Page 21 of Slack Tide Kill

"So he has sons?"

"He does." Mayhew tilted her head. "Four of them, all in their 20s. Roarke's the only one I remember. Rumor has it they're into petty larceny, drugs, but we never catch them at anything. Teenage disorder, a rape charge that was dropped, but nothing serious. You really think they're suspects?"

"I'm just doing background," Sally answered. It didn't sit right with her, to lie so directly, but if she wanted to get this case moving, she had to do it her own way. "I'll go check the northward beach team. You sent a team to check for cameras, right?"

"Of course I did."

"Good."

Sally strode through the fence, barely stopping to flash her badge, and mounted the shingle rise. The wind on the beach below was pummeling, the forensic tent skewing hard. Mayhew was right behind her, so she pressed on faster, stopping the first officer she found.

A young woman, short with plump cheeks, Asian, with the name Chakrati across her chest.

"The officers that went north," Sally shouted over the wind. "Where are they?"

Chakrati stared at her for a moment, then nodded. "I was one, ma'am. Myself and PC Hawlin."

She gestured to another officer, on his knees now and crawling over the shingle. A finger-tip search.

"Good. What did you find?"

"Nothing, ma'am. Not within a thousand yards."

Sally looked north. Visibility was severely limited by the rain now, the skies above the beach darkening to black. "Nothing at all?"

"Nothing we could use, ma'am." Chakrati's gaze flickered as Mayhew came to stand beside Sally. "There was one camera on a lamp post a few hundred yards out. Apparently it's there for a tidal climatologist's study? Rick, I mean PC Hawlin, suggested I climb it. So I did."

She said this last almost defiantly. Sally found herself liking her attitude.

"And?"

"And the wire was disconnected," Chakrati said proudly.

Sally weighed that. What were the chances of another camera going out by accident? "Disconnected like it had come loose, or cut?"

"What does that matter, Rogers?" Mayhew called into the wind. "We don't have CCTV, so we move onto–"

"It speaks to the killer's preparation and access." A powerful gust of wind rocked the tent ahead and the fabric shook violently. "If it was cut, that's a pattern of premeditation."

"You're jumping to conclusions again. Anyone could have disconnected that wire."

Sally faced her. "Who else would cut a wire like that, out here?"

"There could be lots of people. The smugglers bringing in small boats. Local kids causing trouble. It doesn't have to be some grand conspiracy to–"

"But it might be. Let's establish the facts first, yes, DCI?"

Mayhew opened her mouth, then closed it. Sally turned.

"PC Chakrati, cut or disconnected?"

The short officer paled slightly. "Sorry, ma'am. I didn't look that closely."

"And neither did Hawlin, I take it?"

The young officer snuck a faint smile. "He hates heights."

"Of course he does. OK. A few hundred yards north, right?" Chakrati nodded eagerly. "I'll go see for myself."