Read Online To Perish in Penzance by Jeanne M. Dams - Free Book Online Page A

I mean …” I had to swallow before I could go on. “Was—was the body dry when you first looked at it? Or had she been there for the last high tide?”
    â€œI don’t think so. Her clothing looked dry. Her hair was in a little pool, but that’s probably a tidal pool that’s more or less permanent.”
    â€œSo no—no fish?” I hated to ask, but I had to.
    â€œNo. Nothing like that.”
    â€œThank God!”
    â€œYes.”
    He had been watching me, but now his gaze shifted. He focused his whole attention, his whole being, on what he could see of the working scene in and around the cave.
    I could feel his tension. Oh, how he wanted to be there with them!
    â€œI’ll be all right here, Alan, if you want to go down.”
    â€œI’d only be in the way.”
    His voice was oddly distant, and I could have bitten my tongue. Of course. They wouldn’t let him in, would they? It wasn’t concern for me that kept him by my side, it was fear of rejection. He was out of the loop, and he was hating it.
    There was a question begging to be asked. I wondered if I dared. Would it make him feel even more useless, or would it distract him from his situation?
    I made up my mind and cleared my throat. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but did you see enough, when you first went into the cave, to tell how she died? I tried not to look when I was taking the pictures, but of course I couldn’t help seeing that there wasn’t any blood. Though I suppose it might have been washed away.”
    â€œI don’t think so. I didn’t go near enough to make any sort of examination, but I saw no injuries or wounds of any kind. No bruising or lacerations as if she’d somehow fallen down the cliff. No gunshot wounds, at least not unless there was an entrance wound on her back, with no frontal exit wound. That’s possible, of course, but a cave is a foolish place to use a firearm.”
    â€œBecause of the ricochet problem?”
    â€œThat, yes, but these sea caves are unstable, as well. The roof, the whole lot for that matter, could come down.”
    I shuddered. The thought of a cave-in raised my claustrophobic sensibilities by several orders of magnitude. I took a few very deep breaths, trying not to let him notice, trying not to think about the cave.
    They worked as fast as they could, I’m sure, but it was some time before they brought out a stretcher with a body bag lying on it. An ugly, shapeless black bag. It was horrible that the beauty that had been Alexis was reduced to this.
    â€œOh, heavens, Alan! Has anyone told her mother? She’ll be frantic. She’ll know that Lexa’s missing—”
    â€œI told the constable who answered the phone that I could identify the body positively, and that someone needed to notify Mrs. Crosby. I’m sure she knows by now.”
    He spoke with a remote courtesy, his gaze still fixed on the police activity. I stood up. “Then I think we should go back to the hotel. Now. Someone needs to be with that poor woman until family can get here. Alan, let’s go.”
    He looked at me then, looked as if he wasn’t quite sure who I was, and then made a curious little gesture and said in an almost normal voice, “Yes, of course. If you’ll give me your camera, I’ll just speak to the DCI for a moment.”
    The detective chief inspector was nearby. I heard Alan tell him about the pictures, and about the little pile of unsavory evidence I had added to the scene. Then my husband, the former chief constable of Belleshire, very formally handed over my camera and asked if he was still needed as a witness, and was very formally told that he might leave.
    We climbed the cliff path in silence.

8
    W ITH what I thought was commendable restraint, I made no further comment on the situation until we were on the road back to Penzance.
    â€œSo. What have you told them?”
    â€œOnly that we