Page 78 of The Sunken Truth
“How come you kept it, then?” Ryan asked, clicking into the file and then onto the video.
“I don’t really know.” Benji’s voice rose in pitch. “I was out on the boat with my nephew. He was only little and he was chatting a bit on the video… I thought it was cute, so I guess I was just being sentimental.”
Lily tilted her head to view the erratic video at the correct angle. Sea and land and sky whipped by. “Did your nephew alsotakethe video?”
“Yeah. Like I said, it’s not very interesting.”
The screen levelled out and the scenery became more discernible. A bright sunny day with beautiful turquoise water. She couldn’t pinpoint where it was, but it was unmistakably local. She’d guess somewhere on the eastern side of St Mary’s.
“Uncle Benji,”a childlike voice chimed in the video.“Someone went for a swim.”
“That’s brave,”Benji answered.“It’s chilly today.”Silence fell for a moment before Benji’s voice came again.“What are you doing with my phone? Give it me before you lose it overboard…”A hand enveloped the screen before the video ended abruptly.
“I told you it was nothing interesting.”
Lily felt as though a cloud of disappointment descended on her. She’d really thought they were on to something. A quick glance at Flynn told her he was equally disappointed.
Quietly, Ryan clicked out of the video, then stared at the screen.
“Can I have it back?” Benji asked, hand outstretched. The gleam of sweat on his forehead made Lily wonder if it was possible to hide a file on a USB stick. Because Benji was definitely hiding something.
“The video was taken in March four years ago,” Ryan murmured, eyes fixed on the screen.
“Yeah,” Benji said. “It’s really old.”
Ignoring him, Ryan clicked back into the video, then moved the frame on to bypass the uneven camera angles. He pressed play on the shot of the beautiful blue sea. Another boat was visible in the top right of the screen – a small sailing boat with a blue sail.
“Everything okay?” Flynn asked, when Ryan paused the video and merely stared.
“That’s Terry’s boat,” he said and hit play again.
The little blue boat remained in the picture until the child spoke, as though speaking made him alter his hand position.“Uncle Benji, someone went for a swim,”he said, loud and clear.
Ryan paused the video, moved it back five seconds, then played it again. And again.
“He’s talking about Terry, isn’t he?” Ryan asked, finally looking up at Benji when he hit pause after the kid’s voice sounded again.
Benji’s cheeks drained of colour when he nodded.
“What’s going on?” Flynn asked. “Who’s Terry?”
“Terry Treneary,” Ryan said, moving the cursor to go back through the video again.
This time, he leaned forwards, scrutinising the sailboat in the corner of the screen. Lily leaned in too. Just before the child’s voice sounded, the water rippled beside the boat as though something had been dropped in.
“Who’s Terry Treneary?” she asked, while Ryan moved the video back to watch it again. “I thought I’d met all the Trenearys.”
She tucked her chin as she remembered that the patriarch of the Treneary family had died in a boating accident a few years ago. If she remembered correctly, he’d been alone in his boat and no one really knew what had happened.
“Is that Kit’s dad?” she asked, a shiver of unease working its way through her.
“Yes,” Ryan said through gritted teeth. When he dragged his attention away from the screen, he glared at Benji. “What the hell!” he spat. “Why has no one seen this before?”
When Benji took a step backwards, Flynn moved to put himself between the two men, apparently concerned that the contempt in Ryan’s eyes might turn to something physical.
“I didn’t see it until weeks after,” Benji said, chin wobbling madly as he spoke. “I didn’t realise Sammy had taken a video. By the time I saw it on my phone, Terry was dead. He’d been found washed up on the beach… they’d already had the funeral and…”
“Why didn’t you show this to anyone?” Ryan growled. “You know how upset everyone was. And not knowing what happened made it all the worse.”
