Page 12 of A Lethal Betrayal

“Okay, Chief Landry, let’s go over there and chat.” She turned and walked over to the other side of the deck. They stood in the bright sunshine. She had her hat on, so she was okay. Landry was going to have to sweat it out. There was no more real shade on deck, and she wasn’t going to go inside to find a room to do the interviews in.

She made a notation of his name, the date, and the time on her notepad. “So why don’t you start at the beginning? Who first noticed the boat?”

“I did,” he said.

His voice was deep and sexy. She had a momentary vision of him with a lot less clothing on before she managed to corral her thoughts.

She cleared her throat. “And what time was that?”

“Oh-five-thirty.”

Mac looked up. “What were you doing out here at that hour?”

A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Practicing. We were running boarding drills on a container ship.”

She glanced around. “Where is that ship now?”

“At the port. The captain is a friend of…someone back at base, and he lets us, and other groups, practice certain drills while they wait to dock. This was our first time using this particular ship.”

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous? For the crew of the container ship, I mean?”

The smirk was back. “Weapons aren’t loaded, ma’am.”

Well, that was interesting. She made a note to ask Maddox if he knew who the friend was, and she needed the name of the captain and the ship.

“So you noticed the speed boat at oh-five-thirty when you got out here?” At his nod, she continued. “And when did you become concerned about it?”

He paused, his blue eyes searching hers for something; she wasn’t sure what.

“I noted it first thing this morning, and when we finally finished at oh-ten-thirty, or thereabouts, I pointed it out to Cain…that is, Senior Chief Maddox. I explained I hadn’t seen a soul on board since we’d gotten here, and the dive flag had been out the whole time.”

“What did Maddox say?”

“He agreed it was strange, so we checked it out.”

She wrote everything down and then asked, “Did you recognize the boat?”

Again, he paused. “Not at that time.”

Her head came up. “Not at that time… Does that mean you recognized it later?” She pinned her stare to his face.

Landry nodded once.

Interesting.“Could you elaborate?”

He caught her gaze in his. “Later, I recognized the boat. After I’d searched it and then went into the water.”

There was more to this story. She could feel it. “Why don’t you just start at the beginning and tell me what happened, okay?”

Landry stood in the hot sunshine and looked down at her. His face went blank as he started his account. “We pulled alongside, and I boarded the speedboat. I called out I was Coast Guard, but no one responded. I looked around, and checked out the cabin, but when it was empty, I went back to our boat. I discussed it with my commanding officer, and it was decided I should get in the water and see if I could see anything.

“I stripped down to my uniform pants and dove in. It was hard to see, and I didn’t have the proper equipment. When I surfaced, I reported there was a shadow by the anchor chain, but I couldn’t make out what it was. Chief Petty Officer Jace Beckett jumped on board the speedboat and searched for a mask to help me. He called over Senior Chief Maddox to show him something.

“I waited in the water, and then they announced they’d found blood and drugs of some kind. The Senior Chief called for some help from theWally.I got out of the water and was sitting on deck, drying off, when it occurred to me why the boat was familiar. I’d seen a picture of it in the locker of the man who owned it. I—”

“Wait, you’d seen it in Owens’s locker?” A small ripple of unease passed over her. She didn’t believe in coincidences.

“Owens and I used to be on the same MRST team before I was injured and moved to this team.”

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