Death By Blue Water (A Hayden Kent Mystery Book 1) (6 page)

Nine

Grant came into the small bathroom and helped Hayden struggle to her feet. He led her out to the living room and sat her down on the navy leather couch. The throbbing in her head was getting worse by the second. She thought she was going to vomit again. The harder she tried to get past the pain and into her memory, the worse the pounding got. Maybe she had gone there. She knew she woke up dripping wet at Faulkner. Maybe she had killed him. But why? And how?

Tears rolled down her cheeks. Grant touched her hand with gentle fingers.

“Maybe some tea will help?” he asked, his voice thick with kindness.

More than anything, she wanted someone to care about her right now. Hayden slumped down on the couch and buried her face in her hands. Bits and pieces of memory were returning and falling into place like an Internet puzzle game.

“I did cancel Richard,” she said, her voice muffled by her hands, “but now I remember, Kevin called. The call woke me. He wanted me to bring his stuff to Richard at the marina Saturday morning. His gear was too heavy for me to want to lift it into my Tahoe, and some of it was his desktop computer. Besides, I figured, why should I make it easy for him? I refused. Told him he could come himself.”

Hayden looked at the middle distance as she replayed the conversation in her mind, then she continued. “Kevin was angry. Said he wanted to dive on Saturday and I was messing him up as usual.” She omitted Kevin’s foul-mouthed yelling and accusations but his words still rang in her ears. “He said Richard was going to come Saturday sometime since I was being such a...” She winced. “You know what he called me. I waited for Richard all day Saturday after I got home. He never came.”

“Got home from where?”

Startled, Hayden realized she hadn’t told Grant about waking up at the marina, but he had to know. Where else could there be witnesses? Taking as deep a breath as the pain allowed, she blurted out the story in one sentence ending with, “But you already knew this.” Grant’s face remained professionally blank. His cop face she called it.

He nodded. “Hayden, your facts don’t add up. You canceled Richard, Kevin called you and said bring his effects to the marina, then he said Richard was coming on Saturday. You’re contradicting yourself. Think, Hayden, think. I need to know the sequence. And how your trip to the marina figures in.”

Taking a deep gulping breath, Hayden struggled to put herself back into Friday again. She saw Grant’s point. Still, that’s how she remembered it. She turned her face to her boss. “Okay, in bullet points then.” She smiled a painful smile. “Kevin called me at work and told me Richard would pick up his stuff.” Hayden put her index finger in the air. “Richard called to tell me he’d be over about seven at night.” She raised a second finger. “I got the migraine. I called Richard’s cell and canceled the meeting.” A third finger went into the air.

“How did you know it was a cell?” Grant interrupted.

Her three fingers still raised, Hayden said, “I didn’t, not really, but I thought it was because it sounded scratchy. Should I continue?”

At Grant’s nod she said, “Kevin called. He told me to bring the stuff to the marina on Saturday morning.” She raised her pinky finger. “I told him I had a migraine, and I wasn’t going, and his stuff was too cumbersome and heavy.” She raised her thumb making five points, leaving her right hand in the air. “He said Richard would come by on Saturday, pick up his stuff and take me to see the boat since I was such a weak flower.” She lifted another finger. “Six points. I don’t know about the how I got to the marina part, but my Tahoe was there. Make sense now or did I leave something out?”

“But you are sure your truck was there?”

“Yeah. And parked in my usual spot, under the gumbo limbo tree. Who saw me? Maybe they can help.”

Grant ignored her questions. “Where’s Kevin’s stuff?”

“Here, in the corner near the door. Most of the stuff is dive gear and electronics. That’s why I didn’t want to take it anywhere. He didn’t live here but he liked having a computer and some music things here. It’s too unwieldy for me to deal with. And God forbid I break something. Unplugging it and moving it to one pile was as much involvement as I wanted.”

Grant seemed to be studying Hayden. Weighing her words and trying to get to the truth. Hayden had seen that look before. It was his client look.

“It’s true, Grant,” she whispered.

“Richard Anderson did not live in North Florida, not since 1996 when he was in college. He lived on Big Pine.”

“Are you sure? I don’t get it. Why lie? Why did Kevin make up a story?”

“He says he didn’t, he says he never told you his brother lived in North Florida. He doesn’t know why you would say that. He thinks you may be having some kind of breakdown. That you may be blaming his brother for your breakup. He agrees you never met him. But says that was your fault, because you never wanted to go to Big Pine when Kevin went.”

“You talked to Kevin.” Her mind reeled with the implications. She didn’t know whether to be angry with Grant or thank him for caring enough to take her side.

Grant’s nod answered her. “I wanted to know what he had to say. He also told me you told him you would ‘throw his stuff out on in the road’ if he came to get it. Kevin says you agreed Richard could come to pick his stuff up but that you weren’t happy about it.”

“What about buying the boat? What about that? Did I make that up too?”

“No, he says his brother was selling his boat. That Kevin had made an offer on it and you knew about it from when the two of you were together. Kevin had decided he didn’t want it and you decided you did. You wanted Cappy to look it over for you because you didn’t trust Kevin’s word that it was in good shape. According to Kevin, you arranged for Richard to come here to pick up his stuff, and then take you to look at the boat but you canceled the pick-up and told Richard you would meet him at the marina.”

Hayden’s head swum with the pain of the migraine and the story Grant recited. She tried to make sense of it all and failed. Maybe when the pain abated. Tiger Cat rubbed against Hayden’s legs. She stared over Grant’s head and looked at the Butcher photo on the wall behind him. It showed the everglades with a heavy mist covering the sawgrass waterway. The mist nearly obscured the slash pines. Hayden loved the photo; Kevin gave it to her for her birthday soon after they met. When he ordered her to collect his stuff, he told her not to forget the Butcher. Hayden balked, and they’d had a huge fight. Seeing it now, Hayden felt like the picture pointed an accusing finger in her direction.

“You have to tell all of this to the police, Hayden. You can’t hold it back. This has to come from you.”

She shook her head, reached to pick Tiger up, and immediately felt sick. “How do I do that? Pick up the phone and say, ‘Oh, by the way.’”

“I’ll go with you.” Grant rose and pulled the drapes open. He peered out onto the street.

“Looking for someone?” Hayden felt her heart clench. Maybe he was looking for the police. Maybe the next step was they were coming for her. “Grant, do they know?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Probably if they interviewed Kevin.”

“What happens now?”

“We wait. And you start from the beginning and you go to the police.”

“You said there were witnesses. What did they witness?”

“You don’t remember anything?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s going to be a hard sell. I’ll tell you what. You still have this headache?”

Hayden nodded.

“Okay, at some point you may be asked to surrender. That won’t happen until they have enough evidence to book you.”

Hayden tried to bolt from the room. Grant reached out and grabbed her before she got to the doorway.

“That serves no one,” he hissed at her. “Keep it together. I’m not going to tell you I know how you feel. I don’t. But I will tell you I don’t think you murdered anyone. Maybe it was an accident.”

“Accident? Grant, I don’t even remember seeing this man. When I found his body, I had never seen that face before. Why don’t you believe me? I don’t know what kind of witnesses there are but I don’t know this man.”

“I know, Hayden. I know. But you also tell me you get blackouts with migraines and you tell me you had a migraine on Friday. The day he died. And his sister-in-law is a cop. In fact, she’s the cop who took your statement on the dive boat. You have to share this with the police.”

It was too much for Hayden. Sobbing, she fell into Grant’s arms. A fog seemed suddenly to lift. She still felt the pain but it felt like someone else’s. Peeking around the edges of the hurt, she found a bit of memory. She remembered walking the concrete fingers between the boats at the marina.

She
had
been in the marina.

Why?

Ten

The five days since Hayden recalled her trip to the marina were filled with anxiety. Work was the only place she felt safe, and scuba diving was the only thing that kept her sane.

From Cappy’s boat, the water color was what she thought of as chamber of commerce blue. Every coral head and reef line below the bow stood out in sharp contrast to the sandy bottom. This was more Lake Atlantic than the Atlantic Ocean. She reminded herself the ocean didn’t reveal everything on the surface. The true mysteries lay below. Even now, a week after the horror that had filled her life, she couldn’t believe she’d been the one who found the body.

The salt tang stung her nostrils. She looked over at the man who drove the boat. “Any regrets? Did you wish I hadn’t called?”

“No, Hayden,” Cappy answered, “you wanting to go out without tanks kind of blew me away though. It’s hard to imagine you without a scuba tank on your back. I knew that wouldn’t last. I’m kind of glad I had a solo trip. You and Bunny dive well together. But you’re right, I did expect you to babysit her.”

Bunny got her certification last year. What she lacked in experience, she made up for with enthusiasm. Nothing frightened her, except barracuda and sharks. But right now Hayden wanted little to do with newbie divers. She’d been glad when Bunny decided to bow out at the last minute claiming an inner ear infection.

Cappy hadn’t wanted to run the trip with just Hayden, and she couldn’t blame him. They were good friends and Cappy did charge her for her diving, but given the cost of fuel, it didn’t pay him to take her out solo. She’d offered to pay double and not dive, but he maintained, and rightly, that she needed to get back under the water, not on top of it. She knew unless she hired him for a guide, he had to stay topside. Hayden wouldn’t consider diving solo right now, not after the last time.

“I’m glad you decided to be my dive buddy today.” Hayden playfully bumped him with her hip as he shut the engine down and walked to the anchor line. Cappy had agreed to serve as a spearfishing guide. He’d suggested they could both use something for the pot. She rarely spear-fished, but he hit everything he aimed his gun at. Her contribution would be calling the fish. Friends called her the fish whisperer. Black grouper followed her over reef and shoal, even into the line of sight of a spear gun.

“Hey Cappy,” Hayden called, “race you to the anchor line.”

“Don’t you dare swim for shore again.” Cappy nearly tangled his arms as he struggled to put his gear on unaided. “The last time you ended up in the channel. I swear, you have the underwater navigation skills of a newt.”

Hayden laughed as she balanced on the gunnels before tipping herself over into a back roll. Popping to the surface, she removed her regulator. “Water’s fine. I can even see the bottom. See you at the anchor.” She doubled her body and flipped head first to the sand some thirty feet below.

Routine took over and she automatically checked the buckle on her weight belt, her computer, air, and time. She checked all of these items on the boat, but it never hurt to be sure everything was in perfect shape after getting wet. A lot of disasters happened because something that seemed to function perfectly on the boat failed under water.

Stopping in the water column, Hayden looked around her. The water temperature neared the upper eighties, almost too hot. Two eagle rays did a mating dance below and to her left. She watched, fascinated as they danced their underwater ballet barely touching wings and then pulling off to circle each other again. One of them, male or female, she didn’t know which, dove down to the bottom, as if challenging the other to follow. It settled down on the sand below and gently fluttered its wings, slowly burrowing into the sand. Eagle rays never rested on the sand. They always floated in the water column. Stingrays behaved this way, covering themselves so only their eyes showed. Hayden watched in fascination. So totally lost in the scene, she nearly spit out her regulator when Cappy touched her arm and pointed in the direction of the anchor line. He took his regulator from his mouth and shouted, “I won. You couldn’t find it.” His words sounding gargled, but they were recognizable.

Hayden removed her regulator in response, and stuck her tongue out at the man.

Two grouper and a lobster later, the pair ascended to the boat.

Hayden grabbed Cappy’s arm as she stood looking over the gunnels before she removed her scuba tank. She pointed downward at something shiny. Cappy answered with a shrug. Slip slide striding to the swim platform, she jackknifed her body down to the bottom. She had plenty of air and the dive was shallow enough she didn’t have to worry about descending again so quickly. Hovering above the sand Hayden looked for the object that had caught her eye. She’d managed to keep it in sight most of the way down but at the very end, the light shifted and whatever she’d seen disappeared.

Shrugging to herself, Hayden turned to begin her ascent to the boat. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash. Turning slowly so she didn’t lose sight of it again, she swam in the direction of the flash. She scooped up the shiny object and put it in her BC pocket.

“Girl, are you going to get me in trouble again? What did you find down there? I didn’t see anything. Your track record would indicate what, a gun?” Hayden turned to present her tank encumbered back to Cappy, so he could help her out of her gear.

“Look, I found a bracelet, a charm bracelet. Probably real gold. Gold won’t tarnish underwater. It’s been years since people wore charm bracelets. I had one. My parents gave it to me for my ninth birthday. I hear they’re coming back now. I see them in magazines again, but this looks like the old kind. Lots of disks.”

“Hayden...Look ahead of you.” Cappy’s voice was grim. He pointed over her shoulder at the horizon. “Isn’t that a FWC patrol boat coming to greet us?”

The sea had picked up slightly while they had been underwater. They sat and waited for the patrol boat to approach, neither going to do a second dive until the patrol boat either stopped to talk or passed them. The boat passed by. Cappy pulled the anchor and Hayden fished the bracelet out of her BC pocket. The gold had no encrustation. She looked at each of the discs in turn.

“Spanish. Not so old. The last one is for a
quince
.” She said using the Spanish word for fifteen. Spanish girls celebrated their fifteenth birthday the way American girls celebrated Sweet Sixteen. “The date on it is August 15, 2005. Most of the other charms are religious occasions or graduations. Everything’s in Spanish. Someone will be missing this. There’s something engraved on the back of one charm. Looks like a first charm celebrating a birth. I can’t read it though. It’s too small.”

Cappy opened the small cupboard near his pilot console and put the bracelet in. “There, remember to pick it up when we dock. Where to now? I’m thinking a trip back to the Humboldt will do you good.”

Bile rose in Hayden’s throat. “No. I don’t think I want to go back there.”

“Hayden, it’s like riding a horse, and it’s one of your favorite dives.”

Not answering, she picked up the binoculars and walked around the cuddy cabin to the bow. The increasing seas nearly tossed her sideways into the bench seat. Sitting on the remains of the once plush cushion, she lifted the glasses and scanned the horizon.

“It looks like someone’s there.”

“Tied on or fishing?”

“Can’t tell. Here.” She handed the binoculars back to the captain through the unzipped cuddy top window.

“I’ll be damned.”

“What?”

“It’s the patrol boat we just saw. Looks tied on too. Wonder who’s on patrol. Shall we go see?”

“No. I’ve had enough of the cops. That’s the last place I want to go.”

“There’s another boat there, Hayden. The patrol boat is bow tied to another boat. Don’t tell me they found another body. Maybe we should go and see what’s going on. If there’s someone else down there—”

“Cappy, no way, no how. I don’t want to be near that place. Not with the cops there.” Hayden swung herself around the cuddy cabin with such force she tumbled overboard. Instinctively she dove down deep to avoid the cutting blades of the propeller on the moving boat. She heard the props cut and saw the boat come around over her head. Her lungs at the bursting point, she surfaced like a cork exhaling all the way. It always amazed her how much air she had left after she thought she had no air.

Hayden sputtered and said, “Did I make my point?”