A Watery Death (A Missing Pieces Mystery Book 7) by Joyce Lavene, Jim Lavene Read Free Book Online Page B

parade again. I should be helping get things set up for tomorrow. Instead I’m stuck listening to people complain for two hours.”
    “Maybe I’ll be there too,” Mary Catherine said. “I know Horace is always there with Chief Michaels and Sheriff Riley.”
    “Since they have Captain Lucky’s death to look into, none of them might be there. You should call Gramps before you put yourself through that ordeal.”
    “You must be headed home then.” She linked her arm through mine. “I just closed too. I’ll walk with you.”
    Walking was by far the best way to get around Duck in the summer. There could even be golf cart snarls on the roads when traffic got bad. The cool breezes blew through the stunted island trees as we followed the walking trail back to Gramps’s old house.
    Generations of O’Donnells had grown up here, including my grandfather and his seven siblings. Mary Catherine had come back to Duck last year and had stayed with us. She and Gramps had a thing going on, and her being there worked well for all three of us.
    Knowing that Gramps had Mary Catherine was the only thing that made me feel better about moving to the Blue Whale with Kevin when we married. The two of them were a wonderful couple. I knew he wouldn’t be lonely with her there. But nothing was permanent between them yet.
    We reached the house and went our separate ways—Mary Catherine to my mother’s old bedroom and me to mine.
    Treasure, my tuxedo cat, was glad to see me. He glanced at Baylor, who was twice his size, but ignored him and went upstairs with me. Sometimes Baylor bullied Treasure a little.
    My room was small but had always suited me. I was fortunate to have the entrance to the stairway from the widow’s walk on the roof. From that spot, O’Donnell women had watched for their loved ones to return from the sea. I had spent many long hours gazing out at my hometown. I could see the tall masts of the Andalusia II from there, and I was always the first person to see snow on the rooftops.
    I went up on the roof with Treasure for a few minutes, the two of us looking at the long line of traffic moving slowly down Duck Road. I loved the off-season months more than the long summer, despite the dip in revenue for myself and the town. I didn’t like the traffic or the crowds. Duck was a peaceful corner of the world that I wished I could keep all to myself.
    “If I’m going to eat anything before I face the council meeting, I’d better get a move on it,” I told Treasure.
    He talked back, gazing at me soulfully. I wasn’t like Mary Catherine where I could understand exactly what he was saying, but I believed it had something to do with eating. I put him down when I got to my bedroom again, and he scooted out the door.
    I hated to disappoint him, but I needed a quick shower and a change of clothes before I went downstairs. I was lucky that I spent so much time outside. My face was tan and needed no makeup—dark lashes, too, above my blue eyes. My hair was wild, so I kept the sun-bleached brown strands short. I could run a comb through it and be ready to go.
    There was a cool, comfortable, white dress in my closet. It looked nice but didn’t make me feel like I was wearing a corset. I’d set it out for tonight. A few people in Duck had complained since I’d become mayor in 2002 that I should wear a suit to meetings. I figured since they’d voted me back in for another term in office that most people didn’t care if I was casual.
    Duck was mostly a casual place to live. I reflected that, I decided, as the town’s head officer.
    There was some of my favorite pink lipstick left in the case. I put that on and practiced my wide mayor’s smile in the mirror.
    “Good evening, citizens of Duck. I know you’ve mostly come to complain, but I also know you love living here.”
    Of course I really wouldn’t say that, but I felt like it sometimes.
    The people of Duck were my friends and neighbors. Many of them still remembered my