Read The Reef for Free Online Page B

sandwich. “And luck. Good or bad.”
    “I’d think it would be smarter to walk away from bad luck.”
    “Facing it’s better. Usually quicker. Lassiters have had a long run of the bad.” With a shrug, he finished the sandwich himself. “Seems to me you’ve brought me some of the good.”
    “I’m the one who found the coins.”
    “Maybe I’m bringing you some, too.”
    “I’ve got something,” Marla sang out. “Come and see.”
    Matthew rose, and after a moment’s hesitation, held out a hand. With matching wariness, Tate took it and let him haul her to her feet.
    “Nails,” Marla said, gesturing with one hand as she dabbed a handkerchief over her damp face with the other. “They look old. And this . . .” She picked up a small disk from amid the rubble. “Looks like some sort of button. Copper or bronze perhaps.”
    With a grunt, Matthew crouched down. There were two iron spikes, a pile of pottery shards, a broken piece of metal that might have been a buckle or pin of some sort. But it was the nails that interested him most.
    Marla was right. They were old. He picked one up, turned it in his fingers, imagining it once being hammered into planks that were doomed to storms and sea worms.
    “Brass,” Tate announced with delight as she worked off the corrosion with solvent and a rag. “It is a button. It’s got some etching on it, a flower. A little rose. It was probably on a dress of a female passenger.”
    The thought made her sad. The woman, unlike the button, hadn’t survived.
    “Maybe.” Matthew spared the button a glance. “Odds are we hit a bounce site.”
    Tate reached for her own sunglasses to cut the glare. “What’s a bounce site?”
    “Just what it sounds like. We probably found the spot where a ship hit while it was being driven in by waves. The wreck’s somewhere else.” He lifted his gaze, scanned the sea to the horizon. “Somewhere else,” he repeated.
    But Tate shook her head. “You’re not going to discourage me after this. We haven’t come up empty-handed, Matthew. One full dive and we have all this. Coins and nails—”
    “Broken pottery and a brass button.” Matthew tossed the nail he held back into the pile. “Chump change, Red. Even for an amateur.”
    She reached out and took hold of the coin that dangled around his neck. “Where there’s some, there’s more. My father believes we have a chance at a major find. So do I.”
    She was ready to quiver with anger, he noted. Her chinthrust up, sharp as the spikes at their feet, eyes hard and hot.
    Christ, why did she have to be a college girl?
    He moved his shoulder, and deliberately gave her a light, insulting pat on the cheek. “Well, it’ll keep us entertained. But it’s more often true that where there’s some, that’s all.” He brushed off his hands and rose. “I’ll clean this up for you, Marla.”
    “You’re a real upbeat kind of guy, Lassiter.” Tate tugged off her T-shirt. For some reason, the way he’d looked at her, just for an instant, had heated her skin. “I’m going for a swim.” Moving to the rail, she dove off the side.
    “She’s her father’s daughter,” Marla said with a quiet smile. “Always sure hard work, perseverence and a good heart will pay off. Life’s harder on them than it is for those of us who know those things aren’t always enough.” She patted Matthew’s arm. “I’ll tidy up here, Matthew. I have my own little system. You go on and get me that milk.”

C HAPTER 3
    T ATE FOUND PESSIMISM cowardly. It seemed to her that it was simply an excuse never to face disappointment.
    It was even worse when pessimism won out.
    After two weeks of dawn-to-dusk double-team diving, they found nothing but a few more scraps of corroded metal. She told herself she wasn’t discouraged and hunted on her shift with more care and more enthusiasm than was warranted.
    At night, she took to poring over her father’s charts, the copies he’d made from his research. The more