Nelson, page 1
part #21 of SEALs of Honor Series
NELSON
SEALs of Honor, Book 21
Dale Mayer
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About This Book
Complimentary Download
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
About Taylor
Author’s Note
Complimentary Download
About the Author
Copyright Page
About This Book
Nothing is what it seems … ever …
Nelson’s early morning meeting at the docks with Elizabeth Etchings offers only bad news. Her brother—and Nelson’s old friend—has gone missing on his days off while his ship was docked in Ensenada. A trip to where he’d last been seen shows the local color … and reveals Nelson’s friend has gotten into bigger trouble than anyone could imagine.
Elizabeth might have had a hand in now sending two men to Baja to look for her brother, but she will not stay behind. Her brother is in danger … and he’s the only family she has left.
It doesn’t take long for Nelson to realize that Elizabeth has caught the eye of someone who rules that corner of the world. She’s now in jeopardy too—possibly more than her brother. Keeping her safe moves up Nelson’s priority list.
Until both issues merge, and everything goes south …
Sign up to be notified of all Dale’s releases here!
COMPLIMENTARY DOWNLOAD
DOWNLOAD a complimentary copy of TUESDAY’S CHILD? Just tell me where to send it!
Prologue
Nelson Brown sat on Laysa’s living room couch the next morning. He folded up the blanket and set the pillow on top. He and Taylor were leaving the UK and heading back to the States today. Kanen was taking a few days and staying behind with her. Nelson wasn’t exactly sure what Kanen and Laysa planned to do long-term, but they were committed to each other, and she was happy to leave behind her apartment in England with the good and bad memories she had there.
Everything in the storage locker she’d owned with her late husband was lost in the fire. However, their apartment was still full of stuff and had to be dealt with. Whether she and Kanen rented it out, which wasn’t a bad idea, or sold it, it would still take some time to decide what to leave behind, like for a furnished apartment to rent, what to give away and what she wanted to take with her. Nelson figured in another few days that Kanen and Laysa would arrange for her remaining belongings to be shipped over stateside as they flew back to California together.
Taylor was making coffee. They’d already booked flights for eleven o’clock this morning, heading back to their regular jobs.
Then Nelson and Taylor were scheduled for training—training they were anxious to get to, into an area where torpedoes were made. It was more of an information session, but it fascinated Nelson. He wanted to see how the bombs themselves were made. There was a lot of science and engineering that went into them.
Taylor came toward him, holding up his phone. “Hey, apparently we’ve got some officer training at the same time.”
Nelson wrinkled up his face. “Great. That may not be fun.”
“A couple engineers are coming as well. They’ll be on staff, working on the deployment of these new torpedoes. They’re integrating a new chute system into the battleships.”
Nelson nodded. “Well, that part at least makes sense.”
“Yeah. Remember that woman who gave the lecture we went to? She was talking about how maintenance was so important on these chutes, and you got mad at her because you felt she was implying the navy wasn’t doing its job?”
Nelson frowned. He shook his head. “Sort of. She was being kind of arrogant, right?”
Taylor nodded. “She was, indeed. But she’ll also be part of this torpedo operations tour that’s happening in Coronado Bay.”
“Where’s the tour?”
“On the USS Independence. It would be good to go to the manufacturing plant, but that’s not happening. At least we’ll see these new torpedoes on the ship. She’ll be there to show us how they are different.”
Nelson shrugged. “What difference does it make? They’ll still have a certain payload. They’ll still have an automatic delivery system. I doubt anything’s changed that we’d have to retrofit the battleships.”
“Apparently, something is different about these.” Taylor smiled. “As one of the engineers working on the project, she’s a keynote speaker.”
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Nelson said. “I barely know the woman.”
“That’s good, but apparently she knows you.”
Nelson looked up and frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I just got a text from Mason. Let me read it to you.” He flicked through the texts on his phone, stopped and said, “Make sure Nelson comes back with you. The engineer wants to speak with him specifically before the tour starts.” Taylor looked up at him. “Does that mean anything to you?”
Nelson shook his head. “No. I don’t know the woman. What the hell does she want with me?” Just then his own phone buzzed with a text from Mason.
Meeting one hour in advance of tour tomorrow morning, 0800 on shore. At the dock.
Nelson texted back. What’s this all about?
Engineer wants to talk to you.
About what? he asked.
Mason wrote No clue. But she mentioned you specifically.
I don’t even know the woman.
Maybe but she knows you. Be there, 0800 sharp.
Nelson tossed the phone on the coffee table and snorted. “Who the hell is this woman? And why the hell does she give a damn about me?”
Taylor brought over two cups of coffee. “I guess you’ll find out tomorrow morning, won’t you?”
Nelson just stared at him, disgruntled. “Maybe. That’s if I show up.”
But that was only Nelson’s bravado speaking. When the navy called, he stepped up each and every time. But it sure didn’t stop him from wondering who the hell this woman was and what she wanted with him.
Chapter 1
Nelson arrived at the docks the next morning in good spirits. He hadn’t given much thought to the appointment before his training until breakfast, when he realized he really had no clue what was going on. He wasn’t sure who else would be at this morning’s meeting, but he hoped it was somebody he might know. For all he knew, this was a case of mistaken identity. He barely knew the woman who had requested this meeting.
As he walked down the long pier, a small group of people waited for him. Nelson recognized Mason’s aide but not the other seaman. Only one woman was with them. That must be the engineer. He checked his watch and frowned. As he approached Mason, he smiled and said, “I’m not late.”
Mason’s stern face nodded. “No, you’re not. You’re fine.”
As Mason spoke, Nelson checked out the woman who supposedly knew him. He had met her at a lecture, as Taylor had reminded him. But that was a while back. He reached out a hand to shake hers, smiling. “Nelson Brown, at your service, ma’am.”
One eyebrow raised at the ma’am part.
He might have done it just to piss her off. He didn’t know. He’d been in an off mood all morning. Nothing like having something like this coming down with no one giving him any heads-up as to what was going on. From the stiff demeaner of those around him, it was obviously serious.
“I’m Elizabeth Etchings.” She eyed him coolly. “I believe you know my brother.”
It was his turn to raise an eyebrow. “I’m not sure I do. What’s his name?”
“Chris,” she said. “Chris Etchings.”
He frowned as he thought about it, then shook his head. “I’m not sure. That name doesn’t ring a bell.”
She sighed. “You probably know him as Skunk.”
Nelson’s face broke into a wide grin. “Absolutely. I know Skunk.” He chuckled. “I’m not sure I ever knew his real name though.”
“I know,” she said. “How sad is that? Hardly a nickname to go through life with.”
“And how is Skunk?”
“He’s missing,” she said abruptly. “That’s why I asked to speak to you this morning.”
“What? How long has he been missing? Have you contacted the police?”
“He joined the navy,” she said, “which means NCIS is involved. But honestly, they haven’t found anything.”
He nodded slowly. “But you’re still not telling me anything. When did Skunk go missing and where?”
“He was last seen docked in Ensenada, in Baja, California.”
“Well, if a seaman’s got shore leave, Ensenada makes for a nice tourist spot, a place to play …” But, under these circumstances, with Skunk missing from his ship, other elements came into play. And, like any seaport, there could be the darker elements involved. Drugs came immediately to mind. But Skunk wasn’t into drugs. And the navy had never been Skunk’s dream. “Why the navy?”
She frowned at him. “He was never happier than when he made it into the navy.”
“I haven’t seen him in a few years,” Nelson said. “But I doubt he’s changed that much. As I remember, the navy was something he fought against.”
“He fought against our father,” she said wearily. And essentially, for Chris, that means the same thing. But the bottom line is, he’s been in the navy for a couple years now. He had days off and was due back on board four days later. He was reported missing twenty-four hours thereafter.”
“What does this have to do with me?”
“NCIS traced his number and have a list of his calls,” she said. “They read some of it to me but wouldn’t send me a copy of it. But you were on that list. You were the last number he used. Since then it’s not been used again.”
Nelson understood the gravity of the situation. Mason shot him a look, basically asking if he had an explanation. Straightening, Nelson gave a tiny imperceptible shake of his head. He had no clue what was going on. “He may have tried to contact me,” Nelson said, “but I didn’t talk to him.” He pulled out his cell phone. “Do we know when he tried to contact me?”
“Seven days ago,” Elizabeth said. “Friday night at 9:05 p.m.”
Nelson handed his phone to Mason. “You check.”
Mason checked through the messages. “There are no phone messages.”
“No, he sent a text,” she said.
Mason flicked through and said, “There’s nothing here from anyone under either name.”
“What about at the specific time frame?” she asked.
Mason slowed as he got to that particular time, went through the text messages once more, finding a lot of them, and looked over at Nelson with a smirk.
Nelson shrugged. “Hey, we had a party. What can I say? There was a lot of wild chatter back and forth.”
“Was that at Dane’s place?”
Nelson nodded. “He got engaged. Remember? That party was quite something.” He gave half a smile to the woman who stood watching him. “Sorry, but one of our friends was recently engaged, so that weekend we had a pretty wild time of it.”
“And that’s likely when the text went through,” she said.
He nodded. “Honestly, we had a good twenty or thirty texts bouncing back and forth as we collectively gave Dane hell. I might have missed Skunk’s message.”
Mason checked through the texts and held up Nelson’s phone with one pulled up so Elizabeth could see. “There’s one here from an unknown party.” Then he showed it to Nelson.
He frowned. “I might have seen that but didn’t know who it was from. I likely just ignored it.”
“What if it was from Skunk?” Elizabeth held out her hand. “May I see the text again?”
Mason held it up for her.
Out loud she read, “I’m in trouble. Need help.” She looked over at Nelson. “When somebody sends you a call for help, you just ignore it?”
It was Mason who answered. “If you understand the party he was at that weekend”—he pulled up other texts to show her—“you’ll see many are along the same line. They were teasing Dane into not going ahead with the engagement.”
Elizabeth stiffened. “You guys don’t like her, I presume.”
“Not at all. Absolutely, we like her. We love her,” Nelson said cheerfully. “It was all in the spirit of what would follow. You know? Having surprise triplets, getting old and gray by the time he got to forty.”
She watched him intently for a long moment. Her shoulders sagged. “I was really hoping you might have known something about his disappearance.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t,” Nelson said. “I wish I did. Skunk is a very special friend of mine. But, like I said, I haven’t seen him in the last couple years. Obviously not since he joined the navy, or I would have already known about that surprise.”
“Then how special of a friend can he be for you?” she snapped.
“I get that you’re worried about your brother,” Mason said, “but you asked to meet Nelson here to ask him a few questions. He has answered them.”
She nodded and took a few steps away. The expression on her face had Nelson speaking up. “Look. I can contact a few of our mutual friends and see if anybody has heard from him.”
Eagerly she turned and looked at him. “Would you mind?”
“Hell no,” he said, “if I’d known he’d gone missing, I’d have done so on the day of his disappearance. I just can’t believe NCIS hasn’t found him.”
“The last I heard,” she said bitterly, “they think he’s AWOL.”
“No way. That’s not Skunk,” Nelson said in outrage.
A small smile played at the corner of her lips. “No, it isn’t. But that doesn’t stop them from building a case that’s got nothing to do with the truth. They say he has effectively walked away from the navy.”
Nelson groaned. He’d heard of similar stories. NCIS did the best they could, but, if they didn’t come up with a solution fairly quickly, it would almost always be assumed that the seaman had deliberately left his post and was hiding out to avoid being found. That rarely ended well. “Did anybody he worked with have anything to say?”
“Not really. But NCIS said they were going on the theory he was unhappy with his new commander.”
“Aren’t we all?” Nelson snorted.
At that, she gave a half nod of acknowledgment. “It does appear to be a common theme.”
“I think most job dissatisfaction has got to do with bosses and coworkers, no matter where you are or what sector you work in,” Mason said. “It could possibly have had nothing to do with his commander.”
“Did anybody ask the commander?” Nelson asked, already knowing the answer.
She shrugged. “Good luck getting that information from NCIS. I don’t know if you’ve ever worked with them, but they’re remarkably tight-lipped. And they have no intention of sharing anything they don’t want to share.”
That was a sad truth in many ways. “Civilian law enforcement is exactly the same,” Nelson said slowly. He looked at Mason. “I do have a couple days leave coming. I am here for training but could attend the next session instead.”
Mason studied him for a long moment. “Don’t go alone.”
“Any chance we can make it official?”
Mason shook his head. “Not likely. NCIS will close the case as soon as they can, figuring Chris will surface again soon, and they’ll get him then.”
“I might be able to help,” Elizabeth said.
Mason turned toward her. “In what way?”
“NCIS did say, if they could do anything to help …”
“So, you’ll do … what?” Nelson asked. “You think NCIS will share more with two navy seamen taking over their investigation? Highly doubtful.”
Mason added, “You might get them to hold off on closing their case. That might work.”
She pulled her phone from her pocket. “If I can do it, I will,” she said. “All I have is my brother. I don’t want to lose the only family I have left.”
“You do realize,” Mason said, “it could already be too late.”
She froze in the act of dialing a number, then nodded. “I know. But I can’t help but think Chris is in trouble and has gone underground or somebody else is holding him. The fact of the matter is, he did send a message to you, Nelson, asking for help on the night he disappeared. And it’s not who he is to go AWOL.”
“I’ll regret not having done something more about that text for the rest of my life,” Nelson said slowly. “But I didn’t recognize that number. And that night was pretty crazy. But, I can guarantee you that if Skunk had called me from his regular phone, his name would have come up on my Caller ID. And I would have answered his call or responded to his text.”
“Chances are, he lost his phone or dropped it somewhere, for whatever reason, after whatever happened. Sent that SOS text to you from a friend’s phone or, hey, asked to borrow a local’s phone.” Elizabeth held up her phone to her ear, waiting for somebody to answer.
“Or he was using a burner phone he bought immediately afterward,” Mason said quietly. “If he was in trouble, it would be the smartest thing to do. But then again, because he just sent a text and didn’t call, Nelson had no clue who it was. We all get texts we ignore, particularly ones that come in the middle of a big slag of texts from other guys.”
She nodded. “I get that. What I don’t get is what happened to Chris. And that’s where my priority lies.”
Nelson faced Mason. “Do you think you can get brass approval for a few days off for me and a partner so we can check it out closer?”
