Then he was gone, up the stairs, out onto the deck, and in one mighty leap, he went over the side of the boat. If Gilbert saw him, he would have appeared as a flying wraith. Saltwater engulfed him like a bath thrown on a dreaming man. The Farallon smacked his face as he hit the surface. The most crucial thing was to get his bearings. David would have fallen into the wake of the ship, but without any moonlight even that was difficult to find. The ocean was as black as an underground lagoon. He couldn’t even find Kelly’s boat. Secretly trailing them, she was probably running without lights.

So she was an FBI agent who was risking her career to protect him? That was sort of cool in a way. He didn’t know why he believed her since she had obviously lied to him from the moment they had met. Maybe it all came down to an inherited flaw: he was a sucker for a pretty face. He was curious how she had managed to find him.

But David—he had to save the jerk’s life. He could not make the mother of his child a murderer. Perhaps David was so drunk he would not know Amy had shoved him overboard. Matt still had on his disguise. He could pretend to be a lifeguard out on late-night patrol. David was pretty stupid, he might fall for it. Especially if an FBI agent who happened to be sailing by supported his story. Then again, if Kelly had worked on the kidnapping case, David would recognize her. What the hell, he would worry about the details later.

Matt powered up the Farallon and raced in the opposite direction of the Stardust, which was already close to vanishing. He ran the underwater propulsion device on the surface. He did not have a face mask, and he made no effort to look underwater. But he had his diver’s light out and panned the area in front of him. The churned foam was already settling into the expanse. Matt estimated David to be three hundred yards behind the spot where he had jumped into the water. Yet it was possible the current created by the Stardust had swept the bastard along. There was even a chance David was aware of the gravity of his situation and was swimming after the Stardust. Matt desperately hoped to find David on the surface; his only hope. If David had gone under, their chances of rescuing him would be close to zero.

A calm night. Yet he did not hear David shout for help.