Page 29 of She Saw What He Did

‘I’m scared he is going to come after us. This is a small island. Everyone must know it was us who were trapped on the island and witnessed the murder. Whoever it is will surely know who we are by now.’

Burden looks uncomfortable.

‘If there had been a body …’ she begins again but I don’t let her finish.

‘What about our boat? What do you think has happened to that?’

Lester looks at his feet as if the answer lies there.

‘My husband moored it securely,’ I say, my voice rising. ‘I saw the body. His skull was smashed in.’

‘It’s a pity you didn’t get a photo,’ he says calmly.

‘My camera battery was running low,’ I say angrily.

‘We’ll be checking if any private boats went out that day,’ says Burden.

‘What about our safety?’ I question. ‘Can we have police protection?’

‘Presumably,’ says Lester, while glancing at his phone, ‘he’ll know you can’t identify him so won’t want to put himself at further risk by coming after you.’

‘We’ll maintain contact with you for the duration of your stay,’ smiles Burden. ‘I’m happy to contact your local police station if that helps.’

‘Thank you,’ I say, turning back to Jared’s room. Although, I’m not quite sure what I’m thanking them for.

Chapter Nineteen

After parting company with Abby Miller, Ellen and Ryan grabbed a sandwich from the café. Ryan chatted with some holidaymakers while Ellen studied the menu. Ryan always had the same egg and cress sandwich. Ellen wondered he didn’t get bored.

‘Don’t those eggs bung you up?’ she smiled.

‘Nah,’ he laughed. ‘Nothing bungs me up.’

‘I’ll have the salami,’ said Ellen finally.

She looked around the café. It was packed with holidaymakers. Could one of them have been the murderer? But why would they want to kill someone and why go all the way to Laslow Island to do it? Ellen didn’t think it had anything to do with the Millers. They were Mr and Mrs Average. Their trip to the island had been normal enough.

‘We’d been geocaching,’ Abby had said.

Ellen hadn’t a clue what geocaching was.

‘You look for treasure,’ Ryan had informed her.

‘Treasure?’ she’d repeated, her eyes wide.

‘It’s not real treasure, obviously,’ he’d explained. ‘Just kid’s stuff. Toys, pens, stamps, foreign money, you know the sort of thing. You take the geocache and replace it with a treasure of your own and so it continues. They’re all over the place. Usually in a nice area so it’s a good walk, if you’re into walking of course. I had to google it myself.’

Abby had told them that the geocache had been high up and it was after finding it that she had looked down at the beach through her telephoto lens.

‘That was when the other man arrived on the island,’ she had explained.

Had the murderer arranged to meet his victim, Ellen wondered? Why would the other man have a gun? He must have been expecting trouble. Ellen had to agree with Ryan. It did all sound a bit far-fetched. But Abby had seemed genuinely afraid.

‘Don’t forget it’s your day off,’ Ryan reminded her.

Ellen took the sandwich and walked outside.

‘Why would Abby and Jared Miller make this up? What possible reason could they have for doing that?’

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