Page 82 of Dead in the Water
“I don’t think the sergeant will be at all upset with you today.” He tilted his head at the sound of arguing overhead. “We should see what’s happening,” he said, taking her hand and leading the way. At the galley steps, he released her hand and looked back at her with a joyful glint in his eyes. “You’re not going to believe the sight out there…”
Lily frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I may have been downplaying it when I said I commandeered a couple of boats…”
She didn’t have a chance to speak before he took off up the steps. Following him onto the deck, she blinked in the bright sunshine and her eyes landed on the sergeant and PC Hill, surrounded by Keith, Joyce and Russell. The voices were all raised over each other, and Lily couldn’t make out any of it.
“Look,” Flynn said, nudging her elbow.
She clocked Kit standing in the lifeboat alongside the yacht and returned his smile, but another sight drew her attention – a ring of boats surrounding them.
“Where did everyone come from?” she muttered while raising a hand to wave at Ted and Rhys in their fishing boat. More familiar faces occupied the other assorted boats.
“They heard you needed help,” Flynn whispered in her ear.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Emotions rushedup to squeeze Lily’s lungs and clog her throat. Heat rushed to her cheeks when a volley of cheerful shouts emanated from the boats bobbing in a circle around the yacht. Bashfully, she waved, then felt Flynn’s hand on her back ushering her closer to Sergeant Proctor and the small huddle around him. Apparently they believed the boat had been stopped because they weren’t heading home as they’d said.
“Iwantedto go home,” Joyce was saying frantically. “But everyone insisted we needed a holiday after everything. Since James has agreed to sell the boat to Russell we didn’t think it would be a problem. Though now I can see we should have got his permission first. I don’t know why I let them persuade me otherwise.”
“If you’ll listen for a moment,” Sergeant Proctor said sharply. “That’s not the issue I was referring to. The questions I have are regarding a witness who claims to have heard people arguing at the harbour on the evening of Joseph Whittaker’s death. Along with the pathologist’s indication that Mr Whittaker’s head injury wasn’t sustained from falling down the harbour steps.”
“Of course he fell.” Keith shook his head. “And we already told you that we didn’t hear anything.”
“It was fairly early in the evening,” the sergeant said. “So it seems a little odd that none of you heard anything.”
Lily cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “I think Vic drugged them. That’s why they didn’t hear anything. There’s a packet of sleeping pills in his cabin with three tablets missing.”
“Where did you come from?” Kerry asked, glaring at Lily with her mouth agape as she sat on the seat beside Vic.
Lily eyed the pair of them as a hush descended on deck. “I was hiding in a wardrobe in Joseph’s cabin. I heard you talking about the sleeping pills.”
“Then you must have heard Vic say that it’s just an old prescription that he brought by mistake.”
“Or he stashed them with his indigestion tablets so you wouldn’t notice them…”
Kerry paled and shifted in her seat to stare at her husband. “That’s not right, is it, Vic?”
When the sergeant cast Lily a questioning look, she kept talking, comforted by Flynn’s hand, which remained on her back.
“Here’s what I think happened. On the evening Joseph died, Russell went back to the hotel. The rest of them came back to the boat and sat in the galley for a nightcap. Vic poured the drinks and spiked them with sleeping pills. When Joyce, Keith and Kerry had gone to bed, he went out to confront Joseph about the issue with the sale of the boat.”
Lily’s eyes went to Vic. He stared back at her with an odd flicker of amusement in his eyes.
“No.” Joyce drew in a sharp breath. “That can’t be right.”
“We did both sleep unusually well.” Keith rubbed at his jaw. “Vic wouldn’t do something like that, though.”
“Bloody hell,” Russell muttered. “He was running out of time and thought there was nothing left to lose.”
“Excuse me?” Sergeant Proctor said, eyes on Russell.
“He’s dying,” Russell explained. “Vic has cancer. He doesn’t have long left.” He rubbed a hand across his forehead and turned to Vic. “You should have told Joseph the real reason you were desperate to get on with travelling. He’d have agreed to us taking the boat even without selling it. He’d have understood. Why did you have to be so stubborn?”
“He’s not dying,” Kerry said, her voice quiet as she moved away from her husband. She stopped and pressed a hand over her mouth. “You really drugged us, didn’t you? You drugged us and then you killed Joseph…”
Vic held her gaze and slowly shook his head.
