Page 17 of Death on the Rocks

“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.

Chapter Eleven

After the tensionin the living room, the quiet in the breakfast room was welcome. PC Grainger gently guided Lily through her recollection of the morning and finding Vinny’s body. It was pretty straightforward, and he didn’t even seem to make many notes as she spoke. Once she’d finished talking, she let out a breath of relief.

“Are you okay?” he asked with a smile.

“Yes. I think so.”

“Would you like a drink that isn’t laced with sugar?”

“Please. Coffee would be good.”

He went to the table at the side of the room and made drinks for them both before coming back to sit with her.

“What will happen now?” she asked, wrapping her hands around the warm mug.

“I’ll write it up later, then I’ll just need you to read over it and sign it if everything is correct.”

“Right.” She hadn’t meant about the statement. “But what happens with everything else?”

His lips pulled to one side. “Do you mean with the body? Arrangements will be made to have him taken back to the mainland.”

She gave a low hum of acknowledgement, but that also wasn’t the answer she was looking for. “Will there be an autopsy?” she asked. “And an investigation?”

Slowly, he shook his head. “That would only happen if there were suspicious circumstances.”

“How do you decide if circumstances are suspicious?” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table.

PC Grainger leaned back in his seat. “I suppose if there is anything which seems off. If we had any reason to believe it wasn’t an accident…”

“But there’s nothing like that with Vinny?”

His left eyebrow quirked upwards. “It doesn’t seem so. If the sergeant thought it was anything other than an accident, the body wouldn’t have been removed so quickly.”

Lily pursed her lips. “But how could he really tell? And doesn’t he need to speak to people as well?”

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