Death By Blue Water (A Hayden Kent Mystery Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

around the wheelhouse to Hayden’s vantage point, he came over to the window and handed her the camera, indicating she was to take photos from her view. As she lifted the camera a loud bong sounded. The camera slipped from her grasp. She watched in horror as it floated to the deck below. She dove down frantically trying to recover it before it lodged some place that she couldn’t reach. Paul shot out of the window after her and, lithe as an eel, sped past her and grabbed the camera before it fell into one of the smaller holds. He scowled at her and swam past to finish the photos.
    The goliath grouper, missing when they first swam down to the wreck, now had his head in the wheelhouse door again. He seemed upset at the human intrusion and he bonged as they reached the window. For a brief, disoriented, moment, Hayden thought he was trying to tell them something. Maybe how the man got here. She stared at the anchor again and tried to imagine how it might have gotten in the middle of the wheelhouse. She could understand the distance between anchor and body, but not how it lodged in the wheelhouse. Hayden shook her head. It didn’t make sense. The anchor should fall to the sand. There was no way it could bounce in from the rail and drag the man. She shuddered, thinking of the horror of his last moments. Unable to free himself, and unable to breathe. She glanced at the roof of the wheelhouse. Much to her amazement, there was a large hole.
    She looked down again. The way the body was snugged up under the window seemed odd. Almost as if he was placed there. Was it possible someone swam the man and anchor down? Or had the anchor crashed through the roof of the wheelhouse dragging the man behind it? The current could have rolled the victim under the window.
    Hayden drew a deep breath and choked. Somehow water had encroached into her regulator. She tried again, breathing more shallowly this time. More water entered her mouth, she tasted the salty brine and spit it back into her regulator. Confused at the problem, Hayden breathed a prayer of thanks that the rules had changed to require every diver have two regulators. She grabbed for her reserve and switched it for the one in her mouth. Before she took a breath, a light tap on her shoulder startled her. Hayden spun on fins to find Paul hovering behind her. He flashed her a questioning okay sign.
    Before she responded, Hayden again tried a shallow breath. True to her training, she’d been softly exhaling the entire time she dealt with the regulator problem. Her lungs felt flat now and she badly needed a breath. Carefully inhaling, water again filled her mouth. She drew her hand back and forth across the front of her neck indicating no air.
    Paul reacted immediately. Grabbing and purging his second regulator, he pulled hers from her mouth and shoved his in its place. Grateful, she gulped in a deep breath and held up her defective regulator for inspection.
    Unable to find a problem, she looked up to see Paul motioning her to the surface. He hadn’t attempted to recover or move the body. Now, with her tethered to him, there was no way he’d want to risk using the additional air if he intended to bring the body up with him. Hayden shook her head. She must be more rattled than she thought. Of course he wasn’t going to drag a dead man up. They must have a protocol for this.
    Remembering the skeleton, and that she hadn’t seen it, Hayden indicated she wanted to take a last look at the body. Through his facemask Paul’s eyes widened in question. Taking the risk that he wouldn’t abandon her, she knifed her body downward and turned back for the wheelhouse. Trapped by their mutual life support system, she felt Paul’s body as he swam alongside her.
    Gently she pulled both of them into the window. The skeleton lay beneath the body.
    She wasn’t nuts. Or narked.
    Paul wrapped an arm around Hayden and swam to the ascent line. He grabbed on with one hand and took her elbow in his other. Now