Page 102 of Hard Luck (Blackstone House)

“Give me a minute.”

I ditched my tank, BCD, and fins above the waterline and took stock of my surroundings. The island was barely worthy of the title. Glorified sandbar was more like it. We had no food, no freshwater, and no shelter. Maybe we could catch something to eat, but with nothing but saltwater to drink, we’d die in a couple of days anyway unless it rained. I’d checked the forecast over breakfast this morning, and we were shit out of luck there.

“Wait, do you think they’ll come back?” Cole asked. “What if there was an emergency? A medical problem? Dr. Blaylock had a heart bypass before his ear problems started.”

“They won’t come back.”

Not after they’d abandoned two people underwater to die. There were two possible scenarios—either a third party had taken the Blaylock party hostage and stolen theCrosswind, or someone already on board had hijacked the boat. My thoughts immediately went to Witt. Not only was he the biggest asshole on the trip, but I also couldn’t see him getting overpowered by the others, not unless there was a weapon in play. And I’d searched their luggage pretty thoroughly the day we set out.

Had we heard two boats or one? With open-circuit scuba, breathing underwater led to a constant gurgle of airbubbles, so it was difficult to tell. But the noise had started suddenly. Loud, then grown quieter. If wannabe pirates were involved, there would have been a different pattern—quiet, loud, quiet.That motherfucker.

I explained my thoughts to Cole, and his anger turned to confusion.

“No way. Dr. Blaylock would never steal theCrosswind. He’s one of those salt-of-the-earth guys, and if he wanted a boat, he has enough money to buy one. He just prefers to rent because he surveys in a bunch of different areas, and he doesn’t want the hassle of the upkeep.”

“So he says.”

“I’ve known him for years. You’ve known him for less than three weeks.”

“A fair point, but I wasn’t thinking of him anyway. My concern is Witt.”

“Witt?”

“How well do you know him?”

“About as well as you know Dr. Blaylock, but he’s a good friend of Clint’s.”

“Clint is another question mark.”

“He’s Dr. Blaylock’sson.”

“Stepson. And from what I can gather, the divorce wasn’t amicable.”

Cole walked away, tearing a hand through his hair, but he didn’t get six steps before he whirled back around.

“This is insane.”

“Do you have a better explanation?”

He opened his mouth. Closed it again. Then said, “If you’re right and Witt and Clint are behind this, what happened to Dr. Blaylock? And Jon?”

“Jon would have gone along with the plan—whatever the three of them are up to, they’re in it together. As for Dr. Blaylock…” I shrugged. “I can’t see a body floating around, so I guess that’s good news.”

“Damn, Bella. That’s cold.”

Oops.

“I must’ve used up all my tact in my day job.” That was kind of true. I mean, I hadn’t told Demelza to go fuck herself when she ordered me to take a vacation. “I’m actually worried about Dr. Blaylock.”

“Why on earth would they do this? Why would they take my boat?”

“I have a theory about that, and it has to do with conchs.”

“Conchs?”

I laid out the details, from the pearls to the journal page I’d seen. “Witt didn’t seem happy that I looked at the journal, which was an odd reaction because it was fairly innocuous. Just notes about sea creatures.”

“You think they’re hunting for conch pearls?”

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