“What happened next?”Sherlock asked.
“Dot turned on the spotlights and hailed them.They took off, I swam back to the boat.”
“And Dot’s gone after them on her own,” Sam said and swore.
“I don’t like it either, but it didn’t seem as if they were armed.”It was his turn for questions.“What’s going on here?Why are poachers shooting up boats, and children being kidnapped and drugs being smuggled?Retribution Bay was a quiet tourist town.”
Sam and Sherlock shared a look.“Up to you,” Sherlock said.
“All we know is a company called Stonefish Enterprises is behind it, but no one can trace who that is.Each time we catch someone, another branch pops up.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“All year.”
No wonder Dot looked so exhausted.“Is Nhiari being missing related?”
“Yeah.The man who has her works for Stonefish.”
“Lee is the only one we know of who hasn’t been caught yet,” Sherlock added.
Oliver jolted.“Lee?”He got his phone out.“This guy?”He showed them the photo that had interested Dot.
“When was this taken?”Sam asked, his body tensing.
“A week ago at the expedition launch dinner.”
“So he hasn’t been up here the whole time.”Sam frowned and stared at the table.
“Who do you know him as?”Sherlock asked.
“An executive with Lucas Fitton’s company.He’s the man funding this dive.”
Sherlock dragged across his tablet.“What’s the company name?”
Oliver told him and waited while Sherlock searched.“Shipping,” he said.“He’s filthy rich through shipping all over the world.”He glanced up.“The base is Singapore.”
That obviously held some significance for the two of them.
“Is this the first dive Lucas has funded?”Sherlock asked.
“Yes.He has a particular fascination with this wreck.He’s called almost every day.”Oliver shrugged.“We’re lucky he offered to pay for it otherwise it might have been months or years until we got the funding to examine it.”Oliver was thankful to him.It enabled him to go back to doing what he loved, but now he wanted to know Lucas’s motives.
“Have you met Lee before?”Sam asked.
“No.He came to the kick-off dinner to take photos, but he didn’t really talk to anyone.”
“Did Lucas know about you and Dot?”Sherlock looked up from the notes he was taking.
Oliver paused.“Yeah.He asked me if I knew of anyone living in Retribution Bay and I mentioned her.”
“How did he react?”
Lucas’s smile had seemed a bit off at the time.Almost smug.“He seemed pleased.”Was that why Lucas had asked for Oliver to be on the expedition?
“How did you get this expedition?”Sam asked.“It’s not the team from the TV show.”
“I left my team.Got tired of the travel and having no real base.I reached out to the Shipwrecks Museum, and they offered me a job which came with teaching at the university.”He’d thought it another lucky break, but maybe Lucas had been behind that as well.A movement outside caught his eye as Andrew walked to the bathroom.“Andrew only enrolled this semester.He’s not particularly interested in class.”
