Dangerous Waters Read Online Free PDF Page B

dry suits. He wasn’t going anywhere near O’Malley’s or any other damn place where he’d be interrogated by the natives. He needed to figure out how Thom’s old dive knife had ended up hilt deep in the body of that diver. And he needed to make sure no one else knew about it.

    “Any clues as to the identity of our vic?”
    Holly shook her head as she handed her underwater camera over to Cpl. Steffie Billings, the exhibit custodian for the command group that had been set up to investigate this murder. She’d worked with Steffie in Chilliwack years ago, and they’d been close friends ever since. She was looking forward to working with the no-nonsense blonde again. “Download these, will you? There’s a timestamp on them. You got the eyeball?”
    “I did.” Steffie gave her an arch look over her spectacles. “Thank you for that.”
    Holly grinned. “Sorry. We couldn’t exactly leave it floating around being nibbled on by baitfish—”
    “Too much information.” Steffie held up her hand. “I’ll get to see all the gory details during the postmortem, so I really don’t need to hear about it now.” She gave a shudder. “Floaters are always the worst. Well, except for children.” She stopped talking for a moment and they both paused. Certain aspects of their job made grim look like sunshine. The only thing that made it worthwhile was incarcerating bad guys so they didn’t hurt anyone again.
    “I passed the eyeball on to the guys from forensic identification.” She pointed to one side of the room where three IFIS guys were unpacking an array of machines and tubes. One had the sample jar next to some monitor. “They drove in from Port Alberni. Said the road’s a bitch.”
    Holly’s lips tightened. Nothing she could do about the road or the location, but it made everything more complicated. Most officers had flown in from Victoria via Comox. She hadn’t even made it into headquarters to start her new job. But she relished the chance to prove herself, and this was exactly the sort of case to do it.
    “You gonna be OK with you-know-who?” Steffie asked.
    Steffie was one of two friends Holly had confided in about her affair with the rat bastard. Right now she was wishing she’d kept her mouth shut. “Everything will be fine.” She lowered her voice. “Especially when he goes home and leaves us to do our jobs.”
    The sheer number of personnel was making it difficult to move around the ship. Most would leave as soon as the body and evidence were recovered.
    On deck they had a coroner from the BC Coroners Service, plus two of his assistants. None of them were divers, so they were in deep discussion with members of the Underwater Recovery Team, who hung over the rail, waiting for their teammates to surface. She’d spoken to the pathologist, given him details about the condition of the body, substrate, temperature, and depth. Passed on the name of the prof at the university who might be willing to consult on the case. Now they just had to raise the body. The main fear was if the abdominal gases hadn’t already dissipated, they might expand and…well, it wouldn’t be pretty.
    There were three officers from the Nadon , one of the boats that acted as mobile police cruisers along this coast, operated by the West Coast Marine Service. Coast Guard people wandered about, but none in what she was thinking of as the incident room. The command group who’d be investigating the crime consisted of herself, Steffie Billings, four other investigators from the major crimes unit, plus their team commander.
    She squared her shoulders. She could do this.
    The job of team commander was more manager than investigator, in charge of staffing levels, overtime, special expenditures, etc. Cases like this were hardest on the budget, which put everyone under added duress. Furlong also liaised with head honchos, and with a bit of luck, he’d head back to the mainland just as soon as the body was recovered.
    Her braided hair