Page 37 of Death on the Rocks (Lily Larkin Mysteries #1)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

The Scillonian loomed beside the harbour wall.

Lily hadn’t yet hatched a plan, but as she hurried towards the ferry, she knew she needed to do something.

If PC Grainger wouldn’t listen to her, she’d have to get someone else to listen.

Shouting accusations loudly might not be a graceful way of going about things, but at least it might get someone’s attention. That might force an investigation.

Or she could try to get the attention of the press and cause a stir in the media.

How would she do that, though? She squinted in the bright sunlight, recalling what PC Grainger had said about the locals lodging their grievances via social media. That seemed like a straightforward option.

She was standing beside the ferry, phone in hand, when the broad man at the end of the gangway called out for remaining passengers.

Inwardly, Lily growled. She didn’t have time for social media posts. Somehow she needed to stop the ferry, then make herself heard. Requesting to speak to the captain seemed like the logical next move.

Except Lily didn’t have a great track record for getting authority figures to listen to her. She’d had lots of time to convince PC Grainger, to no avail. What if the captain was equally dismissive?

When a young couple approached the guy checking tickets at the end of the gangway, she moved closer, waiting for the guy to turn just a little further.

With a quick hop, she was on the walkway which straddled the water. Another few strides put her on the deck.

“Hey!” the guy called. “I need to see your ticket.”

Not looking back, Lily rushed along the deck, ignoring the shouts of the ticket guy.

At the first door she reached, she slipped inside, paying no attention to the passengers sitting on plastic chairs.

Sticking to the wall like the amateur spy she apparently was, she moved swiftly.

The only attempt to stop her was made by the red fire alarm jutting out of the wall, which made her yelp when she collided with it.

Rubbing at the spot on her upper arm, she continued on until she spotted the ladies’ toilets and darted inside.

Only then did she fully inflate her lungs. Her heart was thundering and she stared at herself in the mirror, fighting the urge to reflect on what on earth she was doing. She needed to focus on coming up with a plan.

After a couple of minutes of panic, the throbbing in her shoulder gave her the answer she was looking for.

Smothering the rational part of her brain, she retraced her steps, keeping her eyes down until she reached the fire alarm.

The bright red paint had a couple of chips in it if you looked closely – possibly from people walking into it.

How many other people had it inflicted bruises upon?

Maybe not so many, since most people didn’t walk with their body pressed to the wall.

Slowly, her hand came up to the lever instructing her to pull in an emergency. That was all it would take. One little tug and the ferry would be forced to delay its departure, buying Lily time to figure out her next move.

With a deep breath, her fingers curled around the lever.

She closed her eyes.

Warmth hit the back of her fingers and her eyelids snapped open to see a hand covering hers.

“Don’t,” PC Grainger said softly, stepping closer so the scent of him filled her nostrils.

“I have to do something,” she said, focusing on keeping the tears that threatened at bay. Her hand remained engulfed by his as her eyes slid up to him.

She lifted a questioning eyebrow. “Did they really call the police because I didn’t have a ticket?

” She gave a speedy shake of the head. “How did you get here so fast?” Glancing around, she saw the ticket man chatting to another man before they set off at a brisk pace in the other direction.

He didn’t seem concerned about calling the police on her.

“No one called me,” PC Grainger said.

She stared up at him. “Why are you here, then?”

“Because you asked me to help you.” The corners of his lips twitched to a reluctant smile that made Lily feel as though her core temperature had increased.

“If I move my hand, will you promise not to set off the fire alarm?” he asked, while his eyes twinkled with affection.

“Maybe.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “ Maybe? ”

“What happens next?” she asked.

His hand felt suddenly scorching against hers, but neither of them moved.

“I called the captain on the way here,” he said.

“He agreed to delay the departure for half an hour, and––” The captain’s voice interrupted them, booming over the speaker system to announce the late departure and asking for six passengers to report to the Purser’s office by the embarkation hall.

As he reeled off the list of names and then repeated them, Lily felt her lips widen to a smile that she felt throughout her body.

“Thank you,” she said to PC Grainger.

“No matter what happens next, there’s a good chance I’ll lose my job.

” He removed his hand with a stern look that had Lily retreating from the fire alarm.

“I only hope that I can at least catch a killer as my last task in the police force.” He set off across the room and Lily kept pace with him. “You’d better be right about this.”

“I’m almost certain I’m right,” she said.

“ Almost certain’” He stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked at her sharply. “You sounded much more confident at the station earlier.”

“I’m like 97 percent sure.” She winced. “Or maybe 95… There’s a very good chance, anyway.”

“Bloody hell,” he muttered. “We should hurry before the odds dive even further.”

His long legs took the stairs two at a time with ease, while Lily’s legs worked double time to keep up.

“What’s the plan?” he asked when they reached the embarkation hall and he stopped a few metres from an open door which Mr and Mrs Miller had just walked through.

“The plan?” Her insides had turned to mush and her smile was just as watery.

The more she thought about it, the less sure she was in her convictions.

Her knees felt as though they might buckle and it occurred to her that might not be a bad thing.

Could she pass out and wake up in a completely different reality?

One where she wasn’t about to make a fool of herself and get a perfectly good police officer sacked.

Maybe he wasn’t perfectly good, though. He was probably incompetent and she was doing society a favour by forcing a career change on him. That’s what she’d tell herself if he lost his job.

“Lily,” he said, the gravity of his voice grounding her.

“Yeah?”

“What was your plan? Once you’d pulled the fire alarm?”

She winced. “I hadn’t got that far. I guess I was probably going to accuse people of murder and see what happened. But if you have a different plan – any other plan at all – I think we should go with yours.”

His gaze drifted over her shoulder, lingering somewhere in the middle distance. “It’s not actually a terrible plan.”

“Accusing people of murder?” She laughed. “It’s a really terrible plan.”

He shook his head. “Sometimes, in policing, we bluff… Pretend we know more than we do and see how people react.”

“So you want to pretend you know that one of them killed Vinny and ask the murderer to step forward?”

“No.” He smiled. “I don’t want to accuse all of them. I want to put pressure on the person who killed Vinny and see if they crack.”

“Small problem,” she pointed out. “We don’t know who did it.”

“Just give me your best guess…”

“I can’t,” she said wildly. “I don’t know.”

“Okay.” He walked forward and put a hand on the door. “I’ll give you about three minutes to figure it out.”