Page 10 of Death on the Rocks (Lily Larkin Mysteries #1)

Chapter Ten

“Dead?” Alanna muttered for about the fiftieth time. She sat on the couch with Marc, while Lily felt dwarfed by the large armchair beside the patio doors.

After fielding questions from the group as best he could, PC Grainger had ushered them all back to the house where they’d settled in the living room.

The whole thing felt like a blur to Lily and she couldn’t even guess at how much time had passed since she’d found Vinny.

She’d stuck by PC Grainger, moving when he moved and not paying too much attention to the surrounding chatter.

As she lifted her gaze, she caught him looking down at her.

His eyes darted away and he accepted a steaming mug from Mrs Miller with a puzzled expression.

Immediately, she took it from him again with a shake of the head.

“You said you didn’t want anything,” Flora murmured. “This was for Lily.”

“I’m also fine,” Lily said.

“You’ve had a shock.” There was a tremble to Mrs Miller’s hand as she gave Lily the mug. “Sweet tea. That’s what you need. Drink up.”

“How can he be dead?” Alanna screeched, looking accusingly at PC Grainger.

“That fog.” Mr Miller kept his head low as he loitered just inside the doorway with Oscar beside him. “It was so thick this morning, I’ll bet he didn’t even see the edge of the rock. Probably just stumbled right off the edge.”

Alanna let out a strangled cry. “But he’s so young. He just turned thirty. He can’t be dead. He can’t.”

“I’m sorry,” PC Grainger said. “Did any of you see him this morning? It’s good if we can put together a timeline of his movements.”

“I um…” Oscar’s voice was a low whisper from the side of the room but it got everyone’s attention. “I saw him going out when I arrived for work,” he said. “That would have been around nine.”

Beside him, Mr Miller nodded. “Yes, I saw him then, too. I said good morning to him and mentioned the terrible weather, but he wasn’t chatty. He walked out of the door as Oscar came in. Then I went to help Flora in the kitchen.”

At the mention of her name, Mrs Miller seemed to snap to attention.

“Oh,” she said. “I didn’t see Vinny at all, but I heard Oscar arrive at nine.

He came into the kitchen to say hello before he went out to do some work in the garden.

” She nodded, as though recalling the events in her mind.

“Rodney came in at the same time as him.” She smiled at her husband.

“Did he mention to anyone what his plan was for the morning?” PC Grainger asked.

Oscar shook his head, as did Mr Miller.

“We wanted to get the ferry this morning,” Alanna said.

“We all wanted to get home. Vinny was upset about his camera and was keen to leave. But when I looked up the time for the ferry, I found it wasn’t running today because of the fog.

He was annoyed about that, wasn’t he?” She turned to Marc, who’d been rubbing circles on her back while she spoke.

Lily blew on the mug of tea in her hands before taking a sip. She winced at the excessive sweetness.

“He was a little agitated,” Marc said.

“He said if we had to stay longer we should at least look for different accommodation.” Alanna looked at Mrs Miller. “Sorry, but he didn’t like it here, and after the business with his camera he was very upset.”

“Okay.” PC Grainger appeared to be taking notes without ever looking down at his pen and paper. “Do you know what his immediate plan was when he left here?”

Alanna looked at Marc with panic-filled eyes. “He said he needed fresh air. Oh, god, I argued with him. I can’t believe I argued with him and now he’s dead.” She lifted her ball of soggy tissues to her face as another sob erupted.

“I know this is difficult,” PC Grainger said softly. “But anything you can remember could be helpful. Did you argue with him this morning?”

“No.” She blew her nose. “Last week, wasn’t it?” Once again, she looked at her boyfriend as though needing his clarification on events. When he smiled gently, she nodded and turned back to PC Grainger. “Last week. We had a disagreement and I suggested we shouldn’t work together any more.”

“But you’ve been working together since then?” PC Grainger asked. “Working on your blog? Do I have that right? He takes the photographs?”

“Yes. We argued and then we just carried on as though it hadn’t happened.” She reached for Marc’s hand. “I feel terrible now. You told me I was being too harsh on him. You were right.” She smiled sadly. “Is he really dead?”

Marc didn’t reply, just swiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb. A delicate gesture for such a well-built guy.

A loud crackling tore through the air before a voice came over PC Grainger’s walkie-talkie. “Sorry,” he said, moving it to his ear as he wandered out of the room.

“I just can’t believe it,” Alanna cried again.

Mrs Miller joined her on the couch and gave her arm a gentle pat. “It’s a shock,” she said tearfully. “Such a shock. I can’t get my head around it myself.”

Their chatter made it impossible for Lily to hear what PC Grainger was saying out in the hallway, but she concentrated on the cadence of his voice regardless.

When he returned, he directed his attention at Alanna. “Sorry to keep asking you questions, but I wonder if you know who we should contact… family members or a next of kin?”

“Oh, goodness.” She bit down on her lip as she looked at Marc.

“There was just his sister, wasn’t there?

” Without waiting for Marc’s input, she returned her attention to PC Grainger.

“His parents died when he was a teenager. He spent a few years living with his grandma after that, but she’s dead now too.

So there’s just Rachel, his sister. They weren’t close but she’d surely want to know.

” She clutched at Marc’s hand. “She’d want to know, wouldn’t she? ”

“She should be told,” Marc said. “I can’t think of anyone else off the top of my head. He spent most of his time with us these days. We travelled a lot in the last few years. Since Alanna’s blog took off.”

“Yes.” Alanna dabbed at more tears which spilled down her cheeks. “I guess we were like family to him.”

“Could you give me his sister’s full name?” PC Grainger asked.

“Yes.” Alanna reached for her phone which hung by her side in a clear pouch attached to a gold chain.

“I can give you her phone number too. We used to hang out sometimes. Back before she and Vinny fell out. And before I got famous,” she added with a measure of pride that made Lily sip at her tea to hide her amusement.

While PC Grainger took the details from Alanna, Lily’s gaze shifted to Oscar who tapped rapidly on his phone.

She supposed this was quite exciting for a teenager living on a small island.

For any teenager, for that matter, but it must be really shocking around here.

She imagined him sharing the details with his friends like it was a juicy piece of gossip.

“Should I get on with some work or something?” he said, his head flicking up abruptly.

“Oh, no.” Mrs Miller shook her head. “Don’t worry about working today, love. There’s nothing urgent, anyway.”

“I don’t mind,” he said, looking suddenly desperate to escape the room. “I can go out and get on with the garden work. Unless you need to ask me anything,” he said to PC Grainger, who shook his head.

“I don’t want you working,” Mrs Miller said, eyes filling with tears. “It feels wrong somehow, to just carry on as though nothing has happened.”

“Can I go home then?” he asked uncertainly.

“Yes,” Mrs Miller said. “You get home if you want to.”

“Actually,” PC Grainger said. “If you could just hang on for a bit.”

“Why?” Alanna screeched. “We’re not suspects or anything, are we? You said it was an accident.”

“You’re all free to leave whenever you like,” PC Grainger said calmly. “It’s only that they’re about to move the body. You might prefer not to see.” He shot a sympathetic glance at Oscar who swallowed hard.

“I’ll wait a bit,” he mumbled.

Beside him, Mr Miller rubbed a hand frantically across his forehead. “What an absolute nightmare. I can’t believe it.”

Lily wondered how many times that statement had been uttered in the last hour. Disbelief was apparently the sentiment of the day.

Another crackling voice came loudly but unintelligibly over the walkie-talkie and PC Grainger retreated to the hallway again.

“This is going to be bad for business,” Mr Miller muttered, shaking his head.

“Rodney!” his wife spat. “What a thing to say.”

“Sorry.” He looked apologetically at Alanna. “That was insensitive. Ignore me. It’s just the shock of it. My head is all over the place.”

“No,” Alanna said, her tears seeming to evaporate. “You’re right. This is terrible. Oh, my goodness.” She slapped a hand over her chest. “What if Vinny was right?”

“What are you talking about?” Marc asked gently.

Alanna looked at him with a horrified expression. “He said that his photographs were the cornerstone of my blog. That without him, I’d be nothing. What if he was right?”

“I don’t think that’s something you need to worry about.” Marc tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear only for it to fall immediately forward again.

“No,” Mrs Miller agreed soothingly. “Besides, I’m sure your followers will be very sympathetic, given the circumstances.”

Alanna’s hand went to her mouth and she sat up straighter. “Yes. They should be sympathetic to my grief. I’ll write a post about what happened. A nice tribute to him. They’ll all be sympathetic. Maybe I’ll even get more followers from it,” she ventured.

“Maybe.” Mrs Miller patted her hand.

“I won’t write about it today,” Alanna said decisively. “That would be insensitive. Maybe tomorrow, or the day after.”

PC Grainger slipped back into the room while Alanna continued to debate the best time to post on social media. He went straight over to Lily.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes.” She had the full mug of tea in her hand and nowhere to put it. “I can’t drink it,” she whispered. “It’s more sugar than tea.”

Taking it from her, he set it on the coffee table then returned and crouched beside her chair. “How are you feeling? You had quite a shock.”

“I’m okay. It feels a little surreal.”

“That’s normal.”

“Do I need to hang around here?”

“No.”

She nodded, then pondered what else she would do. Going up and sitting alone in her room wasn’t overly appealing. Going out also felt inappropriate.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said.

“Stay here, then,” he said. “You’re probably better being around other people.”

“Yes.” She nodded. Being with other people was a good plan.

He cleared his throat. “Since you found him, we’ll need you to make a statement.”

“Oh, okay.” She met his gaze. “How does that work?”

“You can just write down everything you remember. Or, if you’d rather, you can go over everything with me and I can write it for you.”

“Yes, please. Let’s do that.”

He nodded. “Let’s find somewhere private and you can tell me now while it’s fresh in your mind.”

She sucked in a breath, uncomfortable at the idea of reliving the discovery, but also relieved by the thought of getting away from Alanna’s inappropriate chatter about her blog and how best to break the news to her followers.