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“Ross gave the orders, but this man commanded Mariner’s Crown. He escaped before the Coast Guard arrived.”

Agent Morales stared at the photograph.

“You’re certain?”

“I photographed him from Sea Whisper.”

I looked at Ben.

“He was in Blackwater three years ago.”

“And he may have returned four nights ago,” Ben said.

The man we believed had fled Hawaii hadn’t disappeared.

He had come back for Jonathan’s evidence.

And now he knew the Coast Guard had found it.

3

BEN

“Aprotector’s greatest mistake is believing he has to carry every danger alone.”

—James Sinclair

The silver-haired man stared out from a photograph taken three years ago.

Same pale hair.

Same narrow face.

Same cold expression Calle remembered from Mariner’s Crown.

She stood beside me with one hand wrapped around the camera hanging from her neck. Everyone else watched Commander Keating’s tablet.

I watched her.

The photograph frightened her.

She hid it well.

Most people would’ve seen the determination in her face and missed the way her thumb repeatedly moved across the camera strap.

I didn’t.

“Can you identify him under oath?” Agent Morales asked.

“Yes,” Calle answered.

“You only saw him from Sea Whisper?”

“I saw him through my camera lens. I took at least twelve photographs while his ship was chasing us.”

“Where are those photographs now?”

“On my laptop. The Coast Guard copied them after we returned.”