She felt it the second she passed into the dark interior, a vicious grip on her shoulders, whirling her around. Her hose was wrenched from her mouth.
She struggled fiercely in a blind panic. The arms holding her were like iron bars. She tried to scream, but the sound was swallowed by the water rushing into her lungs.
The amazing thing was that, as she weakened, she felt a strange sense of peace. She was being murdered; she knew that. She didn’t know by who—or why. But she knew that she couldn’t fight. Stars burst in front of her eyes and cold surrounded her. Cold. In Florida. It was ironic.
Darkness claimed her.
*
Hannah woke early. When she saw that it was only six-thirty, she ordered herself to close her eyes.
She drifted off again into a restless sleep.
She didn’t really dream. She simply saw faces, as if they were emerging from a fog. She saw Stuart and Shelly, then Liam and Bentley Holloway. He was watching gravely, as he had been in the alley yesterday morning. Then Valeriya Dimitri’s face appeared before her, pale and haggard. She saw Katie O’Hara, her eyes serious and her head cocked as if she were listening. And then...
Then she saw the dead man. Jose Rodriguez. Saw his eyes as he stared at her.
And she remembered the things he had said.
She woke with a start, thinking she had just drifted off for a few minutes. She was shocked to see that the bedside clock read 10:35 a.m.
She leaped out of bed and flew toward the shower. Within a few minutes she was dressed in a cool halter dress and sandals, and hurrying down the stairs. There was no sign of Dallas in her parlor or the entertainment room in the back, but when she reached the kitchen, she found him.
He’d made coffee, and apparently he’d put breakfast together, too. She saw a plate sitting in the microwave.
He was sitting at the butcher block table and watching the television intently. His expression warned her something was wrong.
“What’s happened?” she asked.
She moved to stand beside him, her eyes on the TV screen. The newscaster was talking about the safety record of a certain divemaster, who had never been involved in so much as a minor accident before.
But one of their divers from earlier that morning was missing. Police divers were searching for her even now.
A chill settled over Hannah as she asked, “Who...?”
“Yerby Catalano,” he said, turning to meet her eyes. “And I guarantee you that what happened wasn’t an accident. And they aren’t going to find Yerby—at least, not alive.”
8
Dallas Samson was on his feet quickly. “Come on,” he told Hannah.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“I’m going to join the police dive. I’m dropping you at the station for your own protection.”
“No, you’re not,” she said firmly. She was amazed at the strength in her voice. But if there was one thing she didn’t want to do, it was sit around doing nothing and waiting.
Dallas stared at her, shocked. He drew a deep breath. “Yes, I am. Don’t you get it? Yerby is dead. You have to stay where you’ll be safe.”
“Fine. Let me go with you. I’m an expert diver. I even fill in for friends as divemaster sometimes.”
Dallas stared at her in wordless frustration.
“I can help. I’m willing to bet Liam is already out there. I’ll stick with you like glue.”
“Even if I were willing to take you with me, Hannah, it’s not my call. You’d have to be cleared by the police, and let’s face it, you may be a great diver but the police have a whole team of great divers who are trained to handle weapons and work in teams and—”
“Liam will okay me to dive. You’ll see. And he’s in charge, not you. There’s no way in hell they’ll consider this a Federal situation.”
She was right, and she could tell he knew it. Though whether Liam would concede to her demands or not, she didn’t know.
“You must have a death wish,” he told her.
“I’ll be with you—how could I possibly be safer?”
“I never claimed to be Superman,” he said. “You’d be safest sitting in a police station.”
“But I want to help,” she said.
“I’m out of here in two minutes,” he warned her.
“I can get my gear in one and a half.”
She raced upstairs, shed her dress, scrambled into a bathing suit and raced back down. He followed her as she headed outside to the old carriage house, now a garage, for her equipment. Her bag had wheels, and she rolled it out before he could even follow her in.
It took them less than three minutes to reach the wharf, where the officer on duty quickly informed them that Liam was already out on the reef. Hannah was afraid Dallas would consider that a victory and refuse to let her come. But apparently he wasn’t going to argue anymore. There was a Coast Guard vessel on hand, and Dallas quickly commandeered it. Hannah had a feeling that the captain had been hovering, hoping to be of assistance.