Page 25 of She Saw What He Did

It took a while for her to reach the watch room. She could hear Roy panting some way behind her. She was breathing pretty heavily herself by the time she reached the top.

An attractive blonde woman hobbled towards her and Ellen recognised her as the woman she had bumped into the other day.

‘Oh, thank God,’ sobbed Abby. ‘He needs sugar. He’s a diabetic.’

Ellen looked over to the woman’s husband lying on the floor.

‘Paramedics are on their way,’ Ellen assured her, kneeling down to Jared. She knew nothing about diabetes, but she knew this looked bad.

‘What the hell happened?’ asked Roy, studying Abby’s ankle.

‘We saw a man kill someone on the beach,’ sobbed Abby.

There was silence. The only sound to be heard was Jared’s raspy breathing. Roy looked at Abby in disbelief and Ellen’s mouth opened but nothing came from it. She couldn’t have heard the woman correctly.

‘He knows I saw him,’ said Abby.

Roy stiffened and asked, ‘Where’s the body?’

‘On the jetty. He bludgeoned him with an oar.’

Roy looked puzzled.

‘We didn’t see a body,’ said Ellen gently.

‘I saw him do it,’ said Abby, fighting down hysteria. ‘I watched through my camera lens.’

Flashing lights and the heavy drone of a helicopter jolted Ellen into action.

‘Top of the lighthouse,’ she said into the radio. ‘Two casualties, one is a diabetic in a coma.’

A murder, Ellen thought. It couldn’t be possible. She sniffed discreetly but couldn’t smell alcohol on the woman. The radio crackled.

‘Ellen, it’s Ryan, what’s happening on Laslow?’

‘There’s been a murder,’ she said dramatically, the words sounding strange to her ears.

His silence said it all. They just didn’t have murders on the islands.

Chapter Seventeen

They couldn’t find a body. Ellen had asked for a thorough search of the island and a team of police were sent from the mainland to look for the murdered man that Abby Miller claimed had been lying on the jetty. So far nothing had been found to indicate there had been a murder on Laslow Island. Chief Inspector Colin Weis took a cloth from his pocket and carefully wiped at his glasses. Peering through the lenses for smudges he said,

‘Strange affair don’t you think? Rather a waste of police time. No sign of a body. No sign of a boat belonging to the murderer or Abby and Jared Miller.’

‘Why would they lie?’ Ellen asked.

Weis shrugged and slid his glasses on.

‘Who knows? People do strange things. I do know there is not much you can do without a body. It’s hard to prove a murder happened if you don’t have a victim.’

They’d now been searching for several hours and found nothing.

‘There’s no sign that a murder took place here,’ said Weis. ‘Pity that owl can’t speak,’ he smiled, pointing to the fluffy toy in Ellen’s hand.

‘It might be more significant than you think,’ she said.

He laughed.

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