Fatal Tide - Iris Johansen [14]
“That sounds great.”
“Yes, and totally unrealistic. But that's okay too.” She paused. “You call me if you need me. This has been coming for a long time, you know. If that dam breaks, I want to be there for you.”
“I'm fine. I'll expect you Friday afternoon.” She was silent a moment. “Thanks, Carolyn. Have I ever told you how much it means to me to have a good friend like you?”
“In one of your more sentimental moments I'm sure it came up. I'll see you Friday.” She hung up.
And today was Tuesday. Melis felt a wave of loneliness, and suddenly the weekend seemed a long time away. She had an impulse to call Carolyn back and—
Stop it. What would she do if she did call her back? Whine and tell her she'd changed her mind? She couldn't lean on anyone, not even Carolyn.
Just keep busy with the dolphins. Let the island soothe and heal her.
If that dam breaks, I want to be there for you.
There wasn't going to be a dam break. She was in control just as she'd always been.
And Friday wasn't that far away.
Fifteen minutes after Kelby got off the plane in Tobago, his phone rang.
“Is this soon enough for the first report?” Wilson asked. “I didn't want to keep you waiting.”
“Did anyone ever tell you that you're an overachiever?” He paid the porter as he got into the cab. “The docks,” he told the driver as he sat back in the cab. “What have you got for me?”
“Not as much as I'd like. You know about Lontana's professional background.”
“Not in the last year or so.”
“That's because he disappeared from sight about two years ago. No one knew where he was or what he was doing.”
“Some sort of exploration?”
“His ship never left Nassau harbor until about a year ago. Then he flew in and sailed out in the Last Home in a big hurry. He didn't tell anyone where he was going or when he'd be back.”
“Interesting.”
“And right after he left, some pretty rough types were searching for him in Nassau, asking questions in a very ugly way.”
“Where was Melis Nemid all this time?”
“On her island taking care of her dolphins.”
“Did she know where he was?”
“If she did, she wasn't talking.”
“Tell me about Melis Nemid.”
“Some more blanks. She seems to have hooked up with Lontana when she was a kid of sixteen. He was studying oceanic thermal vents off the coast of Santiago, Chile, and she was in the custody of a Luis Delgado. She was going to school and working for his Save the Dolphin foundation. According to Gary St. George, she was a quiet, withdrawn child, and her whole life seems to have been geared toward study and working with the dolphins. She's evidently one very smart cookie. Most of her education was home schooling on the Internet and on-the-job training. But she was accepted for college courses at sixteen and has earned an advanced degree in marine biology over the years.”
“Very smart.”
“And she seems to like her dolphins better than people. She's alone on that island most of the time. Of course, she did leave the island about six months ago to go to Florida. But that was to protest the bureaucracy that was interfering with the saving of stranded dolphins.”
“What happened to this Luis Delgado?”
“He moved to San Diego when she was sixteen.”
“And just left her?”
“That's one of the blanks. I only know that same week she sailed out of Santiago with Lontana and has been with him ever since. She's been on several of his explorations on the Last Home, but they seem to pretty much live their own lives.”
“And what about this island where she lives?”
“Lontana bought it with the money he received from salvaging that Spanish galleon. If you're thinking about paying her a visit, I wouldn't do it without an invitation. The only access is an inlet on the south side of the island, and that's barricaded by an electrified net to protect the dolphins. The vegetation is so lush that you can't even land a helicopter.”
“I wasn't going to pay her a visit yet. I'm renting a cruiser and staying here until you give me something