Dead in the Water by Lesley A. Diehl Read Free Book Online

grasped it and held on. He put his arm around my shoulders and walked me up the steps and into the tiny house. The room I entered was high-ceilinged with the supporting beams and roof rafters reaching upward toward a central peak. They were made of logs stripped of their bark. A kitchen was to our right, table and chairs in the center of the room, couch and two upholstered chairs across from one another. Simple but welcoming. He pulled out a kitchen chair and helped me into it. I felt comforted by his touch.
    I suddenly remembered I did not know the name of my guide or his grandfather.
    â€œ My name is Eve Appel.” I held out my hand to him.
    My guide stooped over and took my fingers in his. “I’m Sammy Egret. This is my grandfather, Harold.”
    Grandfather Egret had by now placed cups and a tea pot on the table and cut slices of thick brown bread, which he spread with jam from a canning jar.
    A sip of tea and bite of the bread allowed me to recover my usual sassiness. “I don’t want to abuse your hospitality, Mr. Egret, but could you explain about the cap?”
    He took the chair across from me. His eyes met mine. “I’m not sure I can in a way someone not born in these swamps could understand.”
    â€œ Try her.” Sammy surprised me by this vote of confidence.
    â€œ The swamps are ancient, and they have ways that humans find difficult to accept. The swamp takes things—people, animals, objects—and loses them. Sometimes they appear again. Most times they do not. Whatever enters these waters becomes the possession of the swamp.” He stopped talking and looked down at his hands. He seemed to be off on a tangent, yet in a way, his words did provide some explanation of what happened to the cap.
    â€œ Thank you, Mr. Egret.”
    He smiled at me, and I felt encouraged. Maybe I could ask some more questions to clear up the matter of how he got the cap.
    He shook his head as if reading my mind. “I’m tired now.” He got up and walked to the back of the house and into the room beyond. I watched him close the door behind him. The room seemed somehow empty without him, and I felt like an interloper in a world I did not belong in and did not understand.
    Sammy broke into my thoughts. “I’ll walk you back to your car now that you have what you came after.”
    I did?

    Back at my Mustang, Sammy opened the door for me. His gallant gesture surprised me. It was as if some of his grandfather’s manners rubbed off on him.
    â€œ That was my uncle’s hat. I’m sure of it.”
    He said nothing. Great. We were now back to the Sammy I’d met earlier in the afternoon.
    â€œ You know it was, don’t you? The cops would be very interested to find out how he got that cap.” I knew I’d made a mistake the minute the words slid out of my mouth. His earlier friendly expression disappeared in a flash, replaced by the darkest anger I’d ever seen.
    â€œ You should leave now.” He slammed my car door and stalked off toward the house.
    The words he didn’t speak couldn’t have been clearer or louder in my head. “And don’t come back.”
    I drove out of the small parking area and turned toward home. The sun was at my back and about to slip behind the western edge of the Big Lake. The traffic heading south around the lake was already beyond the Kissimmee Bridge and moving toward their homes in Moore Haven. The waters shone peach and violet in the light from the sun. This was the time of the day I liked the best, when the colors of sunset became true night and washed the land in serenity.
    I sighed and slid down in my seat, thinking again of my uncle. It was time to make some calls. I pulled up my contacts on my cell. Grandy first. I hit “connect.” Instead of her comforting voice, I again got the machine. They must have had a charter today. I hated to do it, but I tried my ex-husband Jerry to see if he