Page 56 of Slack Tide Kill

"Preamble?"

Sally grinned, then filled in the third line, 'Crab Shack', and added another X.

Liam was unimpressed. "Right, but that was just a scarecrow. No recorder. It doesn't give us anyone."

"Wrong," Sally said, feeling the revelation flood through her. "What matters is that from the outside, it looked real. If you were the killer, you would have cut that line like the lamp post and the reactor, to be sure, right?"

Liam's face was blank for a moment, then he nodded slowly, maybe starting to see. "I suppose so. But it wasn't cut. So that means–"

"It means the killer had been inside! They didn't bother to cut the line because there was no need. They already knew it was a fake."

Liam's mouth opened then closed. He stared at the three bullet points, then at the names of the Rooks, then swore softly.

"Bugger me. So, the killer, or killers, have been inside the Crab Shack?"

Sally nodded. "Barbarian eyes. Or bad witnesses for barbarian souls. Whatever it was Collier said."

"So they got something right," Liam muttered. "OK. So, we need to figure out who's been in there. But the Rooks wouldn't let just anyone inside, would they? That's their trafficking depot. It's supposed to be a secret."

"Family," said Sally. "The girls. The traffickers, too."

Liam watched as she scrawled down those groups on the board. "Either of those two would be weird, though. The girls wouldn't, and why would traffickers? They're probably Algerian or Iraqi or something like that. They're not bothered about ritual kills on the beach. The last thing they'd want is more attention."

"Agreed," Sally said, slicing a cross through the word.

"So it's the Rooks, their family, or their close associates," Liam said. They both stared at the board. "How long's that camera been there?"

"No idea. We can find out."

"We should." Liam took a blue pen, suddenly urgent. "It could go all the way back to Reg Rook's day." He circled the central name and drew a line shooting off to the other side of the board. "Maybe back when he was using it as an actual Crab Shack?"

Sally stared at that line. Deeper into the past.

"There can't be that many people from then. Employees of the Shack, pretty much."

Liam added 'Shack Employees' to the list. "I've also heard, shacks like that, sometimes they get leased out to local fishermen? Good spot to dump equipment. The Rooks could have made a few quid just to hand over a key."

"Add it," Sally said.

'Fishermen' went up onto the board.

They both stepped back. Sally tested the connections in her head. The scarecrow CCTV was a leap, but paired with the barbarian revelation, it felt solid.

"The killer made a mistake," she said.

"They should have cut that line," Liam agreed. "Clean sweep. If they had, we'd have nothing now."

Sally circled the three remaining suspect pools.

Family

Shack Employees

Fishermen

"We can start building a master list. There's got to be records on all of these. Then we refine by the Fates' profile."

Liam returned to the desk, dragged back his chair and sat. "You want to take the fishermen? They'd definitely have ready access to two or three boats."