“It had a camera mounted on it.”
He nodded. “She must have come back out. I wonder if Kaia knows.” Though Nani was free to come and go as she pleased, Jesse was astounded by the dolphin’s desire to be around people. Seaworthy Labs was doing some amazing work. He should stop over and meet the director, Duncan’s brother.
A second SEAL surfaced. “Found the dart gun, sir.” He swam to the boat and handed it up to Jesse.
At least they had that much. “Take me back to shore. I want at least six boats patrolling tonight,” he told the men. The engine roared to life, and the boat bounced along the waves, riding the swells with ease. He stepped to the bow and put his face to the wind. He inhaled the scent of the sea in the breeze. The ocean was as much a part of him as his type O blood. He felt keenly alive and alert, eager to get to the bottom of this problem.
The boat docked, and he stepped off the deck onto the pier. Sailors milled around, and he spotted Lawton, who was headed toward him.
“A patrol just found a body floating offshore,” his captain said. Lawton’s tanned face bore no expression other than grim determination. “A diver.”
“Identity?”
Lawton shook his head. “Nothing to tell who he is.”
“Where’s the body?” Jesse wanted to check this out himself. Lawton nodded toward a group of men near the beach, and Jesse went toward the huddled sailors.
The men stepped aside when Jesse arrived. He knelt beside a man about thirty-five. He was dressed in a black wet suit. The man had removed his tank and buoyancy compensator—or BC—and had unzipped his wet suit.
“Any idea what killed him?” Jesse asked the doctor standing at the edge of the group.
The physician stepped forward and crouched beside Jesse. He pulled back the edges of the man’s wet suit to reveal the diver’s abdomen. A dart was still in the man’s flesh. “You found a dart gun. Maybe ballistics can figure out if that’s the weapon that killed him.”
The more Jesse stared at the man’s face, the more he looked familiar. He bore Hawaiian features. It might be wise to have a lifelong native of the island look at him. Kaia’s face flashed into his mind.
“Get me a camera,” he told Ensign Masters. When his aide brought him a Polaroid, he snapped several photos, taking care to get only the face so it wouldn’t be too graphic for Kaia.
He handed the camera back to Masters. “Mahalo. I’ll see what I can find out. Call me if anything else happens.” He pocketed the pictures and headed for his Jeep. Once on the road, he pulled out his cell phone and called Duncan.
“Hey, buddy, you’ve lived here a long time. Have you ever had any day care for your kids?” Too late he realized he should have asked someone else. With Duncan’s kids on the mainland, it had to be a sore subject for him.
Duncan inhaled softly, but when he spoke his voice was still full of good humor. “Not really. My wife didn’t work.” He paused a minute. “You know, my brother’s wife is looking for work. Maybe she would have time to watch Heidi. Want me to ask her?”
“What’s she like?”
“Faye? She’s great. She and Curtis have only been married a year, but they’re nuts about each other. I think she has some kids from a previous marriage and she’s pretty congenial. I think she’d be good with kids.”
“Go for it then, if you don’t mind.” Duncan promised to get back to him by morning, and Jesse clicked off the phone and tucked it onto his belt. If only his problems at the base could be so easily solved.
Kaia closed her eyes and let the beat of the drums reach inside to the woman most people never saw. In the thrall of the drums, she wasn’t the unloved and abandoned daughter of Paie Oana, but a daughter treasured by God and worthy in His sight. The fluid movements of her hands and body told the story of her life and how God had found her. The hula healed the inner place where she was still a child crying for her mother.
At least until the music ended.
The thump of the drums echoed across the waters then ebbed with the tide. She opened her eyes and let out her breath. If only the refreshment she felt in the dance could last beyond the harsh light of tomorrow’s sunrise.
Heidi’s eyes were round. “Could you really teach me to do that?”
Kaia smiled. “Sure. Come here.” She placed the little girl in front of her and put her hands into position then began to help her mimic the simplest movements. “This means ‘praise to God.’” She showed Heidi how to lift her hands into the air with the palms extending upward. “Every movement in hula has a specific meaning, and every expression of the dancer’s hands has great significance. The movements of your body can even express plants and animals.”