Page 2 of Hidden Tide

“Six.”

“Were you timing me?”

“No.”

I had been.

Ben called every evening when he finished working with the Coast Guard investigators. After what happened inside Blackwater, the authorities had asked him and Ward to remain in Hawaii until they completed their statements and helped identify the men who worked for August Ross.

Ward finished two days ago.

Ben hadn’t.

Whenever I asked why, he changed the subject.

I glanced toward the darkening ocean.

“Are you still at the Coast Guard station?”

“Yes.”

“You said you would be finished by seven.”

“I thought I would.”

Something in his voice made me stop walking.

Ben sounded controlled.

He always did.

But I had learned to hear the difference between calm and careful.

Tonight, he was being careful.

“What happened?”

Silence followed.

I turned away from my family and watched a wave spread across the sand.

“Ben?”

“The dive team recovered a body from Blackwater this afternoon.”

I closed my eyes.

We knew at least one man had died inside the mountain. August Ross disappeared during the final struggle near the hidden cove. The tide had been rising, and the Coast Guard believed the current pulled his body into one of the flooded passages.

They had been searching ever since.

“They found Ross?”

“No.”

The single word carried too much weight.

I opened my eyes.