Page 32 of The Sunken Truth (Lily Larkin Mysteries #5)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Lily spotted Benji as she rounded the corner onto the Strand.

She quickened her steps to catch him, then broke into a run when he walked into the dive shop.

Pushing at the door, she rushed inside in time to see him disappear into the back room and didn’t hesitate to follow him.

In the hallway at the back, a door was closing, signalling where he’d gone.

Without thought, she rushed into the room and almost barrelled straight into the back of Benji.

“Sorry,” she said, taking in her surroundings. Presumably it was Ryan’s office. Flynn sat behind the desk with a coffee in his hand while Ryan lounged on a small couch at the side of the room.

“I was just passing,” she said in response to the puzzled looks from Ryan and Benji. She pursed her lips for a moment, then scratched at her temple and adopted what she hoped was an innocent tone. “I didn’t leave my sunglasses here, did I?”

Ryan snorted. “Still looking for them?”

“Yeah. I thought maybe I’d left them here.”

“And they’re not the ones on your head?”

She grimaced. “Different pair.”

“I still haven’t seen any sunglasses,” Ryan said, his small shake of the head making it clear he didn’t believe her excuse. Standing, he walked to the door while his gaze bored into Benji. “Once PC Grainger has finished questioning you, I have a few questions of my own.”

Benji nodded and shifted his weight.

“Take a seat,” Flynn said to Benji, while Lily discreetly slipped behind the desk and pulled up a chair beside Flynn. “Kurt has been telling me about the artefact he found at the shipwreck. Apparently you were aware of it?”

Benji dropped his backpack on the floor as he sat. “I should have mentioned it before.”

“Can you tell me about it now?” Flynn asked.

He nodded, then swallowed hard. “He found it on the seabed, but right after he found it, the water got all murky around the shipwreck. We saw Ryan was surfacing, so we headed back to the boat.”

“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 Ryan started shouting about someone cutting his hose. Then Kurt said maybe we should keep it to ourselves.”

“He said that after you’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?” Lily asked, 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.”

“What about his wife?” Flynn asked. “Nat?”

Again, he seemed pained by the question. “No. She wouldn’t do it.”

“Right.” Flynn glanced at his watch. “I’ll ask you again – do you have any idea who did cut the hose?”

His eyes were fixed on the floor. “No,” he said weakly.

Flynn’s gaze met Lily’s, but she only shrugged. She was all out of questions.

“Can I go now?” Benji asked, shifting in his chair.

“I think Ryan would like to speak to you,” Flynn said. “But that’s all I need from you for now.”

Lily felt utterly useless as they stood and walked back through the building.

Outside, Flynn checked his watch and cursed under his breath.

“Sorry,” Lily said. “I wasn’t much help.”

Flynn shook his head. “Thanks for trying.”

“What now?” Lily asked quietly.

“Now I have to go and tell Kurt he’s free to leave, and then probably endure a lecture from the superintendent. There’s no way I’ll be able to talk him into letting me stay now. ”

Lily’s whole body tensed. “It’s not fair. You did your job well. And I think you’re close to figuring it out.”

They set off, walking slowly along the Strand, a sea breeze blowing up from the shore to their right.

“The annoying thing is, I think I already figured it out.”

“You think it was Kurt?” Lily asked.

He nodded. “I’d put money on it. Benji was covering for him, I’m sure. It’s weird though…”

“What is?”

“The money…” He trailed off and stopped walking, staring into space. “Kurt definitely said he’d given Benji some of the money, but Benji didn’t seem very sure of that.”

“No,” Lily agreed, wishing she knew what was going on in Flynn’s mind. He looked miles away.

His eyes snapped to Lily. “Kurt didn’t actually say money,” he said in a rush. “He said he’d given him something. He never specified it was money.”

“What would he have given him?”

Flynn’s shoulders sagged. “I’ve no idea.”

He started walking again, but Lily remained rooted to the spot.

“Are you coming?” he called out.

She tilted her head. “What if it was photos?”

“What do you mean?”

“I saw Kurt give Benji a USB stick, remember? Except he didn’t really seem to give it willingly. Benji took it. They said it was photos from the wreck.”

“So?”

Lily took a step towards him, not sure if she was onto something but voicing her thoughts as they came to her. “No one has decent photos of the wreck. No discernible pictures at all that I’ve seen. Which would mean that if someone has decent photos, they could be worth something. ”

“Not if they keep them hidden,” Flynn pointed out. “And I don’t see why photos would have anything to do with someone cutting Ryan’s air hose.”

“True. Something just seemed weird about it. It’s probably nothing, though.”

This time it was Flynn who stayed put when Lily set off again. She turned back and smiled at him. “What are you grinning at?” she asked.

“I was just thinking about this investigator I know who told me that all you have to do is keep asking questions until you land on the right one.”

“She sounds very wise,” Lily said, holding his gaze. “Do you want to go and ask about the photos?”

He nodded eagerly and they turned back the way they’d come.