Page 41 of Death on the Rocks

“I told you; I was rescuing the cat…” She frowned, realising the implications of what Oscar had just said about being the only one to go in the shed. “You did steal the camera, then?”

“She only wanted the photos,” he said meekly. “She changed her mind and just wanted them destroyed, but he wouldn’t give them back. That’s the only reason I took the camera – to get the photos.” He paused and looked thoughtful. “And maybe to teach him a lesson.”

“You need to slow down and explain this to me properly,” Lily said. “Who wanted the photos?”

“Katie.” He blew out a breath and glanced up and down the lane.

“The girl you were with at the house? The one who ran off in floods of tears today?”

“Yes.”

“Wait.” Lily squeezed her eyes closed, recalling the photos which she’d rather erase from her memory. “The photos were of Katie?”

“Yes.”

“Why did Vinny have photos of Katie?” A wave of nausea swept through Lily as she thought of the look on the face of the girl in the photographs. So full of fear and vulnerability.

“He took them.” Oscar glanced around again. “He offered her money and said the shots would be artistic and classy, but then he turned out to be a creep. He didn’t pay her what he said he would and he threatened to put them all over the internet if she told anyone.”

“So you stole his camera?”

“Yes,” he said sheepishly. “Katie knew he was staying at the Miller’s place, so she asked if I’d come with her to speak to him. She thought that if she had someone else with her, he might give her back the photos. But he just laughed at us.” He sucked in a lungful of air. “The next day, I swiped his camera. I didn’t even know for sure that the photos were on it, but I was so angry. I wanted to get back at him. So I stashed the camera in the shed and was going to throw it in the sea when I had a chance to sneak it away, but then he died.” His voice switched to a low whisper. “I didn’t know what to do then.”

“But you handed it in to the police?”

“I was worried how it would look if someone caught me moving it. There’d be a lot of questions.”

“Yeah.” He was right about that. “So what did you do with the memory card?”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean where is the memory card now?” She tilted her head. “What Vinny did was wrong, and the police should know about it.”

“They do know,” he said. “I handed the memory card in with the camera. It was in a pocket in the camera case. I shouldn’t have, because I told Katie I’d give her the memory card. She’s going to kill me when she finds out I handed it in. ”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Lily said as her mind whirred. “The police don’t have the memory card.”

“They might not have seen it yet, but when they properly look through the camera case, they’ll find the extra memory cards.”

“They already did,” she said. “But the one with the photos of Katie wasn’t there.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I was at the police station this morning, and I looked through the camera case with PC Grainger.”

His eyes widened. “Are you sure it wasn’t there?”

“Certain.”

He released a relieved breath. “That’s good.”

“Why is it good?” Lily asked. “And where is the memory card now?”

“It’s good because Katie doesn’t want anyone to know about the photos. But I don’t know where the memory card could be…” He looked thoughtful. “I’m sure I put it back in the camera case. At least, I think it was there… I thought I checked it… but I was also panicking about getting caught. Maybe I dropped it.”

Lily rubbed her hand across her forehead. “Without the memory card, the police won’t investigate further…”

“You want them to investigate the photographs?” Oscar’s words were slow, cautious.

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