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

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