Page 77 of She Saw What He Did

‘I go geocaching,’ Scott said, strolling towards the quay.

‘You never mentioned it.’

‘No need to,’ he grinned.

Ellen pulled her sunglasses from her bag. Her head was thumping. She wondered if Colin was feeling rough too. The ringing of her phone seemed to vibrate through her head. It was Peter. She hesitated before answering it and then forced a cheery ‘hello’ into the mouthpiece.

‘Alright?’ he responded.

‘I was going to text you later. I didn’t get home until late. I’m on my way to Laslow with Scott. We think …’

‘Yeah,’ he interrupted. ‘I thought I should let you know that I’m on the ferry. Mum was rushed to hospital last night.’

‘Oh Peter, I’m so sorry. What happened?’

Ellen suddenly felt terribly guilty, but she wasn’t sure why.

‘It was a stroke. I’ve taken compassionate leave for a few days. I tried to phone you late last night, but I think your phone was off.’

‘I can come to Bristol tomorrow,’ she offered. ‘It’s my day off.’

Peter was quiet for a few seconds. He doesn’t want me there, Ellen thought.

‘It’s a long way,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll let you know how things go.’

‘Send my love,’ said Ellen, not knowing what else to say. She’d only met Peter’s mother a few times.

The words ‘I love you’ hovered on her lips but somehow never came out.

‘Take care,’ he said finally. ‘I’ll text you later.’

‘Yes,’ she said.

The line went dead, and she realised that he hadn’t said he loved her either. She thought back to last night and how Colin’s lips had gently brushed her cheek. Then, there had been that uncomfortable moment when his lips had hovered close to hers. The helicopter pilot had yelled, ‘ready to go?’ and the almost kiss became just that.

Ellen looked around for Scott. He was chatting to Craig who had pulled out the police boat for them.

‘Has something happened?’ Craig asked, his eyes sparkling with excitement. ‘Have you got some new leads on the murder?’

‘No, not really,’ said Scott nonchalantly. They climbed into the boat and Scott started the engine and then handed Ellen his phone. It was open to a geocache app.

‘Everything okay with Peter?’ he asked.

‘Yes, fine.’

Scott could tell from her expression that she didn’t want to talk about it.

‘See those green dots,’ he said, changing the subject. ‘They’re geocache sites. I reckon that’s the one the Millers went to,’ he added, pointing.

Ellen clicked the green dot.

‘I’m logged in,’ grinned Scott. ‘You can see when the last person found the geocache there. It was six months ago, which means the Millers didn’t record their find.’

‘I wonder why not,’ said Ellen, puzzled.

‘Maybe their find wasn’t that geocache.’

Ellen felt a tingle of excitement caress her spine. Was this what Abby Miller was hiding?

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