Page 37 of Dead in the Water (Lily Larkin Mysteries #4)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Emotions rushed up to squeeze Lily’s lungs and clog her throat.

Heat rushed to her cheeks when a volley of cheerful shouts emanated from the boats bobbing in a circle around the yacht.

Bashfully, she waved, then felt Flynn’s hand on her back ushering her closer to Sergeant Proctor and the small huddle around him.

Apparently they believed the boat had been stopped because they weren’t heading home as they’d said.

“I wanted to go home,” Joyce was saying frantically.

“But everyone insisted we needed a holiday after everything. Since James has agreed to sell the boat to Russell we didn’t think it would be a problem.

Though now I can see we should have got his permission first. I don’t know why I let them persuade me otherwise. ”

“If you’ll listen for a moment,” Sergeant Proctor said sharply.

“That’s not the issue I was referring to.

The questions I have are regarding a witness who claims to have heard people arguing at the harbour on the evening of Joseph Whittaker’s death.

Along with the pathologist’s indication that Mr Whittaker’s head injury wasn’t sustained from falling down the harbour steps. ”

“Of course he fell.” Keith shook his head. “And we already told you that we didn’t hear anything.”

“It was fairly early in the evening,” the sergeant said. “So it seems a little odd that none of you heard anything.”

Lily cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “I think Vic drugged them. That’s why they didn’t hear anything. There’s a packet of sleeping pills in his cabin with three tablets missing.”

“Where did you come from?” Kerry asked, glaring at Lily with her mouth agape as she sat on the seat beside Vic.

Lily eyed the pair of them as a hush descended on deck. “I was hiding in a wardrobe in Joseph’s cabin. I heard you talking about the sleeping pills.”

“Then you must have heard Vic say that it’s just an old prescription that he brought by mistake.”

“Or he stashed them with his indigestion tablets so you wouldn’t notice them…”

Kerry paled and shifted in her seat to stare at her husband. “That’s not right, is it, Vic?”

When the sergeant cast Lily a questioning look, she kept talking, comforted by Flynn’s hand, which remained on her back.

“Here’s what I think happened. On the evening Joseph died, Russell went back to the hotel.

The rest of them came back to the boat and sat in the galley for a nightcap.

Vic poured the drinks and spiked them with sleeping pills.

When Joyce, Keith and Kerry had gone to bed, he went out to confront Joseph about the issue with the sale of the boat. ”

Lily’s eyes went to Vic. He stared back at her with an odd flicker of amusement in his eyes.

“No.” Joyce drew in a sharp breath. “That can’t be right.”

“We did both sleep unusually well.” Keith rubbed at his jaw. “Vic wouldn’t do something like that, though.”

“Bloody hell,” Russell muttered. “He was running out of time and thought there was nothing left to lose.”

“Excuse me?” Sergeant Proctor said, eyes on Russell.

“He’s dying,” Russell explained. “Vic has cancer. He doesn’t have long left.

” He rubbed a hand across his forehead and turned to Vic.

“You should have told Joseph the real reason you were desperate to get on with travelling. He’d have agreed to us taking the boat even without selling it.

He’d have understood. Why did you have to be so stubborn? ”

“He’s not dying,” Kerry said, her voice quiet as she moved away from her husband. She stopped and pressed a hand over her mouth. “You really drugged us, didn’t you? You drugged us and then you killed Joseph…”

Vic held her gaze and slowly shook his head.

“You were so annoyed at not being able to go on the trips we’d planned,” Kerry went on. “It was your idea to sell to Russell so we could make proper use of the boat. Oh my god. You really killed him. Just because you weren’t getting to enjoy your retirement the way you wanted.”

“I didn’t kill him,” Vic said, with icy calm. “No one can prove otherwise.”

“I found your shirt with blood stains on it.” Lily’s heart pounded while she waited for Vic to react. Maybe it wasn’t blood stains at all.

Beside her Flynn held up the evidence bag. “Are the stains on this Joseph’s blood?”

Finally, Vic shifted in his seat. Then he puffed out his chest. “I’m not saying anything until I’ve spoken to my lawyer.”

“I know you did it,” Lily growled, a swell of anger rising in her.

“You won’t get away with it. Between the missing sleeping pills and the stains on the shirt and the post-mortem report, there’ll be plenty of evidence.

Plus, you brought old sleeping pills from home, so clearly you were planning this for a while. ”

The calm behind Vic’s eyes finally snapped. “I wasn’t planning anything,” he shouted. “I only brought them in case. And if Joseph had been reasonable about selling his share of the boat I wouldn’t have needed to take such drastic action.”

The boat fell silent and Vic’s gaze darted around his companions who stared at him with varying degrees of horror.

“You should be thanking me,” he roared. “I did it for all of us. So we could spend our retirement traveling like we’d planned, without him holding us back.”

When he stopped talking, no one said a word.

All the colour drained from Vic’s face as the sergeant stepped towards him, unclipping his handcuffs from his belt as he went.