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

number?”
    “He called me Friday morning to confirm plans. I dialed him back from the phone’s memory.” She answered the last question first. “Not only did I not see him on Friday, I’ve never seen him.”
    Grant raised his eyebrows in response. Seeing the gesture, she continued, “When we were together Kevin told me he lived in North Florida, up around Jacksonville, or maybe it was Tallahassee, I don’t remember...I know Richard’s older by a couple of years. I hoped there’d be a family resemblance so I’d recognize him. I packed Kevin’s stuff and had it ready to go. Since it had to happen, I wanted it done.” Hayden experimentally covered each eye with a hand. She still saw the auras but they seemed to be diminishing. That could be good news, or it could mean the pain was on the way.
    “How’s the headache?”
    “Testing,” Hayden said, and smiled as the lights flashed in front of her eyes. She could tell the intensity of the headache by the color of the lights. These were silver and electric blue. It was going to be a beauty.
    “Your turn. What was in the report? Do they think I had something to do with the death of someone I don’t know? And why would I dive on the wreck and pretend to find the body if I had done it?” She ticked off each question on her fingers as she spoke.
    “They don’t. Not really. And nothing in the file connects you to anything. It’s a bluff as far as I can tell. They have no ID on the person you found. You’ve found other bodies. I think they’re more concerned with eliminating you than with convicting you. They have nothing to tie you to an unknown decedent. They were taking your temperature.”
    “So what was in the file? Why harp on my knowing the guy on the boat?”
    “There were some notes from the Coast Guard lieutenant. He said he watched you at the body and thought it looked like you recognized the decedent.”
    Hayden jerked her head out of her hands so fast a pain shot up the back of her neck. Paul thought she knew the guy. Paul saw recognition in her face. What was that supposed to mean? Why would he write that in a report? Why did he think that? She put the questions away to consider them later. Pulling herself back to the present, she realized Grant was still speaking. She tried to focus on his words. Something about Cappy.
    “He was point for point with you. Total agreement in his statement with what you told them today. They have no reason to doubt you. Hopefully, this should be it. Going forward, you’ll only know what you read in the papers.”
    She tried to draw comfort from his words and failed. Grant was treating her like a client, not a friend, not a co-worker. For the first time in their relationship, she couldn’t read him. Hayden looked past Grant trying to think of something to say. She noticed a couple sitting on the outside dock dining area tossing food over the side for the schooling fish. A sailboat sailed the bay and a motorboat with an aqua blue cover on its cuddy cabin glided past through the channel markers. The moment was unnaturally sharp. Hayden had been here before. Migraine was on the way. This one had all the hallmarks of being as bad as the one she had on Friday. A rumble of nausea rolled through her stomach and she regretted the tortilla chips and salsa she’d consumed with such gusto.
    “Grant,” she reached blindly for his arm, “can we go? And can you drive me home?”

Eight

      
    Classic aura lights danced in her vision. She’d half expected Friday’s migraine. Today’s was no surprise either. Emotional turmoil triggered them. She’d told Cappy she had no recollection of Friday night. The cops and then Grant’s questions forced her to dig deeper before someone started asking more questions.
    The throbbing increased as Hayden drove her memory back to Friday night. Through the pain, she knew it was important to reconstruct where she’d been and why. She felt as if her thoughts were running into walls. Did the