Something in the sea lion’s mouth glinted in the morning sunshine, and Joe squinted at Simon. “What do you have, big guy?”
He held up another crab, and the sea lion swam near enough for Joe to reach into his mouth to retrieve what Simon had found. The item on Joe’s open palm was a small propeller that he recognized immediately as part of a thruster system on an underwater drone. It might belong to a fisherman or a hobbyist, but it might be something more ominous.
He showed it to his team. “I’m going down to take a look around. I’ll have Simon show me where he found it.”
He bit into his mouthpiece and inhaled stale canned air, then adjusted his mask before he fell backward into the blue water. The waves embraced him in a warm caress, and he swam past a school of rock beauty angelfish. Their striking yellow-and-black markings stood out in stark contrast to the gray rocks. Simon swam beside him, and the fish scattered at the sea lion’s approach. Simon seemed to realize why Joe was in the water, and he propelled ahead toward the seafloor just under a rocky outcropping.
Joe followed Simon down toward the HLHA artificial reef. The reef included Liberty ships, concrete rubble, subway cars, barges, and even M60 battle tanks. Coral grew everywhere, and the interesting shapes and sunken ships made for an exciting dive. A sea turtle swam lazily by, and colorful fish darted out of its way. Simon looked back as if to make sure Joe followed before he slipped through the coral-encrusted window of a subway car.
Joe paused and peered inside. Simon had disappeared. He kicked his fins and focused on the steady in and out of oxygen until he was inside, where he clicked on his flashlight. The beam of light found Simon waiting for him in the corner. Joe swam over to join the sea lion and saw what the mammal had found—a broken underwater drone.
The thing was no toy and clearly cost a lot of money. It wasn’t a hobbyist drone but something a hostile swimmer or spy would use.
Joe glanced around the dark compartment but only fish and stingrays moved past the window openings. He’d have to report this to the Navy commander over the sea mammal project, who would know if a threat had been reported.
Joe gave the hand signal of approval to Simon, who swam around him a few times in delight before they both exited the subway car and headed for the surface.
Hopefully this was nothing.
* * *
Lisbeth was the last person to have sat in this office chair.
Torie ran her fingers over the top of the chair bathed in blue light from the computers. She could almost hear her best friend’s tinkle of laughter. No one laughed like Lisbeth, that special combination of pure joy and sweet spirit. Torie’s vision blurred, and grief tightened her throat.
The room was tiny, and her claustrophobia made her feel antsy so she opened the blinds on the small window. Being able to look out onto the lawn made her breathe a little easier.
Her suitcases had arrived yesterday, so she’d spent all day unpacking and organizing things to her liking after receiving a grocery order through Instacart. She’d thought to find a church, but it could wait a week. She had no car, but it was a short bike ride to the hotel and anywhere else on the small island.
She swept her gaze over the room filled with computers and monitors. Three desks were crammed together by the walls, and the beige wall color did nothing to brighten the room’s feel. Her new boss stood in the doorway behind her.
Kyle Ballard’s red hair didn’t appear to have been combed this morning, and it stuck out in clumps all over the top of his head. His shirt looked like it had been slept in. “This bank of computers is connected to all our security cameras around the complex.”
Torie turned toward him. “How long do we keep the footage?”
“About six months.”
“Whoa, that’s a long time.”
“Mr. Bergstrom is adamant about providing security.” The man dropped his tall frame in front of a large desk that was as messy as he was. “Our internet system is state of the art, and it seldom goes down, but when it does, you might be summoned in the middle of the night to help fix it. High rollers like our guests expect the very best in service. They aren’t content to wait until breakfast if they need to be online at two in the morning.”
No surprise there. Torie cut her teeth on learning the importance her parents put on customer service and happy repeat guests. “I’ll make sure my phone is on the nightstand. Are we able to log in remotely to handle problems?”
He lifted a brow. “You’re like less than a five minute walk from the office, so no. I’ll expect you to get your butt in here and take care of the problem. You’ll follow up with a personal call to the guest, and you’ll wait around to ensure everything is working as it should.”
That was something she would change when this was all over. The employees didn’t need to go to the office to fix things. Not in this day and age. “Got it.”
“The majority of our time is spent keeping an eye on the cameras around the property and notifying security if we see anything out of the ordinary or suspicious.”
She suspected that was a duty he enjoyed. Kyle’s brown eyes seemed too likely to roam away from a woman’s face and head south. Hopefully he didn’t hang out in the office all the time.
She stashed her bag in an empty desk drawer and logged on to the computer with her new credentials. Once he left the office, she planned to go over every byte of security footage of Lisbeth’s time here. Especially on the day she died. The fact the footage still existed was an unexpected boon.
Kyle plopped into his chair. “I heard you had a break-in on Saturday night. When Joe told me about it, I pulled the recording from the camera nearest your cottage. We don’t have as many in the cottage quarter as we do in the guest section, but there’s one that picks up your back door. I didn’t see anything.”
“The front door was open, so I assume the intruder got in that way.”
“Any trouble after Joe cleared the place?”
“No.”
Unless he considered someone accessing her music “trouble.” She had been on edge ever since Saturday night and had heard every croaking frog and loud cricket. She’d bought alarms for the doors that went off if anyone touched the doorknob, but the place had stayed blessedly quiet after Joe had mentioned the possibility of a hijacked remote. Her remote was still on the component shelf, but anyone could have programmed another one.
His speculative stare gave her the creeps. Could he have done it? Possibly. But why? She should take a look at the footage herself.
Kyle jiggled his mouse, and a screen lit up. “Just a warning: things will be very busy tonight, and you’ll need to work. Game night tonight.”
“Game night?” Hailey had mentioned it to Torie, but she wanted to know more about it and her duties here.
“Guests love it. We don’t run it on Sunday since it tends to be an off day, but every other night, we have rotating games. Tonight is charades.”
With a lot of chaos and interaction, the chance of theft would be higher, though that didn’t seem to be a problem here. Torie had gone over all the issues the resort had seen in the past five years before she came. It had been remarkably quiet.
“How late should I plan to stay?”
“About ten. Things die down after that.”
She glanced at the clock on her desk. Starting time had been seven, and it was now half past. A long day, but if things stayed truly quiet, she’d have time to review that footage. “No problem.”