They were supported by people from around the world, rich and poor alike. Their contributors included people who adopted a dolphin for a small donation and sustainers who, in return for their substantial support, were allowed to see some of the research as it was being conducted and were invited to attend a picnic-style fete each year, as well as being welcomed to various small meetings where the centers newest findings were presented. There was, in fact, a dinner planned for that evening. It would be Laras first chance to attend such a special occasion, because there werent many of them, and as a new employee she was lucky to find one happening so soon after she was hired. At Sea Life, every contributor was appreciated, and with nonprofit enterprises continually reliant on the philanthropy of others, it was important to always let all their contributors know how much they were valued. And tonight a few of their major supporters would be on hand. Lara didnt know much about Grant Blackwood of Eden Industries or Ely Taggerly of Taggerly Pharmaceuticals. She did know that Mason Martinez, CEO of Good Health Miami, had a nationwide reputation for his healthful lifestyle clinics and the preventive medicine practiced there. She was also familiar with Sonia Larson of Sonia Fashions.
In fact, she owned a number of Sonias pieces, trendy business fashions that didnt cost an arm and a leg. She was anxious to meet the woman, along with all the others, of course.
Laras job tonight was to seat everyone and see that they were happy with the food and everyone had a good time while the trainers and scientists talked about their research and results. It hardly seemed like work.
And then there was the day-to-day here at Sea Life. Always time to walk around the lagoons and talk to the dolphins.
Lara felt shed truly found a haven. She loved all the dolphinsbut especially Cocoa.
Cocoa was in the front left lagoon that day, her usual location, though occasionally she was shifted to a different lagoon for training purposes. There were six underwater enclosures for the dolphins at the facility, front, right and left, and then two more behind each of those, with a sandbar-like island at the rear that more or less created a back street to approach the lagoons. The last two were the largest, where the adolescent males were kept. They could be rough when they played, just like teenage boys, and since two of the females had calves that were just a few months old, they were happiest away from the antics of the boys. The lagoons were all connected via underwater gates so the dolphins could be moved around for training and medical purposes.
Each lagoon had a floating dock for trainers, medical personal and the visitors who were part of a swim program, as well as a floating platform farther out in the water.
Lara sat down on the dock. Good morning, Cocoa! she called.
The dolphin made that clicking sound again, disappeared for a minute, then came up near Lara in a magnificent leap and welcomed her with a showering spray of seawater.
Lara laughed. Yes, yes, youre lovely and talented, and that actually felt very good. Love the sun, but it is warm. That water felt great. This is such a beautiful day, she said.
And it really was. Stunningly beautiful. The sun was shining, making the water sparkle. A breeze was drifting in off the bay, rustling the palms and sea grape trees that grew along the stone paths and by the docks. By afternoon it would be hot, and they might be caught by one or more of the torrential storms that could hit the area in the summer and into the fall. But right now, it was simply beautiful. The sky was a true bright blue; the water was like a sea of diamonds.
The move to Miami had been a good idea.
She was actually living in Coconut Grove, an area of the city that was historically artsy, with a downtown that was hopping until what seemed like all hours of the morning. It was a ten-minute hop over to the research facility, which was situated on a small private road off one of the bridges that connected the city with Miami Beach, which meant it was near other attractions, such as downtown Miami, the Art and Design District, South Beach, the Port of Miami, Jungle Island and the Childrens Museum. While the area surrounding Sea Life was busy and modern, the facility itself had an old-time charm. The foliage was a little wild and ragged, iguanas roamed freely, and birds were everywhere. The best of both worlds.
And I so desperately needed the change, she thought.
Yesa complete change. She had even started going by her mothers maiden name, Ainsworth. The trauma she had fled had been one thing; she was strong. The constant publicity had been another. Ironic, since media was what she had done as a congressional assistantand was mainly what she was still doing now. Of course, her boss, Grady Miller, knew who she was and what she had fled from. He was supportive and wonderful, and she trusted him completely.
And why wouldnt she? Grady was friends with Adam Harrison, executive director of the Krewe of Hunters, her best friends unit at the FBI. Without Meg Murray and her unit, Lara wouldnt have survived.
Hey! Rick called to her, heading from the service building with a cooler filled with fish. Youre here bright and early.
I understand that this is very special. That even employees dont get free swims all that often, Lara told him, grinning.
She liked Rick; he was probably about fifty, weathered from years in the sun, slim and fit. He was married to Adrianna, another of the trainers. She had actually met Adrianna first, right here, just two years ago when she had been at her previous job, doing media for then-congressman Ian Walker. Due to a series of murders in Washington, DC, with which Walker had been involvedindirectly, or so he allegedhe was no longer a congressman.
Murdersand Laras own kidnapping and imprisonment, naked and starving, in the dank underground of an abandoned gristmill in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
But she had survived, and now she was here, building a new life. Rick knew all about her past; he also knew that shed survived mainly because of the ingenuity of a friend who worked for the FBI, and that shed received extensive therapy since. To be honest, she hadnt felt that shed needed all the therapy; shed come out of the experience grateful for her life, and furious with anyone who would commit atrocities and murder for personal gain. The henchman who had actually carried out the vile acts was, she was convinced, truly certifiably crazy, but that didnt mean she was unhappy about the fact that he was going to rot in jail for the rest of his life, or that the woman whose manipulative will had set him on his murderous course would rot along with him.
Well, Lara, you should definitely be in the water with these babies, Rick said. Theres nothing in the world like getting to know Cocoa and her buds. We bring in wounded soldiers, autistic kidsyou name it. This interaction is good for whatever ails you.
Rick, she told him firmly, Im absolutely fine, and I dont want people tiptoeing around me. Im here to do a bang-up job with Sea Lifes PR. Not that Im not beyond excited to get to know Cocoa better.
Okay, well start our training session on the platform, he told her. And then well get in the water. No bull, though. Ill kick you out in two seconds if I dont think youre going to be a good fit with the dolphins, okay?
Okay.
From the platform, Rick began to teach her the hand signals that Cocoa knew. Lara dutifully imitated every sign Rick made, and Cocoa responded like a champ. She learned from Rick about the vitamins they gave to their dolphins to compensate because they didnt hunt their fish from the wild, and how they were given freshwater, too, something they usually got from their fishand still didbut this ensured that their intake was sufficient, and they loved it. The biggest issue was trust, Rick told her. No dolphin was forced to perform or workever, under any circumstances.
Rick, she told him firmly, Im absolutely fine, and I dont want people tiptoeing around me. Im here to do a bang-up job with Sea Lifes PR. Not that Im not beyond excited to get to know Cocoa better.
Okay, well start our training session on the platform, he told her. And then well get in the water. No bull, though. Ill kick you out in two seconds if I dont think youre going to be a good fit with the dolphins, okay?
Okay.
From the platform, Rick began to teach her the hand signals that Cocoa knew. Lara dutifully imitated every sign Rick made, and Cocoa responded like a champ. She learned from Rick about the vitamins they gave to their dolphins to compensate because they didnt hunt their fish from the wild, and how they were given freshwater, too, something they usually got from their fishand still didbut this ensured that their intake was sufficient, and they loved it. The biggest issue was trust, Rick told her. No dolphin was forced to perform or workever, under any circumstances.
How on earth do they learn what a hand signal means to begin with? Lara asked. I mean, its not like you can explain, Hey, when I raise my hand like this, I want you to make that chattering noise while you back up on your flukes.
Rick grinned. We use targets, and its a long processexcept for sometimes when we work with the calves and they just follow their moms. Dolphins are social creatures, and theyre curious about us, too. They like interaction, and they love learning. When the trainer blows a whistle after a task, its to tell the dolphin that he, or she, did it properly. Its called positive reinforcement, and I dont know of any facility that uses anything else. When the dolphin hears the whistle, he knows to come to the trainer for a reward. It may be fish, like weve been using today. Sometimes its a toy and sometimes its a lot of stroking. Dolphins are mammals. Theyre affectionate. Oddly enough, a lot like aquatic dogs, but even smarter. Smart as all get-out. I love working with them. Id honestly rather be doing what Im doing than be a millionaire working on Wall Street. I wake up happy every day, and I get to work in paradise, with my friends and these amazing creatures. Youre truly going to love it here.
I already love it, she assured him. I knew I would.
She did love what she was doing. The first week shed started, half of her media work had been planning out her own press spin, getting the media to get past her move to Miami and the Sea Life Center and concentrate on the dolphins and the work being done here. She thought shed handled it very well. The news was always fickle; a high-profile celebrity had been involved in a sex scandal, a policeman in Oregon had been accused of taking bribes from prostitutes and the world had quickly begun to forget her. In the past three weeks she had been able to work with a society that arranged dolphin interactions for autistic children, adults and children with Down syndrome and an organization involved with veterans affairs and helping wounded servicemen and women. Writing press releases that dealt with the good things going on in the world wasnt like working at all.
It was a bit more of a challenge to politely fend off reality-show producers or convince the rich and famous that they had to go by the same rules here as everyone else. No one was allowed to just hop in and play with the dolphins; trainers always called the shots. And, of course, no one bossed a dolphin around; if a dolphin didnt want to play, it didnt have to play. Each animal could escape human interaction if and when it chose to do so. There was no drama. No one interviewed anyone without the express permission of Willem Rodriguez, who had provided Grady with the financing to buy the place a quarter of a century ago. Willem had used his business savvy in the years since then to make Sea Life what it was now: an excellently run nonprofit with a top staff of trainers and veterinarians. It was one of the most important aquatic mammal centers in the States, possibly the world.
Ready to get in the water? Rick asked her.
You bet!
Lara slid in; Rick stayed on the dock.
Youre not coming in? she asked him.
No, Ive had all kinds of dorsal tows in my day. Im going to teach you how to get one when you need one, though, whether youre in the water or youre on the platform, okay?
Okay. Thank you.
Swim out into the center of the lagoon, he told her. Youve seen this done, so you know the hand signal. Give that signal and Cocoa will come get you. Just grasp onto her dorsal fin and go for a ride!
Lara swam out. The day was heating up; the water was still deliciously cool. This was so entirely different from what she had left behind.
Life was good.
* * *
There was something strangely but beautifully surreal about the sight of Maria Gianni Gomez in the banyan tree.
It was almost as if shed been posed.
Her arms were spread out almost gently, forming a casual arc over her head. Her face was turned slightly to the right.
Her eyes were open.
She was dressed in a flowing white robe. A small branch lay over her lower body, as if set there by a modest and benign hand that might have reached down with ethereal care. The great banyan with its reaching, twisting roots had grown in such a way that the center, where Maria lay, might have been scooped out to create a bed for her.
If it werent that death was so visible in her open eyes, she could have been a model posing for any one of the sometimes very strange commercial shoots that took place in the notoriously and historically bohemian section of Miami.
Brett Cody was standing next to his partner, Diego McCullough, and looking up at the tree, studying the body where it lay.
Ladder? he asked Diego.
One of the Miami-Dade cops went to get one. Hell be right here, along with the medical examiner, Diego said. You got here fast, he noted.
Were not all that far from Virginia Street, he reminded Diego. He lived right down from the mall that was more or less central to the area, almost walking distance to this North Grove area of nicer homes. You got here pretty quick yourself.
Diego nodded. I was at the coffee shop, he said glumly. This is just...so wrong.
She should have been protected, Brett said, a feeling of deep anger sweeping over him. But someone out there had killed Miguelwho, after all, had made his living in the drug trade, where violence was commonand now had come after his widow, it appeared.
But how?
She had a state-of-the-art alarm system and steel bolts on the doors, and theres no sign of forced entry, Diego said.
We need to talk to the fed who was duty in front of the house when it happened, Brett said. We knew Miguels killers might think she knew too much, so we were keeping a watch on her.
He thought she jumped, Diego told him. She was deeply depressed, devastated, after Miguels murder. You dont think thats possible?
No, Brett said quickly. Too harshly. He understood how the officer might have gotten that impression; the tree was fairly close to the master bedroom balcony, which overlooked the pool and the patio area.
But, Brett was certain, no matter what kind of an athlete she might have been when she was young, there was no way she could have jumped from the balcony and wound up where she was.