All she wanted to do was go to bed.
With a sigh, she got up, switched her music on and got to work.
Chapter 5
Sam’s satellite phone rang as Oliver boarded theOceanidfrom the tender.He’d spent the morning scanning the ocean floor and was keen to get in for his first dive.
“It’s for you.”Sam passed the phone to Oliver.
The waves pushed the boat up and he fumbled with the phone, almost dropping it in the water.Heart racing, he said, “Hello.”
“You were supposed to call me last night.”
Oliver almost wished the phone had ended up overboard.How had Lucas got Sam’s number?“Morning, Lucas.”
“What’s this I hear about treasure hunters heading for Retribution Bay?Are you protecting my shipwreck?”
Oliver winced.Hisshipwreck, as if he owned it.Sam was helping Sherlock tie the tender to the boat, so Oliver headed for the cabin for some privacy.“We’ve seen no sign of treasure hunters yet.”
“What about treasure?”
Oliver chuckled.“You know how rumours spread.I’ve been down there and haven’t seen anything that looks like treasure.We’re starting our grid search this afternoon.”
“Why haven’t you started it yet?”
“Conditions haven’t been good for diving,” Oliver replied.“I could barely see two metres yesterday.”He didn’t mention the drugs.Not that anyone had told him to keep it quiet, but Lucas would flip out if he heard of it.The risk of the police cancelling the dive while they investigated would really rile him up.“Conditions are great today,” he continued.“The team is surfacing from the first dive now.”
At the back of the boat, Suzyn and Andrew were inflating their BCDs as they surfaced.Oliver headed out to help.“I’ll call you with an update this evening.”
“Do that.”
Oliver shook his head, pushing past his annoyance as he handed the phone back to Sam and helped Suzyn aboard.“How did it go?”
“Amazing,” she said, prying off her fins.“I can’t believe it’s been down there, undisturbed, for three hundred years.”She stumbled a little as she climbed onto the main deck and Oliver steadied her before turning to help Andrew, but he was already pushing past, heading straight for the bathroom.Oliver winced as the sound of vomiting followed.It turned out Andrew suffered from a severe case of seasickness.The only time he wasn’t retching was when he was underwater.Hopefully he could handle tomorrow’s forecast of smaller swells, otherwise it was going to be a miserable couple of weeks for him.
Andrew should have said something about it before coming.
This morning the four students had set up the grid they would work, while Oliver had used their scanning equipment in the tender to take photos of the bottom of the ocean.
Unfortunately the work hadn’t kept him busy enough to keep his thoughts off Dot.
His visit hadn’t gone to plan.He hadn’t expected her to welcome him with open arms, but a smile would have been nice.He’d bought the biggest bunch of flowers he could find at Lindsay’s prompting, and since she’d been an important person in Dot’s life, he’d figured it was a good sign.
But Dot didn’t want a bar of him.
Which was inconvenient.His plan had been to ask her how she’d been, find out why she’d ghosted him and then leave.He had more than enough on his plate right now without splitting his focus thinking about their past.This was his first expedition as lead, the first without his team, and the first with a bunch of newbies.
But he couldn’t deny that his heartbeat had increased when she’d opened the door, hair damp from a shower, and wearing a short, bright emerald green dress which ended just above her knees, exposing her lovely legs.He touched the ring around his neck and smiled.She still loved bright colours.
“Want a drink, Oliver?”Suzyn’s call had him blinking and glancing over.
The rest of the students had already dived on lunch like a bunch of seagulls.
“I’ll be right there,” Oliver replied.
Sam wandered over.“What’s the plan for this afternoon?”
“Another dive, or maybe two, where we’ll document the wreck, looking for identification.”It lay at about ten metres deep, so they could stay underwater longer than if it had been deeper, though the students used up their air far quicker than he did.“Have you two got a good book?”He nodded towards Sherlock.
