Page 26 of Death on the Rocks

The wordevidencereverberated around her brain as she shifted the camera back into the case. What did this even mean? She’d already thought a stolen camera the day before Vinny’s death was an odd coincidence, but now she’d seen what the camera contained, her mind went haywire.

It can’t have been an accident. The photographs were motive. A motive for someone to kill him.

With her nerves on tenterhooks, the voice from the garden almost had Lily jumping out of her skin.

“Rodney!” This time she recognised the voice as Oscar’s.

In a state of absolute panic, Lily froze.

What should she do? Tell Oscar she’d found the camera. That seemed logical. Except if someonehadkilled Vinny she’d rather not risk the perpetrator knowing she was on to them.

Impulsively, she pushed the camera back into the hidden corner of the shelf. Then she turned and came face to face with Oscar.

“Hi,” she said, hoping she didn’t seem as nervous as she felt.

“Is everything okay?” Silhouetted in the doorway, he stared at her with eyes full of questions.

“Yes.” She blew out a breath and pressed a hand to her breastbone. “The cat almost gave me a heart attack. Did it pass you?”

He shook his head.

“It must have got locked in here,” she went on, speaking slightly too fast. “I heard a noise and came to investigate. It knocked the spade over and scarpered.” She forced her facial muscles to relax. “That took a few years off my life.”

He was only a teenager, and a slight one at that, but his unwavering stare unnerved her.

“Itwaslocked in here by mistake?” she asked. “Or have I just lost the cat?”

He shook his head again, as though clearing his thoughts. “She probably slipped in this morning when I was here. She does that sometimes. But she’s an outdoor cat. Comes and goes as she pleases.”

“Phew.” Lily released another breath. “I was worried I’d set her free by mistake.”

“No, it’s fine.” As though remembering his manners, he smiled lightly. “How are you today?”

“I’m good.” She moved past him, relieved to be out in the fresh air. “How are you?”

“Okay, I guess.”

She cast him a quizzical look.

“Sorry.” He frowned and followed her back along the side of the house. “I keep thinking about Vinny. I didn’t know him, but I can’t stop thinking about him. Did you hear they can’t find his family?”

“Really?” Lily sat back down in her seat on the patio, surprised by the openness of the conversation and finding it hard to concentrate with her mind on the camera.

“I assume it will just take time for them to track someone down. He must have family, right? And friends? There must be people who care about him who don’t know he’s dead.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat as she pondered who would be contacted if she died.

Of course she had acquaintances but her unconventional upbringing hadn’t been conducive to making lasting friendships. The trend had remained in adulthood.

There were some friends, mostly acquired through her string of unfulfilling jobs, but after her uncle died she’d left her job atthe indoor climbing centre and cut off the few friends she’d had. It occurred to her now that it perhaps wasn’t a great reflection of the strength of the friendships that she’d been able to cut them off so easily.

Would anyone even notice if she died? Her landlady eventually. Maybe her neighbour, but she was so used to Lily’s odd comings and goings that it would probably take her several weeks to think her absence strange.

“Do you want another coffee or anything?” Oscar asked.

She declined with a shake of her head and a grateful smile.

She didn’t need more coffee. What she needed was a moment of privacy so she could call the police and report the whereabouts of the missing camera and its chilling contents.

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