Page 30 of Death on the Rocks

“No,” he said slowly. “I just had a brief glance over the labels. It appears it was all from his work trip on the islands.”

“There’s one with a smiley face on the label,” Lily told him. “You need to look at that one.”

“I didn’t notice anything like that.” He slid his chair back and reached for the camera bag.

“Aren’t you supposed to wear gloves?” she asked as he lifted the camera out and set it on the desk.

His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t look up from the camera case. “This isn’t CSI.”

“Clearly,” she muttered.

One corner of his lips twitched into a smirk. He lay out the memory cards between them. “I don’t see anything unusual,” he remarked.

“I don’t understand.” Lily sifted through them. “It’s not here.”

“What isn’t?”

“There was another memory card and it had different photos on it…”

“Different how?”

“Photos of a naked woman,” she said. “Girl really. A teenager, I guess. She looked young and…” She winced. “It didn’t seem as though she wanted to be photographed.”

PC Grainger sat up straighter. “And you saw these photographswhen,exactly?”

“Yesterday. I found the camera in the shed at the Miller’s place.”

He frowned. “The Millers found it this morning at the other side of the garden wall.”

“That’s not where it was yesterday.”

“Why didn’t you report this yesterday?”

“Because I panicked and hid it again. I tried to call you but there was no answer so I decided to wait until there was no one around and get the camera to bring it to you. But when I went back for it in the evening, it wasn’t there any more.”

“Weird,” PC Grainger said, twisting his lips to one side. “You looked through the photos yesterday?”

“Yes.” She glanced down at the selection of memory cards again. “There was another one.”

“Having naked pictures isn’t a crime,” he pointed out. “Maybe it was a girlfriend.”

“I really don’t think so. The woman was really young and she looked scared. Also, if it was perfectly innocent, why would someone hide it?”

“And why would the camera have been in the shed and then magically appear behind the garden wall?” he mused.

“Exactly,” Lily said, feeling validated by the flicker of excitement in PC Grainger’s eyes.

“This all sounds quite suspicious,” he said.

“Do you think the photographs had something to do with his death?” The edge of excitement in Lily’s voice was probably quite inappropriate.

“I don’t know.” His rubbed at his jaw. “This clearly needs further investigation. I need to make some calls, then I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, I don’t think you should speak to anyone about what you’ve just told me. No doubt I’ll need to interview you again later, but for now just don’t go far. Okay?”

“Thanks to the fog, that isn’t even possible.” She hopped out of her seat. “I’ll be at the bed and breakfast, but you also have my number. I’ll talk to you later.”

Chapter Twenty

Flynn had intendedto update Sergeant Proctor on the camera situation via a message, but given what Miss Larkin had told him, he decided a phone call was warranted.

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