Dead in the Water (Olivia Grant Mysteries Book 1) by Phyllis A. Humphrey Page A

lived in the house, by assigning some profits from land leases to his children separately."
    "Through legal documents?"
    "No, worse luck, just a private arrangement, but Edward followed it, and William expected to as well."
    "Yet you think Noreen had no intention of doing so."
    "We can't be positive, because she didn't take anyone into her confidence, but it seemed clear she intended to sell off everything." She turned to me. "You can understand now why most family members, heaven forgive us, are glad she's dead."
    "What about her will? Did she have one? Could she leave the property to someone else?"
    Elizabeth frowned. "It's possible. We'll know soon enough, I suppose." She shrugged. "No use ruining our day with gloomy thoughts."
    Her last statement startled me, being unlike the Elizabeth I had met two days before, who had seemed to hold nothing but gloomy thoughts. Maybe she didn't want to think about the problem at that time, but my curiosity grew in size from marbles to bowling balls. Nevertheless, I put it aside for the time being.
    I had always liked Elizabeth. We were almost the same age and played well together that summer we both visited Mason Hall. Now we were both divorced. I still smarted from mine, and, thanks to Elizabeth's occasional surly attitude, I suspected she carried a gunnysack full of bitterness about hers. Yet that day as she drove us in her black Vauxhall, she seemed cheerful enough and asked me why I hadn't visited over the years.
    "I came close to it once. The summer after graduating from college, three friends and I spent a couple of weeks tooling around Europe."
    "Didn't you get to England?"
    "My girlfriends had all been here more recently and wanted to stay on the continent. I suggested we visit Mason Hall, but I don't believe you lived there at the time."
    "I expect you're right. Papa died young, as you know, and Mother moved back here. Yet, if you'd finished university at the time of your trip, you're right. I'd left home by then anyway."
    "I wouldn't have minded seeing Uncle Edward, but, as a child, I didn't get along with Jason." Truth is I had disliked him and figured he'd probably turn into a person who gives away the endings of suspense films. "I didn't know Chaz at all, and the prospect of being dragged to visit my aunts and uncles didn't appeal to the others. They vetoed it."
    "I can certainly sympathize with that." She maneuvered the car skillfully through a roundabout. "Couldn't you have come later?"
    "Well, I got married that same year and secured a new job right away too. Stephen and I talked about a trip here, but it didn't happen. Then he was killed in that accident, and I buried myself in work for a long time."
    "With your looks, you should have married again. You've got a great figure, pretty face, naturally curly hair. American men must be barmy."
    I laughed at her expression. "I had no time to look at men, even if I'd been interested." I shook my head. "No, I waited until last year to take the plunge and then made a huge mistake. Take it from me, if a man sings Spanish love songs to you and brings you flowers every time you meet, run, don't walk, to the nearest exit."
    Elizabeth frowned. "No chance of that."
    She'd gleaned more information about me than I had about her. "How about putting the shoe on the other foot? Why haven't you remarried?" I'd already noticed she dressed as if she'd taken lessons in how to discourage male attention.
    "Schoolteachers don't get many opportunities to meet eligible men. Besides, I don't think I'm the marrying kind. I like being single. No one I must please."
    "There's a lot to be said for that," I admitted, "but it does get a bit lonely. Television and microwave meals are okay, but they're not a good substitute for going out to dinner and seeing a movie or play with a person of the opposite sex."
    She didn't comment, and feeling again as if she were my sister, I said confidentially, "Speaking of sex, I'd like to experience a bit more before I