Diver Down (Mercy Watts Mysteries) Read Online Free Page A

secretaries make a recommendation, but Dad was stubborn. He wanted to do it himself. Little did he know Mom was researching contractors behind his back. She was waiting for him to be out of town for a couple weeks before she’d strike. I planned on being there when he found out there was a new porch roof and he didn’t build it. I’d be sure to add to my cursing vocabulary. Dad was colorful when angry to say the least.  
    I let myself in the back door, and grabbed a tin of Ghirardelli double chocolate out of the butler’s pantry. No, we didn’t have a butler. But if we had, I would’ve called him Alastair. I made my cocoa and headed upstairs to Dad’s office. The door was open, inviting me in to snoop. I set my mug on Dad’s desk. We called it the boulder because it was a remnant of his police days and he’d kicked it round during his long career.  
    The in and out baskets were just begging to be gone through, so I picked up a stack and prepared to be enlightened on what Dad was up to.
    “What do you think you’re doing?”  
    I screamed and the papers went flying. I spun around and saw Uncle Morty sitting at Claire’s little desk with his feet propped up on the immaculate wood surface.  
    Crap. Double crap.
    The paper rained down around me like giant snowflakes. Great. Uncle Morty and a mess. This was not an improvement on my already lousy day. Uncle Morty chewed on the end of a plastic fork and eyed me from under his favorite driving cap, a sad affair with a ragged bill and several holes. It usually matched the rest of his ensemble. Uncle Morty loved ancient sweatsuits bought at Walmart in the eighties. That day he had on a shiny black tracksuit with racing stripes. I don’t think I’d ever seen him in new clothes before and the sight put me off balance.  
    He pointed the fork at me. “You think you’re smart, Mercy. You ain’t.”
    “Are you trying to scare me to death?” I yelled.
    Uncle Morty chuckled. “If that was possible, Tommy’d have done it long ago.”
    “Why are you here?”  
    “You know why I’m here, Nosy Parker.”  
    “Did Claire call you? That little traitor,” I said, trying to look wronged instead of being wrong.  
    “You two was never friends. You got all the looks. She got all the dates. Boys are smarter than they seem.”  
    I plopped down in Dad’s comfy chair. “What does that mean? Guys were right to ask out Claire instead of me? Claire doesn’t have two opinions to put together.”  
    “Looks ain’t everything. You are trouble with a capital T.”  
    “I am not.”  
    “What are you here for? Dusting, I suppose.”  
    “I could be.”  
    He snorted. “You’re here to find information that’s none of your business.”  
    “It’s my family and I want to know what happened with our house.”  
    “Get used to being in the dark. It’s where Tommy wants you,” he said.  
    “No way. I’m getting deposed on this crap.”
    “That’s an easy deposition for you then. You don’t know nothing and that’s how it’s going to stay.”  
    I crossed my arms. “You have to leave sometime. I’ll wait you out and get in those files.”  
    Morty picked up a black nylon briefcase and dropped it on the desk. “Ain’t nothing to find.”  

Chapter 3

    RIGHT AFTER MORTY left my parents’ house with his briefcase and all the information I wanted, I got called in to work a twelve-hour night shift in a Pediatric ICU. I took the shift, despite the heartache it would inevitably bring ,because I worked PRN, which meant I filled in when someone was short a nurse. Peds was my least favorite work, but I have to admit there was something about taking care of a child when a family was living their worst nightmare. I could do a good job. I could help. Sometimes I needed to be what other people needed. It was a quiet night and nothing much happened. There were about ten people on that floor who didn’t think I was trouble, so that was a bonus and I scored a