Page 15 of Dead in the Water (Lily Larkin Mysteries #4)

Chapter Fifteen

Thinking so much about Joseph was a little depressing, but it was preferable to the other thoughts which plagued Lily.

The situation with Flynn was something she was happy to push into a corner of her mind.

The same went for the niggling notion that she should approach Maria and find out if she owned the ice cream shop.

And if so, why she was intent on hiding that fact.

When she woke on Wednesday after a fitful sleep and still couldn’t put Joseph out of her mind, she decided chatting everything through might help.

On the way to the police station, it occurred to her that Flynn might be on duty.

A jolt of unpleasantness hit deep in her stomach at the thought that she’d rather not see him.

Mostly that was because she wanted to focus on making sure Joseph’s death really was an accident.

Seeing Flynn would raise other issues – the ones she’d locked in a corner of her mind, to be ignored until a later date.

If it was only the sergeant and PC Hill on duty, that would make things easier. She could chat everything through with them and see what they thought about what she’d found out about Joseph – specifically his dubious relationship with the co-owners of his yacht.

Sadly, Flynn was manning the front desk, which meant all her carefully constructed questions turned into a jumble in her head the moment she walked inside.

“Hey!” He sat up straighter, an uncertain smile pulling at his lips. “How are you?”

“Fine, thanks.”

“I messaged you this morning.”

“I forgot to reply,” she lied. The message had only asked how she was, so it wasn’t as though it warranted a speedy reply. “Is the sergeant around?”

Creases formed across his forehead, but he didn’t have time to reply before Sergeant Proctor walked out from the back room.

He tipped his chin in greeting. “Hi, Lily.”

“Hi, Sarge.”

He grinned and drifted further into the room.

“I wanted to ask you about the man who died at the harbour,” she began.

“Poor man. Terrible tragedy.”

“Yes.” That standard response was grating on her nerves. “I was wondering if you would share what you’ve found so far? Maybe we could exchange information.”

“How do you mean?” the sergeant asked, his eyebrows lifting suspiciously.

“What’s your take on it all?”

The sergeant sank into the chair behind the other desk, frowning deeply. “He slipped on the wet steps. It was an unfortunate accident.” His words were deliberate, as though addressing a child. “There’s nothing to suggest otherwise.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Good. We agree for once.”

“No, I mean that’s what I was expecting you to say, but I suspect you’re missing some vital information.”

The sergeant leaned onto his desk, clasping his hands in front of him. “Such as?”

“There’d been a disagreement,” Lily said, taking the chair across the desk from the sergeant and placing Flynn out of her sight line. “Between Joseph and his friends.”

The sergeant nodded. “He wanted to sell the yacht. They were already on their way for a six-week sail when he broke the news to them that he didn’t want to make the trip. Tempers were strained and there’d been some heated words.”

“You already know?” Lily asked, surprised.

“It doesn’t seem to be a secret.”

“Who told you?”

“His friends. They all mentioned it when we spoke to them. There was some guilt that their last days together hadn’t been easy ones.”

“Okay,” Lily said. “And you don’t think that gives them motive?”

The sergeant’s gaze flicked to Flynn before landing back on Lily. “Motive for what?” he asked, once again sounding as though he were indulging a child’s questions.

“For one of them to kill Joseph?”

“No. I don’t.”

Lily’s temper flared. “You haven’t even considered the possibility?”

The sergeant’s eyes darted across the room once again. Lily felt Flynn beside her before he perched himself on the corner of the desk in front of her. She couldn’t avoid looking at him then.

“We’ve asked all of our questions,” Flynn said calmly. “There’s nothing to suggest it was anything other than an accident.”

“But he’d been arguing with his friends,” she said. “They were all angry with him. It doesn’t seem much of a stretch to think one of them wanted him dead.”

Except, as the words flowed out of her, she could hear how unlikely it sounded. But while her brain told her she was being irrational, her gut told her that something wasn’t right.

“Look,” she said before either of them could get a word in. “I spoke to Joseph the evening he died. We watched the sunset together. He was a good man and if someone killed him, we owe it to him to find out who.”

“Flynn mentioned you spoke to Joseph before he died,” Sergeant Proctor said. “It must have been upsetting to find out you were one of the last people to speak to him.”

Lily sucked in a breath, hoping it would calm her but feeling no such relief. “I’m mostly upset because he was a nice guy and I don’t think you’re investigating his death properly.”

Neither of them said anything and the looks on their faces were entirely condescending.

“You didn’t even consider that it wasn’t an accident, did you? The steps he fell down were open for people to use again almost immediately. You should have secured them for a proper forensic investigation…”

“We followed proper procedure,” the sergeant said. “But it had rained heavily in the early hours and people had already been using the steps, so even if there had been reason to think it wasn’t an accident, we weren’t going to find anything more from the scene.”

“Do you really believe he just fell?” Lily asked, her gaze fixed on the sergeant.

“The sun had only just set,” he said. “The pub was still open. There would have been people around. It’s highly unlikely that no one would have heard or seen something had there been any kind of scuffle.

You know what it’s like around here… people notice things…

and they talk. But no one has come forward to report anything. ”

“Don’t you think it’s strange that no one heard him fall? If his friends were on the boat, as they claim, surely at least one of them would have heard a splash.”

The sergeant shrugged. “I imagine if you’re used to sleeping on a boat, you get used to hearing splashes and other noises. The mind probably filters it out so you barely notice it at all. That’s if they were still awake. There’s every chance they were fast asleep.”

“It doesn’t ring true,” Lily insisted. “If no one heard anything, I imagine it’s because someone was purposely being quiet. And careful. Perhaps they waited and made sure there was no one around.”

The sergeant leaned back in his chair. “The way he was found, and his head injury seem to be consistent with a fall.”

Lily threw her hands up. “Can you consider the possibility that you’ve missed something? Just for a minute? Because it’s not that long since you were convinced a man fell to his death from the cliffs until I proved otherwise. You were sure you were right then as well.”

“There’ll be a post-mortem,” Flynn said, bracing his hands on the desk. “That will show anything suspicious.”

“So you’re just waiting around for that?”

Flynn’s eyes narrowed. “There’s not a lot else we can do.”

“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” the sergeant said in an annoyingly measured tone.

“We’ll go through all the statements again and check we didn’t miss anything.

We’ll keep asking if anyone heard or saw anything on the evening of his death.

His son is also arriving tomorrow, so we’ll chat with him again and see if he has any reason to suspect anything untoward.

And if you stumble upon any evidence, let us know and we’ll follow up. ”

“Fine,” Lily muttered, her jaw tense as she rose from the chair. “I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

She stalked out of the station and almost refused to stop when Flynn called out to her a moment later.

Except she’d look petty if she ignored him completely.

“Are you okay?” he asked, when she turned back.

“Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you can barely look at me. I’m sorry, okay…”

She rolled her eyes, hoping the action would mask her hurt. “I already told you it’s fine.”

“It’s clearly not fine. You’re angry with me and now you’re all worked up about the guy who died.”

She threw her hands up. “You think I’m so distraught about you standing me up that I’m looking into a man’s death to distract myself?”

He scratched at his jaw. “I think you have a lot on your mind. There’s also the stuff with Maria which you’re avoiding dealing with.”

“I’m not avoiding it. I just haven’t had a chance to speak to her alone.”

“Okay,” he muttered.

“I really think there’s something that doesn’t add up about Joseph’s death. You can sit around waiting for the post-mortem, but my gut is telling me that something isn’t right and I intend to figure out exactly what happened.”

He nodded slowly. “I could help.”

“You already said there’s nothing you can do without evidence.” She held up a hand when he started to speak. “I don’t need your help.”

Walking away from him, her heart felt heavy. He was probably right that looking into Joseph’s death was a distraction from her problems.

It wasn’t only that, though. She’d felt a connection with Joseph and knew she wouldn’t sleep well while there were unanswered questions about his death.