Hey.I’m awake.Can I call Lucas about Andrew?
Her response was instant.Send me his number.
He did so and the three dots wiggled as she wrote something else.He waited.
We have someone who will contact Lucas, but if you want to, go ahead.Tell him as little as possible.See if he’s in Retribution Bay.
OK.
Before he could make the call, he received another message.Be there as soon as I can.Xo.
Oliver smiled.Good.He needed to see her, needed to find out whether she had actually said she loved him.
He stared at Lucas’s contact details as the reality of what he needed to do hit him.He needed to tell a man his son was dead.The nausea in his stomach had nothing to do with his injury.Lucas might be in charge of a crime syndicate, but no parent wanted to lose a child.
He exhaled and hit the send button, wanting to get it over with.He’d been responsible for Andrew and it was his duty to inform his father.
“Where are you?”Lucas demanded.“Why is the boat back at the marina?”
Oliver blinked.The police mustn’t have called him yet if he was concerned about the expedition.“Are you in town?”Maybe Andrew had been telling the truth, and Lucas was in Retribution Bay.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Because you know the boat is in the marina.”
“Andrew told me.”
Lie.But it definitely meant Lucas didn’t know what had happened.Oliver pinched his nose.“There’s been an incident.”
“Is my son all right?”His concern was evident in the way the pitch of his voice raised.He didn’t seem to notice he’d contradicted himself.
Oliver exhaled and closed his eyes, not wanting to break the news.He braced himself.“No.I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Lucas, but Andrew has died.”
A harsh inhale was his only reaction for a long moment.Finally, his voice cold, Lucas asked, “What happened?”
Oliver hadn’t considered what he was going to say.He could hardly tell Lucas he was the main suspect in the police case.
“The two of us were diving together this morning, and we came across a woman with a spear gun.She forced us onto her boat.”He waited for Lucas’s reaction, but the man was silent.
“She wanted the treasure and wouldn’t believe me when I told her we haven’t found any.”
“What about those journals?”Lucas asked.
“They’re hundreds of years old.It’s likely the treasure was found and removed before now.”Sam and Sherlock were listening.
“Then what happened?”
“The woman shot me through the chest with the spear gun.Sergeant Campbell caught up with us.”
“How did my son die?”
“He was shot.”
“By the sergeant?”
“No!”Hell, if Lucas thought Dot had anything to do with it, she’d be in real danger.“Backup arrived and one of her officers shot Andrew.”
“Why?”
