Death By Blue Water (A Hayden Kent Mystery Book 1) by Kait Carson Page A

police station. At the time, she’d thought he did it so he could take control. Now she wondered if he did it because she needed a lawyer.
    Not yet ready to discuss her personal issues, she tried to buy time. “What’s in the report, Grant? Am I in trouble? Do I need you for a lawyer right now?” A familiar throbbing started behind her eyes. She saw dancing lights, the aura before a migraine hit. Oh God, no. Not this, don’t let me get sick here. Hayden rummaged in her handbag and pulled out a shiny envelope that she ripped open. She popped the tablet under her tongue. Relief, if it came, would be in about twenty minutes. If it didn’t, she could look forward to excruciating pain, nausea, and the possibility of losing lunch.
    “Migraine?” Grant asked. His ex-wife had suffered from them and he’d seen Hayden go through it as well.
    “Yes, let’s hope the meds work. If not, given the lack of sleep and the tension, I may lose the ability to make a coherent sentence. We’ll see.”
    “Then let’s be glad that the migraine waited until after the police questioned you. Personal issues?” He pressed the question.
    He was being relentless but worse, he was right. She had acted stupidly. Fingering the bright blue tablecloth with one hand and tracing the embroidery with the other, Hayden said, “Kevin dumped me last week. He called me to do it. I thought he was going to suggest we move in together and he dumped me. Took up with a tourist girl whose family bought one of the million dollar mile mansions.” Once she said the words, they were easier to bear somehow.
    She looked up at Grant and saw sympathy mixed with something else, shock maybe, cross his face. “I couldn’t believe it when he told me. Someone he just met...and he sounded like he’d known her forever. It made me doubt my man picker, you know.”
    “Hayden, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I thought you two would be looking for a notary to do the wedding.” Grant seemed truly sorry. Kevin and Grant were fellow anglers and they had begun to develop a friendship over the year he and Hayden had been seeing each other. “That stinks. He may realize what he’s giving up in you and come back. This could be cold feet.” Grant’s eyes bored into hers. “Is that what you’re hoping for?”
    “Nah. I wouldn’t take him back. I’d always be waiting for the other shoe to drop again. Her name is Samantha something. Can’t remember the last name. Pennington, Pemberton, Pencomb. Something with a Pen.” She dropped her face to her hands and massaged her temples.
    “And that’s why you dove the Humboldt this Sunday? To come to terms with the relationship? Why didn’t you go sooner?”
    Hayden let her mind wander back to the Monday call. The memory still smarted, but the pain was lessening, or maybe the coming migraine pain overshadowed it.
    She directed a weak smile at Grant. “He’s not the first to dump me. Anyway, Kevin called Thursday at work to say his brother Richard would be over Friday to pick up his stuff. Then he told me his brother would show me a boat he had for sale if I followed him to the marina.” She gave a sound between a snort and a sigh. “Picking up his stuff made it so real.” Tears bit the back of her eyelids. “That’s when I arranged the dive. Cappy was booked on Saturday. I wanted to be underwater.” She didn’t share that she wanted to run her tongue over the wound and see how bad it hurt. And she wanted to be all alone when she did it. A small smile of pride played around her mouth. She’d kept a stiff upper lip until she was underwater where her unwitnessed tears mingled with the sea. “He had no other dives scheduled for Sunday. I persuaded him to take me alone.”
    Grant made a note on his pad. “And when Richard showed up? It had to be painful for you. What happened?”
    “He never did. Never saw him. I had a migraine on Friday. I canceled him.”
    “So you didn’t see his brother on Friday? How did you get his