Page 75 of In the Arms of a Hero

“I’m not sure.”

“Honey, you’re worrying me.”

Ivy spoke up to fill the empty space left when Belinda couldn’t seem to get the words out. “Guys, we found something in the photos Belinda took that might be important.”

Aaron whipped his head around to stare at Belinda again after seeing the lip-chewing, scrunched-nose expression on Ivy’s face.

“What the fuck? Show me,” he ordered, more harshly than he meant. Seeing her wince, he immediately scooted closer. “I’m sorry. Please, show us what you think you found.”

She still balanced his laptop on her knees and glanced at his small dining table. “Let’s take it over there so that we can all look at the same time,” she said.

He gently lifted the laptop from her as he stood and offered a hand to assist her. Keeping his fingers linked with hers, he walked over to his dining table and set the laptop in front of one of the chairs. She eased herself into the chair, and he grabbed the other one and slid it close. Looking over his shoulder, he said, “Ivy?”

She shook her head and said, “No, you sit there. You need to be close. Andy and I will stand right behind and look over your shoulders.”

He was once again thankful for his sister-in-law’s kindness. Sliding into the seat, he scooted it until it touched Belinda’s chair, and with one hand around her shoulders, he leaned in closely. Their heads were only a few inches apart as they stared at the screen. His heart was pounding, unable to imagine what she found that Hunter and Brad had not.

“I went back to when you and I were at Kiptopeke Park?—”

“The guys at work had just started on those pictures today. What did you find?”

“At first, I was just looking at the pictures I had taken of you and me. I actually took more than I thought, and I wasn’t thinking about anything else. But then I kept going back earlier in the morning before I saw you?—”

“Hunter and Brad are getting to those first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Well, I had a chance to look at them today. I arrived at the park just before sunrise. I wanted to get those pre-dawn photographs over the bay of the water birds, the beach, and even the concrete ship breakers. Ivy and I were looking at them because I took so many more than I remembered. I just kept clicking because I wanted to have every possible choice of getting just the right photograph for my new website.”

She held his gaze, and it was all he could do to keep from urging her to show him what she found. But he knew what shesaid was important, so he focused on what she was trying to tell him.Early morning. Pre-dawn. The sun just rising.Nodding, he said, “Okay, I get that. You’re telling me the light wasn’t very strong, right?”

She nodded and then turned her gaze back to the laptop screen, using her right hand to scroll through the pictures. When she found the one she was looking for, she said, “Start looking here.”

He instantly discerned what she was talking about. Just a hint of light was breaking across the sky, the concrete ships creating a dark shadow in the bay. He felt Andy lean down closer and was glad his brother’s eyes were also on the screen. She continued to scroll, and he reveled in the beautiful photography for a second. The dawn stretched across the bay, beginning to illuminate the beach, the water, and then the breakers. He stared but could see nothing untoward in any of the pictures.

“Here is where you’re going to start seeing what we saw,” Belinda said. She pointed at the right side of the photograph, at the edge of the last breaker.

Aaron continued to stare as she slowly clicked through the pictures. Almost like a slow-motion movie, he could see the edge of a small boat peeking behind the shadow of the last ship. It came into view just enough for him to see two men.

“At first, we thought they might be fishing,” Ivy said.

Belinda added, “We were just talking about how people could go straight up to the ships, and we assumed they were probably sightseeing or fishing. Then here, as you can see, they’re lifting something to put into the water.”

“I told her it wasn’t like any crab pot I've ever seen,” Ivy added.

As Belinda continued to click through several pictures, Aaron placed his hand on her right hand to stop her scrolling, and heleaned in closely to the screen. Andy’s head came between them, and he stared, too. “Can you enlarge this?” he asked.

Belinda nodded, and with a few clicks of her hand, the image was enlarged.

Definitely two men, one facing away and one still in shadows. But they were maneuvering something heavy, long, and unwieldy overboard. It was dumped right at the edge of the last breaker on the right and sank quickly. Taking over the laptop mouse pad, he clicked the next few pictures and could see the two men were facing each other. Then one lifted his gaze and stared straight toward the camera, although the shadows still blurred his features.

“Fuck,” he whispered his curse, hearing the same word emitted from Andy.

“He sees her,” Andy said.

As much as Aaron wanted to deny that this man could see someone taking his picture, Aaron was too good an investigator to deny the possibility. The man facing away turned slightly but then continued staring out toward the bay with his back to the shore as Belinda continued taking photographs. But the man who had stared at her for so long finally looked down, and the boat moved away from the shore and then headed north.

Sitting back, he scrubbed his hand over his face and sighed.

“It’s important, isn’t it?” Belinda whispered.

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