The Case of the Pretty Lady by Alison Golden & Grace Dagnall

Author:Alison Golden & Grace Dagnall [Golden, Alison & Dagnall, Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Cozy, Crime, Fiction, Humour, Mystery & Detective
ISBN: 9780988795525
Google: dkNzxQEACAAJ
Publisher: Mesa Verde Publishing
Published: 2019-05-25T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“MS. PORTER,” GRAHAM said as he and Harding began another interview with Tamsin. “I hope you don’t mind meeting in these more informal surroundings.” The section of the pub nearest the back door was almost empty and was as good a place to talk as any.

“It’s fine,” Tamsin said. Graham could see that she’d barely slept, and that her demeanor and appearance were those of someone who was carrying an immense emotional weight. “I want to help.” She seemed a little more cooperative than she had the previous day.

Once more, Graham retraced Greg’s steps on the morning of his disappearance, asking for Tamsin’s confirmation at each stage. “And there had been a kind of disagreement between you,” Graham said. It wasn’t really a question, but Tamsin nodded. “Was he angry when he left?”

She thought back, and the pain of recollection showed in her face. “It was bitter, between us, sometimes,” she admitted. “I said some things, he said some things. You know how it is.”

Graham flipped a page in his notebook. “I think I do,” he said. “But something I also now know is that you left Gorey Harbor during the early afternoon. A second Environmental Agency launch was seen heading out in the direction of the buoys with you in it.” He waited for Tamsin to signal that she’d forgotten this detail, though he silently hoped she might simply collapse into a full confession even if he did think it unlikely.

Instead, her response was quite strange. She blinked repeatedly as though struggling to come to terms with something, but then blurted out, “I should have told you earlier.”

Harding’s fingers were alive on her iPad, but Graham studied the young woman very closely as she spoke. “I went out in my launch to catch up with Greg. I wanted to put things right, to help him with the equipment, record the data.”

Harding asked the most obvious question before Graham could even prompt her. “Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”

Tamsin’s reply was a shrug that begged for forgiveness in these days of grief. “Have you ever lost anyone?” she asked Harding. And then she turned to Graham, her eyes inquiring and pleading, but he didn’t respond. Not now, not here, not to you, and certainly not in front of Harding.

“The bottom fell out of my world. You can’t imagine. Maybe I forgot some details, my mind was a mess,” Tamsin said.

“Did you find him?” Harding asked next.

“No. I abandoned the idea almost immediately. He wasn’t where I expected. Maybe he got a fault signal from a buoy further out and headed for that straight away, I don’t know. He could have been anywhere. I quickly gave it up as a bad job and turned back.”

“So, you didn’t encounter his boat, and you saw no sign of him?”

“That’s right. I guess I sat alone on the water for a few minutes looking around, and when I couldn’t see him, I headed back to the pub to wait for him to return.”

“You didn’t radio him to find out where he was?”

Tamsin shrugged.

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