Chapter 22
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“W hat difference does it make if you know where north is if you don’t have a clue where the spot you’re shooting for is to begin with?” Brynn asked in frustration.
He had never seen her irritable like this. Not irritable but truly upset. The hand that held the compass was shaking. “Look at your compass, Brynn. It will find north, no matter where you’re standing. If you want to go south, you move away from the north reading. If you want to go east, you face north, then to the right will be east, and to the left will be west.” He caught her arm. “You can do this. We took a bearing on where we started. We just need to get back to that bearing.”
“I hate being lost. That’s why I use my GPS when I go anywhere.” She looked down the street as though she’d never seen the houses they’d just passed.
Something occurred to him, and he caught her elbow. “Let’s sit down for a minute.” He directed her to a grassy patch between the road and the sidewalk. He waited for her to settle. After several minutes of silence, he asked, “Did you get lost on the mountain when you were attacked?”
She remained silent for a moment. “I had a concussion, and I was dizzy and sick. I could barely walk. I knew I needed help, but I kept staggering off the path. It was dark, and I was afraid I’d never find my way down. After I got out of the hospital, I was anxious every time I left my apartment. I’d get confused about directions. Even to places I knew. I still do. And I was anxious about being exposed and alone.”
“And you drove all the way across the country…alone.”
“With my GPS.”
She had joked about being directionally challenged when they’d first begun her training, but it was so much more.
He drew in a deep breath and put an arm around her. She was a fighter, and she was strong. This was just a small glitch, more emotional than intellectual, he was certain of it. And not worth the stress he was putting her through. “We use GPS in the field, too, but I keep a compass as a backup. But if you don’t want to learn how to use one, it’s okay.”
“You think I’m wimping out?” Her dark, sherry eyes searched his face.
“No, it was just a game, Brynn. Not anything that important.”
The muscles in her back relaxed. “How far away from your house are we?”
“Probably about six or seven blocks.”
“I’d like to try to make it back to your house from here.”
“Okay.” He got to his feet and offered her a hand.
She turned back the way they had walked. She scanned the area as she walked past the houses. He suddenly realized she was looking for landmarks, but she was also looking for threats. The realization triggered his rage toward Chad Gillespie. He swallowed it back and concentrated on her. “You’re doing great, Brynn.”
She started to turn down one of the side streets but paused. Looking down at the compass, she moved on up the street. He smiled.
When she reached his street and turned to go up the block, relief rushed through him. Before long, they stood in front of his house, and she said, “It wasn’t just a game, was it?”
He drew a breath. “No, you have to use a compass underwater to keep your bearings so you don’t get lost. You radiate out from a fixed point and then back again. You’ll have a backup team with you on your dive, but you’ll need to be your own backup, just in case.” He didn’t even want to go into her being in the southern hemisphere and how the compass would be calibrated differently. Or that dive compasses were a little different. One step at a time.
“Can we go again?” she asked.
“How ’bout we go to the park where we first met, and we’ll practice there?”
He was relieved when a brief smile peaked out. “Okay.”
“One minute. I’ll get my car keys and wallet.” He jogged to the front door, unlocked it, and went inside. He was smiling before he ever got to his bedroom. He opened the top drawer of the dresser and withdrew a small rectangular box. He didn’t know why he’d saved all the flotsam from his childhood years, but he had the perfect thing for Brynn.
He returned to the front yard with the car keys in hand. She’d moved to the car. He hit the unlock button on the fob, and she opened the door to get in. Once they were in the car, he paused before starting the engine.
“I have something for you.” He reached for her hand and slid a ring on her finger.
She looked down at the ring, studied the plastic dome-shaped setting, and laughed.
“I thought you could use a reward for making it back to the house.”
She laughed. “How long have you had this?”
“Since fourth grade. It’s adjustable.”
She laughed. “You were a cub scout?”
“Yeah. My dad was our troop leader. He handed them out to the pack when we did the compass training. He was big into hunting and camping and didn’t want any of us to get lost in the woods.”
The smile still lingered on her lips. “Thank you, Tucker. I’ll take good care of it.”
*
Morning came too quickly. It felt strange to pack her bag and load her camera and computer. She kissed Tucker goodbye, which sparked more than she had time for. As she headed down the coast to the next shoot she’d scheduled, she glanced at her flushed face in the rearview mirror and grinned. A real estate office had hired her to do a spread on one of the large mansions along the coast they’d just put on the market. She spent two hours at the mansion the real estate office had hired her to photograph, downloaded the pictures onto her laptop on site to view them, and then forwarded them to the office for their okay. Twenty minutes after sending the images, she received her payment online and was on her way home.
Once there, Brynn sat at the desk and printed off the photo order Liam Bryant had sent her. The suspicion that he might be a part of whatever business was being conducted on the Titan had tainted her feelings toward him. It was hard not to believe he didn’t have some kind of connection to the Titan or that he wasn’t aware of what the men were doing.
Once she delivered the photos, her business with him would be concluded. She’d be relieved to put their association behind her.
She slid the large photos into a twelve-by-eighteen box and secured the lid with tape. She also secured the itemized receipt with the final tally for the work she’d done for him on the lid. It was a large order that would pay her rent for the month and then some.
She moved on to print out the pictures of the cabin cruiser and the two men on board with the woman. She studied the shots. Why had they come so close to shore? Every time she looked at the pictures, it triggered feelings she’d tried hard to leave behind.
She hoped Ahmad was keeping his distance and staying safe. She intended to do so as soon as she delivered the pictures to Liam Bryant and got her check.
She studied the pictures she’d worked so hard to enlarge and sharpen. They might not be anything, but she felt they were. She’d drop them off at the police station on her way to Bryant’s. She slipped the photos into a manila envelope and sealed it.
She looked up the address for the police station and texted it to herself to program into her GPS in the car.
She paused to look at the compass ring Tucker had slipped on her finger. She needed to tell him what she’d done and what she planned to do with the photos. She scanned her recent calls and hit his temporary number. The call went to voice mail. She left a message that she’d recovered some photos of the Titan from her computer that were more incriminating and was going to the police station to drop them off.
She searched the web for information about the detective involved in the case so she’d know whose name to put on the front of the envelope, but she found no information.
She did find a phone number to report a crime or ask for information. Her hands trembled as she dialed the number.
“San Diego Police Department Hotline,” a female voice announced. “How can I help you?”
“Could you tell me the name of the detective who’s investigating the death of the drowning victim discovered on the beach eight days ago?”
“That would be Detective Javier Hernandez. Would you like to be connected to him?”
“No. I just needed his name. Thank you.”
After a moment’s thought, she printed off a copy of the news story and wrote the name of the cabin cruiser on it. Then she reached for a pad. She wrote that the events she had captured by accident might not have anything to do with what had happened to the woman, but that she’d felt compelled to share the pictures with him. She slipped the story and the note into the envelope with the pictures and sealed it.
She called Liam Bryant’s office to get the address, shut the computer, and gathered the packages.
Outside the police department, Brynn parked in one of the spaces just outside but rested her forehead on the steering wheel. Just the idea of walking into the lobby turned her stomach and had nausea rolling up her throat.
Dropping off the photos seemed the coward’s way out, but she couldn’t get involved. How many times had she gone over the facts of her attack? How many questions had she answered? Every interview had felt like another assault. If the detective found out who she was, he’d ask questions, even if the past had nothing to do with the pictures she’d taken. She couldn’t go through that again.
Plus, she wasn’t exactly a witness to the act. She’d just found something strange happening on a boat in one of her photos. She’d leave the pictures at the desk and go from there. With that plan in mind, she grabbed her sunglasses, shoved them on, and exited the car.
Though it looked nothing like the police station in Saranac, it had a similar heavy, cold atmosphere. Or was she just recalling the cloying smell of fear, despair, and anger that had lingered in every interview room she’d been in?
She approached the lobby’s reception area and stopped before the officer there. “This is for Detective Hernandez.”
The man reached for the envelope. “What does this pertain to?”
“He’ll know when he opens the envelope.”
She turned and walked away.
She was shaking as she got back in her car and had to sit for a few minutes until the tremors eased. Liam Bryant’s office was twenty minutes away. She drew deep breaths to calm herself, then started her car.
Liam Bryant’s office was in a large, glass-faced building downtown on the tenth floor. Exiting the brass-lined elevator, she saw that each floor had two offices. She approached the frosted glass door with Bryant Industries written in gray masculine script. The office was sleek and modern, the furniture matte black and blocky. She was surprised by the look because it was so completely different from the tasteful décor of the yacht.
She approached the receptionist, an attractive brunette about her age.
The woman smiled. “Can I help you?”
“I’m delivering these photographs Mr. Bryant ordered. I’ve attached an itemized statement for everything on the box.”
“Wait here, and I’ll take them in. I’m sure he’ll want to speak with you while he looks at them.”
She bit her lip. She’d hoped to collect her check and slip away. She had little time to prepare when Liam followed the receptionist out of his office and approached her.
“Do you have a minute? I have something I’d like to discuss with you.”
Though nerves snatched at her breathing, she forced a smile. “I have a few minutes.”
*
Tucker filed in behind the other three pallbearers. There were four on each side of the coffin and they practiced their slow march forward, synchronizing their movements. They’d be carrying the coffin to the chapel for the funeral, then accompanying it to the plane at the San Diego Airport to load it. It was a simple task, but… He didn’t want this for his family. He would make arrangements to have his body cremated so they wouldn’t have to go through this.
Thirty minutes later, he walked to his car but didn’t get in. Instead, he leaned back against the vehicle, pulled out the phone, and turned it back on. He’d had two messages, one from Denotti and one from Brynn. He listened to Brynn’s message first.
“I found some pictures of the cabin cruiser from the day of our first dive, some from the marina, the yacht, some from a day I did a shoot of the sea lions at Point La Jolla. I was able to clarify some of the images with some software. One of the pictures shows two men on board, and one shows a woman being shoved down onto the deck as one of the men strikes her.
“A woman’s body was found on the beach a few days after our dive. She fell overboard and drowned, but no one notified the Coast Guard or the police. I got the name of the detective in charge of the case from a Crime Stoppers number. I’m dropping the pictures off at the police department. After that, I’m going to drop off some photos with Liam Bryant, then head home.”
“Jesus!” Tucker breathed. Concern shot through him. He pushed Brynn’s number, but the call went to voice mail. He swore and got into the car. The burner phone wasn’t equipped to look anything up.
He called Denotti. “Are you home?” he asked as soon as he picked up.
“Yeah.”
“I need an address for a Liam Bryant. He’s a local entrepreneur. I need his business address.”
“Okay.” Half a second later, Denotti rattled off an address.
Tucker put the phone on speaker, got in the car, and started it.
“What’s going on?” Denotti asked.
“Do you remember Ahmad, the young kid who was our interpreter on board the boat in Saudi Arabia?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s in America now and works for Bryant. Brynn did a photo shoot for this Bryant guy, and Ahmad saw her there and asked her to pass his info on to me. Ahmad came to me and told me there was a possibility that one of Bryant’s guys is running a side job every time they go to Mexico, bringing back something illegal. He wanted to know what he should do. I told him to hunker down, keep his eyes open, and document everything he saw.”
He weaved through traffic as quickly as he could.
“Brynn and I were doing our first dive at La Jolla, and she took a picture. A cabin cruiser owned by Bryant was in the background of the picture. She did her magic on the photo and saw two men aboard the boat and one was punching a woman. A couple of weeks ago, we did our dive. The next day a woman’s body was found on the beach. She’d drowned. Brynn thinks the two events are connected. So, she took the pictures to the cops.”
“So that’s not all, is it?” Denotti asked.
“No. She’s been working for Bryant all this time, updating his website, taking photos of his yacht, and every time, this same cabin cruiser has been there. The men aboard have seen her taking photos and possibly know who she is. They were there the day when we were getting ready to dive. I think they may have been following her. When the cops start asking questions, and bring up the pictures, they’re going to know who turned the cops onto them.”
“Shit! Do you need me to meet you there?”
“I need you on standby, just in case. I’ve got to go.” He thumped the steering wheel when the car in front of him slowed to a crawl. With every moment, his anxiety for her rose.
Why couldn’t she have waited so he could go with her?
Because she was independent as hell and motivated to do things for herself, otherwise, she’d have never left Saranac. For once, he wished she was a little clingier.
A car cut him off, and he laid down on the horn. “Get the fuck out of the way.”
*
“You’ve done an amazing job on the slide show, Brynn. But these photographs are outstanding. You’re a talented young woman,” Bryant said as he spread the photos on his desk.
“Thank you, and I’m glad you’re pleased with the work. I just wanted to make sure you were satisfied with them before I took off for my next shoot.”
“Yes, I’m very satisfied. I’ll have Mira cut you a check for the photos and the other work right now. Why don’t you have a seat while I deal with that?”
“Okay.” It was going to be okay. He didn’t know she had photos of the Titan. Or that she had given them to the police.
As he exited the room, she moved to the end of the office to the windows to look out at the traffic below. She should have never come here alone.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and realized she’d missed a call from Tucker. She hit his name to call him back.
“Are you still at Bryant’s office?” he asked.
The office door opened, and Bryant stepped back into the room.
“Yes, I’m just delivering some photos, and I’ll be leaving in just a few minutes.”
“Are you okay?” Tucker asked.
“Yes,” she said but sounded a little nervous even to her own ears.
“I’m almost to his office now. I’ll be waiting for you downstairs.”
“Okay. See you soon.”
She smiled as she ended the call and slipped the phone back into her pocket.
“That’s my next appointment. They’re a little impatient.”
“I have your check right here,” Bryant said and held out an envelope.
Her stomach tightened as she walked across the room to take it. “Thank you.” Her fingertips gripped the envelope, and he released it.
“I have other businesses besides the yacht. That’s just a side interest. They all have websites, and I think I need a new eye to look at them for updates. It would be remote work, but you might have to do some photography to freshen things and give them some eye-catching pazazz like you did with the Aurora site.”
“You can send me the links, and I’ll be happy to look the sites over and give you some suggestions.” She forced a smile.
“I’ll do that.”
The intercom on the phone buzzed, and Bryant punched a button in it.
The receptionist’s voice came over the device. “Tim is here, Mr. Bryant.”
“Send him in, please.”
Brynn’s heart rate surged, and her stomach jittered.
Tim opened the door and sauntered in.
“I have to move on to my next shoot,” she said. “Send the links to my email, and I’ll see if there are any suggestions I can make. I’ll email you as soon as I’ve had an opportunity to look at them.”
“I’ll do that later today,” Bryant said.
Tim nodded to her. “Miss Barrington, it’s nice to see you again.”
“Thanks.” She forced another smile. “You, too.”
What would she do if he grabbed her? Drive her knee into his balls and run like hell. She moved around him and strode to the door.
By the time she got to the elevator, she was shaking.
The doors opened, and Tucker stood inside. She had only a moment to see him dressed in his uniform before she stepped in, and the doors closed behind her.
“Brynn.”
“Don’t say it. I know I should’ve gotten Jess to come with me or waited for you, but she was in class, and you were…busy. I wanted to end any connection with Bryant as soon as possible.” She folded the envelope in half, then again, and tucked it into her purse.
His silence and the flexing of his jaw didn’t bode well. He was so protective, something she’d never felt from her parents—only her brothers.
“We could be wrong about Bryant, Tucker. But Tim came in just as I was getting ready to leave, and that bothered me.” She drew a deep breath. “He was at the pub the other night when we ate dinner with Denotti and Ava. He just stood at the bar and watched us.”
“Jesus, Brynn. I saw a guy watching you but didn’t know it was him. You didn’t say anything.”
“All he did was watch, and you and Denotti were there. We were having such a nice time I didn’t want to say anything to ruin it.”
Why couldn’t she just have a normal life? She’d been trying to build one here in San Diego. She wanted to put down roots. Have a place she belonged.
The elevator door opened, and they stepped out.
“Where do you need to go from here?” he asked.
“Home. I have a few small things I need to finish.”
“I’m going to follow you there,” he announced as though he expected her to argue.
“Okay.”
“Where are you parked?” he asked.
“In the parking structure down the street.”
He matched his stride to hers. His silence weighed on her. He was angry, but he was keeping it tamped down. And that made it worse… He was right. She should have told him about the photos when she’d found them. She should have waited to deliver the others.
Despite the summer heat, the parking structure seemed damp and cold. Chill bumps raced along her arms, and she rubbed them. When she reached her car, she turned to face him. “I’m not used to having anyone to depend on, Tucker. I’m used to figuring things out for myself.”
His strong masculine features were taut with control. “You can be as independent as you want to be, Brynn. If you were helpless and submissive, I wouldn’t be dating you. But after everything Ahmad said the other night…you can’t take chances like this. He may be wrong, but what if he’s right?”
“I’ve been paid for my work. Bryant offered me more work, and I didn’t want to turn him down while he and Tim stood there, looking at me. I don’t want to have any more contact with Bryant or his employees. I thought it would be easier to say I didn’t have time on the phone rather than say it in the office.”
He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “Bryant knows where you live. By taking pictures of the Titan, you may have made them nervous. And you just dropped pictures off at the police station. What if Tim was following you when you made that stop?”
“They don’t know I dropped pictures off. I could’ve been there to pay a parking ticket.”
“They’ll know if the police start nosing around and mention they identified the boat and the men on board through pictures.”
“You don’t have to try and scare me, Tucker. I’m already aware of all of this. A woman is dead. I had to give them the pictures. I didn’t feel like I had a choice.”
He pulled her close. “I don’t want to scare you, Brynn. I want to protect you. But I can’t be with you every moment of the day, so I need you to be careful. I really admire that you’re trying to do the right thing, but part of me wishes your instinct for self-preservation had overruled your conscience.”
“Would yours have?” she asked.
She watched as frustration worked across his face. “In battle, yes, always. Survival is everything. In my personal life…I made a mistake, and I learned from it.”
She suddenly realized he was talking about the Marine and his adulterous wife. “I didn’t mean that, Tucker. I wasn’t thinking of that.”
He cut her off. “I’m parked down on the street. Drop me at my car, and I’ll follow you home.”
Regret bloomed inside her as he went around the car to get in, and she hit the button to unlock it. He got into the passenger seat, and she had no choice but to get behind the wheel.
“My car’s just down the block on the right.”
She started the car and backed out.