Dead in the Water (Olivia Grant Mysteries Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

had apparently spent the time in the kitchen. She set down a tray of sandwiches and a pitcher of lemonade on the nearest coffee table.
    I took a seat close by. Lunchtime had come and gone, and since the inspector had taken over the dining room, we roughed it by picnicking in the parlor. The triangular-shaped crust-free sandwiches looked rather small, and my appetite always trying to sneak more weight on me than I need, I helped myself to two.
    Beryl prepared plates for herself and William, and then Chaz ambled over, put four sandwiches on his plate and popped a fifth one into his mouth, where it disappeared as suddenly as a hiccup.
    Inspector Kincaid came into the drawing room and spoke to Aunt Alice again. "Is everyone present?"
    "All but Jason, who is employed in the city. I've left a message for him at his office. In any event, he returns home about six o'clock most evenings."
    When Kincaid again left the room, I turned to Aunt Alice. "Jason lives here too?"
    "Yes, always has."
    I fell into a somewhat stunned silence. My cousin Jason, William and Beryl's older son, still lived in the family mansion. Until a mere three weeks ago, it seemed, everyone lived there— Edward and Noreen, William and Beryl, Jason and Chaz, Aunt Alice and Elizabeth. The large house could certainly accommodate everyone, and suddenly I felt envious of this large family group.
    Had my father not emigrated to the States, I might have been living in the Hall too. I glanced at William and remembered how kind he and Uncle Edward had been when I last visited. Next my gaze turned to Aunt Beryl, who had been younger, thinner, and quite beautiful, although quiet and a little aloof. Aunt Alice, on the other hand, except for the grey hair, seemed exactly the same. Although she must have been in her sixties, she moved with amazing energy and had lost none of her sparkle and spunk. Elizabeth was like another sister and Jason a second brother.
    My visit to Mason Hall had lasted the entire summer of that year, almost three months, and during that time a major event took place that changed my life forever. I returned home to discover my mother—who had often assured me I was going to be her only child—was pregnant with twins.
    Being a girl, and approaching the age of ten, the prospect of having not one, but two, real babies to play with, came as a nice surprise. However, Mother not only hadn't wanted more children, but two at once was more than she could handle. I became the twins' second mother, doing almost everything their real mother had either no time or no energy for. Thanks to them being exceptional babies (they cried, drooled, spat up, and wet themselves, but adorably, like moist robots), then model children, and even bearable teenagers, we all survived. In fact, the bond which formed between the twins and me became a super-strong one.
    Despite the chores forced on me, I managed to get through my own turbulent teens and four years of college as well. "Nine to five" was only a cute idea to me, and I dreamed of taking classes in my sleep. I married right after college graduation, which some relatives hinted was my escape to a life of my own.
    However, my first husband, Stephen, died in that freeway accident a few years later, leaving me alone. Brad and Samantha, independent beings since kindergarten, had their own careers and even their own apartments but, as if still considering me their "backup" parent, made sure I was never lonely. Insurance money making me financially comfortable, I had filled my time by teaching bridge and with charity work, making school backpacks and delivering stuffed bears to children in hospitals. Then, barely two years before, I fell in lust with Lamar Grant and married him, a marriage thankfully now over. So here I was at last, divorced this time, but once more in England.
    Despite the intervening years since my last visit, on stepping into the great hall I felt as if I'd come home. I loved my extended family, and I belonged