Tide Harbor Suspense by Zara West

Concealed by the Tide

EXCERPT: Idiots. Summer Avery took a last glance at the New York Times article about the amateur bomb attack on Seastroke Energy’s undersea energy generator then stuffed the news clipping into her backpack. Bombing the turbine was a surefire way to turn people against the local fishermen fighting the turbines. Nobody liked terrorists.

The Tide Harbor folks needed to win over the press and the authorities, not antagonize them. Without someone to organize them and get positive publicity, the bombers would end up in jail, and in six months, Seastroke’s tidal energy monstrosity would be spinning away, killing fish.

They needed help. They needed her—EcoGreen Action’sstar activist, community liaison, and former high-power marketer.

She fingered her mother’s locket. This was her chance to show her dying father that you could fight the big corporations and bring them down.

She leaned back in her seat. At least she’d been able to catch the last ferry of the season going to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. But after eight hours of straight-through driving from New York City to Bar Harbor, she was exhausted.

She clutched the arm of her seat as the ship tipped to one side then the other. The three-hour boat ride would be a welcome break, even if wind and rain pelted the windows and the odd roll of the high-speed catamaran car ferry was stirring up the contents of her stomach.

Her mind required a distraction, and she had just the thing.

She pulled out the technical article on Minas Basin marine life and settled in to bone up on maritime ecology.

Just as she reached the end, a child screeched. The sound drilled through her and raised the hairs on the back of her neck. If there was something that set her on edge, it was a child in distress. It brought back too many memories better forgotten.

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Lost Beneath the Tide

EXCERPT: Alex Harris looked over at his daughter. “This will just take a minute, Ellie.”

For a few moments, she stood quietly next to him, then she pulled on his sleeve. “We aren’t going to make it to the ice cream social, are we?

He shook his head. “Tell you what. We can stop at the supermarket and buy popcorn and ice cream and have our own party at home. I’ll read you your favorite book.”

Her little mouth puckered and then she nodded. “Okay.” She reached up. “Can I look too?”

How could he refuse after letting her down? Alex lowered the binoculars and placed the cord around her neck. Then he stood behind her and held the glasses to her eyes as he adjusted the focus. Narrowing his gaze against the glow of the setting sun, he guided her to the spot he’d last seen the object. “There. That black blob—can you see it?”

She gave a little jump and pointed. “Yeah, there it is. Oh, it’s coming towards us.” She waved. “Here, Mr. Seal. Here. Don’t eat my daddy’s fishies.”

Alex peered out over his daughter’s head. The seal or whatever it was, dipped and splashed toward the shore. Now that was rare. Sea mammals usually moved sleekly through the water. A bad feeling washed over him. “Can I use the binoculars for a minute, sweetheart? Not sure that’s a seal.”

Ellie held them up, and he peered at the creature as it neared the far end of the crumbling pier. For a moment, it dipped below the surface, then popped up again. With a twist, a black-suited scuba diver hitched up onto the dock and sat with his feet hanging over the edge.

Silhouetted by the setting sun, the diver removed his facemask, tore off his hood, and shook out his hair. The long, wavy strands of hair glowed pink in the sunset.

Alex focused in closer. Silhouetted against the dying light, the swimmer was all feminine curves. Not a he. A she.

For a second, he was stunned. Then he gave himself a shake. What was a strange scuba diver doing nosing around the Cowling fish pens? It didn’t matter it was a woman, a gorgeous one, at that. Whoever the diver was, she’d better have a good explanation, or she would be in deep trouble. Nobody messed with Cowling’s fish pens.

Ellie slipped her fingers into his and tugged. He glanced down. His daughter’s face was round in wonderment. She pointed toward the diver. “Look, Daddy. It’s a mermaid. Maybe she’s seen mommy?”

He glanced again at the woman, who’d slipped off her oxygen tanks and was now busy checking the gauges. In a minute, she’d turn and see them.

Alex scooped up his daughter and hurried back to the truck.

Scuba Diver Lady would be trouble all right. Trouble he didn’t want to have.

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Adrift on the Tide

EXCERPT: Nora Mackenzie Elliot lowered her binoculars. Something fishy was going on at Cove Shipping. She was sure of it.

But time and money were running out, and so far, she had nothing to show for the legwork she’d done over the last three weeks in Nova Scotia.

Summer Avery, her local contact for EcoGreen Action was in for a major letdown. If there was illegal trading in lobsters going on in the Lobster Capital of the World, it was well hidden.

Mac peered through her binoculars again and studied the two men arguing on the loading dock. She’d been watching the tall, lanky guy in the plaid flannel shirt and well-washed jeans for two days now. There was something about the controlled way he moved that drew her eye and stirred up feelings she tried not to pay attention to anymore.

With his broad shoulders, narrow hips, and wild, wavy russet hair, he would have been dubbed by her cliché-mouthed college roommate, “Sex-on-a-Stick.” She, being an English major and all, preferred the more precise, if equally asinine, Sexy Lumberjack, in honor of his backwoods taste in dress.

Mac shook her head. Stop being stupid. When you carried twenty extra pounds, stood five-foot one on your tiptoes, and had a pinky finger missing on one hand, guys like that one didn’t give you a second look—if they noticed you at all.

She clenched her marred hand. She’d learned that lesson the hard way.

Time to move down the coast and check out the other terminals. Just maybe she’d catch a glimpse of a Twin Torrent Fisheries truck. According to her research, Torrent had been involved in some shady deals in the past. She pushed up from her observation post behind a pile of fish crates then stopped.

“What in the world?” Mac raised her binoculars.

Sexy Lumberjack seemed upset about something. Bald Boss Man was gone and Eye-Candy man was storming around the trucks in the lot looking for all the world like he was counting them on his fingers.

She narrowed her eyes. What was his problem? He really was holding up his fingers as he touched each truck like a bewildered kindergartener. There were ten. She’d noted the arrival of each one in her notebook. What an idiot.

She slung the binoculars around her neck and her daypack over her shoulder. Oh well, she should know better. A spiffy package on the outside didn’t mean there was much going on in the brains department. No wonder his boss was angry at him.

With a huff, she turned, and set off down the road to town. Tomorrow was another day. She shifted the pack away from her overheated skin. Hopefully, a cooler one. It wasn’t usually hot in the Maritimes, but today had been a scorcher.

Releasing Fall 2024