A Watery Death (A Missing Pieces Mystery Book 7) by Joyce Lavene, Jim Lavene Page A

of the parade.”
    After he went downstairs, I went back to my room and got dressed.
    Gramps’s relationship with Mary Catherine wasn’t something I’d thought about in my quest to bring Grandma Eleanore home. I supposed it would be awkward for them, but surely it was worth it too. I didn’t want to think about how it would affect everyone. If there was some way to get her back from where she was trapped in the past, I knew I’d do it and then deal with the fallout later.
    Despite Grandma Eleanore’s warnings, I felt the same way about my mother. Maybe I couldn’t bring her back, but I could warn her through the psychic. She’d know not to go home the day she died. I couldn’t see where that could hurt anything.
    But as much as I wanted to find the rainbow unicorn and warn her, I had to deal with the Fourth of July first. It was right here, right now. Everything else would have to be on hold until it was over.
    I smiled as I dressed, thinking that time was a relative thing to me anyway. I had gone back forty years to see my grandmother last night. I’d gone back further in other visits when I’d touched objects from the past.
    My white shorts were a little shorter than I usually wore them, but with the heavy wool Mayor’s coat I’d have to wear over them, I thought they’d be comfortable. I wore my shorts with a patriotic red, white, and blue-striped tank top. Both items looked good with my early summer tan.
    My slimmed-down version of the Duck mayor’s coat was waiting for me at my office in town hall, according to a text I’d received from Darcy. She was our local dressmaker who’d also made Trudy’s wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses. I couldn’t wait to see the coat. I hoped it fit me better than the last time I’d worn it.
    I put on some lip gloss and sunblock and then slipped my feet into tennis shoes for the running I’d be doing that day. My phone promised clear skies and mild temperatures, at least for the morning during the parade. I left Mary Catherine a note telling her where Gramps and I had gone and then skipped out of the house with my parade clipboard in hand.
    It was still dark, and Duck Road was quiet. The air was misty and cool with the milky crescent moon floating in the sky above me. I was looking forward to the parade and even the hectic part of the day.
    The parade route was starting at town hall this year. We had a huge parking lot for staging the event. It had always started at the Duck Shoppes. Because it meant not having customers in and out during the two hours of the parade, the real estate company that owned the shops had never been happy about it.
    I had never understood their complaints since traffic was stopped on Duck Road for that time and cars couldn’t get through anyway.
    It didn’t matter anymore, I thought, as I passed the coffeehouse and bookstore, the only lighted building in the area. The new town hall had been wonderful for many different reasons. And soon the footbridge that would go over Duck Road would be finished too. Chris Slayton was a wizard when it came to great ideas—and money to get them accomplished.
    I heard a sound to the right of me in the grassy area next to the coffeehouse where Chris’s wife, Jamie, would be up getting things ready for the day. As I turned my head to see what was going on, someone wrapped their arms around my midsection, lifted me, and began moving very quickly toward the sound.
     

Chapter Eight
     
    For a moment, I was so surprised that I didn’t move or resist. That’s how long it took me to realize that this shouldn’t be happening.
    Once I understood the situation, I began kicking and beating at the person who was holding me. I tried to find eyes to gouge and skin to scratch, but I kept missing. I was amazed at how fast we were moving. I’d seen the firefighters training—they never moved this fast.
    But they probably weren’t as strong as this man either. I could feel it in the careless way he held me. There