With His Dying Breath Read Online Free Page A

no money left to make house payments and upkeep. The only daughter still living practically gave it to the bank since the mortgage was almost paid. Still, the house sat on the market for more than a year.
    Anne and Austin felt at home the moment they saw the sprawling ranch. It had four large bedrooms, a smaller room for Austin’s office, and a huge basement for a pool table and rec room, with lots of closets for storage. Anne particularly loved the kitchen. Austin could not understand that because she never cooked. Austin loved the backyard. Anne did not understand that because he knew nothing about plants or landscaping.
    Not knowing the history of the owners until almost four months ago, Austin now knows he paid too much. He had offered a lower than listed price but still he paid too much.
    One more turn into the cul-de-sac and he would be home. This was Anne’s day to carpool and to take Alan to the doctor to complete the physical fitness form. She promised him a trip to the mall for new cleats. Dinner would be pizza, hopefully, delivered; he did not want to go out again tonight.
    He turned his brand new Lexus convertible into the driveway, raised the garage door and eased in besides Anne’s older model SUV. The hood was up so he would have to listen to her complaints again.
    He was s o preoccupied with his thoughts that he had not noticed the curious onlookers just a few feet from his property much less the yellow crime tape surrounding his neighbor’s five-acre estate. Detective Nelson noticed him as he whipped inside his garage.

Chapter 4
    S amantha Solomon Brockton locked up in a county jail cell accused of her husband’s murder was as big a story as the murder itself. Benton Blake Brockton was dead. As she sat alone in a dingy cell, she tried to recall the events of the day, but her mind would not go there. Instead, her thoughts bounced from the time she met Blake, to her parents’ murders, to high school and back to Blake.
    After a whirlwind courtship of a few months, Blake proposed. On a business trip to St. Simons Island, they decided to make it a honeymoon, and a Justice of the Peace in a nearby Georgia-Florida border town performed the wedding ceremony almost three years ago.
    Sammi was thirty-five years old, eleven years Blake’s junior at the time. She stunned him with her beauty and poise. At five feet nine inches, her slender and very curvy figure set off her beautiful, long red hair and blue eyes. She first caught Blake’s eye at a silent art auction for a local children’s home. She just happened to be in town for the weekend to help her aunt move into a nursing home following a stroke. On a happier note, she met Blake.
    H er knowledge of art and the passion in her eyes as she talked about the artists impressed him especially when viewing paintings with vibrant colors filled with an emotional story.
    Sammi had a long history with emotional stories and a background in art to coincide. She earned a degree in Fine Arts from Crestview University in North Atlanta. She received a post-graduate degree in Renaissance Art from Yale with an internship in Vincenzio Gallery in Venice, Italy. Her doctorate was just a thought away when Blake proposed marriage.
    Sammi was born in Decatur, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta where she lived for the first twelve years of her life. Her given name at birth was Kathleen Samantha Tyler and everyone called her Katie.
    Katie. She was a sweet little girl. Strange to be thinking in third person .
    When her mom and dad were murdered by her brother and two of his friends, she moved in with her great-aunt Pat in north Macon. It was the first time she remembered being completely happy. She wanted a new identity to go with this new happiness so she desired to be called Sammi Solomon to match her aunt’s married name. Oh, Aunt Pat, what would I have done without you?
    Her brother and his troublesome friends received a maximum sentence for their ages. At first, police suspected the