Chapter 25
By midmorning, they reached the coordinates from where the Amanda Jae’s distress signal had been sent and spent the next two hours searching the bottom with the sonar to find the yacht.
The current in the area had been strong enough to take the Amanda Jae nearly a half mile from where it had gone under before it hit bottom. It was resting at a depth of a hundred and fifty meters.
On one of the control room cameras, Stone and the others watched the cargo crane swing Bruce over the side of the vessel and set the ROV into the water.
Jerry’s voice came over the main speaker. “Ready to release.”
Sam checked one of her monitors, then said, “Cleared for release.”
The ROV detached from the crane and began its descent, trailing the electronics umbilical cord that kept it tethered to the Minerva.
“How long will it take to get to the bottom?” Stone asked.
“At this depth, it should only take a few minutes,” Josie said.
“Five, tops,” Sam interjected without looking away from her screen.
Three of the large monitors on the port-side wall showed feeds from Bruce’s cameras, but there was little to see. The clear water soon became murky as the ROV descended to depths the sun’s rays had a harder time reaching.
Sam called off the depth in intervals of ten meters until Bruce hit the one hundred and twenty mark. From there, she switched to every five meters.
Just after she announced one hundred and forty-five meters, she said, “Leveling off.”
A shape appeared in the watery twilight.
“Is that it?” Stone asked.
Sam tapped her keyboard, and Bruce’s lights flared to life, revealing a rock protruding from the seabed.
“The yacht’s twenty meters east,” she said.
“It’s best not to come down right on top of a shipwreck,” Josie explained. “We don’t want to get the umbilical tangled in anything sticking up off the ship that the sonar didn’t catch.”
The ROV glided over the seabed, sending fish scurrying out of the way. Within a minute, a new shape loomed in the distance.
As Bruce neared it, the mass resolved itself into the stern of the Amanda Jae. The yacht was leaning against a rock formation and looked oddly serene.
Sam stopped the ROV a few meters away and glanced at Josie. “Which direction?”
“Let’s start with a pass over the top,” Josie told her.
“You got it.”
The center wall monitor switched to a feed from a downward-facing camera, then Sam guided Bruce over the wreck.
The terraced decks at the rear came into view first. Everything that had been on them appeared to have been swept away. The only exception was a lounge chair entangled in a rope, which hung over the edge of the upper deck, like it was caught in the act of escape.
The radar and antennas perched on the top of the yacht had survived mostly intact. Bruce continued on until it reached the bow, where Sam stopped it again.
“Anyone see anything of interest?” Josie asked.
“I didn’t,” Stone said.
“Me, either,” Dino agreed.
“Same,” Commander Choi said. “Can we get a look into the bridge?”
“Sam?” Josie asked.
“Piece of cake,” Sam said.
She moved Bruce to one of the large windows looking into the bridge. Stone thought the room was empty until he caught sight of something moving at the edge of the screen.
“Can you go farther to port?” he asked.
Sam nodded and guided Bruce to the new position.
“How close to the window can you get?” Stone asked.
“I can touch it if you want,” Sam said.
“As close as you can get without doing that should be fine.”
Again, the ROV moved.
As it neared, a leg came into view, followed by the rest of a male body.
“He’s wearing a uniform,” Dino said.
Stone nodded. “I think that’s the captain.”
“What’s that on his forehead?” Dino asked.
Both he and Stone leaned forward as if that would bring clarity.
“I can zoom in, if you want,” Sam said.
“Please,” Stone said.
“The body’s been in the water for a while,” Josie said. “I doubt the face will be recog—” Josie’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God. Is that…?”
“A bullet hole?” Stone said. “That’s what it looks like to me.”
In the center of the captain’s forehead was the unmistakable entry wound of a gunshot.
“Commander Choi,” Dino said. “I think your accident has just turned into a crime scene.”
“Well, shit,” Choi muttered, then seemed to realize what she’d said. “I think you’re right, Commissioner.”
For the next twenty minutes, they looked through other windows but found nothing that would help explain what had happened on the bridge, nor did they see any other bodies.
“Let’s look at the hull,” Josie said.
It only took a few minutes before Sam said, “I think we found the reason why the Amanda Jae sank.”
On the monitor was a section of the hull through which a square hole had been cut.
Sam moved Bruce close to it. The hole appeared to be just a little smaller than the ROV.
“The edges look melted,” Dino said.
“Can you point the light inside?” Stone asked.
The light swiveled from the edge of the hole to the interior. The yacht had been built with a double hull, meaning a hull within a hull, to provide extra safety. That safety had been negated by the fact that the inner hull had also been burned through.
“What the hell could do that?” Josie asked.
“A welding torch?” Choi suggested.
“Maybe for the inner hull,” Stone said. “But if someone tried that on the outer, water would have poured in as soon as the torch punched through. They wouldn’t have been able to finish.”
“I wasn’t thinking welding torch,” Dino said.
They all turned to him.
“I take it you’ve seen something similar,” Stone said.
Dino nodded. “On a robbery, five or six years ago. The thieves used this special type of incendiary cord to cut through a metal door. The yacht’s not metal, but the edges looked similar.
My guess would be that the cord was put in place days before it was activated.
Then someone used a remote controller to set it off. ”
“Whoever that was had to be on or near the yacht,” Stone said.
“Because of what happened to the captain?” Josie asked.
“That, and there was no cell signal that far out at sea, so it couldn’t have been triggered that way. And since the device was inside the ship, below the waterline, using a satellite phone likely wouldn’t have worked, either. Whoever set it off had to be close.”
“I agree,” Dino said.
“But who would do something like this?” Josie asks.
“It’s not just who did it,” Stone said, “but also who’s behind it. It might not be the same person.”
“I hadn’t even thought of that.”
“My money is on not the same,” Dino said. “Knowing where to obtain the proper incendiary cord and how to set it up with a remote is not a skill most people possess.”
“Nor is shooting someone in the center of the forehead,” Stone said.
“Exactly. Which to me means he or she was likely a pro hired for the job.”
“Then who did the hiring?” Josie asked.
“It’s usually the person who gains the most from the incident,” Dino said.
“Like from insurance on the yacht?”
“I think the sinking was just a cover for the real crime,” Choi said.
Dino smiled at her, impressed. “Come see me when you get out of the Coast Guard. The NYPD can use smart people like you.”
“Then what’s the real crime?” Josie asked. “Killing the captain?”
“That could be it,” Stone said. “But the captain wasn’t the only one who died.”
“Trenton Sidney,” Choi said.
Stone nodded. “That would be my assumption.”
“Did his autopsy turn up anything abnormal?” Dino asked.
“There wasn’t one, per the family’s request. We probably should have pushed, but it seemed obvious he’d drowned.” Choi paused, then added, “We did find that he had a head injury. Like he bumped into something before he fell into the water.”
“Or someone knocked him unconscious?” Dino asked.
Choi grimaced. “In view of this new evidence, that seems more likely, doesn’t it?”
“It does.”
“I suggest you request an exhumation of the body, so an ME can take a proper look,” Dino said.
“Not possible,” Stone said. “Trenton was cremated.”
“How convenient.”
“Stone,” Josie said, “didn’t you just oversee the reading of Trenton’s will?”
“I did.”
“Then wouldn’t the people he left his estate to benefited from his death?”
“Very much so.”
“I’m going to need to know who those people are,” Choi said.
“Not a problem,” Stone said. Ash had submitted Trenton’s will to the court on Friday, which made the information of those named part of the public record.
“Thank you.”
“I have another question,” Josie said. “Sorry, it’s the documentarian in me.”
“Don’t apologize,” Stone told her. “Fire away.”
“If the person who did the dirty work was hiding on the boat, how did they get on in the first place and then get off again once they’d ensured its sinking?”
“Good question. One way would have been to sneak on, but I doubt they did that. Too much of a chance of being discovered.”
“If it were me, I would have gotten hired on as crew,” Dino said.
“That’s much more plausible,” Stone agreed.
“How many of the crew survived?”
“Three,” Choi said. “Four total survivors, counting Mr. Barrington.”
“I can safely say I had nothing to do with it,” Stone said.
“Do you have any witnesses that can verify that?” Dino asks.
“Dino, I thought you were my friend.”
“I am your friend. And I promise to visit you in prison at least once year, unless I’m busy.”
“How very kind of you. But what would have been my motive? I wasn’t named in the will, and Trenton was a friend.”
Dino thought about it for a moment, then said, “All right, you’re tentatively off the suspect list.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“What about the other three survivors?” Josie asked.
Stone thought for a moment. “Could be, but it could also be one of the crew members still listed as missing. A real pro would have a plan that would not only let them survive but also keep them from being discovered even if the truth about the wreck was found out.”
“I think you might be right,” Choi said.
“Um, excuse me,” Sam said.
They all turned to her.
“All this Law & Order talk is interesting, but is there anything else you want to see? Or are we done here?”
“Sorry, Sam,” Josie said. She looked at Stone and raised an eyebrow.
“Everything’s been recorded?” Stone asked.
“Since the moment Bruce hit the water.”
“Then unless anyone thinks otherwise, I believe we’re done.”
There were no objections.