Page 75 of The Sunken Truth

“Who else did you see?”

His thumb and forefinger drummed against his knee. “How do you mean?”

“Did you notice where the other divers were situated? Were any of them close to Ryan?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I had my head down, looking for anything from the wreck. Then I was looking at Kurt when he found that box. After that it was kind of chaotic. I don’t know where everyone was.”

“Okay. Then what happened?”

“We swam back to the boat.”

Lily leaned onto the desk. “When did you decide not to tell anyone about the box?”

He closed his eyes briefly as though gathering his thoughts. “We’d just got on the boat and Ryanstarted shouting about someone cutting his hose. Then Kurt said maybe we should keep it to ourselves.”

“He said thatafteryou’d got out of the water?”

“Yeah. As soon as we got out of the water, Ryan started shouting that someone had cut his hose. I think I was stunned by it all, so I just went along with it when Kurt said we should keep quiet.”

Something was off. Lily could sense it in the staccato pattern of Benji’s speech and the way he couldn’t sit still. And the way his story sounded practiced.

“How much of the reward money did Kurt give you?” Flynn asked.

Benji’s jaw hung open for a moment. “What?”

“The reward money that Kurt got from Eustace. He shared it with you. Is that correct?”

“Oh.That.It wasn’t really reward money.”

“Did Kurt give you money or not?” Flynn asked firmly.

For a moment, Benji stared at his hands, as though trying to figure out the right answer. “Yeah,” he said eventually.

“How much did he give you?”

“He didn’t actually give it to me yet.”

Flynn’s eyebrows twitched together. “He told me he’d given you some of it.”

“Maybe he has. He said he was going to transfer it. I didn’t check yet.”

Flynn nodded slowly, then cast Lily a meaningful glance. She wasn’t sure what to ask next, though. She was sure Benji was lying, but she had no idea how to prove that.

“Do you have any idea who cut Ryan’s hose?” Flynn asked him bluntly.

He shook his head. “No.”

“You’ve worked for Ryan for a while, haven’t you?” Lilyasked, thinking that if they could just keep him talking, he might trip himself up.

“Yes. Like ten years.”

“So you know about the tension between him and Harry?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think Harry would do something like this? Have there been any similar incidents in the past?”

He looked thoughtful, then finally gave a small shake of the head. “Harry wouldn’t do this.”