Murdock stared at the news story in the San Diego Union-Tribune. It had made the front page. “Former Coronado SEAL Murdered in Santa Barbara.” He read the item quickly.
“Santa Barbara Deputy Sheriff Nevin Irwin…”
“Damn, it’s Irwin, he’s dead,” Murdock blurted out. Lieutenant Ed DeWitt looked up from the training chart he was writing. “Irwin? Nevin Irwin, who used to be in Team Five?”
“Yeah. I interviewed him a couple of times to come to our platoon. Then he blew out a knee. I knew he was up at Santa Barbara with the Sheriff’s Department.” He read the article aloud.
“The body of missing former Navy SEAL Nevin Irwin, a county deputy sheriff, washed up on Goleta Beach this morning. The county coroner said the body had been in the water for up to a week. Irwin had been reported missing at the Sheriff’s Department six days ago when he failed to report to work.
“His vehicle, a late-model SUV, was found near Goleta Point, where many surfers and divers often park. Irwin wore a full wet suit and an underwater breathing device. The coroner said death was due to a deep knife wound through the side that penetrated the wet suit. There was also seawater in the victim’s lungs.
“Irwin had been with the Sheriff’s Department for almost two years, had as his special assignment all water-related problems, and did whatever diving the sheriff needed doing.
“Sheriff Kirkendol expressed regrets at the death, and praised Irwin as an ideal deputy. He said Irwin had not been on any specific assignment involving the beach or the channel and that he did little recreational diving. Sheriff Kirkendol said the murder of the deputy would be investigated thoroughly and the perpetrator would be brought to justice.”
Murdock passed the paper to DeWitt, who read it and looked up. “Most SEALs don’t lose underwater knife fights.”
“Unless he was outnumbered three or four to one.” Murdock stared at the paper. A former SEAL killed in the water. That was unusual. Who would be skillful enough to do that? Another SEAL or some other highly trained diver. Who and from where? He looked at DeWitt. “You have the training sked worked out for the rest of the week?”
“Nearly done, Commander.”
“Good, you’ve got the con. I’m going to take three days leave and I’ll see you next Monday.”
Ed looked up, then nodded. “My guess is you’re going up to Santa Barbara.”
“Thought I might, but you don’t need to tell anyone. I’ll tell the master chief. He can reach me on my cell phone if we get an alert.”
Ed stood. “My guess is you’ll be needing your full wet suit and a Draegr.”
“Might just need them at that, Ed. Thanks. You take care of the store.”
Just after noon that same day, Blake Murdock sat across the desk from Sheriff Kirkendol. He wore civilian clothes and had just shown the sheriff his military ID and his SEAL Special Duty Card.
“Sheriff, I knew Nevin Irwin. He wasn’t in my platoon, but I had interviewed him twice. If he hadn’t blown out his knee he would have been one of my men. It bothers me that a former SEAL was killed in a knife fight in the channel. Our men are highly trained in knife fighting in and out of the water. In the water there are few men in the world who can beat us.”
“We can’t say for sure he was killed in the water, Commander. He might have been drowned first, then stabbed, or the other way around.”
“Still, it would take an extremely skilled and trained man to do it to Irwin. If that’s so, you may be dealing here with something more than a shiv fight at a tavern.”
The sheriff shifted in his seat, took a sip of his coffee, and stared at Murdock over the rim of the cup.
“Commander, I don’t know just how much to tell you. Irwin wasn’t on a water assignment the night he was killed, but we had been talking about another water death of an oil-rig worker. The man had been snorkeling and became entangled in wire around one leg of his diving platform three feet underwater. He drowned. The wire hadn’t been there the day before.”
“You have any suspects?”
“Not for sure. The platform boss where the man died said the worker had been curious about another drilling platform. Said curious things were going on out there. Gifford, the drowned man, was a scuba instructor and led kids on free-diving tours. He was an expert in the water. The coroner’s report says he was clubbed on the head and then drowned.”
“So, Irwin wanted to check out that other oil platform?” Murdock asked.
“We did. Went on a safety inspection. Everything seemed normal. She was drilling, nothing out of order.”
“But Irwin wasn’t satisfied. You guess that he parked his car on the point and swam out to the other platform.”
The sheriff frowned. “I’m not sure of anything. But that is a strong possibility. Irwin wasn’t easy to get off a project once he got a sniff of something rotten. I’d bet my last twenty he swam out there the night he was killed.”
“What could they be doing illegal on that drilling rig?” Murdock asked. “It’s too small to store drugs on there that they took off some ship. They could be smuggling diamonds, but that would be a lot of extra trouble. What could be going on?”
“We’ve had reports of merchant freighters stopping at the platform,” the sheriff said. “Some stay a few hours, some overnight. Makes no sense to me.”
“A question. If they killed the first man and tried to make it look like an accident, why didn’t they do the same with Irwin? If they couldn’t, why would they let the body wash up on shore when it would be obvious he was murdered?”
“Bothered us here too. Our best ideas are that in the fight the other man might have been wounded and had to go for aid, or maybe he simply lost the body. It would sink right after being killed, and at night at even a hundred feet a black-clad body would be tough to find.”
“Makes sense, Sheriff. This is sounding more and more like something highly sensitive is happening on or near that tower. The ships stopping is puzzling. Were there many Orientals on that platform?”
“Yes, now that you mention it. The man who toured us around said they had a lot of foreign workers. They didn’t care what nationality they were if they were good at their jobs.”
“Orientals? Chinese?”
“I’m no expert telling Chinese from Japanese from Koreans, but I’d guess there were ten or fifteen Orientals out there who I saw.”
“Have you made a report to any other agency?”
“Just the Coast Guard. I reminded them that I have jurisdiction on the platforms, but they might want to keep an eye on them.”
“I was thinking more like the U.S. Attorney General’s office or the FBI.”
“Oh, hell, no. Why would they be interested?”
“I don’t know, just wondered.”
The two men looked at each other for a moment. Then the sheriff shook his head. “I can’t let you go out there, Commander. I lost one good man to whatever it is out there. I don’t want you on my conscience too.”
“Thanks for the warning, Sheriff. But I’m just a private citizen going for a nighttime swim.”
“You don’t know what’s out there, Commander.”
“No, but I know they are deadly, and knowing that, I’ll be ready for whoever shows up. I’d like to bring back one of those live divers they must have. There had to be more than one to get the drop on Irwin that way. He had to have been surprised and attacked from the side or the back while facing another fighter.”
“Are you better in the water than Irwin was?”
“Sheriff, I’ve killed at least a dozen divers in the water in my career. So far I’ve been better than the man facing me.”
“A dozen?”
“Sheriff, we’re SEALs. We work in places and on big and little jobs you never hear about. So don’t let me be a worry to you. If I find out anything, I’ll tell you, or the FBI or the CIA or the President. If I don’t, nothing is lost. If I don’t come back, I’ve met the man who’s better than I am at underwater fighting.”