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“Not yet. I tried to get off the call as soon as I could. I’ll call her back when I’m alone without anyone listening, including you.” I jabbed her with my elbow.
“Ow!” Julia screeched. But she smiled, so I knew that she wasn’t hurt.
“I guess it’s back to thinking about how we are going to deal with Sully.”
“Right. First of all, we don’t know if he’s involved in anything, so we should assume that he doesn’t know about the stuff in Annisa’s closet,” Julia said.
“Then, why are we here in the first place? If we’re not going to ask Sully about Trevor, then what excuse do we have to be in his shop?”
Julia looked at me like I was daft. “Why don’t you pretend that you’re there to buy equipment?”
I blinked at the sheer simplicity of her idea. “That’s not bad, and it’s true. Ever since I saw Aiden’s new batwing BCD, it made me want to look at something similar for myself.”
We got out of the car and walked toward Sully’s dive shop, located at the far end. As we passed several cute shops, I made a mental note to go back and visit them with Aiden. I saw more than one couple browse through the shops, and it seemed like a romantic thing to do. My pulse beat faster when I started to think about my relationship with Aiden. I wanted to believe that Julia was right and that we could make things work between us.
“Here we are,” I said, opening the door to the Bay Area Divers. The musty air smacked me in the face, and my nose wrinkled in disgust when I also detected mildew. This is why our rental wetsuits smelled so bad! I recalled the strong odor that was steeped in the neoprene fabric.
“This place looks outdated.” Julia walked around and started to finger some of the wetsuits that were on hangers.
She was being nice. The place was dilapidated, I thought but said aloud, “I’m really surprised at the condition of the store because it looked different from the pictures on the website.”
“Didn’t you come in here before?” Julia asked.
“No. Aiden found this place, and he called to make arrangements for the trip.”
From the back of the store, a door creaked open. Sully came out of the room and smiled brightly when he saw me. “Hi, Claire. How are you doing? Are you here to reschedule your dive?”
“No, my friend and I are visiting Monterey for the day. This is Julia Park,” I said, introducing Sully to Julia, who gave a friendly wave. “We were browsing through the shops along Cannery Row, and I decided to pop in and see if you had any new diving equipment.”
Sully’s face fell. “Oh.”
Judging from his expression, he was aware of his equipment’s sorry state. Alarm bells went off in my head. Aiden and I should’ve checked out his shop before we booked our dives.
“Well, what are you looking for?” The dive shop owner waved his hand around the place.
“I’m looking for a lightweight batwing BCD,” I said, grateful that Julia and I rehearsed the excuse beforehand.
Sully scratched his chin and said, “I don’t think I have any batwing styles. I only have the jacket types.”
“That’s too bad.” I gave a small frown to show that I was disappointed, but secretly, I was relieved. Based on the way he had his merchandise displayed, who knew how long the stuff had been sitting there?
“Is there anything else that you wanted to see?” Sully asked hopefully. He lifted up a dusty regulator that had seen better days. “I just unboxed these a few days ago.”
My eyes widened when I heard that the regulators were brand new. Trying to buy more time to think, I tapped a finger to my lips. When I couldn’t come up with anything, I blurted out, “Um, I’m not in the market for another regulator, but can we look around?”
“Sure, sure. Take your time. It’s been kind of slow the last couple of days.” He ran his fingers through his hair, making it stick up on the ends.
Sully’s answer gave me a line to ask him about Trevor. “Have you heard anything more from the police about Trevor’s death? Do the police know how he died?”
He jutted out his lips. “Nah, the only thing the police told me was that they were interviewing one of the diving guests who was signed up for the dive tour.”
Then his eyes lit up. “Aren’t you friends with that attractive lady? Anna, Annie, Annika?” Sully went through several names that sounded close.
“You mean Annisa? Yes, I know her.”
“Right, Annisa! That’s her name.” Sully chuckled.
I hesitated to bring up the issue between Trevor and Annisa, but I felt that Sully should know that one of his employees was certifying people who weren’t qualified.
