“The same place you were last night.” Julio snorted.

  She stared at him. “I didn’t see them.”

  “They came in afterward.”

  “Anybody hear anything?”

  He hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah. They were doing a lot of laughing about the haunted shipwreck.”

  “Interesting,” Bronson noted. “But, of course, they didn’t say anything helpful, did they?”

  He shook his head. “They didn’t say nothing that was bad. And, if they did say anything about Jason, they didn’t mention his name.”

  “But they were all there at the same time?” she questioned.

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  “You didn’t question them either?”

  “We asked if they saw a diver down there, and they told us no. They were drinking too,” he admitted. “And when we told them who was missing”—Julio winced and looked over at her—“you know how that goes.”

  “Yeah, I do.” She stepped back. “Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Hey, tough deal.”

  “It is.”

  “It’d be better if you’d just let it go,” he added.

  “Wouldn’t that be nice? However, that’s not the easiest thing to do. He’s still my brother.”

  “He’s still your brother, but your brother was a loser,” Julio declared. “He was my friend, and I know he was a loser, but I still loved him. And I’m sorry about what happened.”

  “Me too,” she muttered. “Thanks, and, if you hear anything, let me know.”

  “I don’t know what you expect me to hear but sure.”

  “I don’t expect anything to turn up. I know how the law looks at it here,” she stated, with a headshake.

  Bronson looked over at her and could only imagine how the lack of any kind of penalty for the murder of her brother must impact her. He gently laid his hand on her shoulder. “Thanks for letting us know,” Bronson told Julio, as he turned Robin away from the house.

  As they walked away, he waited for the guy to close his door, but Julio took quite a while. Finally Bronson looked back to see that they weren’t being watched any longer. “Are you okay?” Bronson asked Robin.

  “Feel like shit,” she said.

  “Does that make sense, the pact they made?”

  “Unfortunately it does,” she admitted, “and Jason did mention it to me.”

  “Interesting.”

  “You have to understand how they lived and how the bottle was king. But somebody still stuck a knife in his back,” she stated, with a sigh.

  “And yet you seem to be less upset about it.”

  “No, I think I’m finally coming to realize how much the lifestyle Jason chose to live would impact him,” she noted. “That’s heartbreaking.”

  “Do you want to track down who those guys were on the other boat and talk to them?”

  “I feel like I need to,” she admitted.

  “Probably so,” Bronson agreed.

  “And what about you?” she asked. “Are you leaving today?”

  “No, if I were heading back, it would be tomorrow,” he noted, “so I’m here to help you out for now.”

  “It’s not your fight. You know that, right?”

  “A man’s been murdered, and I get that he wasn’t necessarily a good man by any of today’s standards, but he was still an innocent party in this.”

  “That’s how I look at it,” she admitted. “Thanks, I’ll take all the help I can get.”

  “Do you feel as if you’re in any danger now?”

  “I don’t think so. I think both the locals and the cops are just hoping I’ll go away very soon and stay away.”

  “You will, but let’s go to the cops first.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “You’re not expecting any answers from them, are you?”

  “Nope, but it’s all due diligence.” And, with that, he turned her toward the police station.

  Chapter 7

  Walking out of the police station one hour later, Robin could feel her hopes of getting answers dissipating fast. “I didn’t expect that to go any differently than it did. Unfortunately.”

  “They certainly didn’t have much information, did they?” He walked beside her. Close but not touching. Supportive.

  “No. He’s dead. What else do you want to be told?” she repeated, with grief suddenly choking her. “He wouldn’t even confirm that a knife was in his back. I saw it sitting in an evidence bag off to the side.”

  “That’s something at least.”

  “It’s something, but it’s not anything helpful,” she snapped.

  “The fact that it was even in an evidence bag should make you feel a little better.”

  “Maybe,” she muttered. “I just feel like they don’t really care. If they did, forensics should have had it. But I doubt any of that happens here.”

  “They probably don’t care, unless the murderer is another white man,” Bronson suggested. “Then maybe they would care a little. Because that would have proven that their locals weren’t involved, and, therefore, they could go about their business and prosecute somebody they would all like to see behind bars.”

  She grimaced. “It’s not even that but getting actively involved in cases like this slows down the tourist dollars, and everybody here needs those.”

  “I heard that too.” Bronson placed his arm on her shoulders, his hand giving her a gentle massage. “Life has thrown you a curve ball.”

  “A couple of them,” she noted. “I keep thinking about what Jason might have found.”

  “Or maybe didn’t find?”

  She nodded.

  “You want to go back?’

  She turned to him and said, “No, and yet, yes.”

  He shrugged. “It’s a beautiful day, and I’m always up for a dive.”

  She grinned. “You’re serious?”

  “Why not? … And if there is anything that we need to do before we go take a closer look, then let’s get it done first.”

  She stared at him. “Are you always this easy to get along with?”

  “Why not?” he asked. “I’m here. I’m diving, which is something I love to do. Your brother was living a life I would have loved,” he shared, “except for the drunken and drugged and then murdered part.”

  “I know,” she agreed. “I’d often thought that someday I’d retire with my own little dive shop somewhere down in the Caribbean maybe.”

  “Right.” Bronson laughed. “So maybe we need to figure this out, just so we can preserve our dreams of the future.”

  “Hey, I like that.” Impulsively she gave him a hug. “I really do appreciate that you stuck around.”

  “It seemed like the right thing to do at the time,” he murmured.

  “I don’t know if that’s how very many people would look at it, but I do appreciate it.”

  “Now what do we have to do in order to head out? Plus, I was wondering if we’ve asked all the questions we need to.”

  “I think we need to talk to the guys who were at the bar last night,” she added, “the ones out diving at the same time.”

  “Makes sense,” Bronson said. “Just the one hotel in town is where I’m at.”

  “Yeah, I know. So they were right there while you were sleeping?”

  “That’s not exactly encouraging.”

  “Unless they didn’t sleep at all.” She smiled. “We get lots of guys who stay up all night and party on, and then they can’t sleep. It’s almost as if they’re on this heavy bender that they can’t quite kick.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then they’re usually down at the beach, sleeping.”

  “I didn’t see anybody when I walked over here.”

  “I doubt it. It’s usually the younger ones.”

  And, with that, they headed for the hotel. As they got to the front desk, she smiled at the guy behind it. “Hey, Rico. Have you still got a couple divers here, white guys?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but news around here is that they’re often drunk,” he offered, with a smile.

  “How long are they staying?” Bronson asked.

  “They’re leaving today,” he replied. “Why?”

  “I just wondered,” Robin said, “because they were out diving at the same time and place where my brother died.”

  Rico nodded. “I heard that rumor too.”

  “You think it’s only a rumor?”

  “No, they were talking about the dive, something about the ghost.” Then he frowned and added, “I don’t know. I didn’t hear it all, but there was definitely something about a ghost.”

  “Yeah, they say my brother will haunt the place where he died.”

  “You must get his body back,” Rico stated, studying her carefully. “He wanted to stay in the ocean.”

  “That’s the plan,” she replied, “but it will go back after he’s been cremated.”

  “But you’ll take him back?” he asked her.

  “I was planning to throw his ashes into the ocean over the shipwreck.”

  “Good, good,” he said. “You should do it soon.”

  “I can’t get the body back from the police yet.”

  He frowned at that. “Why not?”

  “Because it’s a murder,” she said, holding tight to her exasperation.

  He shrugged. “So, I mean, dead is dead, right? He’s dead?”

  She winced at that. “You’re right about that,” she murmured. “I think they’re just hanging on to it for form’s sake.”

  “Ah, to make it look like they’re doing something? Yeah, that makes sense.” Rico nodded. “You should get it back by tomorrow.”

  She nodded and gave Rico a wave. As they walked up to the hotel room they were looking for, Robin murmured, “It’s all so simple for them here. … It’s an easy way to look at life, isn’t it?”

  “After you left the office, I did ask the cops when you could have the body,” Bronson noted. “They told me that you would be notified later today.”

  “That we can have it today?”

  He shrugged. “I assume, but I don’t know for sure. Where will you get it cremated?”

  She winced at that. “I’ll have to hire somebody to haul it to the closest crematorium. Jesus, I don’t even know where that is.”

  “Could be Mexico City, but what do I know?”

  “No, it shouldn’t be that far. I think there’s one in the next city.”

  “Hopefully. It would be good for you to get that taken care of before leaving here.”

  “Yes, I know.” She wrapped her arms around her chest. “That’ll mean another trip out.”

  “So, we’ll go talk to these divers, and then we will go take another look at what it was that your brother was dealing with out there at the shipwreck. Then we can do one more trip after the cremation.”

  “Do you really think they will let us have the body that fast?”

  “I think so,” he replied. “They probably don’t have the facilities for long-term storage, so they must do something.”

  She winced at that. “I hadn’t thought about that, but you’re right. They probably don’t.”

  At that, they hit the second floor, and they knocked on the hotel room door. It opened almost immediately, and the guy was midstep and stared at them. “Hey, I was just stepping out. What can I do for you?”

  Robin introduced herself and then Bronson.

  The guy managed to look suitably sad. “I heard about your brother. I’m really sorry about that.”

  “So, you guys didn’t see him down there? You didn’t have anything to do with him?”

  “No, we sure didn’t, but we weren’t so much inside the wreck as we were around it,” he replied. “On the outside.”

  “Right, so you don’t have a clue if anybody else was there?”

  “Only the two boats were out there. I figured the other one was his friends,” he said, using his fingers to make quotation marks in the air. “Or whatever passes for a friend here.”

  She nodded. “Had you ever met Jason before?”

  “Yeah, I saw him a couple times before. We’ve been coming here twice a year for the last couple years,” he shared.

  “What about that dive spot? Do you always go there?”

  “It’s one of my brother’s favorite spots, and we’re going back out there to the same shipwreck to dive all day today too,” he said, with a shrug and a head nod into the room. “I don’t really care either way. I mean, I just like to dive. We usually do a couple of the usual spots, the most popular places, but we also try to check out new places when we’re here.”

  “So, an odd visit this time?” Bronson asked.

  She turned to look at him. His tone was fine, but he was right. This seemed to not be their normal visit, so an odd one.

  “Yeah,” the tourist added. “My brother is having some tough times at home, and I just wanted to get him away for a couple days and give him a break.”

  “That was nice of you.” She gave him a bright smile and stepped back. “In that case, we’ll let you go. Thanks for the information.”

  “Not that I could do anything to help your brother,” he added, “and that’s sad all around, but diving accidents happen.”

  She nodded. “You guys look after yourselves while you’re out there today.”

  “We will.” He smiled in return. “Sorry we couldn’t help you.” Then he turned and walked away.

  On the surface everything sounded right.

  As soon as they stepped outside, she shook her head. “Everything he said sounded right, and everything seemed right, so why do I feel like it’s not?”

  “In what way?” he asked cautiously.

  “Just the way he was a little too, I don’t know, flippant over it all.”

  “I agree with you there,” Bronson replied, “but I really don’t know who these guys are.”

  “No, I don’t either. Although we do have their names now.”

  He asked, “How do you figure that?”

  “Because I saw it on the register, when I was chatting with Rico.” She laughed and told him their names.

  “Wow, let’s sit outside for a minute, and I’ll send Mason a message,” he murmured.

  “What good will that do?”

  “We can get a rundown on what’s going on with these two.”

  “Will it help us? I don’t know this Mason guy.”

  “One of my bosses, but, more than that, he’s a friend. He’s dealt with all kinds of cases that are fairly unusual. Plus Jason’s a veteran. That should account for something.”

  “Well, if Mason can help, that would be great, although I don’t know why we’re investigating these guys.”

  “Because they were on the scene at the time,” Bronson noted, “and just because they say they didn’t have anything to do with Jason’s murder, is that reason enough to believe them? Not in my book,” he replied, with a smirk.

  “Are you—”

  “Relax. We’ll do the tiniest inquiry into two potential material witnesses before they leave the country. That’s not a biggie at all.” He pulled out his phone and quickly texted the names to Mason, then explained how these two were involved.

  His phone buzzed with a text. He read it and shrugged. “He’ll get back to us. No guarantee that we’ll get any information, but, if these guys are in a criminal database, Mason will share whatever is available.”

  “Good enough.” She looked around. “Let’s pick up lunch to-go and then I suggest we go out to the shipwreck and take a look again.”

  “We should have done this last night,” he noted.

  “Yeah, I didn’t know that there was a chance whatever he found was out there,” she murmured. “It all just seemed so far beyond belief.”

  “I get it,” Bronson said. “Sometimes life is like that.”

  “It is, but I’m hoping that maybe we’ll get answers this time.” And that’s what they did.

  *

  It was easy to recognize the spot again. This time the morning sun shone on the water like glass. Bronson looked at the panorama and couldn’t say anything for a minute. “It is absolutely stunning out here.” He stared down at the ocean floor, shining through the clear water. “Amazing to find it so clear here, yet, the deeper you go, the darker it gets.”

  “Yeah, because over here, it’s still shallow.”

  He nodded. “We have what? Another couple miles and then it drops off pretty deep, right?” Robin nodded. He watched the ground slowly disappear beneath them, as they got closer and closer to the shipwreck location. When she finally shut down the engine, he leaned over and said, “Nope, you can’t see anything here, can you?”

  “No, not here, which is also why the wreck stayed where it was for so long undisturbed,” she murmured. “There was no reason for anybody to dive here necessarily. Yet, once somebody did, and the shipwreck was found, nobody really cared to come out and check on it or raise it. So this spot just became popular with the divers.”

  “Part of not salvaging it is probably because it’s not a particularly interesting historical wreckage that anybody really cares about,” he murmured.

  “Exactly,” she said, “people only like what’s fascinating in terms of history.”

  “I think the wreck itself is great,” Bronson noted. “It’s been a lot of fun diving around here, which we got to do all last week.”

  “And you just came to the shipwreck site on the last day?” she asked curiously.

  He nodded. “Exactly, otherwise I wouldn’t have seen your brother at all.”

  “Makes you wonder how long he could have been hidden there,” she considered sadly.

  “You don’t have to worry about that now because we did find him,” Bronson stated. “With any luck we can deal with the cremation tomorrow.”

  “Maybe, but that seems awfully fast.”

  He privately agreed, but it seemed like everybody wanted to deal with Jason’s death quickly and get his body returned to the ocean and out of their lives. That fact alone made Bronson suspicious, but, in a place like this, with their particular beliefs and lifestyle, plus the kind of life that her brother led, maybe it made sense after all.

  As soon as they geared up, he looked at her and warned, “See you down below, but don’t get out of my sight.”