Distant Echoes Read online

  Praise for Distant Echoes

  BY COLLEEN COBLE

  “Colleen Coble has concocted a tangy whodunit and spiced it up with just the right amount of romance, intrigue, inspiration, and a generous splash of spine-tingling suspense. Sit back, put your feet up, and try to sip it slowly—if you can! Aloha!”

  —Kathy Herman, author of the Baxter Series and Poor Mrs. Rigsby

  “This story of restoration steeped in Hawaiian tradition and culture will make you want to pack you bags and head for the islands. Aloha, baby!”

  —Stephanie Grace Whitson, author of A Garden In Paris

  “In Distant Echoes, Colleen Coble paints a picture of Hawaii that is as real as the characters she breathes to life. Rich detail, realistic romance, and you’ll-never-guess suspense make this a story you won’t want to put down until the last page. This story will echo in my mind for a long time.”

  —Denise Hunter, author of Saving Grace

  “Colleen Coble soars and delivers with Distant Echoes. If romance, suspense, and action, blended with a strong Christian message are what you’re looking for, Distant Echoes is it. From the first word I was hooked.”

  —William Kritlow, author of Driving Lessons

  and the Lake Champlain Mystery Series

  “Colleen Coble is the master of romantic suspense. Whether we’re tracking villians, swimming with dolphins, or enjoying a luau, Distant Echoes delivers the best in suspense, action, romance, and family drama. I love a book that takes me someplace I’ve never been and Colleen’s Aloha Reef Series does that wonderfully! I can’t wait to come back and visit again.”

  —Kathryn Mackel, author of The Surrogate and The Departed

  “No one does romantic suspense like Colleen Coble: Tightly-plotted, deeply-drawn characters and, as always, a fascinating setting! Colleen only gets better and I highly recommend Distant Echoes for an exciting adventure vacation without ever leaving home!”

  —Kristin Billerbeck, author of What a Girl Wants

  and She’s Out of Control

  “Distant Echoes, the first of The Aloha Reef Series, is another of the quality novels we have all grown to expect from Colleen Coble. The fast-paced suspense, well-crafted romance, vivid descriptions, deep spiritual insights and fascinating glimpses into Hawaiian culture will keep you reading until the very last page. And of course, there are the heart-tugging animal scenes, with Nani the dolphin a very worthy successor to Samson, everyone’s favorite Search and Rescue canine. It is easy to see why Colleen is a RITA finalist.”

  —Hannah Alexander, author of Last Resort and Note of Peril

  “In Distant Echoes, Colleen Coble sets her suspense in glorious Hawaii. Her heroine, Kaia, seeks to communicate with her special friend, a dolphin, but the past swirls in with the tropical tide. Not just Kaia’s past, but many dangerous currents sweep in threatening lives and futures.”

  —Lyn Cote, author of The Women of Ivy Manor series

  “Distant Echoes is a well-crafted story filled with page-turning intrigue and suspense. I loved the details of Hawaiian culture sprinkled throughout. A fun, yet moving read. Highly recommended!”

  —Marlo Schalesky, author of Only the Wind Remembers

  OTHER BOOKS BY COLLEEN COBLE:

  The Rock Harbor Series

  Without a Trace

  Beyond a Doubt

  Into the Deep

  © 2005 by Colleen Coble

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

  Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Scripture references are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Coble, Colleen.

  Distant echoes / Colleen Coble.

  p. cm.- (The Aloha Reef series ; bk. 1)

  ISBN 0-7852-6042-0 (trade paper)

  I. Title.

  PS3553.O2285D577 2005

  813'.6—dc22

  2004022254

  Printed in the United States of America

  05 06 07 08 09 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4

  For my perfect, wonderful children

  who bring me joy every day

  David Coble Jr.

  Kara Coble

  Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-one

  Twenty-two

  Twenty-three

  Twenty-four

  Twenty-five

  Twenty-six

  Twenty-seven

  Twenty-eight

  Twenty-nine

  Thirty

  Hawaiian Language Pronunciation Guide

  Acknowledgments

  A pronunciation guide for the Hawaiian language

  is included as a resource in the back of the book.

  Do you not know?

  Have you not heard?

  The LORD is the everlasting God,

  the Creator of the ends of the earth.

  He will not grow tired or weary,

  and his understanding no one can fathom.

  —Isaiah 40:28

  One

  The turquoise water surrounded Kaia Oana in a warm, wet blanket of delight. She angled her body like a torpedo and zipped through the lagoon beside Nani. The Pacific bottle-nosed dolphin spiraled like a top then burst through the waves above Kaia’s head in a jump of pure joy.

  Kaia felt like doing the same. She arched her back and moved her hands through the water in the flowing hula movements she loved. The movement felt like a prayer, and in many ways, it was. She smiled and kicked her fins, shooting to the top of the water with Nani.

  Her head broke the surface three feet from her boat, Porpoise II, as it rocked gently in the small swells off the island. She blinked salt water out of her eyes then waved at her brothers before turning her gaze to the Na Pali coastline. It soared some four thousand feet and touched clouds that covered the peaks with mist. If she squinted her eyes just right, one rock looked like a brontosaurus straight out of Jurassic Park.

  The music from the CD player she’d brought echoed on the wind. Amy Hanaiali`i Gilliom sang “Palehua,” a song about the way Hawaii’s mountains call to the soul. Today Kaia felt that pull strongly. She swam to the boat and slipped off her fins then climbed into the Porpoise II. The Hawaiian trade winds brought more than mere salt-laden breezes today, a sure sign that the perfect day with her two brothers was about to end.

  Bane sat in the bow with his fishing pole over the side. He saw Kaia and nodded toward the clouds. “Auê ! You didn’t check
the weather again, did you?” Her brother’s tone was gentle and held only a hint of reproach. Mano looked up at the sky and then into the fish bucket, which held only a couple of small snapper.

  Kaia grabbed a towel and grinned at her brothers. “Why check? It hardly ever changes.” She would relish this time with them. They were so often separated these days.

  Nani rose on her tail and moved backward through the water. The dolphin gave a chirp then sank beneath the waves and chased brightly colored fish beneath Kaia’s boat. Two other dolphins, eager to play with Nani, jumped in front of the boat in perfect unison then swam away.

  They gave their pod’s characteristic “call,” a signature whistle that had been imprinted by their mother in the hours after birth. Nani had been only a few months old when Kaia found her as an orphaned calf, but when Kaia released her into the wild, she’d quickly joined this pod of six bottle-nosed dolphins. Nani never forgot Kaia was her “mother” though, and the two had formed a bond that had fueled Kaia’s obsession with dolphin research.

  Kaia laughed at their contagious joy then noticed a man along the shore staring out to sea through binoculars. A tourist probably. She watched him a bit longer. There was a curious intent in the way he stood, and a touch of unease stirred in her stomach. Her smile faded. She shook her head. Her imagination had a tendency to run wild.

  She turned to watch the dolphins again, never tiring of their grace. Nani chattered and swam to the boat. She pushed her nose against Kaia, and Kaia ran her hand over the dolphin’s sleek head. It felt like a warm inner tube. Nani butted her again, and Kaia laid her head against the dolphin. Nani seemed to sense her moods with an almost uncanny ability.

  Several warm drops of rain pattered onto the sea. Kaia lifted her face into the mist and watched the clouds swoop lower. Her brothers would want to get in, but she loved to be part of the elements, to smell the moisture and to experience the boat rolling along the waves.

  “Storm’s coming pretty quick now,” Mano said, putting away his gear.

  Kaia glanced at the sky. “We’d better get to shore.” She yanked on the boat’s anchor. As she bent over the boat and tugged at the rope, a vibration seemed to come out of nowhere. Kaia looked up and saw something pass overhead with a shriek that caused her to clap her hands to her ears.

  “Look out!” Mano shouted. He grabbed Kaia’s arm and forced her to sit down.

  The high-pitched sound surrounded Kaia and made her want to scream herself. The vibration intensified then rocked their vessel. She dropped her hands from her ears and grabbed the side of the boat. The vibration grew from a steady hum into thunder, ending in an explosion that seemed to fill the world. Bane reached over and steadied her or she would have toppled off her seat and into the water.

  Still holding her brother’s hand, Kaia stared in the direction of the blast. Thick, black smoke roiled up from the water to her east, nearer to shore. The echoes of shouts and screams rose above the sound of the waves and wind. She tore her gaze from the sight and turned to find Nani. Only the dolphin’s nostrum protruded from the water like a beak as she quivered at the commotion. She rolled to the side, exposing one eye that blinked with concern.

  “I think it’s a tourist boat!” Mano leaned forward with a pair of binoculars.

  Dread coiled in the pit of Kaia’s stomach. She squinted. “Can you see the boat’s name?”

  “Yeah, it’s the Squid.”

  “Laban’s boat!” She stared at her brothers and saw the same stricken expression she knew must be on her own face. Their cousin had only operated the tourist sightseeing catamaran a little over a year.

  New urgency fueled them. Bane pulled in the anchor. Mano started the motor.

  “Come, Nani!” Kaia shouted over the roar of the engine as the boat picked up speed. Mano turned the boat toward the disaster. Kaia leaned into the wind, frantically scanning the sea for people. The fresh scent of salt water mixed with an oily odor that clung to her nose and throat.

  The dolphin kept up with the Porpoise II as it slammed against the waves, the swells building now from the impending storm. As they drew nearer, she could see a sixty-foot catamaran on fire with at least a dozen people in the water.

  “I’ll call it in!” Mano turned and grabbed the radio mic.

  “Help me!” a woman screamed as she caught sight of Kaia.

  Kaia turned to seize a flotation cushion, but Bane beat her to it and tossed the cushion to the woman. A boy of about fourteen, his face blackened by smoke, swam toward the boat and reached out his hand. Bane hauled him in.

  The boy landed on the deck. “My mom!” he panted. He scrambled to all fours and pointed to another woman floating face-down in the water.

  The woman wasn’t moving. Kaia dove overboard. The mounting waves tossed her about as she swam to the woman. She rolled the boy’s mother over. The woman’s eyes were closed, and she didn’t appear to be breathing. Kaia fought the whitecaps and towed the woman to the boat then pushed her into Bane’s arms. He pulled the limp figure over the edge.

  “I know CPR,” the boy panted. “Please find my sister. She’s out there somewhere.” He bent over his mother.

  Bane hesitated then nodded and jumped in the water with Kaia.

  Kaia wanted to search for Laban, but victims bobbed all around her. She struck out toward a man ten feet away, but the dolphin got there first. Nani nudged him until he grabbed hold of her dorsal fin, then she towed him toward the Porpoise II.

  Mano soon joined them. He struck off toward the burning catamaran. Kaia propelled herself through the waves toward another victim. The thick, oily smoke hung low over the choppy seas and burned her eyes and throat. Her muscles ached, and she lost count of how many people she and her brothers hauled to her boat. At least ten, she was sure.

  Looking around her craft, she saw people lying on the small deck. The boat rode low in the water, and she knew they’d have to stop soon or the rough seas would swamp the small craft. But not yet. Laban was still out here somewhere.

  Praying for strength, she plunged back into the mounting waves.

  The black smoke told Lieutenant Commander Jesse Matthews where to aim his boat. He stood in the bow of his vessel as it sped toward the catastrophe. For catastrophe it surely was. He felt physically sick. What could have caused the missile to veer off course that way? Every stage of the new missile defense system tests had gone perfectly up to now.

  This new missile defense system was capable of distinguishing between decoys and true incoming missiles, a feature no previous missile defense system had possessed. The navy had a lot of money riding on it, and even more pressure from Washington. Tests so far had been promising: the exoatmospheric kill vehicle had managed to separate from the interceptor and the booster rocket, the interceptor had worked, and the infrared signals had performed flawlessly.

  Until today. For no explainable reason, the test missile had turned north five miles off course and then plunged. He prayed no one had been killed.

  Another long night lay ahead. He’d already been on the job nearly eighteen hours, investigating a security breach at the base that had resulted in a fatality. But an adrenaline surge now pushed away his earlier fatigue. The boat’s bow slammed against the waves, and the salt spray drenched him. Jesse put binoculars to his eyes. The horrific scene jumped into focus: bodies everywhere in the water, and what remained of a tourist catamaran was quickly being swamped by the swells. Another boat loaded with victims rode precariously low in the water. He lowered the binoculars as he drew near. The vessel slowed, and the engines throbbed as the craft fought the seas to maintain its position alongside the sinking boat.

  For a moment, the horror of knowing people had been hurt paralyzed him. Would he ever be able to avoid this kind of loss? He got control of himself and began to bark out orders. The crew scurried to rescue as many as possible.

  Jesse blinked the salty spray from his eyes and then blinked again at the sight of a young woman battling the high seas. Her exhausted
face was surrounded by long black hair that floated behind her. The girl seized a dolphin’s dorsal fin with one hand and grasped a female victim with the other. The dolphin nimbly managed the waves and had the women alongside Jesse’s boat in moments.

  Jesse shook off his shock at the unusual rescue and reached down to help. He tried to pull the injured woman onto the deck, and a medic rushed to care for her. But the young woman clung to the dolphin, and her gaze met Jesse’s. He saw exhaustion in her eyes.

  “I think you’re done for,” he said. “We’ll take over now.” He held out his hand to help her aboard.

  Her face was strained with fatigue, but she gave a stubborn shake of her head. “There are still people out there. My cousin—” Her eyes filled with tears, and she turned to paddle back out. A wave rolled over her head, and she came up sputtering.

  “It will do them no good if you drown in the process of trying to get them. My men will haul in all they can find.” He wished he could reassure her about her cousin, but the death count today was likely to be high. He set his lips in a determined line. “Give me your hand,” he told the young woman.

  Another man surfaced next to the woman. Hawaiian like her, he flung his wet hair back from his face. “Kaia needs to get out of the water,” he gasped. He grabbed the young woman’s arm and pushed her toward Jesse.

  The mermaid—for that’s what she looked like—shook her head and started to push away from the boat again. There was no time to argue with her. Her olive skin was paler now. Jesse reached down and grabbed her arm. The man in the water pushed her toward him, and Jesse easily lifted her into the boat.

  She struggled briefly then sagged. “I’ll just rest a minute,” she muttered. “Bane and Mano need to rest too. They’ve been in the water as long as I have.”

  “I’ll get them too,” Jesse promised her. He helped her sit on the deck and went back to grab the man in the water, but one of the boat’s crew had already helped him aboard.

  Dressed in dripping shorts and a T-shirt, the man squeezed water out of his thick black hair. “Lucky for us you got here. I don’t think I would have been able to get Kaia out of the water until we’d gotten all the victims out.” He turned and looked across the water. “Stay there, Mano!”