Death on the Beach (An Island Mystery) by Anna Johannsen

Author:Anna Johannsen [Johannsen, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

17

‘I’m dying to know what files are on that USB stick,’ said Johann, who had just been brought up to speed by Lena. They were sitting in their makeshift office at the station.

‘You do know we really ought to have it examined by CSI first, don’t you?’

‘Uh-oh – this looks like trouble,’ replied Johann with a grin as he watched Lena insert the device into the USB port on her laptop and wait for the system to recognise it.

Eventually, a window opened displaying a list of JPEG files, which suggested they were probably photos. Lena opened the first image. It was a picture of the Logeners that looked as though it had been taken five or six years ago. Maria’s parents were smiling at the camera, and Maria herself was holding her big sister’s hand and beaming from ear to ear.

‘Family photos?’ asked Johann in surprise.

Lena clicked on the next file. A small child appeared on screen. Maria and Johanna shared a strong family resemblance, which made it impossible to tell which of the two they were looking at, but Lena suspected that it was Maria as a toddler.

‘Does this make any sense to you?’ he asked.

Lena opened another file, which showed both sisters at a birthday party. ‘Maria used her tablet to take pictures of these photos,’ she said, pointing to the edge of the frame. ‘They haven’t been scanned.’

‘But why did she bother? And why did she then store them on a USB stick hidden away in her wardrobe?’

‘I expect she wanted to keep the pictures safe in case her tablet broke.’ It occurred to Lena that these were probably the same files Maria had saved to the cloud.

‘Or in case her father confiscated it. But why did she take these pictures in the first place? There must be family photo albums in the house that she could look at any time she wanted.’

Lena shrugged. ‘This way she would always have easy access to the pictures. Maybe her family was more important to her than we thought.’

‘Sure, that’s one explanation. But not a very logical one.’

‘Do you have another?’ Lena asked, clicking through the remaining files in quick succession. ‘Family photos, every single one.’

‘Was she trying to gather evidence of some kind?’

‘Evidence for what? Just look at the pictures. A completely normal family.’ She paused for thought. ‘Did you notice how happy Maria looks in all of these photos, even as a little kid?’

‘Maybe she was a good-tempered child.’

‘Johann! Happy and good-tempered aren’t the same thing. She wanted to bring her past back to life, to remind herself of it. Maybe she felt like her former life was slipping away from her. In that sense, perhaps you weren’t so wrong after all. She was gathering evidence all right – evidence of her happy childhood.’

‘These are snapshots, though. Everyone smiles for photographs. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything.’

‘Did you talk to Johanna Logener again?’

‘Yes – about this very topic, in fact. Her family. She’s convinced her father has something to do with it.

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