"Dead in the Water"
**Immediately follows "Dead Man Holdin'"**
"Fame doesn't fulfill you. It warms you a bit,
but that warmth is temporary."
Marilyn Monroe
CHAPTER 1
Private investigator Matt Houston groaned as he reached over to the bedside table for his ringing cell phone. "Houston."
"Hey, it looks like I'm gonna need some help. We've got a hellacious fire at the Marcos Marina." Fire Investigator Rich Holt was approaching the area of the marina and could already see the light from the fire turning the 2:00AM sky to shades of flickering orange and red with clouds of black smoke billowing up.
"Yeah Rich – be there ASAP." Matt put down the phone and began dressing. He grabbed a pair of desert camo BDUs and put them on along with a black t-shirt and his duty boots.
"What happened?" CJ Parsons-Houston was wide awake now and sitting up in the middle of their bed.
"The Marcos Marina is on fire – pretty bad from what he said." Out of habit, Matt pulled his Glock out of the drawer beside the bed and checked the load before donning a ball cap. "Love you, Babe. I'll call you later." He leaned over and kissed her before striding out of the room.
"Love you, Cowboy – and be careful."
"Yes ma'am." The PI yawned as he went down the hall toward the kitchen door, grabbing his black leather jacket off of the back of the chair where he had left it three hours earlier. He had spent most of his day helping his best friend Michael Hoyt deal with a hostage situation and had gotten to bed about 11:30.
Driving to the marina he could see the sky was lit up from quite a distance away. He spoke out loud. "Rich was right – hellacious seems to be the right term."
When he got to the scene, Matt donned his turnout gear and checked in with Mark Weston, a battalion chief for the Los Angeles Fire Department. "Howdy, Chief." The PI stifled a yawn.
"Glad to see Rich called you in. We've got one hell of a mess here." Weston pointed to the southern end of the scene. "A witness says there was an explosion from section C of the marina. That part is pretty well destroyed. When it blew, the other boats in that area went up as well. Falling debris started fires on section B and all the way over on section E up at the north end. Rich wants you to take that section and document it and then move on down to where he is at the other end."
"Yes sir." Matt turned and headed toward the northernmost section at a jog. The flames had been put out and three firefighters were looking for hotspots. "Hey fellas, did y'all happen to see what got blown down here and ignited this section?"
"Sure did." One of the men pointed out what was left of a section of top deck seating. "Did a real number on it. We got the flames out but I bet this boat is totaled."
"I'd say you're right." Matt began taking pictures and recording notes, spending about fifteen minutes on the area before heading down to the southern end of the marina where the fire was still actively being attacked. He caught sight of Rich who was down on one knee looking into the water with a worried expression on his face. "Is somebody down there?" The PI knelt down next to him having to yell above the combined noise of the crews working the blaze, the noise from the fire itself, and the noise from the equipment being used.
"Yeah – Rod Jessup; he's one of our divers. His com-link must have gone out." As the words left his mouth a rush of bubbles came to the surface. "Damn!"
"Not good.' Matt started stripping out of his gear, handing his clipboard to the startled captain next to him.
"You can't go in there!"
"Sure I can." Matt took a deep breath and dove into the cold water. Oil and fuel were floating on the surface and he kept his eyes closed until he was well under it. The fire burning up above gave a strange glow under the water. Feeling his muscles reacting to the cold temperature of the water, Matt saw Jessup and struck out for the captain. Part of an engine had fallen on his left leg and he was trapped. Looking around, the PI found a metal beam from the dock that had fallen into the water and managed to wedge it under the engine and lift enough so that Jessup could free his leg. Putting his right arm around the diver, he helped him to the surface. As they broke the surface of the water, Matt released the breath he had been holding, immediately sucking in fresh air as he and Jessup worked their way over to where Rich was waiting. After pulling the injured diver out of the water Holt helped Matt back onto the dock.
"EMTs are on the way." Rich and Matt began taking a look at Jessup's leg. "Think you broke it, Rod."
"Guess you've been a bad influence on him, huh?" Matt ribbed his friend who had suffered a broken leg the past November.
"Nope – not my fault." The two stepped aside as the paramedics approached.
"Man, I don't know who in the hell you are, but thanks. I thought I was gonna be fish food."
"This is Houston – the one I was telling you about yesterday."
The two men shook hands. "Hell of a way to meet, huh?" Matt was wearing a big grin.
"You better go with these guys." Rich motioned to the paramedics.
"Let me get dried off and changed. I'll be right back." Matt got a blanket from the ambulance and dried off at his truck before changing into a pair of jeans and a fresh t-shirt. As he sat on the edge of the truck and put on socks and another pair of duty boots he was approached by a familiar face – none other than Sgt. Larry Carlisle.
"Heard you earned a hot cup of coffee and a charge of indecent exposure."
"Huh, CJ thinks I look decent enough."
The veteran cop gave the PI a smile. "Good thing O'Dunkers stays open 24/7. I picked this baby up as the call came through." He handed the cup to Matt as he finished zipping his boots.
"Larry, I don't think I've ever been so happy to see your ugly mug." Gratefully he took a sip of the coffee.
"I don't know what the water temp is out there tonight but I bet certain parts of your anatomy won't come back out for a while."
"You're right." The two shared a laugh. "I gotta get back down there, bud. Thanks – I owe you one." Matt continued to sip on the coffee on the way back down to the remnants of the dock and met back up with Rich, took back the clipboard, and the two continued to work the scene. The fire had been put out and the extent of the carnage was becoming more evident.
"I think we need to get back in the water, Rich. What's left of the boat from C-3 is down below."
"Guess we'll have to get a diver from the Coasties; LAPD's are tied up right now. Said it will be a couple of hours before they can get anybody here." Rich looked at his watch. It was 4:10AM.
"Why get 'em from the Coast Guard?" Houston followed him back to where their vehicles were parked.
"With Rod down we…" The captain stopped in his tracks. "Are you a diver?"
"Since I was 14."
"Well I guess you're it then."
"Let me give CJ a call and see if she can bring my gear down here." It was then that he remembered. "Oops, killed another phone."
Laughing, Holt handed his over to the man and turned to talk to Mark Weston about what they had found so far.
"Rich, is he okay?" CJ answered sounding scared.
"It's me, Babe. Easy."
"Oh, thank God." She let out a breath of relief. "Don't tell me you killed another phone." She smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Yup, guilty. Could I get you to grab my diving gear out of the closet?"
"Do you have any idea how cold that water is right now?"
"Unfortunately I do; I was in it earlier."
"Oh boy." She got out of the bed and headed for the closet, pulling out the gear bag that contained his wet suit, fins and other gear. "What about a tank? You never replaced your old one."
"There's one here." He thought for a minute. "Tell you what…" Lowering his voice he looked around. "See if you can get Bo or Lamar to bring it down here. You need to go back to bed." He knew there was a good chance that she was pregnant.
"Hon, I'm fine. And there's no way I can go back to sleep. I'll see you in a little bit. Love you."
"Love you. Be careful." He hung up and took the phone back to Rich. "Thanks, bud. CJ's gonna bring my gear down but I need a tank."
"No problem. There should be a couple in Rod's Yukon. Got the keys right here." He jingled the set.
Weston stuck his hand out to the PI. "I want to thank you for getting Rod out of that jam."
Shaking the offered hand, Matt gave him a smile. "I'm sure he would have done the same for me."
The three watched as the units on the scene began rolling up their hoses and leaving. "Might as well bring your truck down closer." Weston turned to look at Matt.
"Alright. Think I'm going to crank up the heater and warm up a little, too." As he approached the truck he looked up to see crews from four different TV stations covering the fire, including Tamara Placer. The blonde reporter tried to cross the caution tape and was immediately removed by Larry Carlisle, for which Matt was grateful. For some reason that he couldn't fathom, the reporter seemed to turn up no matter where he was.
Matt climbed inside the truck, moved it down closer and turned the heat on. There was a tap on the passenger side window and Rich opened the door.
"Mind if I join you?"
"No, come on in." He yawned.
"Sorry to get you out of bed again."
"It wouldn't have been so bad if I had been there a couple of hours longer." The PI grinned. "Finally got my butt in the bed at 11:30." He yawned again. "Why does stuff always happen in the middle of the night? That's when Michael calls me half the time."
"My granddad had a saying: "Nothing good ever happens after midnight." He was right, too." The pair talked on for a while until CJ parked next to the truck. "Ah, your better half is here."
The two men rolled out of the truck, Matt yawning once again before giving his wife a kiss on the cheek and walking to the hatch of the Navigator. "How's it going, Rich?" CJ gave the captain a big smile.
"Pretty good. Sorry to disturb you so early."
"Nah, I was awake." She watched her husband remove some of the gear and walk toward the front of the SUV, opening a door on it and one on the truck.
"Figured I better make a changing room; Larry threatened to arrest me for indecent exposure earlier." He chuckled as he once again began stripping.
"You look more than decent to me." She gave him a big smile and wiggled her eyebrows.
"I told him you'd say that." Matt got into the suit and zipped up the back before closing the doors and emerging, going to the hatch once more and retrieving his fins and mask. "Gonna stick around?"
"Sure." She walked with him as he pulled a tank out of Rod's SUV and got everything connected.
Mark Weston came over and Matt introduced the two. "It's nice to put a face with a voice." The lawyer laughed.
"Same here." Turning to the two men he spoke again. "I'm going to head out. Let me know how it goes, will you?" He and Matt shook hands again. "And thanks again, Houston."
"No problem, Chief." Matt put the tank on his back and headed for what was left of the dock while carrying an underwater video camera.
"Be careful, Cowboy." She couldn't help but worry about him.
"I will, Babe." He listened as Rich explained the camera operation, flipped on the light for him and then watched as Matt entered the water. Booms had been put out in an effort to keep the oil and fuel that were still left from contaminating any more water.
Rich opened up a laptop and after a few keystrokes an image of the wreckage appeared on the screen. The captain whistled. "That's a lot of money shot to hell."
"They were talking about it on the radio saying that there was an explosion."
Rich nodded his head in the direction of the marina's office. "A security guard says that somebody took off in a boat a few minutes before."
"I'm sure people come and go out here at all hours."
"Uh huh, but this one was leaving at full throttle – and this is a no-wake area. He said they were really scooting. What is he doing?"
Matt had turned the camera toward himself and was signaling. After watching for a few seconds CJ knew what he meant. "He says there are three bodies down there."