Page 28 of Death on the Rocks (Lily Larkin Mysteries #1)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Maybe it was because the investigative part of Lily’s brain was in overdrive, but when they reached the house and Oscar told her to wait outside while he searched the shed, it set alarm bells ringing.

“I’ll come and help you look,” she said, following him down the side of the house.

“Okay. You check the garden while I look in the shed.”

Lily felt frown lines crease her forehead. “Do you really not know where it is?”

“What?” His eyes bounced from his feet to Lily’s face and back again. “I told you, I thought I’d handed it in, but I was stressed. I might have dropped it.”

“Or you might have kept it for yourself,” she suggested.

“Why would I do that?”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Why would you keep a memory card full of naked photos?”

“She’s my friend,” he said angrily. “I wouldn’t do that.”

“Oh, yeah. You’re so gallant that you didn’t even look at them, right?”

A patch of red spread up his neck. “I promised Katie I wouldn’t look at them, and I didn’t. We just need to find the memory card so I can give it to her.” Turning his back on Lily, he opened the shed.

“I think we should give it to the police,” Lily said, following him into the dreary space. “That was your intention before, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, but now I realise it should be Katie’s decision.” He moved plant pots aside as he searched the shelves. “If she doesn’t want the police to investigate it, that’s up to her.”

When a thorough search of the shed revealed nothing, Oscar pointed Lily to the area of the garden she should search. He claimed he didn’t want the Millers to see him in the garden when he wasn’t supposed to be at work.

Lily couldn’t help but think that the reason he wasn’t helping to search was because he knew it would be fruitless.

It didn’t seem believable that the memory card just got lost somewhere, and she couldn’t come up with any logical conclusion other than him having taken it for some evening entertainment.

The thought made Lily’s stomach churn. How anyone could take pleasure from the photos was beyond her. You’d really need to have some sick fantasies. Oscar seemed like a decent kid, but he was also a hormone-riddled teenager. Likely with a massive crush on Katie.

As she expected, the search of the garden was fruitless, and she indicated as much to Oscar with a shake of her head when she wandered back towards the shed.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “I really don’t know what happened to it.”

As she watched him leave, Lily really wished she believed that statement. As things stood, she could only think that Oscar must have the memory card.

At least she knew who the photos were of now. Maybe that information would be enough to get the police to take notice. But not if Katie refused to speak to them.

Oscar was right that it needed to be her decision.

Which meant Lily was firmly back to square one.

“You look very serious.” Mrs Miller’s voice startled Lily when she walked inside. With her mind desperately chewing over the events of the last few hours, she hadn’t noticed Flora in the hallway.

Lily shot her a questioning look. It wasn’t that she hadn’t heard her words – she just wasn’t sure how to respond.

“You look as though you have the weight of the world on your shoulders. Is everything okay?”

Her instinct was to insist she was fine, but she stopped herself before the words came.

Because she wasn’t okay. She did feel as though she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Maybe not the world, but a heavy burden.

And she shouldn’t have to bear it alone.

In fact, she shouldn’t have to bear it at all. The police should be investigating.

Thinking back on PC Grainger’s dismissal of her concerns, she was suddenly furious.

“Does it strike you as odd that the police aren’t looking more closely into Vinny’s death?” she blurted out.

The question seemed to shock Mrs Miller so much that she physically tensed. “How do you mean?”

“I mean they quickly assumed it was an accident without looking into it. I can’t help but think they should investigate more thoroughly.”

“Why would they need to?” Mrs Miller asked, gathering her composure and standing ramrod straight. “The poor man fell. What’s to investigate?”

“Maybe he didn’t just fall,” Lily stated. “Maybe there was someone else with him.”

Red heat crept up Mrs Miller’s neck, then turned her cheeks a fiery shade too.

“What an outrageous allegation,” she spat, a sudden fury in her eyes that Lily wouldn’t have thought her capable of.

“It’s absurd, and I can tell you exactly why the police didn’t follow that line of enquiry…

because it would turn a heartbreaking tragedy into a circus.

I imagine his poor family is suffering enough without a bunch of wild stories flying around. Why would you even think of that?”

There was a whole list of reasons that she didn’t care to get into, but there was also one very basic piece of information which no one was talking about.

“He was a physically fit young man. I realise it was foggy, but that makes it even more strange that he’d be hanging around at the edge of a cliff. But also, the cliff wasn’t that high. If he just slipped off the edge, he should have been able to at least break his fall.”

Mrs Miller pushed her fidgeting hands over the front of her blouse. “Those rocks are treacherous after the rain. Have you ever tried walking over wet, slippery rocks?”

Lily thought back on all the times she’d spent exploring rock pools as a kid. “Yes,” she said flatly. “Lots of times. It just never occurred to me that wet rocks would be considered deadly terrain. Mostly because people aren’t usually stupid enough to walk on wet rocks on the precipice of a cliff.”

“What a disrespectful way to speak about the deceased,” Mrs Miller huffed.

“Sometimes tragic accidents happen. That’s a fact of life.

” With her nose in the air, she stalked away before Lily could question which scenario it was: a tragic accident, or an inevitable occurrence on treacherous rocks.

Because she’d flicked from one argument to another incredibly quickly.

Why had she been so defensive, anyway?