“Yes, come on, Annabelle.” Rob Chapman had the look of a small boy, just about to receive a present. “Where is it?”
“I haven’t got a clue where it is. But, what I have got is a hunch.”
“A hunch?” Dillon said, dismayed by this revelation. “But your message said that you knew where it was. You led us to believe that you knew the exact location, Annabelle. And now we’ve wasted an entire days diving, waiting for you to tell us that all you’ve got is a hunch.”
LJ glared at Dillon and quickly cut-in by saying. “Annabelle, take no notice of Jake’s comments. You say, a hunch. About what exactly?”
“The Nautical Lady.” Annabelle replied.
“What about her?” Rob Chapman said.
“Look, I know it’s a long shot. But I think the boat’s sat-nav will show us where Pops went that morning.”
“Of course, why didn’t we think of that in the first place.” Vince said, as he stood up. “Well there’s no time like the present, let’s go and take a look.”
They went down the slipway and onto the beach. Kurt watched as Dillon dragged the inflatable to the water’s edge, and then as they all jumped in. Chapman sat in the stern, started the outboard and they moved out into the harbour.
“What are they doing?” Pierre asked impatiently.
“Be quite, Frenchman. They’re going out to Cunningham’s boat, by the look of it.”
“Now what?” Pierre asked.
“We wait, and then report back to Herr Malakoff.” Kurt replied.
Chapman powered up the electrical systems and switched on the light in the cockpit. While Vince moved up and positioned himself in front of the main console, and booted up the sat-nav screen.
“Well, Annabelle,” LJ said, “Let’s hope that your hunch is correct, and that we’re able to access the Nautical Lady’s last known position before she returned to Bonne Nuit.”
“Would Nathan have had the navigation system switched on though?” Dillon asked.
“Dubious.” Chapman replied.
“You’re quite right Rob. Commander Cunningham didn’t have it activated on the morning of his last dive. The last time it was used was three weeks ago.” Vince said.
“That would have been when we went out together to visit one of the wrecks on the east coast.” Chapman said thoughtfully.
“So where do we go from here?” LJ said.
“Well, for starters we need to look at what divers do religiously after each dive.” Chapman replied.
Dillon broke in, “You mean the diver’s log, don’t you?”
“Spot on, Jake. Every diver that I’ve ever known, always keeps a detailed record of each dive. It’s standard practice.”
“What about checking the equipment?” Annabelle asked.
“Good idea, and check if anything is missing.” Dillon said.
“What are you all talking about?” LJ demanded, but everyone was busy checking and searching the boat.
“Nathan is meticulous about stowing everything in its place. But where would he keep his diver’s log?” Chapman said.
Annabelle was in the main cabin, reached inside an overhead locker on the port side and found it at once. It was inside an aluminium waterproof case, with Commander Nathan Cunningham stamped into the metal. She went back up to the cockpit and handed it to Dillon.
Dillon stood looking down at the shiny case, and then snapped it open and pulled out the leather bound book. It looked rather like any other small diary, the sort that you’d keep in your pocket or a woman might keep in her handbag. Dillon slowly flicked through the pages until he came to the last entry.
“Commander Cunningham’s last entry reads; Dived to forty-five feet, and then down into trench at sixty feet, Devil’s Hole.”
“Devil’s Hole?” Chapman said incredulously. “But that can’t be right, I mean, that area is out of bounds.”
“The entry continues; dense carpet of vegetation, that usually covers seabed has been ripped out in places by last night’s storm, has exposed a deep trench. Swam along it towards the shore, right up to a partially exposed tunnel entrance in the rock face, and left a spare bottle just inside opening. Battled for seven minutes against water flow. This opens out into an enormous cavern. Surprise of my life, have found a type V11C U-boat inside. Tied up to a granite ledge, partially submerged with some conning tower damage.”
“Good God, that hunch of yours has certainly paid off, my dear.” LJ said warmly.
“It was so simple, the answer to the mystery was on board Nathan’s boat all the time.” Chapman said.
Everyone looked on, as Dillon closed the book and put it back inside the watertight cover. He gave it to LJ, and said, “I think we’ve all earned our dinner, and I for one, could murder a drink or two as well.”
Kurt and Pierre watched them from high up on the hill. Kurt said, “They’ve found something on board Cunningham’s boat, I can sense it.” He used his mobile phone to call Malakoff and give him an update.
Back on shore, they returned to the Café and a table in a quite corner inside overlooking the bay. Kate Jackson came around the bar with a tray full of drinks for a nearby table.
LJ caught her attention and said, “We’ll have that wine now, Miss Jackson, if you please.” He leant back on his chair. “Tomorrow, lady and gentlemen, we can really get down to finding what we came here for.”
Dillon said to Chapman, “This Devil’s Hole, what did you mean about it being out of bounds?”
“The Devil’s Hole. It’s not far from here, you may recall that while we were searching that stretch of coast the other day, I took us out about half a mile or so. Well that was to give, ‘The Hole’ a wide berth. No one ever dives there, the waters are just too treacherous.”
“So how does anyone know this, if no one has ever dived there?” Dillon asked.
“Oh, during the nineteen thirties, there were divers foolhardy enough to venture there. Five in fact. Only one of those five, ever came back up to the surface.” Chapman paused, “After that day, he never went into the sea again. Some say, that he’d come as close to death as any man could, and that he’d said, the devil himself had been after him.”
“I’ve never heard such, mumbo jumbo.” LJ cut in, “Was the man drunk, do you think?”
“I’ve no idea, LJ. It’s an old story, and whether it’s mumbo jumbo or not, I can tell you that it’s the reason why the tunnel entrance has never been found before.” Chapman said dryly.
“So why on earth did Commander Cunningham dive there, if he knew how dangerous it is?” Dillon asked.
“I’m sure your boss knows the answer to that, Jake.” Annabelle said.
“How right you are, my dear, and of course I do know the answer. Because Nathan told me why, the very first time he came to see me at my office. He admitted straight away, that even at his age, he was still an adrenaline junky. And that he only dropped anchor there, after he’d spotted something unusual on the seabed that had showed up on the monitor screen in the cockpit of the Nautical Lady. His diver’s log confirms that this was in fact the channel that allowed the sub to enter the tunnel. We can also be certain that this would only have shown up because the sea was much calmer than usual, and that large areas of the seabed had been stripped out by the previous night’s storm.” LJ stopped talking as Kate Jackson appeared around the corner with the wine. She took everyone’s food order, and was about to pour the wine, when a commotion broke out at a table on the other side of the room.
“You’re just like all the other married men I’ve known. A lying, cheating little shit.” The young blonde haired woman said, tears rolling down over her cheeks. Turning, she started to leave, but at the door, changed her mind and went back to the table. Picked up a full carafe of red wine, and to the swarthy looking man’s extreme embarrassment, emptied the entire contents of it into his lap. She then calmly handed the carafe back to him, and walked out smiling. Much to the amusement and clapping of all the other diners, including Dillon and the others.