“The bouquet of roses this morning. You didn’t send them?”
“No. Must be another admirer.”
“I apologize. We don’t seem to be getting off to a good start. You’ve invited me for dinner at least twice, and I’ve canceled twice with short notice. I don’t mean to be rude. It’s just—”
Byard interrupted. “You’re not being rude, Kat. When we met, I thought there might have been a connection, but you’re here to do a job, and I was out of place. If I made you uncomfortable, I apologize. Have a good day. Enjoy the dive.”
Byard skipped past me up the steps. If it wasn’t Byard who had sent the flowers, then who was it?”
* * *
I arrived on the Marina Deck and found Antonio and Elli seated on the pool’s edge, dangling their legs in the water. Elli was in a tank suit like mine, and Antonio, looking like Michael Angelo’s David in board shorts with his broad shoulders and sculpted abs, sat next to a pile of scuba gear, a wetsuit, a tank, several masks, and fins.
“You nervous?” Antonio stood up and handed me a face mask. “I assume you know how to swim?”
“It’s not the swimming that worries me.” Finn’s warning rang in my ears. Bad things happen when Antonio’s around. But I didn’t let on. As long as I maintained my cover as a travel journalist on assignment, I figured I was safe. “It’s the open ocean. I have a fear of being some shark’s breakfast.”
“Don’t worry, we already fed them.”
Elli laughed. “He’s kidding, Kat. Besides, the water’s clear where we’re diving, and I’ll be with you.”
Elli helped me into the wetsuit and once fitted, I joined Antonio in the pool’s shallow end.
“The most important thing you need to know is don’t hold your breath.” I adjusted the facemask, and Antonio handed me the mouthpiece. “Slow and steady. Like a walk in the park.”
I can’t say Antonio’s diving instructions would qualify for any type of underwater certification, but he must have felt I passed his basic test. After swimming beneath the pool’s waters twice and feeling at ease with the tank on my back, the mask, and the air regulator, he declared me fit to go.
“We’ve got two groups of divers today. Neil arranged for a speed boat to tender us out to the dive area. Kat, you and Elli will come with me, along with Professor Braun, Doctor Johansson, and Marco.”
“Marco?” Elli rolled her eyes.
“He signed up last minute. He insisted he go with the first group. He said he wanted to be with the Doctor.”
Chapter Nineteen
The boat Antonio had arranged for us to tender to our dive spot was unlike any we had used to shuttle back and forth to the islands. Instead of a small speed boat, our dive team of six watched as Carlo, the toy boat’s skipper, rolled out an inflatable pontoon from the back of the Muse, inflated it, attached an outboard engine, then motored to Athena’s exit hatch.
Antonio threw the rope ladder down to Carlo and called for me. “Ladies first.”
I looked overboard. Carlo held the end of the ladder, trying to keep it steady as the pontoon bobbed in the water below. The wind had picked up, and the sea was choppy. My stomach lurched. The climb down was maybe five and a half feet, much steeper than the day before.
Antonio extended his hand. “Don’t worry, Kat. You’ve got this. Just hang tight to the rope. You’ll be fine.”
I wasn’t about to wuss out. Taking a deep breath, I took hold of the doorway, turned around, and, with a quick nod to Antonio, slipped one foot onto the weightless ladder as it swayed against Athena’s metal hull. Keeping my eyes level, my hands gripped to the rope ladder. I climbed one foot after the other down onto the pontoon. Elli followed along with Antonio and the rest of our team, Professor Braun, Doctor Johansson, and Marco, who appeared surprisingly nimble despite the climb down the ladder.
The pontoon was roomy enough for six plus our driver, but I worried as we bobbed in the water that we might sink when we loaded it with all our gear. Worst-case scenario, I figured as long as we stayed within sight of the bridge connecting Ischia to Aragonese Castle, I could swim to shore.
“Hey, Elli,” Chief Sullivan hollered from Athena’s open portal above us. “Sorry, kid, but I need to change places with you.”
“Great,” Elli whispered under her breath and stood up. “Sorry, Kat. Rank has its privileges. Have a good dive. We’ll catch up later.”
Like an obedient midshipman, Elli scampered up the ladder. Then Sully, half-dressed with the top half of his wetsuit hanging loosely around his thick waist, climbed down and sat beside me.
“Sorry to interfere, guys. But this is the only chance I have today to escape, and after last night, I need a break.”
“Don’t we all.” The Professor adjusted his swim mask on the top of his head. “After Oleg’s dive off the deck last night, it’s going to be a long time before Greta agrees to a drink up on the Lido Deck again.”
“Can’t say I blame her.” Antonio moved the bucket of swim gear he had lugged onboard to the center of the pontoon. “Thing is, I never would have pegged Oleg as suicidal. But then, you never know.”
“Maybe you didn’t, but I always thought Oleg might be a Russian spy. Probably knew too much about things he shouldn’t and decided it was better to take his own life than wait around for someone to do it for him.” Sully stretched the sleeves of his wetsuit over his shoulders and pulled the zipper up over his hairy belly.
Antonio handed me my mask. “Did you get a chance to talk with him, Kat?”
“Not really.” I dipped my mask over the side of the boat to clean the glass. I didn’t want to meet Antonio’s eyes for fear he’d see the doubt in my own. Or that I was beginning to harbor thoughts that Oleg’s death was no more accidental or suicidal than the previous captain’s death might have been and that it might somehow all be tied to Dede’s disappearance.
“Strange, I thought I saw the two of you talking the night of the Professor’s lecture.” Sully bumped his shoulder against my own.
“I wouldn’t call it a conversation. Oleg ran into me as I was leaving the Professor’s lecture. But we never really spoke.”
“That’s a shame.” Sully checked his waterproof watch as he spoke. “Oleg always had a story to tell. I’m sure you would have found him interesting. He was a big talker. Problem is, the man never knew when to shut up. Know what I mean?”
Antonio reached back into his dive bag and took out his mask. “Hey, let’s not speak ill of the dead. It’s a beautiful day for a dive. There’s no point in filling Kat’s head with things that don’t matter. Right, Kat?”
I smiled and didn’t answer. Carlo started the engine, and the water splashed onto us as the pontoon picked up speed across the cove toward our diving spot.
The Professor put his hand on my knee. I must have looked pale. “You going to be okay?”
“I’m fine. A little motion sickness, that’s all.” I wrapped my arms around my waist. It wasn’t motion sickness, but the sudden realization that I was the only woman onboard and headed out to sea with a group of men I knew nothing about until four days ago. Men who all knew each other. Men who knew Oleg and worried he might have spoken to me. And now, Oleg was dead, and I was alone at sea with six men who might have a lot to lose if they thought Oleg had told me something they didn’t want me to know.
