Page 447 of Hidden Depths

“I killed him.”

The words struck the cavern like a bullet.

Storm swayed.

I caught her arm.

Ross’s smile widened.

“He knew I’d found him aboard Nathan’s trawler. He tried to get home before the poison reached his heart.”

Nathan’s voice came through my radio.

“You poisoned James?”

Ross glanced toward the speaker.

“Your captain arrived too late to save him.”

Storm lifted her chin.

“You murdered my grandfather.”

“He should have told me where he hid the records.”

“And my father?”

For the first time, Ross’s smile faded.

“Daniel was more difficult.”

Storm’s fingers closed around my arm.

“What did you do to him?”

“He found the passage beneath Keawe Cannery.”

“You killed him.”

“He refused to tell me what James had changed inside Blackwater.”

“How?”

I wanted to stop her from asking.

But she deserved the truth.

Ross looked toward the churning water.

“I chained him to his boat and opened the first gate.”

Storm made a broken sound.

The sea had taken her father.

But not in a storm.

Ross had used Blackwater to murder him.