“Are some of them like that? Yes,” Diden admitted. “I’m not sure about this one. He helped solve the cold case from that religious cult in Texas.”
“Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while,” Jennings said with a smile on his face, clearly taunting Diden and her love of true crime podcasts. “Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you find out some of these podcasters are actually the criminals themselves.”
On that note, I chose to intervene. “Speaking of which, there’s another dive team set to arrive at Lake Echo in about an hour. Diden, I want you to come with me to help with the crowds or anyone trying to interfere.”
“You find another body?” Diden asked, both shock and nervousness written all over her face.
“No bodies,” I told her but chose not to give her more info just yet. “You’re in charge of the building while we’re out, Jennings.”
He nodded in response, and the three of us made our way out of my office, Diden following behind me.
I decided to take her with mebecause I thought it would be good for the podcaster’s ego to see someone who actually listened to his podcast. Maybe soften him up.
Diden didn’t yet know I had invited Mr. Stanton, though technically I hadn’t invited him personally. Diden had mentioned Steve listened to the police scanners, so I had a buddy of mine back at LVPD make a couple of offhand comments on there about the new dive team we were having come out today at eleven to recover extra evidence we had found.
“Alright, boss, so what’s the plan?” she asked as we drove out of the parking lot.
“ISB wants to do one more dive to see if they can find anything else.”
As we pulled into a parking space, I knew she saw the same thing I had—Steve Stanton.
“The uh, podcaster, Steve, is here,” she mentioned to me.
“I see that,” I responded. “As much as he annoys me, he’s not standing in a restricted area—yet—so I can’t ask him to move. He’s free to do what he wants, though if he gets too close, I’ll make him leave.”
“I’ll talk to him,” she offered, and that worked perfectly. “I’ll make sure he stays where he’s supposed to and doesn’t interfere.”
The tone in her voice was soft, as though she were talking about a friend or someone she admired.
It was perfect timing, as the boat pulled up to the cove in front of us just as I was getting out of the vehicle.
“You go talk to Stanton, and I’ll call in to talk to whoever is on command for the boat,” I told her and proceeded to call O’Connor from my phone.
After a short discussion, I made sure the walkie talkieon my belt had the volume turned up extra loud so that both Diden and Stanton could hear it as I walked over to where they were standing.
“I informed him about the dive, and he asked if he could stay and watch,” Diden muttered, her voice low so I could hear it, likely just in case I told her no, but the look on Stanton’s face showed he heard her too.
“That’s fine, but you stay by us, and do not move to the water, as it’s now considered a restricted area while they dive,” I responded, making sure I was loud enough for both to hear.
“Yes, sir,” Stanton replied, nodding emphatically.
I had discussed with O’Connor that his men needed to keep the conversation to a minimum since there would be ears listening to everything they said. The dive team knew they were to get in, swim around for a bit, and then come up to the surface and report they’d found something.
Which was where we were now. Twenty minutes after we had arrived and the divers had made their way into the water, the crackle of static filled the air before a voice chimed in on my two-way radio.
“Command, this is Neptune Two. Copy.”
“Neptune Two, this is Command. Go Ahead,”O’Connor’s voice sounded.
“Be advised, we have found the object. Item is secure. We will bag and surface with it soon. Recommend standby for transfer.”
“Affirmative. Chain of custody on contact and awaiting your arrival,”O’Connor replied.
They had permission to pull any random piece of debris from the bottom of the lake they wanted, as long as it was small enough to fit in their hands, so as to not be obvious what it was from a short distance.
“They found something?” Diden asked.
“What were they looking for?” Stanton asked, his eyes wide with curiosity.
