalker about to save the world, but in her real life she knew she was lucky to have her job. Lots of people didn’t hire girls like her. “What should I do?”

  “I need you to write your dad a letter. Then you need to come stay with me awhile until he does what he needs to do.”

  “Stay with you? Mama will be mad if I don’t come home on time.”

  “I’ll explain it to her. It will be okay.” Still smiling, Hotshot pulled out a notebook. “Just write what I tell you. When you’re done, we’ll go diving.”

  “I love diving!” Eva said. Hotshot offered her a pencil, and she took it, touching it to the tip of her tongue to wet it. “Okay.”

  Twenty-four

  The ship rocked in the waves. Leia was shivering, and she wasn’t even in the water. The trade winds blew across her exposed flesh, but they felt cold to her, though she knew they were as warm and balmy as usual. She began to pull on her wet suit. Might as well get this over with. Bane already had his gear on and stood with Mano looking out over the water from the bow of the Pomaik’i. Ron was on the island rounding up some more equip-ment, though he’d managed to get enough for today’s dive. She was thankful he hadn’t asked too many questions.

  Annie was helping her gear up. She stood and shaded her eyes with her hand. “Hey, is that your dad?”

  Leia looked up to see her father speeding toward them in his small dingy. From the whine of the motor, she figured he had it opened up all the way. She waved, and he motioned wildly, a frantic movement that made her rise and hurry to catch the towrope he tossed her way. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s Eva. She didn’t come home after work, but we got this note.” He stepped aboard and handed her a folded piece of paper.

  Bane and Mano joined them. Ajax pressed close to Bane’s leg. Leia took the note and unfolded it. I’M OKAY, BUT YOU HAVE TO DO WHAT HOTSHOT SAYS. GIVE HIM BACK HIS STUF. DON’T CALL POLISE. EVA. Leia’s fingers tightened on the paper until it began to crumple. Eva was so trusting, so easily taken in by anyone who was nice to her. She looked at her dad. “Hotshot? Who’s Hotshot?” Her father’s gaze was fast
ened on her face as though he hoped she held the answer. “And what stuff does he want?”

  He took back the note. “I have no idea who he is. I’d say the stuff is the artifacts.”

  “Does Mama know? Eva talks to her a lot.”

  “She’s heard her mention him, but she thought this Hotshot was one of Eva’s coworkers. We called Laura Gallagher, but she’s never heard of him.”

  Laura was Eva’s supervisor at ARC. She kept a tight rein on the employees. Whoever this guy was, he had made sure no one saw him with Eva. Leia curled her fingers into her palms.

  “Did you call Detective Ono?” Bane asked. He held out his hand for the note, and Akoni gave it to him. He grunted as he read it.

  Akoni hesitated. “I was afraid to call when the note said not to. I’ll just turn over the artifacts and get my daughter back. I can’t run the risk that the guy would hurt her.”

  Leia rubbed her palm over her face. “I don’t know what we should do. I don’t want them to hurt Eva.”

  “You think there’s more than one?” her father asked.

  “I wonder if it’s the same two men who grabbed me. The big guy, Moe, could have a nickname like that.”

  “Let’s get the artifacts up top before we call the police. We’ll see what they want to do once the items are in our possession.” Bane held on to his mouthpiece and jumped into the water.

  Leia started to follow him, but her dad grabbed her arm. “I’m sorry, Leia. Sorry I’ve made such a mess of things. I should be protecting my family, and instead, I’ve put you all in danger.”

  Leia put her hand over his. “We’ll figure it out. We’re Kahales, after all.”

  His answering smile was strained, and he dropped his hand. “I’ll be praying for you.”

  “I’ll take all the prayers I can get.” She moved to the edge of the boat, held her mouthpiece, and jumped into the blue water. She grabbed the line attached to the cargo basket and brought it with her. The warm caress usually relaxed her, but every muscle tensed as she plunged down after Bane. The strange taste of the specially mixed air made her tongue tingle.