Avoiding him wasn’t the mature thing to do, but he was an extra stress she didn’t need right now.She dusted the barrel for fingerprints and grinned.“Hallelujah.”Finally a potential break.Four clear prints on the lip of the lid where someone had grabbed it to pick it up.Carefully she recorded them and then handed Sam a pair of gloves.“Help me put the barrel in the boat.”
She showed him where to grab it to avoid smudging the fingerprints, and they carried it to the police boat.
“What’s the likelihood of a match?”
“If they belong to whoever sold the barrel, it will be slim, but it might be from the culprits.If they match, we’ll finally have a suspect.”Though suspects had an annoying habit of disappearing or dying.
When she had collected all the evidence, she scanned the island.It wasn’t overly wide, but took about half an hour to circumnavigate.The middle was full of shrubs and trees.A great place to hide.
“You want to do a loop?”Sam asked.
She nodded.Though she didn’t want to put him in danger, she also knew he would follow no matter what she said.“Let’s go.”
The trees all grew slightly angled towards the south-east from years of sea breezes blowing them that way.Between them were wide enough patches of sand so they didn’t have to force their way through.No footprints, but that wasn’t surprising considering the severity of the storm which had passed through a few days ago.
“There should be a cave somewhere along here,” Sam said.
Dot glanced at him.“Brandon tell you that?”
He blinked.“Yes.”
Bullshit.He had a pretty good poker face, but her question had caught him off guard.“What aren’t you telling me, Hackett?”
He hesitated, wincing slightly, and then sighed.“Brandon’s ancestor, Lilian Stokes, was shipwrecked here on theRetributionin the 1870s.We recently found her journal, which led us to the treasure.Her journal mentions a cave.”
He had to be kidding.She placed her hands on her hips.“You didn’t think the journal might be relevant to my investigation?”
He didn’t answer.
Frustration welled in her and with it came anger.“I’m fed up of you all drip feeding me information as you think I need it.What else haven’t you told me?”
His gaze was steady on hers.“Maybe we should do dinner at the Ridge.”
Great.That meant there was a whole heap of information they’d neglected to tell her.“I should haul you all to the station.”
“But you won’t.”Sam smiled at her.“The information had to be kept quiet until we found the treasure.”
“I wouldn’t have told anyone.”
“We didn’t want you to feel conflicted.I’ll call Brandon when I get back and arrange dinner for tomorrow night.”He pointed behind her.“There’s the cave.”
Dot clenched her teeth and turned.The cave was little more than an overhang which protected anything underneath from the elements—including footprints.
She jerked Sam back when he went to move inside.“It’s not smooth.”She pointed at the divots in the sand.“Someone has been here recently.”The sand was too dry and soft to hold a proper print, but it still told a story.
“We believe Stonefish has been using a drone to spy on the Stokes,” Sam said.“This would be a good place to set up.They could have a boat on the far side of the island, which no one would spot if the Stokes came to the beach.”
Dot moved into the cave, pulling out her torch for better illumination.Had they left any rubbish behind?
She did a first pass, checking the sand and then running her beam over the limestone rock, searching for any holes where rubbish could be tucked.
Bingo.
She slipped on a glove and placed the end of a cigarette butt into an evidence bag.
“Nice find,” Sam said.
She couldn’t get her hopes up.
