Death By Sunken Treasure (A Hayden Kent Mystery Book 2) by Kait Carson Read Free Book Online

signed under duress…” Mallory drew out her words. “You could have a motive for murder. Kill him before he revokes it.”
    Mental images of the dive site whirled through my head. Accident or murder? Between Friday and when I dove the site, the sea would have covered any evidence of a struggle. My mouth said, “My thoughts exactly,” but my brain yelled at me not to draw any hasty conclusions.
    I handed the clerk’s Receipt for Deposit of Will to Mallory. “You recognize the name on the depositor line?”
    She took the document in a manicured hand. “Sure, and so should you. It’s Buddy.”
    “He’s…”
    “Retired,” she finished for me. “But not anymore. He reopened. He’s renting space on Lower Matecumbe Key, the building with the Keys mosaic. Rolly’s office.”
    I digested the news and wondered what brought him back to law work.
    This second will changed everything. Even my plans to take the rest of the day off. I slid into my now cooled car. The display on my dashboard read almost four o’clock. I could get back to the office in thirty minutes. I activated the car’s phone button and called Grant. This bit of technology never ceased to amaze me. I’d driven a Chevy Tahoe for years until it wrecked last summer when someone drove me off the road. I’d escaped with a few bumps and bruises. The truck didn’t do so well.
    Traffic backed up a bit on the approach to the Long Key Bridge. I braked at the same time Grant came on the line. I blurted out my story. “It’s a first for me,” I babbled. A deep silence greeted my statements. At first, I thought the call had disconnected. But his low whistle through the speaker confirmed the connection.
    “What’s different between the two wills?”
    “A lot of stuff, especially the beneficiaries.” Traffic eased a bit and I inched my car forward, hoping the delay didn’t indicate an accident ahead. The two-lane road lacked a shoulder to get around. “I’m heading back to the office. Should I stop at Buddy’s? Ask when and how he got this?”
    “Where are you?”
    Traffic crawled. In the time I’d been on the phone the car had moved maybe ten feet. Red taillights showed as far as I could see. “Stuck in traffic before the Long Key Bridge.”
    “Go home,” Grant said. “Scan me a copy of the will you picked up and the depository receipt. I’ll see you tomorrow.” When the cars ahead of me inched farther up the road, I held my place. As soon as the road toward me seemed clear, I zipped the nose of my Subaru out into the oncoming lane and pulled a fast one-eighty. U-turns might not be legal, but in the Keys, the rules were different.
    I got to my street in fifteen minutes. As I turned the wheel into the driveway, I pulled my cell phone from the console and typed a quick text to Mallory. I might still catch her if she went back to her office before heading home from the clerk’s office. We hadn’t run together for a while. It was time. I gathered my stuff and pulled out my house key.
    I kicked off my heels as I punched my code into the alarm and headed for my home office. My phone chirped a quick dot dash as I turned on my computer and scanner. I punched the message button and grinned. I had a little road-pounding and brain-picking in mind. Mal matriculated in the criminal legal world. I dealt with the living and the dead. Our sources were different.
    The scanner spat out the last page of the will. I picked up my copies, put them in a folder, and carried them out to my hall table. I’d put it in the car tonight so I didn’t forget the will in the morning. Tiger Cat wound around my ankles, alternately purring and mewing. He wanted his supper, and he sang for it. I walked to the cupboard, opened a small can of cat food, and dumped the contents into a handmade cat bowl.
    “Here you go, youngin’. Just an appetizer. You’ll get the main course when I come home.” He abandoned me at once. Tail straight up in the air, he high-stepped to his