Death in the Sunshine (Retired Detectives Club, #1)(32)

Moira cries out as pain shoots through her elbow and up to her shoulder. Gritting her teeth, she rolls with the momentum and comes to a stop.

Did the man see me fall?

Where is he?

She scans the path ahead, but there’s no sign of him now. He must have realised she was catching up with him and run faster.

Moira smacks the fist of her uninjured arm down on to the earth and shouts into the emptiness. ‘Shit.’

I can’t let him get away.

Scrambling to her feet, she tries to run, but she’s limping now. Pain from her ankle is slowing her down. She moves as fast as she can. Ignores the increasing throbbing in her ankle, her elbow and her shoulder and scans the trail and the grassland for a sign of the man, but there’s nothing. He’s gone. She’s lost him.

She stops and leans over, trying to catch her breath. There’s a sheen of sweat across her arms, face and neck and she can feel it running down her back and into the waistband of her leggings. Her leggings are ripped across the knees and dirt from the trail is sticking to her skin. She can feel the mosquitos nipping at her flesh.

Moira curses under her breath. Shakes her head at having lost the man. Turns and limps back up the trail in the direction she’s just come from. She doesn’t do failure well. Never has.

She stops when she reaches the top of the hill. The sun has almost disappeared now. It’s only half-visible on the horizon, the streaks across the darkening sky more blood red than orange.

Moira looks down towards Manatee Park. Even without binoculars she can make out the pickleball courts and the pools. It’s too dark to see them clearly now, but earlier the man watching them would have had a good view from this vantage point. If it was the killer, from what he saw he’ll most likely guess that they’re looking into the murder. Moira shivers. She hopes Lizzie finished her work and is out of the park and on her way home. Safe.

Still, watching them can’t have been the man’s reason for coming up here, surely. If he’d seen them entering Manatee Park it would have made more sense to follow behind them; to observe what they were doing through one of the gaps where the hedge is thinner, rather than to hike up here and watch from this distance with binoculars. Also, having the binoculars seems too convenient. It doesn’t add up right, unless they were up here for another reason.

Moira frowns. Thinks about why he could have been up here. Maybe she’s got things wrong? Perhaps he was nothing to do with the murder? Could be he was watching wildlife, or birdwatching or something.

She shakes her head. Doubts that’s the case. Thinks about the facts, the things she knows for sure.

He was up here – fact.

He was watching me and Lizzie through binoculars – fact.

He ran when I tried to talk to him – fact.

Take those three facts and it adds up to a big dose of suspicion. Of course he could just have been being nosey, but then if that’s the case why did he run? It’s like the wiry blond guy – why did he run? Are the two men connected?

Moira runs her hand through her hair, brushing out some dirt from the trail. Maybe she spooked him and they thought she killed the woman? Perhaps he was afraid, but she thinks that’s unlikely. It’s far more likely that he was up here watching the police and CSIs working the scene and that’s why he had the binoculars. That could make him just a nosey rubbernecker, or it could be he was watching the police for a reason; because he’s the killer.

Moira remembers something else that struck her as odd. When she was double-checking the person had gone, and that they weren’t hiding behind one of the trees, she noticed something – a small patch of earth that looked freshly disturbed.

Retracing her steps, she moves between the trees, scanning the ground. It’s harder to see now in the fading light, and she doesn’t have a torch, but she can’t leave this. Has to check it out. Needs to be sure that the only reason the man was up here was to watch what was happening in Manatee Park.

It takes her nearly ten minutes to find the patch of earth, and when she sees it again, she knows that something happened here. It’s a small area – maybe a foot square, max. The dirt has been recently disturbed and whoever did it has tried to hide the fact by stamping the earth down and putting twigs over the area, but they’ve tried too hard; it looks too perfect to be natural.

Kneeling down, Moira pushes her fingers into the dirt and starts to dig.





18


LIZZIE


Alone now, she tries not to worry about whatever Moira’s doing. Lizzie hadn’t seen the figure on the hillside – Moira had told her not to turn around in case it tipped the person off that they’d seen them. Now Moira’s gone she’s fighting the urge to look. She wonders if the person up there is the same man who was lurking outside the house earlier. She shakes her head. Moira’s so impulsive. The person watching them could be the killer, and it’s not like Moira has any training in this sort of thing. Running off after them, it’s reckless and dangerous. Lizzie doesn’t like it that they’re both now alone.

Lizzie scans the area around the pool. Shudders. The thought of someone up on the hillside behind her watching what she’s doing sends an icy shiver down her spine. She tries to shake it off and concentrate instead on the task in hand. It’s been a good few years since she was last at a crime scene, and she never thought she’d be at one again. But Philip’s left her no choice, insisting that they investigate what’s happened here, and although doing this isn’t what she wanted, now she’s let herself get involved she’s determined to crack this puzzle. Because that’s what every crime scene is – a picture puzzle with a few pieces missing. If you’re diligent and look carefully, it’ll give you most of the image, and if you’re smart and focused and determined, chances are it’ll yield a few leads that’ll help you find the missing pieces.