Page 21 of Death on the Rocks

The doorto the station was propped open with a wooden wedge. Peeking inside, all Lily could see was a wall of cupboards and a polished desk with a wooden chair behind it. Leaning to look further into the room, a second desk came into view and the weary features of PC Grainger. With one hand he held a phone against his ear while the other hand massaged his temple. The conversation revolved around the weather so Lily felt no guilt over eavesdropping. It seemed to be the tail end of a conversation, anyway.

He ended the call and let out a low groan as he leaned far back in his chair, putting him outside of Lily’s vision. She rapped on the solid wood door as she stepped inside.

“Hi,” she said, sending PC Grainger springing to an upright position. His black shirt complemented his olive skin and Lily felt her cheeks heat as she recalled her conversation with Seren yesterday.

“Miss Larkin.” PC Grainger cleared his throat. “How are you today?”

Being called Miss Larkin cooled her thoughts down again pretty quickly.

“Lily,” she mumbled, hating formalities at the best of times, but also feeling they were beyond formalities after their shared experience yesterday. Except, it wasn’t really a shared experience. He’d been doing his job. The fact that he’d made her feel so at ease merely showed how good he was at his job. “I’m fine,” she told him, as she crossed the room. Her gaze drifted to a stack of papers beside him, held down by a black walkie-talkie. When her eyes strayed back to PC Grainger, he gave her a questioning half smile.

“I’m not sure what to do with myself,” she said to fill the silence.

“You had a shock yesterday.” He tipped his chin at the chair opposite him. “It’ll take time to process it.”

Nodding, she lowered herself into the chair. “Do you need to ask me any more questions or anything?”

“No, but you could read over your statement. I’d intended to bring it over to the bed and breakfast later.” Moving the walkie-talkie aside, he thumbed through the papers, then passed a single A4 sheet to Lily. “Have a read through it and make sure everything is correct. Take your time.”

He switched his attention to his computer screen, giving Lily space to read. Her eyes scanned the words with an odd feeling of detachment. It was as though the events of the previous day had been told by someone else and not by her. She was nearing the end of the page when the walkie-talkie crackled to life, the sudden sound startling her.

PC Grainger tilted his head, listening to the voice which was mostly garbled to Lily’s ears.

“Sorry,” he said, catching her eye as the room fell silent again. Barely a moment passed before more chatter broke the silence. “I can just...” PC Grainger trailed off as he turned a knob until it clicked and plunged them back into quiet. Lily tried to focus on the words on the page.

“Don’t you need to respond or something?” she asked when curiosity got the better of her.

He shook his head. “It wasn’t anything to do with me.”

“How does that work, then?” Lily set the paper on the desk.

PC Grainger blew out a breath. “This police station belongs to Devon and Cornwall Police. We’re all on the same frequency.”

“So you can hear what everyone else is called out to?”

He nodded once.

“Are you supposed to just turn it off?” She eyed the walkie-talkie dubiously.

“It’s fine. If we get called out, I’d switch it on to keep in touch with dispatch, but most of the time we’re just listening in on what’s going on over on the mainland.”

“But if there’s an emergency here, how do you find out about it?”

“It’s rare for there to be a 999 call from the islands. If there is, and the dispatchers can’t get us on the radio, they call the station or one of our mobiles, but as I say, it’s rare. If anyone has an issue around here, they mostly just wander in and tell us.” He rolled his eyes. “Or they tag us on social media.”

Assuming it was a joke, Lily laughed, then stopped when she caught the earnest set of his features. “You’re not serious?”

“I’m very serious.”

“How can that be efficient? I can’t imagine getting burgled and deciding to hop on social media to report it instead of making a phone call.”

Now it was his turn to laugh, and the sound made Lily smile despite missing the joke. “What’s funny?” she asked.

“Nothing. You just overestimated the level of crime on the islands. There are no burglaries. If someone’s reporting something, it’s along the lines of littering, or inconveniently parked golf buggies, maybe a misplaced bike here and there. There’s nothing as exciting as burglaries. There’s no real crime around here.”

“You say that, but yesterday we were standing beside a dead body.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Last I heard, slipping and falling wasn’t a crime.”

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