My Island Homicide by Catherine Titasey Page B

it?’
    â€˜Oh, this.’ He pulled on the collar of his shirt, exposing a few inches of his sternum and two parallel scratches about five centimetres long. ‘I was walking along the edge of the dam a couple of days ago. I went off track to look at a bird by the edge of the water and walked into a broken tree branch.’ He smiled. ‘The damn bird flew off.’
    â€˜What time was this?’
    â€˜About 6pm.’ He held his hands up in surrender again. ‘I’m not hiding anything. I passed Joe Robson and two nurses, I think, from the aged-care home. I often pass them there. One of them has really red curly hair, sounds Irish. You can check it out.’
    â€˜I know Joe Robson, Thea, and the red-haired nurse is Niamh,’ said Jenny.
    â€˜Thank you for your time, Dave.’
    Jenny stopped at the newsagency to collect yesterday’s papers. ‘The plane won’t make it with today’s papers in this weather so I’ll make do with yesterday’s news. Have a look around. This place has everything you could possibly want to buy.’ She turned to me with a cheeky grin. ‘I challenge you to think of something that is not there. I do this to all the new officers and I’ve never been caught out.’
    â€˜That means the odds of you getting caught out increase.’
    â€˜Whatever. Prepare to concede.’
    Jenny collected the papers and said she was heading next door for some battered wings from Triple F and to read the papers. I gave her a terse look.
    â€˜Okay, the grilled wings.’
    I wandered around the aisles, initially in awe of the range of products. I could have bought an entire wardrobe of clothes, not to mention simple, functional bras and undies. In fact, I could have bought a wardrobe and every other item of household furniture and kitchen apparel: cutlery, crockery and baking goods. After doubling back and picking out two sarongs, I continued looking. There were photo frames, watches, jewellery (I asked an assistant to open the glass cabinet so I could choose a toe ring, simple silver), baby gear including cots and walkers, stationery, books, shoes, toys, gift wrapping paper, art supplies and even scrapbooking paraphernalia. Not that I had a crafty bone in my body. I was an officer and right now I was looking for evidence. Just when I was thinking there were no cameras, computers, mobile phones or electrical appliances, I found a Retravision section. Bugger. It looked like I would need to concede defeat to Jenny’s challenge. I went to pay for my purchases. Georgia and her blonde daughters were at the opposite checkout. She was wearing a sixties-style dress with retro patterns. She paid for three packets of cigarettes and left without seeing me.
    â€˜I am proud of myself. I only had a coffee,’ said Jenny as we drove off. ‘Oh, ready to concede?’
    â€˜An aqua-jet foot massage machine.’ One of my brothers gave Dad one last Christmas to soothe his arthritic feet.
    â€˜Oh, come on. They’ll order it in.’
    â€˜Doesn’t matter. Right now, I can’t buy everything.’ I gave her a friendly poke in the arm.

Chapter 12
    There was no reprieve from the rain and Jenny crawled through the deserted streets at a snail’s pace, her face close to the windscreen. ‘It always rains at Easter and Cyclone Pearl has made things worse,’ she said. ‘Dave’s a nice bloke, isn’t he?’
    â€˜He’s very in control of himself and to my mind he used his position to have an affair with a young, beautiful and fragile woman.’ Jenny turned to me, with a look of surprise. ‘He’s a bit full of himself. And watch the road.’
    â€˜He’s a top bloke who’s done great things for young Islander students. No other white guy has stayed that long working for the good of the community.’
    â€˜He might be a top bloke, but he can also be arrogant. Don’t you think