Coastal Cottage Calamity (A Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

quickly forgot all about my
science joke not being funny. The images showed a differentiated subsurface
boundary. Directly below the surface there was evidence of a water table. Water
running underneath the ground.
    Whoa . . .
    I squatted in
front of the big black box the computer was on, pulling it in closer I studied
the images. I couldn’t remember reading anything about a well of water beneath
the surface. Studying a few images, I mapped out the direction it was flowing
and discarding my methodical sweeping and tried to trace the flowing water. I’d
run the antenna along the ground and check the images, then adjusted my course until
I found the source.
    Under a canopy of
trees and the middle of a tangle of shrubs, there appeared to be a small
manmade creek. Shallow, it had water running into it from the underground
stream I’d followed. There was a scattering of different size rocks. And there
were fish. Live fish swimming around in the creek. I knew that wasn’t on
the report I’d got from the Conservancy.
    With excitement I
whipped out my iPhone 6 and took pictures. I grabbed a plastic bag from my
knapsack, rolled up my pants leg and waded out into the water. I had to try
several times to scoop up a couple of the pesky intruders with enough water so
they’d survive me taking them up on land. I wanted to get pictures up close and
personal. Clicking away, I snapped eyes, gills, fins and mouth.
    I’m definitely
going to have to get a zoologist down here .
    I hadn’t even thought
I’d needed one. I pulled in a breath. Oh, this feels good . Finding
something that no one else knew about.
    Then in the midst
of my photography session I heard a scream.
    I jumped up and
looked around.
    I know that
scream.
    Then it came
again.
    Miss Vivee and Mac
was all I could think of. That was Koryn signature scream. I knew it well after
her closet incident.
    I tore a hole in
the plastic bag and slung the wiggling fish back into the stream. I rushed back,
leaving my equipment. Had something happened? My heart was racing and my throat
had become dry. Every nerve ending I had was tingling.
    Lord, I hope Miss
Vivee’s okay.
    Maybe she had a
heat stroke.
    I shouldn’t have
brought her. I shouldn’t have left her. I’m never bringing her out to this
island again. Lord, just let her be okay.
    As I got closer I
saw the three of them, Miss Vivee, Mac and Koryn standing in the middle of the
shoal halfway between the island and the coast of the mainland.
    Thank God.
    But it appeared
they were looking down at a heap of something. Something on the ground. As I
got nearer I saw that it was a body.
    I ran past them
and across the sandbank and there was Oliver Gibbons. Laying across the shoal
right where it started at the shore, half of face down in the shallow waters of
the Savannah. His legs splayed, straw hat sitting askew, the other half of face
glistening from sweat. His head was lying near a rock, one arm over his it. The
other hand laid at an odd angle at his side. His ever present e-cigarette still
clutched in his hand. A lumpy, gooey, wet pool of something laid next to him.
    I reached down to
rouse him, check his pulse. See if I could help him somehow.
    “Don’t.” Miss
Vivee said walking up to me. “He’s dead.”
    Koryn screamed
again.
     

 
    Chapter Five
     
    A man was lying
dead and they were having a pissing contest. At least that’s what Miss Vivee
called it.
    Sheriff Lloyd
Haynes, the only law enforcement officer in Yasamee, didn’t want to give in to
the other guy’s jurisdictional claims. The “other guy” was Tom Bowlen from the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
    “I’m telling you,
Lloyd. This is government property,” Tom said. “That means it’s federal jurisdiction.
And that means the FBI, whether you like it or not.”
    I took in a
breath. Bay.
    My heart did a
flip of joy.
    Maybe Bay would
get the assignment. Then he’d come to Yasamee. My smile grew as I thought about
seeing him.
    “What are you
smiling