“They always carry nuclear missiles, yes.”
She hugged herself and shivered. “That sounds scary.”
“The Navy has only launched them as tests, and we pray we never have to use them in a war. But with all the terrorism, they’re always on high alert with them. The subs are impressive to see.”
“I’d love to see one someday.”
“I could arrange that if you like when this one comes in.”
Her perfectly shaped brows winged up. “Really? I’d love that.”
A small victory but he’d take it. “It’s coming next week, Wednesday. I’ll let you know what time.”
“How long have you been training sea lions?”
“About thirteen years. I enlisted in the Navy at twenty-one when I got out of college with a degree in marine biology. Julie and I were married that same year and moved to San Diego when I was picked for the program. After a few years, I got out of the Navy and started my own training center. Then Julie died. Well, you know the rest of that story. Do you dive?”
She blinked at his out-of-the-blue question. “I do, actually. I was certified at twelve and have been on dives in the Maldives, Hawaii, Belize, all over really. I love it, but I haven’t had a chance to dive here yet.”
With her close association with Anton and this litany of everywhere she’d traveled, he assumed her expensive clothing had been purchased new. Maybe her family moved in the same circles as the Bergstroms. “Did you bring your gear?”
“I shipped it and it’s arriving Friday. I-I didn’t send all my belongings since I wasn’t sure how long I’d be here. But I knew I had to dive while I was here.”
His spirits sagged at the thought that she had an end date in sight to her job here. “You’re planning on leaving as soon as you find out what happened to Lisbeth?”
“That’s the plan.” Her gaze focused across the road to the hotel. “Though this place feels like home already. It might not be as easy to leave as I’d once thought. My life is elsewhere though.”
“What’s your life usually like when you’re not tracking down a murderer?”
Her smile emerged then and lifted him out of the pit. He loved the way it lit her eyes.
“My life is pretty boring. I work for Anton, and he often sends me to hotels to fix underlying problems.”
So that explained how she knew Anton. “All that travel makes for a lonely life.”
She nodded. “That’s why losing Lisbeth was so devastating to me. She was my one constant, the best friend I’d had since grade school. She understood me without long explanations. We were always able to pick up right where we left off.”
Her brown eyes glistened with moisture, and he wished he could change things for her. Julie’s death had been hard, and he knew how it felt to lose a piece of his soul. For the past three years he hadn’t thought he’d ever be able to move on and discover any kind of new life without her. He’d sometimes worried about what he’d do when Hailey grew up and left the nest.
But since he’d met Torie, he began to think of what it might be like not to wake up alone. To share his life with a woman again. That may have been a pipe dream with Torie, but if her arrival accomplished nothing else, at least it had opened his eyes to the possibilities.
* * *
The hanging moss on the oak trees cast weird shadows in the twilight by the time Torie returned from the tour with Joe and Hailey. The breeze, laden with the scents of the sea, blew in off the Intracoastal Waterway and made her shiver.
“Cold?” Joe asked.
“A little. Walking will warm me up.” She stopped as she stepped off the sidewalk and tried to get her bearings in the darkness.
“This way.” He took her hand and led her onto the walkway.
The warm clasp of his hand made her pull away and take Hailey’s hand instead. The little girl was safe. Once they broke the cover of trees lining the road, she saw the lights of the hotel. “I have the worst sense of direction in the world. Is that south?”
His chuckle was without a hint of mockery. “It’s northeast.”
“You just know that kind of thing?”
“It’s almost impossible to get Daddy lost. It’s like he has a compass in his head. I’m pretty good at it too.”
“I can get lost in a parking lot,” Torie said. “Right now I can’t even remember where to find your truck.”
“We’re in the lot behind the hotel.”
“Of course. I remember now.”
They turned left on North Riverview Drive, then made a right on the small road leading to the hotel. It was grand at night with the lights shining out the windows. Her gaze always went to the tower where her mother had fallen. From this distance it didn’t look tall enough to kill someone, but her mother’s neck had broken. People had speculated that she dove headfirst off the tower to make sure the impact was fatal, but Torie couldn’t see any woman doing something that would damage her face so severely.
It made no sense and never would.
“You okay?” Joe asked.
Had she gasped or something? “I’m fine.”
“There’s the truck.”
She glanced in the direction he’d pointed and frowned. “The interior light is on, but I’m sure you locked it after I shut the door.”
“I did. Wait here with Hailey while I check it out.” He positioned them under a bright streetlight before he approached his pickup.
He stooped and peered in the driver’s window before going around to the other side of the vehicle. She lost sight of him when he leaned inside the truck.
Hailey’s small hand crept into hers. “Is Daddy okay?”
Torie pulled the little girl into the circle of her arms. “I’m sure he’s fine. See, there he is now. He’s coming back.” But Joe’s grim expression made her breath catch in her chest.
He reached them. “Someone broke into my truck and took your glass pieces. Your bike is gone too.”
“Oh no! Both of the glass pieces?”
He nodded. “I’m sorry. The passenger window is busted out. There’s glass everywhere. We need to call the state police and report it.”
“Do we have to do it tonight? I’m tired, and it will take forever to make the report.”
“I’ll call Craig and ask him to stop by your cottage to talk to us. We’ll leave the truck here for him to check out and run for prints. We can have the hotel shuttle take us home.”
“Okay.”
Joe placed the call, and she listened to him explain what had happened. Reporting it was still more than she wanted to do, but it was the right thing to do. To make a claim to his insurance, they’d have to file a report. All she wanted to do was crawl under a quilt with a good book and forget this had happened. Maybe she’d call her dad and see if he wanted to come by. He could use the back door so no one would see him. Sneaking around to see her own father wasn’t fair, especially when she needed him.
“My beautiful glass pieces,” she lamented when she got in the shuttle.
Joe waited until Hailey mounted the steps into the shuttle and he sat across the aisle from them. “My insurance should cover it, and we can see if Amelia has another mermaid and globe you like.”