Page 31 of Death on the Rocks

The phone rang for quite some time before Sergeant Proctor’s rough voice greeted him.

“How are you feeling?” Flynn asked politely.

“Probably about as good as I sound. Has something happened?”

“There’s been a development I thought you ought to know about. Regarding the stolen camera. It was handed in this morning by Mr and Mrs Miller. It’d been found by the young lad who does the gardening for them.”

“Good. That sounds like a loose end tied up. You could have sent me a message.”

“Except I’m not sure it ties anything up,” PC Grainger told him. “I’ve just had a chat with Miss Larkin. She told me she discovered the camera hidden in the garden shed yesterday and that there were images of a naked woman on one of the memory cards.”

A heavy sigh came down the phone. “Nude photos aren’t necessarily a crime.”

“I realise that, but from the way Miss Larkin described them, I suspect these were the criminal variety.”

“And what didyouthink?”

“How do you mean?”

“What’s your opinion of the photographs?”

“I haven’t seen them.”

“Why not?”

“They’ve disappeared. When Lily went back to retrieve the camera from the shed yesterday evening, it had been moved. This morning, the Millers handed it in claiming that Oscar found it in the neighbour’s garden.”

“That sounds messy.”

“Yeah. Something doesn’t add up. And if Mr Roth has been up to something shady, that adds a whole new spin to his death.”

“That seems like a leap.” Sergeant Proctor cleared his throat. “We have Mr Roth’s possessions, don’t we?”

“Yes. Alanna and her boyfriend packed up his things. They brought them in yesterday. I still haven’t managed to contact the next of kin, by the way.”

“Have a squiz through his belongings and see if anything jumps out at you.”

PC Grainger was already on his feet and moving to the storeroom at the back of the building. “Will do. I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

He located Mr Roth’s belongings easily. A large duffel bag and a backpack. After donning a pair of gloves he had a quick rummage through the duffel, but it was only clothes and shoes. Nothing out of place there. But then, surely anything valuable would be stashed in his backpack.

Everything seemed to be in order with his wallet, and nothing jumped out as suspicious. He’d thought perhaps there’d be more memory cards, but so far there was nothing. Aftercontinuing to probe the smaller pockets, he came across a mobile phone, but that was no help without the passcode.

Presumably his laptop would be password protected too, but if not, that could be quite revealing. Not that he should really be delving into the devices. The digital forensic team should be the ones to deal with it, but given that the death was currently being classed as an accident, he wasn’t too concerned about breaking protocol.

Abruptly, Flynn stopped his search of the backpack. Then he looked again before concluding that there really was no laptop lurking inside.

There was no way he’d have been travelling without a laptop. Surely he needed one for the job. After re-packing the bag, Flynn wandered back to his desk and found the number for Alanna Harding. He didn’t have to wait long for her to answer the phone, and exchanged a polite greeting with her before getting to the point.

“I wonder if you know if Mr Roth had a laptop with him?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “Of course. Why?”

“Because there isn’t one among his belongings, so I’m just wondering what happened to it. Do you have it?”

“No. I didn’t think about it when we packed his things. My head was all over the place, but now that you mention it, I didn’t see it. Hang on a sec and I’ll ask Marc if he knows anything about it.”

PC Grainger waited while she filled her boyfriend in. A moment later, she put the phone on speaker.

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