Page 7 of Vanished in the Mist (A Mystic Lake Mystery #2)
“Exactly that, yes. The instrumentation, including the depth-meter gauge, is sophisticated enough to give a pretty good picture—more or less—of what is at the bottom. Specifically, obstacles, hazards and, if we look in the right place, the item we’re searching for.”
“Like cars or boats? Is that what you search for most of the time?”
“Those make up a lot of our contracts. But we also get contracted for plenty of other things, like mapping out bodies of water to look for potential hazards to be removed before opening up for water traffic. We’ve discovered old cemeteries too, from the 1800s, as one example, that the government was forced to dig up and restore somewhere else, and have assisted treasure hunters by eliminating some areas from their searches. The list goes on and on.”
“Basically, if anyone needs any mysteries figured out under water, you’re the go-to guy.”
He smiled. “Go-to company, at least. We’re building quite the reputation, which is why your sister zeroed in on us after she went searching the internet for help.”
“You haven’t mentioned searching for bodies.”
“We don’t typically do that. But we do come upon them from time to time.
It’s unavoidable when locating vehicles that went off bridges, for example.
That special sonar I mentioned before is what I’ll use today to try to locate Tanya.
Give me a minute to change and I’ll show you.
” He headed down into the cabin and a few minutes later emerged in a pair of dark blue swim trunks.
Shanna’s eyes widened as she took in his change of clothing.
His naked chest in particular seemed to hold her attention.
When her roaming gaze finally met his, her cheeks flushed a light pink.
She cleared her throat and quickly looked away, clearly embarrassed to have been caught staring.
Since her staring seemed appreciative and admiring, he didn’t mind one bit.
It was good to know that she wasn’t completely immune to him, especially since he was definitely not immune to her.
“So what’s this scanner thing you said you would show me?” she asked. “Or was that a pickup line?”
He grinned. “If it was, did it work?”
For the first time in far too long, she smiled, a true smile that actually reached her deep blue eyes. “The change of clothes worked far better than the scanner line.”
If her face got any redder she’d look sunburned. But she didn’t back down from her statement or turn away.
He laughed when what he really wanted to do was kiss her.
But this wasn’t a date. And he didn’t want to risk making her uncomfortable if he was misreading her signals.
She was already uncomfortable enough on the water.
Worrying about a man she’d only just met making a pass at her wasn’t a burden he wanted to add to her already full plate.
“The scanner, the sonar, is out here.” He stepped around her and headed to the stern, crouching to pop open one of the built-in storage bins.
He grabbed a towel, then pulled out the lime-green container that resembled the kind of box that might house a drill.
But this was far better and more complicated than any power tool.
He opened it and took out the rectangular green-and-white device, holding it up by the long handle attached to the bottom.
Shanna frowned as she stood beside him. “It looks like a computer tablet with a handle.”
“That’s pretty much what it is, except that it’s waterproof. Shanna Hudson, meet my newest and by far coolest toy, AquaEye.”
“Aqua what?”
“AquaEye. It’s a handheld sonar device made by a company called VodaSafe. But what makes it so special isn’t the sonar alone, it’s the amazing software that goes with it. This piece of equipment is the main reason your sister asked me to come here.”
“She researched search-and-recovery companies and picked you because you have a handheld sonar?”
“Pretty much. Let’s say that someone drives their car off a bridge, like I mentioned earlier.
Law-enforcement rescue divers go in and try to find the driver and save them.
Of course, by the time they get there it’s normally a recovery, not an attempt at rescue.
But that’s what they do. They take the body.
My company is left to pull the car out. But finding the car in the first place isn’t always as simple as going into the water where the vehicle was believed to have gone.
A vehicle can end up being a long distance from where it went in, depending on the depth, currents and obstacles, or lack of them.
In some cases someone might have last been seen driving their car and no one even knows they ended up in the water.
The police might call us in that situation to search lakes and ponds near major roadways to see if the car went into any of them.
Either way, my company locates the vehicle and then works to tow it out of the water. ”
“But Tanya didn’t have a car. And she didn’t take either of her parents’ cars. So why does that handheld thing make a difference here?”
“This handheld device makes a world of difference because it’s specifically programmed to look for sonar signatures that could indicate human remains.”
“No way.”
“Way. It’s cutting-edge. When I heard about it, I got one for us to beta test. I’m not in the business to find human bodies.
But there are many times when we locate a vehicle for the police and expect a body to be inside but don’t find one.
All we typically can do at that point is give the coordinates of the vehicle to the law-enforcement divers so they can perform the search for the person who went into the water with it.
Once their part is done and the body is recovered, again, we recover the vehicle.
After so many experiences like that, I was frustrated at always having to pull back and wait for law enforcement to stumble around trying to locate the victim.
It can be a long, slow process, taking days or even weeks.
I wanted to be more proactive and provide better information to them so they could find the remains more quickly. ”
“How would my sister have known about this…sonar device, and have asked you to come here to search for Tanya?”
He tapped the AquaEye. “The local news in Charleston did a story about this equipment and highlighted my company as a beta tester. That’s why we came up in online searches when your sister was trying to get someone to help here at Mystic Lake.
This sonar, and its unique programming, just might give us a chance to bring Tanya’s remains home so her family can finally have closure. ”
She shook her head, her eyes full of wonder as she looked up at him. “A hottie with heart. Imagine that.”
He almost choked, then cleared his throat. “Can’t say I’ve ever been called that before.”
“Trust me. You have. Just not to your face.”
“You must be feeling a lot better. You’re smiling again.”
She sobered and glanced around, making him regret saying anything. She had a beautiful smile and he hated seeing that haunted look in her eyes.
“I almost forgot we were on the water,” she whispered.
He gently tilted her face up toward him. “I’m sorry that I reminded you.” In spite of his best intentions, he couldn’t resist temptation anymore. He took a chance that he was reading her right and pressed a quick kiss against her forehead. “I’m not the only hottie around here.” He winked.
She let out a burst of laughter, then covered her mouth.
Relief swept through him. He’d read her right.
And he was glad to have gotten her to laugh again.
And glad that she hadn’t slapped him for kissing her, even if it wasn’t on the lips.
He was starting to look forward to returning to her sister’s place later.
Spending some time with this interesting, beautiful woman in close quarters wouldn’t exactly be a hardship.
And maybe sometime soon he could give her a real kiss instead of a peck on the forehead.
But returning to the cabin wouldn’t happen until he finished his work here, so he’d better get to it.
After shrugging into his life jacket again, he opened the starboard-side panel near the rear of the boat to give him access to jump into the water.
“Wait,” Shanna called out, her eyes dark and shadowed again as she clung to the railing beside the opening, surprisingly close to the water in spite of her fears. “You’re going into the water without a tank and wetsuit and whatever else?”
“I’m not planning on diving just yet. I’m going to swim around at the surface and hold the sonar just below the water to see if it pinpoints any areas I need to search more thoroughly.
If it gets a potential hit, that’s when I’ll get my scuba gear.
I honestly don’t expect any hits right away.
It’s been almost a year since her disappearance.
Her body, if she went into the lake around here, could have moved quite some distance due to the currents.
That’s why I perform grid searches. I start at the last known location, or in this case, the last suspected location.
Then I spread out from there, tracking on my maps where I’ve searched and where I still need to search. ”
“Makes sense. But…if you’re swimming, and you need help, I can’t… I don’t know how to…”
“You can’t swim?”
She shook her head. “No. I mean yes. But I haven’t, not in a long time. And, honestly, even if I needed to, I don’t know that I could. I’d probably drown because the panic would make me freeze.” Her cheeks flushed red. “I’m really sorry. I’m not much help out here.”