Chapter 43

43

Stopping a few feet from where Bea Leger's body had lain, Elin drags her gaze from the residual bloodstains to the cliff wall itself. It soars upward, as dizzying as before, ragged lines scored in the limestone, dips and hollows carved out by the elements.

Where had she been standing when she'd seen it?

But it's almost impossible to pinpoint; all she's certain of is that she'd glimpsed it after Rachel had started photographing Bea's body.

Perhaps she'd been slightly higher, she muses, to Rachel's left—she'd been able to see the cliff face as it curved around to the cove.

Climbing left, Elin tries different positions and angles, but all she can see are signs of natural life: pockets of vegetation, grasses, tiny ferns protruding through crevices in the rock. A cormorant, wings outstretched, is perched on one of the crags.

Stepping back, she's frustrated, starting to doubt herself. But as she shifts her head to the side, Elin blinks, suddenly blinded.

Another dazzling flash, identical to the one she'd seen before.

This time she knows what she's looking for, so she doesn't make any dramatic steps back and risk losing sight of what might be causing the reflection. Instead, she tips her head slightly, enough to lose the glare.

There. Her pulse picks up. There it is , protruding from the rock.

A loop of metal, sunlight bouncing off the smooth silver ring.

A climbing bolt.

Elin's hand wavers as she pulls out her phone and takes a photograph.

Interrogating the site, she puts the pieces together one by one in her mind: the carabiner in Seth's bag, Maya's belief that someone left the lodge, and now this: a bolt, directly below where Bea fell.

Is it possible that Bea's fall wasn't an accident?

She'd had the sense that something was niggling her about the CCTV footage of the fall.

Closing her eyes, she replays it in her mind. As the images spool, she realizes that what she saw—the wrap falling, Bea leaning over to retrieve it—might not necessarily be the right narrative. She'd put the two together because it made sense. Cause and effect.

But it didn't have to be the case. The wrap may have fallen, but Bea might have leaned over for a different reason. A human reason.

Elin analyzes the bolt, its location. A chill works up her spine. The idea is wild, but plausible; Seth might have been on that cliff face, somehow caught Bea's attention. She thinks about the indentation in the grass that Leon observed.

Perhaps it wasn't Bea who'd dropped something, but Seth, using it as an excuse for a fake fall. He could have called for help, Bea would have seen whatever it was he'd dropped, trusted him, and then as she reached down...

Her mind doesn't want to make the next leap, but it does: He could have pulled her over . The CCTV, already grainy, didn't show anything below the top half of the glass balustrade, and Bea's body was obscuring most of the glass—so his hand, reaching up, wouldn't have been seen.

But as she churns it over, she stumbles on the logistics; in order to trick Bea, he'd have had to disguise the climbing equipment. Easy enough, she thinks, with some kind of baggy sweatshirt, especially at night, but he can't simply have been hanging there. He'd have had to position himself in a plausible position for a fall.

Stepping to the side to get more of a profile view of the cliff, she spots a small ledge a few feet below the bolt.

The chill settles deeper in her chest.

Definitely wide enough for Seth to have stood there, asked Bea for help, and when she did, reaching down a hand, he'd pulled her to her death.

The more Elin turns it over in her mind, the more plausible it becomes. Bea, perhaps tipsy, judgment impaired, would have gone to his aid, not picked up on anything awry.

She shakes her head. If it is the case, then it's clever. Not an accident at all, but murder. Ingenious as an idea—the perfect murder being one that doesn't appear to be a murder.

But for what motive?

Given the timing, it has to be linked to Seth's death, but what did Bea have to do with Seth?

No way of knowing, not at this point, but whatever it was, it still leaves questions. Something like this needs planning. If Seth was involved, how did he transport the climbing equipment, and where is it now? A carabiner, yes, but the rest—harness, ropes—was bulky, would have drawn attention at that time of night.

It's unlikely that he'd have dumped anything in the water, risked it washing up at the retreat. More plausible is that he's stashed it somewhere close by. Not so close as to be noticed when the crime scene was examined, but equally not too far away; he'd have been under pressure to get back to the villa before he was missed.

She doubts he'd have hidden anything on the side closest to the retreat, so that leaves the left-hand side, where the cliff curves around to the next cove.

Picking her way along the cliff, she scours the rocky face for suitable hiding places.

Nothing obvious, until she notices a large hollow in the rock, about a yard wide, stretching from foot level to just below head height. Ducking her head, she squeezes inside. The space is shallow, extending back only a few yards; barely wide enough to turn.

Tamping down a growing feeling of claustrophobia, Elin looks for any natural hiding places, but the walls reveal nothing but barnacles, lumpy protrusions of rock.

After giving it another once-over, she squeezes out of the hollow to start again.

She follows the cliff face around until she comes to another opening, similar in size to the last, but narrower. Once inside, she glimpses it right away: a small opening about half a foot above the bottom.

Crouching on her haunches, Elin slips on a pair of gloves, pushes her hand inside.

Her fingertips touch something. A crinkling sound.

Burrowing her hands in farther, adrenaline rushes through her chest as her fingers grasp a plastic bag, something solid inside.