The Girl Beneath the Sea (Underwater Investigation Unit #1)(41)

Solar pulls into a parking space in the lot behind the Straw Hut, and we get out. I’m suddenly self-conscious of the fact that I’m dressed like a teenager at an eighties concert. Would it have killed us to throw my clothes in the dryer?

“What’s the problem?” asks Solar.

I’m being ridiculous. “Nothing. I just realized I don’t look very coplike.” Disheveled hooker is more like it. Although George’s extra pistol’s still on me.

“That’s a good thing,” he replies.

He’s dressed in the standard Florida male attire of shorts and a polo shirt, but his demeanor screams cop.

“And you?” I ask.

“Anybody I don’t want to know I’m a cop already knows who I am. It doesn’t make a difference what I wear.” He gives me a long look. “Are you worried about this Albert guy?”

“Les? No. Let’s go see what he says.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

TRAWL

Les Albert is sitting on a stool at the far corner of the rectangular bar. The Miami Hurricanes are playing the Tar Heels, and he’s watching while sipping a beer. He’s a large, barrel-chested man with a red-and-silver beard that flows over his neck and onto a pink Tommy Bahama shirt.

I’ve run into him a few times over the years, usually sitting at his same spot this time of night. When he sees me, he gives me a big grin. “Hey, Sloany!”

I walk over and give him a hug. “What’s up, Mr. Albert?”

“Watching the game. Same as ever.” He eyes George Solar. “We met before?”

“I think I questioned you a few times,” Solar replies.

“Right. Right.” He holds up his hands. “Still clean.”

“Yeah, but your friends aren’t.”

“You’re one to talk,” Albert says with a half smile. “Can I buy you two a beer?”

I shake my head. “No, thanks.”

“Sure,” says Solar.

Albert motions for the woman behind the bar to bring us two Coronas. “What can I do for you? I take it this isn’t a social visit.”

“Uh, we were just in the neighborhood,” I reply.

“She your trainee?” he asks Solar. “You need to work on that.”

“I’m retired. She’s too stubborn. You work with what you got.”

“Too stubborn is right. Damn McPhersons,” says Albert as he taps the neck of his Corona bottle against mine.

I take the component from my pocket and drop it on the bar. “What’s that?”

He picks it up. “You tried googling it?”

“I stopped after one of the results said butt plug.”

Albert drops the part on the counter. “I have no idea. Sorry.”

“Really?”

I’d thought if anyone would know, it would be him.

“He knows,” says Solar.

Albert shakes his head. “Afraid I don’t.”

“Take a guess,” says Solar.

“It’s really not my thing.” Albert seems almost afraid.

“I thought you knew electronics,” I reply.

“Not anymore. There’s lots of new Chinese stuff out there. I’m retired.”

“We found this in Winston Miller’s pocket. He’s dead, by the way,” I explain.

Albert’s eyes go wide as he stares at me. I can tell he’s truly shocked.

“Oh, we didn’t kill him. Someone else did. Maybe they were looking for this. We don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you what it is.”

Albert turns to Solar. “Is that supposed to make me want to talk?”

Solar shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess she thinks being honest will encourage you to be straightforward. Does it?”

“Hell, no. It scares the shit out of me. Winston’s dead?”

“Come on, Albert. You knew he was involved in something,” I reply.

“But you saw the body?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck.” He downs the rest of his beer. “Goddamn it.”

“So, what is it?” I ask.

“Sloany, now is clearly not a good time to know anything about anything.”

“Now is not a good time, period. I could tell you how my week started, pulling Winston’s dead daughter out of the water. But all I really need to know is what this is.”

Albert gives Solar a distrustful look. “You trust him?”

“No,” I reply flatly. “But if you don’t, then you can assume whatever you don’t tell me here, he’ll get out of you later with a knife at your liver.”

“Jesus. Fine. It’s a transceiver. You plug it into a radio.”

“That’s it?” I ask skeptically. “Just a run-of-the-mill radio part?”

Albert looks around the room, then lowers his voice. “It’s military. More precisely, naval. Very low frequency, but it can handle data. Basically, a low-frequency modem.”

“What good is that?” asks Solar.

I know where this is going. “Underwater, right? You could use this for an underwater radio?”

Albert nods. “Yep. Expensive. It uses a special kind of phased array to create a virtual antenna.”