“I don’t understand,” Kimo said. “You pay for insurance to cover the loss of your boats. Why would they drop your coverage?”
“They threatened to drop my coverage if I rented so much as a snorkel to you.”
“What?” Kimo jerked back as if Jako had slapped her. “Why?”
“They think you’re responsible for Alana’s disappearance and possible death. I told them they were crazy. Alana is your best friend. You two are inseparable.”
“She is,” Kimo whispered, her face pale, her eyes swimming. “We are. But they took her, and I have no idea where to look for her or who would do this.” She gripped Jako’s hands. “We have to find her before it’s too late.”
“I care about Alana as much as you do, but I’ve got employees who depend on my business to feed their families.” He drew in a deep breath and let it out. “And there’s more.”
Rex wasn’t sure how much more Alana could handle at this rate. He sat at her other side and laid a hand against her back. At that moment, he wished he could take away the pain, find her friend and fix everything wrong in her life.
Jako continued. “The bank that holds the mortgage on my business called after the insurance company and pretty much said the same. I’m not supposed to have anything to do with you until they figure out what really happened. That’s why I was surprised to see you here. I thought they had already booked you and marched you off to jail.”
Kimo shook her head. “They haven’t yet, though the detective sure sounded like he believed I was guilty. I need a boat and gear. I have to get back out there and find the evidence I need to locate Alana and the people responsible.”
Jako shook his head. “I can’t give you the boat.”
Kimo nodded. “I understand. You have to protect your business and the families who depend on it. I’ll find another boat.”
“Kimo, this is a small island. Word spreads fast. You might run into the same problem with the other dive companies.”
Kimo’s chin lifted. “I have to find Alana.”
Rex leaned forward to meet Jako’s gaze. “Do you have trackers on the boats you rent out to customers?”
Jako nodded. “I drop one into each boat when I rent it out to someone who isn’t taking a member of my crew. I only check the location when the boat is late coming in. That way, if they’ve had engine trouble, I know where to find them.” Jako stood and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “I have an app on my phone that I use to track them. I didn’t think about it until just now.”
Rex straightened and moved close enough to see the screen on the cell phone.
Kimo rubbed the tears from her cheeks. Rex curved a hand around her elbow and helped her rise. She stood beside Jako, tense, hopeful. “Can you get into the app? Maybe it’ll give the boat’s location.”
She didn’t say it, but Rex could almost hear her thinking that maybe the boat’s location would lead them to Alana.
Jako clicked on an icon and waited. A login screen popped up. He scratched his head. “Now, which password did I use for this app?”
“Try something,” Kimo urged.
“Give me a minute.” He scratched his head again and then, using his thumbs, keyed something into the username and password fields and hit enter.
An error message appeared.
“Not that one. Let me try...” He keyed another username and password and hit enter. A churning circle appeared. Several seconds passed, and it was still churning.
“It would’ve displayed an error if it was the wrong password,” Jako said. The screen chose that moment to present a map of Maui and a green dot.
Kimo leaned closer. “Where is it?”
Jako zoomed in on the dot and sighed. “It’s right here. It’s the tracker for this boat. I just dropped the tracker on it this morning.”
“Zoom out,” Kimo said. “Maybe they left Maui for another island.”
Jako zoomed out. “The trouble with the trackers is that they run out of battery.” He shook his head. “It’s not showing but let me look at its history. That’s how I found one of my boats when the engine quit working.” He fiddled with the app's options and brought up another screen with a green dotted line. “It displays the path the tracking device took.” He pointed at the screen. “It started at the marina and went out into the Maalaea Bay.”
“That was Alana and me. I bet if we compared the coordinates of the stop to my dive watch, they’d be really close.” She held up her dive watch.
Jako zoomed in on the stop Alana and Kimo had made for their dive.
