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

woman, Eve Appel.”
    I recognized the voice. My eyelids opened. Sammy Egret stood in front of me.
    â€œ You. I should have known. Are you and your grandfather in on this together? And here I believed that crazy story about the swamps taking things. You’re taking things. First the cap, and now you’re trying to get my uncle’s money. That was for the mob, not for you. And I have no idea where it is now.” I was babbling out of fear.
    Sammy continued to stare at me. “What are you talking about? Maybe you’ve got a concussion. I’ll call an ambulance. I assume you have a cell. I don’t.”
    None of this made any sense. First he tried to run me off the road, then threatened to kill me and now he wanted to take me to the emergency room? Maybe I did have a concussion. Or perhaps he was calling his grandfather for backup.
    Sammy still had my arm in his strong grasp. I’d play along with him. Once he let go, I could run and flag someone down on the road—although no cars had come by since mine kissed the tree.
    â€œ The cell’s on the seat.” I gestured toward the Mustang with my head. Gosh it hurt when I moved my neck.
    He let go, but my knees gave out from under me.
    â€œ Whoa there.” He walked me to the offending tree and propped me up against it.
    Good, now let’s get these legs going. They refused to obey my command to run. I dropped to the ground and tried to crawl to the road.
    â€œ Where are you going?” Sammy bent and put his arm around my middle, lifting me again to my feet as if I weighed no more than a heron’s feather.
    â€œ Here. It’s for you.” He handed me the phone. I had a vague memory of connecting with someone before the truck hit me, but who?
    â€œ Eve? Who’s the man I just spoke to, and what was all that noise in the background a minute ago?”
    Now I remembered who I’d called. Alex was on the other end of the call, and he didn’t sound happy I’d gotten in touch.
    â€œ Hi, honey. That’s Sammy. My Mustang is a wreck.” And then I began to cry.

    So here I was at the hospital for the second time today. This time I was the patient. Sammy had been kind enough to follow the ambulance to the hospital, a gesture that convinced me he was telling the truth when he insisted he had come upon the accident after it happened. He said he saw the back end of a pickup driving off as he arrived but was too far away to get the license number. I believed him.
    Frida was here too, and she was not happy with Sammy’s description of the vehicle that had rear-ended me.
    â€œ A black truck? Everyone around here drives black trucks or SUVs. Anything else you remember that might help to identify it?”
    I sat at the end of an examining table, a large plastic collar around my neck. I wondered how I was going to make this fashion accessory work with my wardrobe.
    â€œ Guys?” I tried to get their attention, but Sammy and Frida ignored me.
    â€œ Guys?” I tried again.
    â€œ Hey!” I banged my foot against the leg of the table. They turned toward me, annoyed looks on their faces, as if I was disturbing something important.
    â€œ Here’s something that might help. How about ….”
    Frida flapped her arm at me. “How could you see anything? You were slammed against the seat by the airbag. You just rest a bit. The doctor said you have whiplash.”
    â€œ The truck smashed into my Mustang so—”
    â€œ Yeah, sweetie, we know. Another car bites the dust. Looks like the accident totaled it. You’re lucky you sustained only minor injuries. Cars can be replaced. Well, I guess you know that, don’t you?” Was she making a snide remark about my Miata that blew up last year?
    â€œ That wasn’t my fault,” I said.
    â€œ Nobody said it was, although two cars in less than a year? You sure are hard on transportation.”
    â€œ Wait. ‘Minor